Click on THIS

Today seemed like a good day to come across random (but extremely useful) information. I can’t help but share it with you!

Here is a very good article that showed up in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Where Have the Good Men Gone?” I could write endless posts about this and all the irony I find subtly peeking out from behind the words. Really? Women are asking this question after fighting so hard to have incredibly lower expectations for the opposite sex? With the popularity of Knocked Up and Sex and the City, are we really surprised?
This video is a clip from the film “Expelled” with Ben Stein. I wrote about this film when I first found it, but I like this clip for how it reveals the confusion we face today in the academic arena.
This article reminds me of the good old days at Hope College with Professor Herrick and the Rhetoric class I loved so much! Here, Tim Challies writes a short history of communication and directs our thoughts to critically examining the development of sending, receiving, and storing messages through language.
I like to hold a book in my hand. I’m sorry for those who have tried to convince me to go the way of the digital… you will always fail. This author had a, let’s just say, “come to pages” moment where she realized how flipping a page is an experience. Go ahead and read it, all you haters of the old fashioned book. 🙂
This article from freakonomics is too good to pass up. If any high-brow coast dweller ever questioned the intelligence of those living in the breadbasket, this is proof positive we can hold our own…. well, in Kansas…. in 1895, that is. This is an 8th grade test. See how well you do!
I was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran church, but in 2nd grade my family moved to the Evangelical Free denomination and by 20 I wanted to make my own decision to be baptized. So, I was baptized twice. Some denominations won’t even perform the second baptism. For these reasons and others, I am glad to read do a little research. I want to know where I stand so I will be able to make informed decisions about what I believe about baptism. Here is a great article I found over at The Gospel Coalition blog called, “Should We Baptize Small Children? Yes”

I am so, so very tired right now. It’s one of those tired feelings that I should have shaken hours ago by BEING in BED. So, with that I’ll sign off tonight!

let LOVE fly like cRazY

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Caroline 0

affirm-entum

Choose one of the following descriptions:

Espresso machines whir in the background of a coffee shop/art gallery where laptop computers provide electronic lighting, in addition to the vintage-looking lamps strategically (yet somehow sporadically) placed on end tables and hanging from unfinished ceilings. The aromas of imported, fair trade coffees seem a perfect backdrop for an emotionally charged philosophical discussion on the cultural implications for human rights violations in the country of Ukraine (thanks to a recent blue book exam in Modern European History class).
Classic carafes filled grace every perfectly stressed, re-claimed barn board tabletop. Modern color combinations inspire placemats and name cards in the exclusive party room at the uppest of scales restaurant where the sounds of the city’s highly sought after jazz ensemble drift just under the murmuring conversation about the topic of the gala fundraiser: human trafficking.
An improvised family dinner, featuring items in the fridge and pantry nearing expiration, quickly evolves behind 12 foot cement walls and coils of concertina wire. The small, makeshift table overflows with potluck plenty and every fresh-from-college, penniless international volunteer settles in for the patchwork courses and three cups of tea to follow. The meatless menu curves conversation around to an all too-high-brow discussion of frightful fast food production and the undeniable consequences on the modern child.

Do you recognize these scenes? I do. I can put myself in each one, or a variation at least. These scenes play like merry-go-rounds in my generation.

In a recent conversation with a close friend, we were lamenting our generation’s increased probability to begin (and become passionate about) movements and the equally probable end result: to bail out. We are obsessed with the idea that we can be a significant part of change but equally obsessed with the idea that we are entitled to choose NOT to. In this way, all our passion is like a high speed motorboat leaving havoc in its wake. We are good at starting things, planning things, dreaming things, and especially thinking about things – and it’s good to start, plan, dream, and think. But, in five or ten years, will all these efforts be about us or will they be about a different object?

Don’t get me wrong. Understand that I wonder these things because I am continually indicted by the person of Jesus Christ to examine my own motives and tendencies and this is one of those times. I love a passionate conversation, over coffee or wine, but I’m wondering if our convictions carry less commitment because of their root.

I wonder if our convenient conversations would bring anchoring commitment if grounded in the person of Jesus Christ instead of a cause.

We make and break commitments every day to each other, with excuses salt and peppering our well-planned withdrawals like seasoning on a mediocre steak. We expect people to back out because we back out. It’s just kind of the reality for generation Y: don’t expect too much, but then there’s a chance you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Enter my newest created word: affirm-entum.

[af-er-men-tuhm]

–noun
the movement resulting from the assertion that something exists or is true

You would have guessed rightly if you surmised this word is the wedding of affirmation and momentum. I think they will live happily ever, don’t you?

After several minutes of frustration-directed conversation, my friend suggested it would make much more sense to just start encouraging one another. Isn’t that what we’re called to do, in Christ (“encourage one another and build each other up…” 1 Thessalonians 5:11)? This immediately inspired thoughts about causes focused inwardly on the cause itself as opposed to causes focused on a solution in the future.

