I'm not obsessed with writing in them nearly as much as buying them. I just can't resist a gorgeous journal. I'm constantly finding older ones around the house that I bought, wrote 1/2 way through, then abandoned because I'd bought a new one I couldn't wait to use.
The other day I found a beautiful journal I'd kept while in grad school. I use the term "kept" loosely because apparently I only "kept" it long enough to write in the first 5 pages.
I'm pretty sure this behavior is listed as a sickness in the American Psychological Association's handbook of disorders.
I wrote notes and quotes from a book I was reading at the time called The Skillful Teacher by Stephen Brookfield. Here's a sample of my scribbling:
"Teaching is frequently a gloriously messy pursuit in which surprise, shock and risk are endemic."
"The most significant and transforming learning episodes are often experienced with pain and trauma ... students, therefore, may not see you as a good teacher for months or years to come ... after the pain has passed, and after the student evaluations are written."
"Those students who struggled in their own learning may be much better at understanding and assisting students who are struggling themselves."
(reminds me of 2 Cor. 1:4)
So are you a journal writer? What do you write in yours? Notes from books you're reading? Experiences from your life? Bible verses? Prayers? Do tell!
You might want to pop over to P31's She Reads blog today and enter for a chance to win Bonnie Grove's new novel Talking with the Dead. And get a load of this - Bonnie is also giving away an iPod Nano loaded with songs she listened to while writing her novel. How cool is that?!
I'm banned from winning this giveaway, and I'm bummed about that. But that means your chances of winning are greater. I'm off to write some more in my grad school journal. Rediscovering this journal was almost as good as buying a new one!
Please pause and pray for this outreach event.
I'll be home in time to attend my own church this Sunday and I'm excited about that too. We're having that guy come who paints to worship songs, or the telling of the story of Christ, and when he's done you see that the evolving painting has turned into a portrait of Christ. He's been all over YouTube - have you seen it? (somebody post a link for me) Anyway, I'm looking forward to this weekend: noshing with some girlfriends in Christ, and watching this guy do his thing.
When I get back I just might put my tree up! Anybody got theirs up yet?
Labels: speaking
My editor extraordinaire, Susan at David C. Cook publishers, just sent me a
At http://www.wordle.net/ she put in my whole manuscript and it created a collage based on the frequency of words used. The more I used a word, the larger it appears on my wordle.
Click on the brown word "wordle" above to get a sense of my new book coming out next year. Then click here to see another worlde version of it.
Play around on wordle yourself. You can enter the url of your blog and it will create a wordle of your blog!
Labels: Can You Keep a Secret
I throw like a girl.
It fell some place I didn't see -- probably because my method was to throw and run so it wouldn't hit me. I do not run like a girl. While I sprinted, it hid. Which means its still alive somewhere in my house, but I don't know where. It was last seen near my bedroom. Which makes me want to scream like a girl. Somebody please assure me that it won't join me on the bed tonight. If you've read the P31 devo book (pg. 130) you know I have irrational fears of spiders. Sigh.
2) Caught a TV interview with Micheal Buble (boo-blay) this weekend. He's the singer dubbed "the Canadian Sinatra." I love me some Sinatra y'all, but love me some Buble even more I think. (Because I'm just geeky like that.) Anyway, he also performed his new single on the show.
I feel a download coming on.
3) My very own lead singer (Rick plays in a cover band made up of professors from the university called The Schoolboys) played Saturday evening at the college for the opening of basketball season. He even dedicated a song to me: Some Kind of Wonderful.
Awww.
4) Also on Saturday I went present-shopping for my son. His birthday is right before Christmas. My daughter's birthday is right after Christmas. So lots of presents to buy in the next 4 weeks. I'm starting early and pacing myself.
Still resisting the urge to put up the tree by the way.
5) Today I've been to church twice (2 different ones), to the grocery storey twice (same one), and cooked two dinners (at once). Feeling productive.
