You too can prevent swine flu

Working in an office where we receive and process public files on a daily basis can be dangerous. One never knows exactly where those papers have been, what food has been left on them, if they’ve been grabbed by someone who didn’t wash their hands after using the restroom, if an ill person has coughed up their saliva on them. For those reasons alone it’s important we take every precaution to prevent H1N1… aka Swine Flu… and other such illnesses that are easily transferred from one person to another.

Today’s lesson on the Prevention of Swine Flu in the Workplace comes to us from an undisclosed location, but the lesson is clear. Take it to heart, because you, too, can prevent Swine Flu!

Prevent Swine Flu... DON'T lick your files!

First Impressions

First impressions. They are preconceived notions of how certain people are going to fit into your life. You meet someone and without meaning to you’ve already got them figured out. You think you know if you will be close to them, if you even want to be close to them. With one glance you decide if they will be friend, foe, acquaintance or lover.

Thankfully first impressions often fall by the wayside. Prejudgments are shown to be misjudgments. What you thought about someone was just that, a mere thought. It wasn’t truth, you weren’t right, you didn’t know.

Oftentimes the most significant people in our lives come across us “accidentally”. We weren’t looking for them, and we sure didn’t think, upon meeting them, that they would end up playing such an important role in our story.

I have a pretty decent sized list of such people. People who, upon our first meeting, I didn’t think would play any meaningful role in my life. People who, it turns out, marked my heart and my life in ways I’ll never forget. People who make me so thankful that first impressions can end up meaning absolutely nothing.

We can’t stop our first impressions. We’re human and we make snap judgments, sometimes unconsciously. Without knowing it we make decisions about people before getting to know them. But we can make an effort to get past our first impressions, to look beyond our initial reactions. And by doing that we just might find a friend for life or a love we’ve never dreamed of.

Instant Gratification

I was trying to book a hotel room on the internet today and the transaction took me a whole six minutes. At about the two and a half point mark I was starting to get agitated. I’ve been meaning to install some updates on my mac all week, but I’ve been dreading the fifteen minutes or so it would take to restart and install the upgrades. So because I’ve delayed updating things, the speed of my machine has been less than stellar. I mean, c’mon, about six minutes to make a financial transaction?! Who has time for that??

And so goes my general reaction to just about everything in our fast-paced, high-speed, drive-thru society. I get stuck in traffic and wonder why nobody but me can drive. ‘Stuck’ being loosely defined as my commute being extended for one or two minutes. I have to wait a few extra minutes at Starbucks because there are a lot of customers in line and wonder why they’re so sloooooooooooooow.

We live in a culture of instant gratification. We no longer wait to talk to our friends, we text them. We cut our face to face communication with the ones we love in favor of giving most of the free world a play-by-play via Twitter. We don’t exercise and eat healthy to shed the pounds, we take pills and go under the knife because it’s faster.

If it were just silly things – a little frustration in traffic, a bit of annoyance at having to wait in a fast food line – this culture of instant gratification wouldn’t be such a big deal. But we have been pervaded with a compulsion to have “what I want when I want it”. And the results have been nothing less than devastating.

Families torn apart because people have lost their feelings. So instead of taking the time to work it out they jump ship because that is what brings relief in the moment. Babies born to teenage parents wholly unprepared to care for them because having sex was what felt good at the moment.

Not to say that instant gratification is to blame for all society’s problems, obviously the brokenness run deeper than that. But, just for a moment, imagine a society where delayed gratification was the order of the day.

Where instead of jumping into the sack with someone just because you’re feeling horny, you waited. Instead of turning your back on your family just because things are rough, you made all the more effort to love them unconditionally. The truth is, it’ll probably be really difficult for a while. Like the proverb says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”.

That’s what often happens in the midst of delayed gratification. In the place between your desire and the time that the desire is fulfilled you become acquainted with heartache.

But the heartache is only temporary.

When the delay is over, when the desire comes, it becomes more than a moment of gratification. It actually becomes a tree of life. The whole proverb goes like this, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” Prov. 13:12

You’ve waited, even suffered in the wait, but now you’re enjoying the reward of that wait. Delayed gratification is, in the end, not about the wait. It’s about how worth it the wait is. It’s not merely a moment of gratification, it’s a whole tree of life that you get to feed off of. Trees generally last a long time, longer than our lifetime. Gratification that lasts for more than a mere moment. Now that, I can wait for.

10 reasons to be thankful today…

1. I have a steady job in an economy where many don’t.
2. My steady job allowed me to buy a car I actually wanted (and I still didn’t break the bank with that purchase).
3. I live with some of my best friends in the world… so I don’t have to go very far to have some fun or find an encouraging word.
4. My folks are coming out to visit me soon!
5. I’m bilingual.
6. I’m an aunt to the cutest, sweetest baby girl ever.
7. Not only do I always have food to eat whenever I’m hungry, but I get to eat yummy food that I like.
8. I have an amazing hairdresser!
9. As fall and winter are starting to approach, I’m pleasantly reminded that I don’t have to deal with freezing cold temperatures and snow for months on end.
10. Boys think I’m cute (no matter my age it still feels nice!).

the great abyss

the great abyss
the space in between
yesterday and tomorrow

void, dark, lonely
empty, dry, afraid

the great abyss
the space in between
what was and what will be

wondering, longing, begging
and wanting

the great abyss
the space in between
Your promise and the fulfillment

believing, expecting, praying
and hoping

the great abyss
the bridge that leads
to all Your goodness

Savage Grace (part II)

The Savage Grace that has caught me, and continues to catch me over and over and over again, has got me thinking. The risk and suffering that God took to bring me into His family can never be matched. By anyone. Anytime. Anywhere. It is immeasurable. It is amazing.

