eek!

This is, quite literally, my worst nightmare.
I think I might have something like this.

love questions

Why is it that loving someone is inextricably tied up with the pain they bring to you as well? Why do men think that they can always have it their way, and women think that they can change them? Is this just the nature of relationship? Why do we struggle with each other so?

a tree's visit to a church

I've been in and out of airplanes, trains, and airports the past several weeks and had many, many hours to kill, so I finished Cellophane and got halfway through Talk Talk. The first 30-40 pages of Cellophane were a little slow moving and hard to wade through, but it picked up from there into the story of Don Victor Sobrevilla, an engineer intent on building a cellophane factory in the middle of the Amazon. The following excerpt begins with Don Victor's aunt telling him a story when he was a child about a rather mystical tree that began growing in a church:

"They hadn't planted it, they hadn't watered it, and yet there seemed to be something mystical about its visitation. Time passed and a crack appeared in the ceiling of the church where the branches pressed up against it. Some nights later, the monks awoke in their beds to the crash of falling plaster...Hurrying up the narrow stair, they witnessed the most marvelous thing of all: The tree was straining toward the sun, which was just peering over the rim of the mountain, and the church walls were as open as a broken eggshell, cleft, and gaping in awe...

A man-made thing, no matter how sacred we think it is, is nothing compared to a tree. Even a church is a mere structure like any other. In the face of magnificent creation, man's symbols are paltry things" (Arana, 41).

When I read that I thought--

A church building is nothing compared to the freely growing, organic, Life of the body of Christ. We who make up the Church, the Body, can be found reaching for the Light, and breaking down walls, inviting the Light to spread over all.

Isn't a tree such a beautiful image?

tales from so-cal

Quick, quick overview of life on my planet...

Mike and I are in Califorina, meeting and connecting with awesome people. We just finished a conference called Soliton which was hosted by a church called The Bridge out in Ventura. The conference explored the concept of human hospitality and what that could look like in different contexts amongst the church and around the world. Shane Claiborne was there, and even though I've already read Irresistible Revolution, it was great to get to hear him personally tell the stories again. If you haven't read it, go pick it up, especially if you are interested in social justice issues. I was inspired and excited to see what the Lord can do in my new neighborhood in Raleigh. We can be agents of change to those around us, and it is as simple and as hard as reaching out in Love.

On a similar note, Si Johnston was also at the conference (who I must say is quite a charming guy from Northern Ireland, who isn't a sucker for an accent? If only I could say "cheers" as a goodbye with such authenticity), and he led a presentation about human trafficking and the current slave trade. It's still quite alive and well today. As I learn more and get involved, I'm sure I'll be discussing this much more. Si's started a group called Protest 4 if you want to check it out. Actually, I urge you to check it out. C'mon. Do it!

So, that's it in a nutshell...although we also got to meet with Regal Books while we were out here and will soon be heading out to Saddleback to do some research for a client we're ghost-writing a book for. And we also spent some time with a lovely sister who's also out here in Ventura.

We're busy little bees. It's been great, but I can't wait for September...we'll be getting settled in our new home and hopefully not travelling at all!