Tonight I have a short treadmill jog planned, followed by a gingerbread-scented bubble bath (less calories than the real stuff), and then perhaps I'll crawl into bed with my Kindle. After loudly announcing the spider is not invited.
Overall its been a good weekend. Next weekend I'm off to Florida to speak - looking forward to that. But on the flight back I'll likely have Buble's song "Home" playing on my Ipod.
My husband is a professor, the kind that likes to implement new technology in the classroom. A couple years ago he instituted a new technology in class that gives each student a clicker. It allows them to electronically "sign into class" each day, allows them all to answer quiz questions posted on a screen (paperless testing), and allows him to instantly show test/poll results from the class on the screen. So he can find out on the fly whether or not his students are "getting" the lecture. It's cool stuff. And since Rick used it in his classes, including a large lecture class with 200 students in it, he was able to test pilot the technology for the university.
Meanwhile, have you read today's P31 devotion? It's by my She Speaks roommate Ariel Allison. This year was the first time in eons I'd roomed with someone outside the P31 team at the conference and boy was I glad I did. Love her! She is also the main contributor now at P31's She Reads blog. Have you been there? This week she is talking about the father-daughter relationship on the blog and the commandment to honor our parents.
I found out that's a sore spot for many when I asked my readers about it in this post and this one. That command fingers and pokes at old wounds and disappointments we’re certain we were never meant to have. Nonetheless, there sits the command — in the middle of the 10 Commandments — with no exceptions or qualifications noted. Jump in the discussion over there today, or ask Ariel a question about it. She's co-authored a non-fiction book on the father-daughter relationship so she is a great person to ask.
Gotta run and teach at the university! I pray great blessings on your day!
On Friday night I put the kids to bed and headed to my treadmill for a short walk. Usually I listen to music as I walk, but that evening I decided just to walk and pray. I told God about several things registering as worries in my mind.
One of the things I prayed about was my two children. They are each going through a rough patch right now, with seemingly no breakthroughs in sight. You know that hurts a momma's heart.
I also prayed about the escalating number of ministry responsibilities I'm facing. I prayed through my list of these one-by-one with Him . Then I noted that I felt like I need an assistant.
Another thing I told Him was I wanted my life and ministry to hum in harmony with His purposes for me, but felt overwhelmed as to where to focus my (limited) attention next. Hence, I figured an assistant could help.
I also lamented the fact that I don't seem to read as much as I used to. And yet there is SO MUCH that I want to read. Need to read. Plan to read. I recall people telling me, "I don't know how you read so much, Rachel. I just can't find the time or concentration to do that." Honestly, then I couldn't understand how they could not read a lot. Now I get it. So I asked God to give me back the ability to read and recall as well as I used to. And to complete all those things on my to-read stack.
I prayed about other things and people as well. I praised God. And I lifted up several people's prayer requests I'd heard last week through P31. Then I got off the treadmill and felt God whisper in my heart, "I will be Your assistant."
Minutes later as I headed for my home office I felt Him say, "There's lots to read, but only one thing is required." (My Bible)
Once on my laptop, I received email notification of a new comment on my Life Comes at You Fast post. Heading to my blog to read it, I caught sight of the scriptures I'd put there earlier in the day.
"The LORD is with me; he is my helper."
~ Psalm 118:7a
See, Rachel, I am here. And I will be the assistance you need.
"But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless."
~ Psalm 10:4
I see the situations with your children. You can trust me with this, Rachel.
My head lowered as I realized what God was doing. He was answering my prayers - with the verses in my own blog post.
Next I looked at the other verse I'd listed ("Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I."~ Isaiah 58:9). I didn't sense an immediate connection between it and my earlier prayers--until I read it in its context. Then I totally saw my Divine Assistant scheduling my busy days for me, to ensure they would hum in harmony with God's purposes just like I prayed:
"This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'
If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry."
~ Isaiah 58:9-11 (MSG)
That was Friday night, and He has already confirmed this "Isaiah 58 to-do list" to me several times. Plus, my son experienced a small breakthrough yesterday and my daughter, a major one on Saturday. Friends, we serve a God who hears and answers our prayers. A God willing to direct, and bless, our paths. A God who wants our lives to glow with His grace. And a God who wants us to care for His people, particularly our families and the needy.