Why don’t we first assert what we know to be True. Christ is our one perfect example of man and Christ constantly reminded us of our purpose to exalt God rather than to exalt man. Christ pointed to God (and, Himself by association) as the fixed point in the distance. An assertion that this is True (the Gospel) will most definitely be followed by movement.

On a practical level, I am wondering if this means our coffee shop study groups, elite charity dinners, and friendly potlucks should all share this most important fixed point. If our passionate discussion comes from and leads to passionate proclamation of who Christ is, then we are inviting movement toward that fixed point in the distance. People will surely change along with their commitment level, but if we hope for true, significant change then we must defer to the only constant.

This must be our affirmation and encouragement to one another, so our efforts are not motivated by passionate anti-ideas, but rather by the positive agreement that God is greater.

Oh, goodness. I may have just ran around in wordy circles just now. In any case, can you please,

let LOVE fly like cRaZy!

Here’s the sermon that provided some of the inspiration:

Posted on February 20, 2011January 9, 2013 by Caroline 2

pride is a big, fat thief

Sunday, I posted the song by Thad Cockrell called, “Pride won’t get us where we’re going” and I love this line,

When I lose my vision, will you lend me your eyes… to see exactly where I need to be.

It must be something… this pride. I want to make cute jokes about it, but the reality is it’s ugly. I’ve been thinking a lot about all the ways pride is like a thief. Without regard to the damage, pride steals our friendships, our families, our minds, and our affections… and then destroys everything completely.

This is an idea that’s been making a tortured trek around the hamster wheel in my brain recently. Maybe it was learning Sunday night that the brother of one of the Micah boys (and only sibling) was stabbed and killed, or maybe it was the re-introduction to one of my favorite soul-destroying films “Dancer in the Dark” or maybe it was a handful of conversations about the downward spiral of affluent youth worldwide… I’m sure of this:

the tragedies don’t stop.

I’m always trying to make some sense of things and so could I just process what has seemed to settle in my gut? I’ll take that as a yes. Bear with me… these ideas are not completely formulated.

On whatever end (or middle) of the socio-economic spectrum we find ourselves, I am starting to think what makes a person most desperate is certainly the same. We all know the feelings of humility, shame, and fear.

Unfortunately, the most ready weapon is itself destructive: pride. As John Piper‘s sermon was still marinading today in my mind, I thought about the two different groups who found themselves stuck in unbelief in John 7:1-24.

Jesus’ own brothers asked Him to go up to a party and present Himself in all His glory, with pomp and circumstance. They wanted a parade – someone they could walk behind and maybe stand a bit in the shadow of His glory. What they didn’t believe was that He was bigger than an entrance at a party or the praise of men.
The Jews didn’t believe in Him because His presence indicted them. Their lives were brought to account in His presence. Every righteous act felt less right in the presence of One who could do no wrong.

Both, Piper said, were blinded by pride (and, as a result, unbelief). I guess I’m just wondering how many sins we can really trace back to the root of pride.

I think of a recent conversation with students about 12-year-old pop singers with near-adult material with eyes ‘innocently’ set on a crash course toward success.
I think of the young girls here who are married at 12 years old to 20 or 30somethings who have very little understanding of love.
I think of the constant worry involved in “future plans,” lest a student or adult choose a less comfortable path.
I think of the person who is completely unaware of the layers of life surrounding him because he is so deeply involved in what he will do next.

Well, folks, we’ve plumb lost our vision. And I seriously think we’re seeing the results of our unbelief. We are proud – so proud – that we want Jesus around for His fame and VIP pass, but we don’t believe His presence can save us. We are proud – too proud – to admit that His deferring way of pointing to the glory of God is to us a lifeline, not a noose.

Instead, we’ve chained ourselves to the world’s ugliest attractions in hopes that we will find both significance and righteousness. God help us!

Pride is a dirty, devious thing. I suppose that’s better reason than any to

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on February 15, 2011February 14, 2011 by Caroline 2

reasons to shout hooray!

reason #1
Tonight I screamed my lungs out on the soccer sidelines in a wave of green and white. Rumor says it has been 20 years since the boys soccer team at my school has gone on to the finals in San Pedro, so tonight was one for the history books and I tried my darndest to yell even louder than those blaring blowhorns (sidenote: I definitely prefer human cheering). I could get all deep about it, but there is something really special and being with a crowd of people all hoping for the same thing. I had flashbacks to my own high school athletics days… and I remember cheering in the stands or on the sidelines was almost always just as fun as being in the game. I like that about sports. I like it and I wonder about it, too.

reason #2
Last night Louis (my lovely, wonderful, strangely Herbie-like car) helped someone ELSE! For all his random quirks, he finally got to lend a helping hand last night when a friend needed his battery jumped. I couldn’t run out the door fast enough! The idea of Louis GIVING battery power to another car was such an exciting thought… and then it worked! I could barely sleep I was so excited!

reason #3
Today, I handed out invitations to the senior girls for my almostFAVORITE holiday – SWEET DINNER! I loveLOVELOVE everything about this dinner, which is exclusively for my Bible study girls and ALL about recognizing the way God has beautifully created each of them. Even making the invitations filled me with joy – just thinking about the many blessings He has hidden inside each beautiful girl!

reason #4
I like things that make me think. This quote, thanks to twitter, inspired a bit of benevolent banter today and is still making me think hours later.

