Adventures in Ameteur Photography

Thank you to Kendall and Georgie for posing as my beautiful models and helping take pictures!

Sisters

Sunlight #1

Sunlight #2 - love the colors on this one!

She's so beautiful!!

Kendall actually MADE the dress I'm wearing

My favorite!

Fun playing with Georgia

Why I Continue to Believe that Christ is Worth It

(This post is an excerpt from a paper I wrote last semester). 

          Perhaps you are wondering what the catch is, “Christianity cannot be that easy! I know that when you become a Christian you have to give up all sorts of things and follow all these rules. God has so many expectations.” Christianity may appear that way at first, but becoming a Christian is very different than this dismal picture. On first glance, it may seem difficult, but a closer examination reveals that Christ is the real treasure you've been searching for your entire life. 
                 Perhaps a story will make my point.  Once, Mommy and I were in the car—a question weighed on my 8-year-old heart and after a long contemplation, I finally asked, “Mommy, will Jesus bring my dollhouse to heaven?” 
             Mom raised an eyebrow,  “I don’t think so, Lynley. Why do you ask?”

            “Well, I’m not sure if I want to go to heaven if my dollhouse isn’t there. I would miss it. I really like playing with my dollhouse—it’s my favorite toy.” Mommy explained that I would not miss my dollhouse when I got to heaven because I would have Jesus. I remained skeptical, of course. How could I ever be happy without my dollhouse?
            Of course, we all laugh now because I have grown up. I no longer think I will miss my dollhouse in heaven, because I have outgrown my need for it—but at that time, my dollhouse was of great importance to me. Why? Because the pleasure I derived from the toy was immediate; it was right before me and instantly provided joy, entertainment, or an escape from the “hard stuff” (i.e. chores). At that age, I knew nothing of how I’d feel grown up—that I wouldn’t miss my dollhouse because I would be enlightened to all sorts of new things that were better than dollhouses.
              This mirrors how we relate to heaven and God. So often the phrase "pick up your cross" strikes terror into our hearts to think of losing or giving up the things that comfort us now. But this is because we are, in a way, children. We do not understand everything right now; we see only what is right before us. We cannot imagine life without our pitiful toys.
               But then God calls to us, telling us there is more to life than we presently see. “You will understand someday,” he tells us, “but until then, you will just have to trust that what I say is true. You won’t miss your old way of life once you grow-up spiritually.” If we believe and trust God, we will begin to grow up, and only gradually will we see why the dollhouse was no big deal. There are a lot of “dollhouses” in our lives that we do not want to give up because they seem necessary to our happiness—what we fail to see is that if we say “yes” to Jesus and learn to spend less time on the immediate pleasures around us, we will start to grow up. And once we’ve “grown up,” we’ll have a good laugh with Jesus remembering the time when we thought we needed those things to be happy.

ADHD Devotionals

There's very little sacred space
in this place, this head that
never stops turning. Churning,
always churning out a flutter of new thoughts,
none of which quite makes it
to the top
before I stop to smell a new flower,
and check an old box,
and chase after that thought I lost yesterday
in the usual way.

So Jesus, take this space,
this place,
this mind--
take my sacred space and time,
because they aren't truly
mine.

Thank You, Professor

The ever-enlightening wisdom bestowed upon me by professors :) 

"We're not trees, we're not roaches, we're not chairs--sorry for those of you who thought you were." - Dr. Becknell

"I would make a very attractive woman." - Dr. Becknell

"Oh no! This isn't a word document...I can't edit it...the administrative assistant PDF-ed it!" - Dr. Dolph 

"I used to write the number 9 on everything--eventually my mother said, 'No more nines!!'" - Dr. Becknell

"Freud said our thinking oozes from every pore. The question is, what are you oozing?" - Dr. Becknell

Slices of Life

A few snapshots that remind me how funny life can be.

Next time you think you're hungry, remember this desperate squirrel.

Adding new meaning to the phrase "pray continually."
Also, apparently there's a Constitutional amendment declaring a new "right" I wasn't aware of...

...claims the book written by two men....

Dinner of mashed potatoes & french toast sticks? We call this "The Freshman 15 Meal"

...never thought about that one!

Questionable Theology (Part 4)

And now for the fourth installment of this semester's "Joys of Grading" series:

My all-time favorite quote from this semester:
"Conversion is the starting point of this journey; it is the "death of the old person" and the "birth of the new" person. This is not say that there are two different souls dwelling inside a person like a 'white dog' and a 'black dog.'" 

"We are to blindly follow and obey wherever he leads us." 

"As it says in 1 Thes. 4:2 'this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fortification.'" 

“In general people have a very easy role in conversion. All they have to do is, well, nothing really.”

"Conversion is an instantaneous miracle. It is something that hits you suddenly and you feel and believe your sins and they look very real to you." 

"Through this I hope to constantly remind myself of what it means to be a disciple and examine my faith. At the end if I find myself to be a Christian, I will be successful." 

"Spiritual formation is not something that can't be measured by human means. To ask 'how much' spiritual formation can be obtained is similar asking how much marriage can be obtained in this life....Rather, spiritual formation is a tapestry consisting of different rates, different 'colors' etc."

"A bad example of faith that I can think of is the wind. We cannot see it, but we can see the effects of it. And we also can hear, smell, taste, and feel it, which is why I said it was a bad example. Another example that I've heard before involves a chair..." Oh brother.

"This world is still broken, and even though people don't in sin anymore, they still stumble into it." 

Did you like what you read?
Read part 1 here.
Read part 2 here.
Read part 3 here.

Tell Me How

A poem for those who went before me. 

*     *     *     *     *

Tell me how to know this bundle of firing neurons, 
when people keep trying to rewire me.

