Sunday, June 27, 2010

How to Build Community - Sing Together

It's been awhile since I took something from the "How to build community" poster.
This picture is actually pretty old. This fall, our kitchen was infested with moths. After the exterminator came Holly and I had the "honor" of putting cleaning all of the kitchen cupboards and putting things back away. I had just started dating Richard, and was in a romantic giddy mood, and Holly is a good sport. We both love musicals and pretending that we are rock-stars. When Theresa showed up at the house she joined us for the fun. Holly, Theresa and I each took turns choosing a "love song" and playing its video off of youtube and then the three of us would belt it. This particular picture shows T and Holly singing along with Whitney Houston, "I will Always Love You!"

I've been re-reading Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the age of the quick fix this week. One thing that I didn't notice the first time through was Friedman's argument that one way to prevent and diffuse anxiety in a system (a family, a congregation, a business) is to maintain playfulness. There's something healthy that happens when you grab a wooden spoon and get in touch with your inner Diva and sing . . . "I-eeeee-i will always loooooooove yooouuuuuuuuuu."
What could have been a frustrating or boring night, turned into a chance for Holly and Theresa and I to bond and laugh. If we didn't have the job, I probably would have spent the night reading textbooks, and wasting time on facebook. If we hadn't started the love-song-sing-a-long, I would have likely gotten crabby and resentful. But I have really great memories of singing and laughing.

This Friday night, Richard, Holly, Noel and I had our cars flooded by rain water that was running down the street. The basement got a little wet, and garbage cans were floating down the road. It could have been super stressful. But we were together, and we were able to laugh together about how absurd it was. Noel's friend Paul was over and suggested that we go outside. One of my roommates pretended that s/he (I promised I wouldn't tell who) was being eaten by a crocodile in a river, we laughed at the waves created as cars drove down the street, we made up songs, we shop vac-ed our cars and laughed some more at the absurdity of 30 gallons of water in one car.

It's been a terrible week at our house, tons of professional, personal and family drama for all of us. But laughing and singing and playing together on Friday night has been good for us. I feel closer to my housemates than I have in a long time.

So let's keep on singing, let's keep on laughing, let's keep on playing. Happy Sunday!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Flood

1 But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

3 For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.
Isaiah 43:1-3 NIV



Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Growth

I snapped this picture yesterday at Westwood.

I'm finding myself frustrated that I have to face similar issues as I've faced over and over again in my walk, my ministry and my relationships.

Haven't we been in this place before? I thought that we dealt with it.

But the vine makes progress (eventually) and the vine still lives, and even when it comes back to the same place, it's not the same vine.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Happy Summer

I haven't completely abandonned the blog.

I've had things that I've wanted to blog about, but distractedness level has been pretty high, and I haven't taken much time to process my personal experiences, or the experiences of the world much in the past 2 months. The oil spill, the Arizona Immigration Bill, multiple reports on the achievement gap by race at school in Minnesota, and a gap in employment by race in Minnesota have all tugged at my heart, and I've wanted to talk about them, but I've allowed the frenetic pace of "End of the School Year" programming at work, and end of the quarter responsibilities at school to take over.

But God's calling me back to Himself, and back to myself. And I'm finding my center in Him again. Hopefully I will have more to say again soon.

But in the mean time, here's a picture of a blue damselfly that I took today at Westwood Hills Nature Center in Saint Louis Park today. Tuesdays are my sabbath, and I've started a new practice the last two weeks of hiking with my camera in hand, and asking God to help me slow down and to notice things. My hope is that God would speak to me through the things that I notice as I walk.
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