‎”The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection, is by the expulsive power of a new one.” – Thomas Chalmers

Here’s some heavier reading to dig through if you’re interested.

reason #5
My cousin Bret and Katie had their baby this morning and she is BEAUTIFUL and her name is Mollie Avonell! I LOVE the beauty of new life!

reason #6
I am going to round out these reasons to shout hooray with one very close to home… I mean literally close to my hometown. Doc Swanson is what we call him, actually what people across the state of Iowa probably call him. When my friend sent me this link tonight I couldn’t believe someone had finally overturned the stone covering this hidden local hero. He’s 78 years old, but decided retiring as a doctor was too boring (who wouldn’t!?). So he opened a FREE clinic in the itty-bitty town in Southwest Iowa and he is pretty much always busy.

Take THAT health care crisis! I love what he says at the end of the interview,

“The fun of life is giving, and most people miss the fun of life,” Swanson said. “Money is the least important thing. If people would forget about money, and provide service, it would be a wonderful world.”

If he wasn’t STILL my doctor, I’d probably suggest he run for president or something.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy!

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Caroline 0

fathers be good to your daughters… and sons too

This is one of those “been-a-long-time-coming” posts.

I remember calling my dad’s cell phone randomly while working in Texas several years ago and just saying, “Thanks, dad. I know this may not make sense, but I just need to say thank you for doing what you do and being who you are.”

I was spending all my days with college age students at work and some nights with the junior high youth group girls. Over and over and over again I heard about broken homes, a spirit of distrust, and a very real longing from these girls to know their fathers and be known by them.

I’m a fixer by Nichols nature, but as I listened to these stories one thing was certain: this was out of my league.

In every case, every 12-year-old and every almost-20-something, I searched for words and came up speechless. Now, several years later, the stories are piling up like postcards from similar destinations: despair, loneliness, anger, betrayal, pain, and sometimes hope. Those are the ones I like best – the hope ones. The others are ones that make my heart hurt. Those destinations are hard to explain, but they seem to keep arriving at my doorstep.

Tonight, during our Bible study on God’s design for women, my heart broke again for all the girls in my life who have a hard time picturing God as a loving Father. If a father is someone who is silent and distant… or two-faced and secretive… or always offering empty promises, then it is hard to picture God’s role as our Father much differently.

Oh, this hurts! In the French film Amélie, the little girl’s father is a doctor and her mother is a headmistress. They are each particular about different things, but neither very particular about showing affection to their one daughter. One scene read almost exactly like one of my sad story postcards. Amélie, who looks about 5, sits like a statue while her father takes her heartbeat. Her face is emotionless, but the narrator informs us that she, like every girl, wants nothing more than to be hugged by her dad. Since he keeps his distance, she longs and treasures this yearly checkup – where he always finds her heart rate abnormally fast (due to her excitement in being near him).

Almost daily, I am reminded that I have no answers. Nothing I can say today from my mind or heart will hold up tomorrow and will certainly not pass through the many worlds separating me from the home lives of the girls who are so precious to me. I know of only one thing that is true always and it’s the unchanging Word of the Lord. I know without that infallible Word, all of my words will fall flat.

As long as I’m on the subject… there are a few things I wish Dads knew. John Mayer’s song, “Daughters,” scratches the surface of the longing a daughter feels to be loved by her dad, but (not surprisingly) it isn’t strong enough.

Fathers, be good to your daughters
daughters will love like you do

It was simple enough to capture the attention of a whole crowd of daughters who wished for what this nebulously suggests, but I wish this song spelled out specifics.