Tell me how to survive the “culture wars,” 
when I refuse to choose one side.

Tell me how to fit somewhere,
when I’m a piece from a different puzzle.

Tell me how to hope so heavy,
when hopeful heavy hearts live painful.

Tell me flesh and blood has walked here before, 
Tell me your story built with tear-soaked mortar.
Tell me how the curtain tore,
Tell me what the hell I’m living for.

Because if you don’t I might give up.

My only fear is that if
I give up,
I won’t be able to
tell the next me how I got 
here.

An afterthought:

Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your own blood,

and as you lay there in your blood,

I said to you,

‘Live!’ 

Break-Up Recovery Kit

Most of us have broken up with a boy at least once in our lives. It's sad, painful, and utterly heart-wrenching. Breaking up leaves you practically senseless.

That's why you really need the new break up recovery kit! Say goodbye to the conventional break-up routines of crying on a friend's shoulder, eating chocolate (and/or an entire carton of ice cream), and going through a box of tissues in a few hours. This new break-up recovery kit has everything you need from a male candle (because you know you want to burn their head off) and female candle (for who knows why) all the way to helpful therapeutic modalities such as Separation Oil, Break-Up Incense, and "Keep Away Enemies" Soap. 

Instructions for use: 

1. Begin burning the male/female candle (guy if you're a girl and vice versa if you're a guy). Feel free to carve your ex's name into the candle for greater effect. 
2. Take the remaining candle and turn it to face the burning candle. They can watch. 
3. Separation Oil - pour all over body. If your ex tries to catch you, you'll slip right out of his fingers. 
4. Break-up Incense - burn regularly. The stench will prevent any man from coming near you for a very long time. 
5. Keep Away Enemies Soap - Wave this soap in front of all enemies and they will magically be "washed away."

You can have all this and more for the great price of $39.99! And yes, this kit is actually available for purchasing here! 

The College Student's Immune System

Sometime within the first 3 weeks of the semester: 
"AHH! So many people! So many germs!! Cannot fight them all!" 
You get a small cold

First half of semester until flu vaccine:
"Healthy, healthy, healthy..."

After flu vaccine:
"This kid hasn't eaten nutritious food in 2 months, they're sleep-deprived, and stressed...and they just got a vaccine. OVERLOAD!"

After finals week: 
Somehow, your immune system knows you need to make it through finals. You deprive yourself of sleep, eat snack foods because you can't stop studying to get a meal (not to mention you eat at incredibly irregular hours), and possibly don't shower as often as you should. But it's not until the morning after you get home that your immune system finally says, "Well, now that you're done being stressed, we need to clean house. Time to be SICK!"

Other Spiritual Insights (Part 3)

"Prayer is huge part of spiritual formation, having that direct relationship with God. That is such a huge deal." (Ginormous, really.)

"If you do not believe the gospel, how then is it possible to pursue a relationship with Christ and grow closer to him? It is like getting married to a woman that you do not believe exists. If you do not believe she exists, then why should you feel the need to spend time with her?"
(Or better yet, HOW did you marry her?)

"Lives of spiritual formation are characterized by thoughts becoming action and action becoming change." (Does change become dollars?)

"The person's role, simply put, is to follow Jesus. This is not to say that we are to follow him in physical direction (obviously, since he not on earth at that moment)..." (Glad you clarified. I was getting confused...)

Spiritual Formation as Brought to You by... (Part 2)

The time traveler:
"I will measure [my progress in spiritual formation] on May 8, 2012 by reciting 150 verses from memory."

The garbage man:
"Our outward being is a reflection of our soul, which before Christ is like a putrid landfill, which needs to be in a constant state of improvement."

The mathematician:
"An inverse correlation to the level spiritual formation in one's life is the amount of sin still present."

The future orthopedic surgeon:
"These things are indeed the "bare bones" of spiritual discipline; that being said, they also construct the skeleton of spiritual formation as a whole, and should therefore be taken very seriously."

The cattle herder:
“Jesus died for our sin so that we can be converted, and God pokes and prods and shoves us until we believe.”

The schizophrenic:
“Listening can be so hard to do…my mind is constantly going and talking to me.”

Join the Northern Belle next week for Part 3: "Interesting Spiritual Insights" 
See Part 1 here.

The famous "sentence-that-means-absolutely-nothing" (Part 1)

Part 1 of 4 posts to come on the joys of grading student papers. Enjoy!

"The immediate goal of spiritual formation is to nourish and maintain the goals..."


"In many respects, [conversion] is the single most 'solo' decision one can make."

"They should be striving every day to become a disciple of Christ which involves being very discipled."


"During spiritual formation one wants to constantly strive to develop their spiritual formation."

Trees

Imagine you're Adam or Eve, standing in the Garden of Eden. You're angry at Adam for not saying something--how can he even be mad when he didn't even try to stop you? He ate the fruit too! You're mad at Eve for taking the fruit--didn't she know better? Do you have to do everything for her? You have been fighting. Fighting for the first time in your human existence. It feels foreign and broken. You feel self-conscious and naked; vulnerable and dirty. Your shame is slowly iced over by anger. And then, you hear God coming, so you hide in the...

Trees. 

"I know where you stand

Silent in the trees

And that's where I am

Silent in the trees.

Why won't you speak

Where I happen to be?

Silent in the trees

Standing cowardly.

"I can feel your breath.

I can feel my death.

I want to know you.

I want to see.

I want to say, hello." *

After all I've done, God? 

Yes. You broke yourself apart, but I made you, so I know how to put you back together again.

Will you come out of the trees and say hello to me?

*   *   *

Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, when you hear His voice do not harden your hearts. 

Come out from the trees, into the light that you may receive healing. 

*The song Trees is by Twenty-One Pilots. All italics in quotation marks are their lyrics.