And yet so often we toss it aside like a piece of trash. This gift of salvation, so beautiful and so limitless, we quickly discard. We jump right back into sin’s bed as we count on the knowledge that Grace will be awaiting us when we jump back out of sin’s bed.

We’re not wrong to trust in the boundless grace that will never fail to reach us. The truth is, it can’t fail to reach us. But why are we so quick to cheapen that grace? It was costly. Nothing on earth has ever cost more than Calvary.

And yet we treat it like a loved one we’ve taken for granted. They’ll always be there for us and so we stop valuing them, stop honoring them. Like a discarded trophy that represents a hard fought victory, we toss it in a box to be hidden in the recesses of our garage. Never seen, never delighted in.

We don’t delight in His grace. We waste it and use it as an excuse. As a band-aid. Something that fixes our messes.

But grace carries so much more value than a band-aid.

I want to daily call up on that grace, to bring me higher and carry me further. Grace fought hard to find me. How can I do anything but value it? Anything but guard it like the treasure it is? Anything but press hard to lay hold of all that it bought for me?

My I value the costly gift of grace in my life. May I “press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” Philippians 3:12

Wisdom from the Mother

The other day my mother starts telling me how Jesus always took the blame. He was the one that took the blame for all of our sins and shortcomings. In fact he even took all the punishment as well. Jesus was totally faultless in matters of our sin. He was 100% no-fault. And yet he willingly took the all of the blame. All of it.

That’s a really amazing sacrifice Jesus made. I liked what my mom said and was content to just leave it at that. Admire the price an innocent man paid for me. Just leave it at that, in awe of the one who died for me.

But mom just had to take it one step further. She said that Jesus is our example of true love. If we want to really love people, who’s the person we try to emulate? Jesus. So if Jesus took the blame upon himself, even when totally undeserving of it, why should we live any differently?

When I’ve been wronged I want it to be made right. I wan the person who has hurt me and wounded me to fall to their knees in apology, to tell me how sorry they are for treating me badly and to stop treating me that way. And when that happens I can freely and easily forgive them. That’s the way it should be. I sit and I wait for the transgressor to come make it right.

Problem is, there are two things I forget to take into account. The first one being Jesus’ example. He didn’t wait for me (the transgressor) to come and make things right. He took it upon himself to take my punishment so he could make things right. He didn’t have to do that. Nobody would’ve faulted him if he chose not to humble himself and take the blame. But he chose the way of Love.

The second thing is, I am definitely not as innocent as Jesus was. Even if I’ve been wronged first, I can pretty much guarantee that somewhere along the way I too have transgressed in the situation. So for me to wait around for the other person to make things right completely ignores the fact that I have some things to make right as well.

So, thanks mom for this little bit of wisdom. Just when I wanted to soak up all this bitterness like a sponge, just when I wanted to splash around in this wading pool of resentment like a toddler in a kiddie pool, you had to go and bring Jesus into the picture! What better example of love than the one who humbled himself and took the blame? Guess I’ve got some changes to make…

Things Overheard

Things you overhear a jr. high youth leader saying (i.e. things I said once upon a time):

“Does anyone have to use the bathroom before we leave?”
“Why didn’t you use the bathroom before we left?”
“Okay, put the chair down. Chairs are for sitting on.”
“Yes, we’ll pray with you that your teacher stops ‘distracting’ you by wearing such tight pants.”
“Um, does anybody have any air freshener?”
“No, they won’t let you drown when you get baptized, I promise.”

And my all-time favorite:

“Hey, put your shirt back on – NOW!”

Savage Grace

(Just FYI, this is not a review of, nor an article about, the movie Savage Grace.)

I’ve been beaten, ravaged, torn apart
Splintered into a million pieces
And this just as a small child

Then I was degraded, humiliated, left to bleed
My heart shriveled
And I was but a young woman

My soul was empty
My spirit drained
My mind exhausted
I had no where to turn

And then, just as savagely as I’d been crushed, I was savagely caught.
By Grace.

The term grace used to carry a certain connotation with me.  A ballerina with perfect structure, poise and beauty.  A gray-haired woman baking pies and making all her visitors feel welcome.  A kind response to a harsh word.

Those meanings still pertain – somewhat.  But today my definition of grace has expanded into unexpected territory.  The Grace that died for me on a piece of wood, blood dripping from the thorn-imprinted forehead, isn’t the picture of a tutu-wearing ballerina.  It’s more the picture of a savage.  Someone fierce and ferocious.

That’s the grace that has captured me.  Where most people would have given up hope, stopped trying, simply walked away, the Savage One got knocked around and bloodied up for me.  All without any guarantees that I’d even give a rip about it.  It’s a grace that’s wild, uncultured and untamed.

It’s a savage grace.

Victory

So I’m in a race with a friend of mine, and although I can’t quite claim a win yet, I’d like to post the following in anticipation of my impending victory (thanks to www.despair.com):