Each Day Has Enough Trouble of Its Own

Multiple transitions at work, a flooded car, a mysterious ongoing allergic reaction to something that both my doctors and I can't figure out and my natural instinct is to worry.

This week, I took my prayer/camera walk at Wolfe Park, I needed to run some errands and I could bike to Excelsior and Grand/Miracle Mile, so it was back St. Louis Park, to see what God had for me. I took these pictures, and then laughed at how well they illustrate Jesus' command not to worry in Matthew 6. Look:


Do Not Worry
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The Double Reunion Day

I met up with a few college friends yesterday for lunch. It was so great to see Aimee and her husband Chris, who I haven't seen for about four years. They live near Dallas and stopped at my house on their way to Deer River to see her family. Jessi, another college friend who just returned from Iraq, and Lisa another friend, who though she works less than a mile from my house I've only seen 3 times this year. All came over and got Vietnamese sandwiches with me. We enjoyed an awesome day in the sun, played with Aimee and Chris' dog and caught up a little bit. These are women who I know would have my back if I ever needed rescuing. We all lived on the 7th floor of Lake Superior Hall our freshman year. *cue the music* "memories." We forgot to snap a picture before Lisa left, so here's me, Aimee and Jessi.

After my college buddies left I developed some sort of allergic reaction, so I was off to the doctor, the doctor gave me a strong antihistamine that made me super drowsy, so when Richard drove me home I was groggy, but so happy because . . . . .

BETHANY IS HOME!!!!!!!

I'm groggily drugged up on allergy meds in this picture, and B's crying, but look at how ridiculously happy we are in the midst of that!!!!

Yay!

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!

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

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.

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.

Have you tried Groupon?

I've never used the blog to sell something and I won't make a habit of doing this, but this site is really cool.

Have you tried Groupon?

Today's deal for Minneapolis/St. Paul is $5.00 for $10.00 worth of Ice Cream at the Pumphouse Creamery.

I've never been to the Pumphouse but with flavors like "Brandy Soaked Local Cherries with Handmade Brownies" and "SeaSalt, Caramel and Praline Pecans" as well as "Local organic Strawberry" and one described as "An Indian ice cream using ground raw pistachios, rosewater, and cardamom." I am looking forward to trying it. It's no secret that I'm a wannabe foodie.

This is the third Groupon that I've bought and I've had good luck with the other two (1/2 price dinner at Anodyne Coffee and $50 worth of services at Aveda Institute). You only buy the Groupons that you want, and you have up to a year to use them.

If you haven't already joined Groupon, consider joining through my referral link. There is a ten dollar credit that you receive for each person that you refer to Groupon. I honestly think that it's just a really good deal, so I do truly recommend it to you.