Praise the Lord for Not Knowing

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Hebrews 11:8 has always been one of my favorite verses:

“By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”

I’ve felt like this a few times in my life, where I’ve literally quit my job and moved home, or quit my job again to go to grad school, or now rejected a job while trusting that God is leading somewhere unknown {I’m sensing a common thread…}.

I’m always so encouraged by Abraham’s incredible faith, faith that completely trusted God to lead him, even though he did not know where he was going. I wrote about the blind runner in the epilogue to my book, and I think the reason I loved that image was because it reminded me of Abraham, just running blindly and trusting. 

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The Valley

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A year ago, I was in Israel, studying for 6 weeks with Wheaton in the Holy Lands. The trip began on May 17th and ran through June 28th, and we had to keep a daily journal of what we learned and did as part of the course, so I’ve been reading through each day’s journal entry one year later before I go to bed each night.

And wow. It’s been amazing for a number of reasons, but I’m finding that somehow the things I learned one year ago while in the Holy Lands are encouraging and teaching me each day today. The things I learned one year ago are really poignant for my life today, and as I read through each day’s journal entry from last year, it’s like the lessons from archaeological sites in Israel are casting light on my life at home in Fairview, Texas. Go figure. I think maybe the things I learned impacted me at the time, but since we learned so much and did so much in our typical 10-12 hour days “in the field,” it was hard to process everything, to make sense of it all and its impact on the rest of my life.

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2015 Theme of the Year (Part 2)

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Seeing the World Through a Redemptive Lens

Last month I wrote about trying to redeem moments of time in 2015. Now I want to focus on the second part of my “redemption” theme for 2015: seeing the world through a redemptive lens. (Stay with me here as I explain the background to a “redemptive lens.”)

During the week-long intensive class I took at HoneyRock Camp in November, the professor had us examine and imagine three different lenses or worldviews that different “churches” might have had, applied to their views on the Bible, the Trinity, and Jesus, the church, humanity, and other categories. The professor asked one group to read through the first three chapters of Genesis, trying to imagine how the “Edenic” church would have viewed these topics. The “Edenic church” would have looked pretty great—life was good, relationships with God and others were great, and humanity was viewed as created in the image of God.

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2015 Theme of the Year (Part 1)

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Each year, instead of “resolutions,” I try to think of a theme word or idea to frame my year. Well, for 2015, that’s “Redemption.”

Now, before I jump into what that means and what I hope that looks like, I should explain what that doesn’t mean. I’m not talking about “redemption” in the sense of being vindicated for wrongs done to me or mistakes I’ve made. I’m not on some warpath of vengeance or quest to re-create myself in others’ eyes. Nor do I mean “redemption” in the sense of coming to faith or being redeemed from my sin; praise the Lord for His redemption in my life, but that’s not quite my theme of the year (though His redemption is the foundation from which I hope to live with this theme of redemption).

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In Light of the Incarnation

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So, it’s almost Christmas {obviously}. If you’re my sister Katie in Uganda, it actually might be Christmas already. I’ve been wanting to post on this for a while, but I let finishing my grad school classes stand as my excuse…really I think I’ve been sorting through my thoughts on this idea. I first had to think a lot about the “incarnation” over this summer after I got home from Wheaton in the Holy Lands and had to read five books for the program, one of which was early church father Athanasius of Alexandria’s On the Incarnation. Having grown up in the church {in every possible imaginging of what that means…Sunday School, private Christian school, Christian summer camp…you get the picture}, I’ve always heard a lot about the “incarnation,” or the fact that Jesus came to earth and was born as a human to save us from our sins. However, in the past six months, I’ve been thinking about it in new ways, understanding what Jesus’ incarnation actually implies for my own life.

In October, I devoured a book for my Teaching for Transformation class, and I can’t be sure of its long-term impact yet, but in the past couple months, it’s given me new energy, purpose, and encouragement in my pursuit of serving Him. It’s called Visions of Vocation by Steven Garber, and my friend Tony gave me the book back in March, but I didn’t get around to reading it until 7 months later. However, when I started reading, I kept thinking, “I know exactly why Tony gave this to me and knew I needed to read it.”

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5 Years

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Five years. I’m torn between exclaiming that “five years” is a long time and lamenting how quickly those years pass, how fast five years can be.

To borrow a phrase my grad school department frequently champions, I’ve been “living in the tension” of how short five years are and yet how much can happen in them.

This past weekend was my five year reunion during Wheaton’s Homecoming. I felt that tension this weekend when I saw the physical signs of the passage of time: several college friends have a child or two, many are married, a few are done with med school and into their residencies, a couple are practicing attorneys, and others are in their sixth year of teaching. By those accounts, a lot can happen in five years. 

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It’s Been a Year

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I haven’t posted in a while–2 1/2 months, as I just discovered. Wow…that’s pretty bad, and I can’t believe it’s already October! I meant to post after my 5 year checkup (more on that in a post next week), but I wanted to sit on it for a few days and then things got busy and days turned into weeks, and I never did. I struggle sometimes with posting here consistently if I don’t feel that I have something to actually say that seems worth saying. I don’t want to add to the noise, but then I also know the best way to keep people reading is NOT by posting super infrequently.

Anyway, here we are. It’s October 2nd, and that means it’s a pretty big anniversary for a couple of reasons, so I thought I’d dedicate this post to anniversaries–for today and for my 5 year “cancerversary” (it’s a thing…don’t judge…cancer card).

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Wheaton in the Holy Lands: Israel

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Well, one of the “pilgrimages” I wrote about in May has now come and gone. Wheaton in the Holy Lands is officially over (aside from the books I still need to read and papers I still need to write…), but I know it will be an experience which will continue impacting me in the days, weeks, months, and even years to come.

Since 6 weeks is a long time to cover in one post and I’m long-winded on a normal, mundane day, I figured I’d break up my trip into separate posts for the two different parts of the trip: Israel for the first three weeks and then Turkey, Greece, and Rome for the second three weeks.

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On Turning 27 in 2014

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So, I turned 27 a few days into my Wheaton in the Holy Lands experience. I’ll post more about those six weeks soon–I have a couple of posts in the works but want to give them the time, thought, and effort that they deserve. 

Somehow, 27 feels a whole lot closer to 30, and 30 seems…well…old. (Sorry for any of you reading this who are over 30…but, you’ve been there, right?!?). I actually heard two girls from the US talking last night, and one was explaining that she’ll turn 27 in a couple months and it suddenly feels much closer to 30, so I’m not the only one, at least. Maybe the fact that I spent the past six weeks alongside 38 undergrads with an average age of 20 made me feel that much closer to 30. I’ve loved my 20s and most of what they’ve entailed: the adventures, the challenges, and the amazing ways God has shown His faithfulness in this decade of my life. Granted, He’s always been faithful and always will be, but I’ve absolutely seen that in the past 7 years. 

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Happy National Cancer Survivors’ Day

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…or should I maybe make that “Happy [inter]National Cancer Survivors’ Day” since I’m in Israel…?

Either way, I hope it’s a great day! Things in Israel are going well–I’ll try to give a better update in the next week, but for right now, I wanted to briefly reflect on and celebrate what being a “survivor” has meant through sharing what I’m thankful for on this day.

On this, NCSD, I praise the Lord for 5 years of remission, 5 years of NOT having to sit through chemo, and 5 years of generally good health (despite what the Chicago winter did to my poor toes and fingers this year).

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