PS. If you sense God impressing the above passage on your heart as well, hop over and check out Compassion International today.
That's me doing almost 50 mph yesterday.(No, I wasn't speeding.)
(Yes, I took this pic while driving.)
Now look closely ... on the left side of my hood beyond the windshield.
(Yep, took this pic while driving too.)
OK, well maybe God didn't give us sticky feet to hang on with when life comes at us fast, but He gave us something even better to hang on with - Himself.
"Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say:
Here am I."
"But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless."
"The LORD is with me; he is my helper."
Note: No lizards were (intentionally) harmed in the making of this post. Although, he wasn't still on the hood by the time I arrived at church. I'm hoping maybe he hopped off at a stop light and crawled under the nearest azalea bush to catch his little lizard breath.
A woman, maybe 35, in jeans and a green rain jacket walked by carrying a black purse. I noticed because she walked with the gate of a person with a disability. Several steps past me she stopped, turned around, and looked at me. I smiled. She began to speak to me in incomprehensible syllables. I wasn’t sure how to respond. I smiled. She repeated her groaning.
“What is it?” I inquired.
After “speaking” a few more sentences, she reached out her hand toward me. The akwardness was growing. All her motions were noticeably slow. Once her arm was extended, she wiggled her fingers while looking at me with soft eyes that didn't seem to fully focus.
Patrons at surrounding tables stared my direction as well. She just keep wiggling her fingers, uttering sounds no one understood. I looked around. She was alone. I smiled again and said, “What do you need?” She came closer, her hand reaching for my wrist resting on my laptop. Maybe she just wants to touch me for some reason, I thought.
Instead, she took my hand and pulled me up from my chair. My eyes made contact with the man at the table behind her. He looked at me with a mix of surprise and questioning. I suspect my facial expression matched his.
I allowed the woman in the rain slicker to lead me by the hand. She took me to the coffee condiments counter that housed a stack of plastic cups and a help-yourself pitcher of water. She grabbed the cup-stack, wrestling 4 off the top. For over a minute she struggled to separate one cup from the four. I wondered if I should help her. I held out my hands but she never allowed me to reach the cups. I waited.
Once she had her single cup, she pointed to the water pitcher. I lifted it and poured her a glass. She drank the whole thing, and pointed to the pitcher again. I poured another cup. She downed it and reached for the pitcher herself this time. Uh oh, I thought.
I watched, judging her ability as she attempted to pour her own drink. Moving ever so gingerly, she tilted the pitcher while holding the cup. This seemed in slow motion. Her aim was off a few fractions of an inch, so at the last second I maneuvered her hand with the cup to the precise spot to catch the water.
All this while she didn’t look at me or speak to me. I just stood next to her at the counter.
When the cup neared full, I said, “OK.” She stopped pouring and drank her third glassful in a row. Wow, she was thirsty. Maybe she just doesn't know when to stop. I wondered if I should cut her off when she began pouring a fourth cup. Instead I let her fill it, as slowly as before.
I questioned why she sought my help only to do it herself? She knew where the water was and seemed fairly capable of pouring it - at least in a rain jacket. As she drank that fourth cup, I wiped the small spills from the counter. Suddenly this passage came to my mind:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (Matthew 25:34-40)
I was chosen to serve today, I thought. Chosen to share water, perhaps with a woman and perhaps with the Living Water Himself. This was the best thing I did all day. All week. All month even. Maybe all year.
After the fourth cupful, a care taker showed up on the scene and led the woman away. She looked back at me one last time. I smiled. By the time I returned to my seat, the café patrons were no longer watching me or the woman—our interaction at the condiment counter had been quiet and lengthy. They’d gone back to reading their books. I, however, couldn’t return to my project. My thoughts were captivated by Jesus’ words, and the woman in the green rain slicker.
Labels: compassion
