the blizzard of 2010!!

well it's been a snowy few days here!
i've been drinking lots of coffee & hot cocoa, hanging out with students, finishing up a little decoration project, and getting a concussion. ya know the usual little blizzard activities.



the icicles outside of my living room window are insaneeee. i love how much the snow bonds neighbors. sharing shovels, battling the snow together, etc.



the snow has meant lots of time inside, so i've been baking and finishing up my little winter love decorations.



each of the hearts has some thoughts on love--romantic and otherwise--to make me smile.


"The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." (van gogh)


always hopes.

the other night after returning home from campus, I was slightly distracted walking home, and fell down some concrete steps. Now it all happened so fast that i didn't realize at first that i blacked out after hitting my head. I quickly realized it when i had all the signs of a concussion--dizziness, dilated pupils, pounding head, weird vision--super fun. so i was indeed concussed, and hurt my back too. hilarious.


me, post-concussion

unfortunate timing since i'm looking forward to a crazy week prior to bringing students to the Jubilee Conference. Fortunately I have really great students who will shovel my car out, and are eager to help me out when I need it this week.

beautiful music

two weeks ago i made a little road trip to kent to be apart of the CD release show of some dear friends in the band Bethesda.



it was one of the most incredible shows I've ever experienced.



i am so proud of them for continuing to make such beautiful music.
their music is such a powerful expression of life, beauty, love, and experiences with God. there was one point in the show when they were singing "let these chains break free" and we were all dancing that was incredibly moving. the last song was a gigantic party, full of dancing, amazing music, so much love in the room--i almost cried from the beauty of it all.

i woke up the next morning and knew that i'd had a taste of shalom.

taste for yourself. you can buy the new album "Love in a Time of Tra La La" on itunes now!



it is such a gift to call these folks friends and i feel grateful for the ways God moves in and through them and the music they create.

so i'm doing super great at my new years resolution to blog more, eh?

well here I am.....with some thoughts brewing that I'm hoping will become fleshed out as i type. we'll see if it makes any sense in the process.....

i work with college students and am preparing for our upcoming Jubilee Conference. The conference invites students to view all of life--their academics, future vocations, relationships, life rhythms, work & play, etc.--as an avenue through which one can worship Christ.

so we have folks like Jessica Jackley, founder of kiva.org, Bill Strickland, Gary Haugen, president of IJM--incredible people who cast a vision of living for something, Someone, bigger than ourselves. Many of these folks are young, creating their own organizations, pouring their lives into a work worth living for.

The vision of the Jubilee Conference, and I believe the vision of the Scriptures in general, is that in the midst of the mundane we have an opportunity to lay down our lives as worship in our "everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life" as Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message. So we want students to catch a vision for being apart of the Kingdom, something bigger than themselves. and sometimes that looks really crazy like freeing folks from sex trafficking .... and sometimes it looks like doing a paper really well in a class you hate.

I know that we stress the latter situation as much, if not more so, as the former. but I sometimes worry what our message becomes in a culture of self-entitlement.

That is, I wonder if we all expect our dream jobs post-graduation. and not just in a slightly naive, not quite sure of how hard post-grad life can be. but it's as if being apart of a Kingdom-building vocation will feel exhilarating every day. certainly when we believe that our work is a significant part of building the Kingdom--whether it's campus ministry or accounting, freeing slaves or teaching kids in the suburbs--there is meaning that brings joy and abundant life. but there are also days when it doesn't feel like a really fun job.

I hear stories about people saying no to jobs because it's not exactly what they were looking for. or quitting jobs because they just don't like it. and for some this seems to really be the most life-giving, Kingdom minded choice. but I wonder if we're just too lazy, too idealistic (eek), too entitled, too _______ to push through the messyness of the mundane. Can we only feel fulfilled if we work for IJM, a domestic violence shelter, or some other compelling mission? Is it possible to go to a desk and work in accounting at your average firm for the Kingdom and experience joy?

I don't want to contribute to an entitlement mindset, this time with a Jesus label. But I do believe that the rich truth that Jesus cares deeply about every square inch of creation and in Him all things hold together infuses our jobs with meaning. It seems just like the God we worship to invite us into a work that feels really "boring" and ask Him to breathe life into it, to ask God where He is at work in mundane projects, and to work towards restoration one day, one meeting, one project at a time.