Fathers:

Be transparent about your first and greatest Love. For many daughters, your faith is a secret. You might go to church or you might have a Bible, but your ideas and convictions are as hidden and elusive as treasure on a child’s treasure map. It’s okay to be somewhere in the growing stages of your faith – in fact, it’s refreshing for us daughters to know you haven’t “arrived” yet. When your daughter can see you admit you need God, her heart and tenderness toward you will grow, but more importantly you will have pointed her gaze to the Father that never fails.
Love your wife. One of the greatest ways you can love your daughter is to love and serve your wife. When they see you honoring, protecting, partnering, laughing, enjoying, and living in a way that reflects God’s design, they will be confident as you lead the family AND you will give them an excellent example of a husband. (This is especially important in those years where you cannot relate to your daughter. When nothing makes sense, love your wife well and I promise your daughter will see it!)
Choose to be around. Your daughter will feel special that you’ve decided the best place for you to be in that moment is with them.
Get personal. Some of my favorite memories with my dad are simple ones that we shared while we did chores together on the farm or as we drove out to a football game or prepared our animals for county fair. Every discussion doesn’t have to be deep, but if you open up first then you’ll gain your daughter’s trust and she’ll likely reciprocate (even if it’s not right away).
Encourage, praise, love the God-honoring things your daughter does and push her in those things to be excellent. I’ll never forget my dad’s insistence that I study that little spelling book in preparation for the elementary spelling bees. My dad still types on the computer with his pointer fingers and English wasn’t his strongest high school subject, but when he found out I could put letters together in the right order, he was going to make sure I did it excellently. Those little things (though I assure you I didn’t love them at the time) made his love for me so obvious.
Be gentle. Your daughter will appreciate well-placed words and respectable silences.
Be good to your sons, too. Your daughters are smart. They will see the way you are leading and guiding your sons. Right now they are probably making mental notes in their heart about whether their dream man will act like the father and brothers in their lives. Many hold desperately on to the hope that it can be different. If they have to rely on Hollywood, they will be hoping for something unhealthy and unrealistic. But she’s got a front row seat for what a man should look like, so show her!

I don’t know where all this came from, but it is so my heart to encourage men to be men as God created them. I just read this blogpost the other day and it’s a slightly different tangent, but with the same bottom line – that men would be true men.

let LOVE fly like crazy

Posted on January 27, 2011January 29, 2011 by Caroline 4

giving PRESENCE this Christmas

I intentionally didn’t start out my post yesterday with an apology because I wanted to get right into the strangeness of my gym encounter. Today, I want to post an ENORMOUS slideshow to give you an idea of what the last two weeks have been full of: PRESENCE.

Awhile ago, I posted a video from Advent Conspiracy that challenges people to give more meaningful gifts of time and hand-crafted gifts rather than breaking the bank. Here it is again, if you missed it:

I haven’t quite felt up to pounding out life at the keyboard because there’s been a LOT of presence-making! I finally got my handmade gifts off to the States, via someone’s suitcase and now I’m working on finishing up the ones I still need to deliver here. There’s A LOT of baking going on, to be sure. It could be granola, sugar cut-out cookies, pumpkin cake, or a number of other things… but there’s ALWAYS something to do in the kitchen this time of year.

Well, enjoy this slideshow. I hope it lets you peek in and kind of sit with me as I go about being present this Christmas.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Posted on December 22, 2010December 22, 2010 by Caroline 1

where suffering meets joy

Here’s a little piece I wrote for the guidance newsletter this month:

My friend went to Kenya in 2008 and found himself surrounded by refugees displaced by civil war.

We all marveled at the pictures and listened to his tales when he returned, but after a while, we found ourselves again caught up in our lives layered with routines and more “important” matters. His experience was forced to fit into phrases like, “Oh, yeah, when you were in Africa…” because we didn’t have time for deeper questions requiring deeper answers.

As we step into this Christmas season, much of our discomfort results from crowded checkout lines and shopping cart traffic jams. Our culture presses in to define this celebration with catchy tag lines and guilt-ridden advertisements enticing us to add another gift to the cumbersome pile.

The joy in the angels’ announcement that filled the sky at Christ’s birth is somehow reduced to greeting cards and cavalier “Happy Holidays” thrown around like plastic swiped in those nifty little machines.

Is the subject of your holiday adoration worthy of all the discomfort?

As I examine my own motives for crafting homemade gifts, my mind wanders back to my friend who went to Kenya. Maybe we moved on so quickly from his experience because being near to someone’s pain brings a certain suffering to our lives as well.

Thinking about Kenya beyond the powerpoints and post-trip Q & A is… uncomfortable, and we have a tidy way of stuffing uncomfortable stories in the attic while we stuff stockings over the fireplace.

Though we often set them against each other, suffering is not opposite joy. Christ, who for the joy set before Him, endured the great suffering of the cross. When we open our lives and hearts to let the Spirit move in us, we will experience some of the greatest suffering and most abundant joy.

Christmas is both a time to celebrate the joy of a Savior and a time to long for Christ’s appearing as the only response to the suffering around us.

The closer we walk with those who are suffering, the more we will wonder at God’s joy in this season. Who will you choose to walk beside this season, sharing their pain? Great joy awaits, dear sojourner… GREAT JOY!

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Caroline 1

back from hiatus

That’s right. I took a hiatus – an “interruption in the intensity or amount of something” – from the blog. I know this means I did everything wrong in the eyes of the up-and-coming blogger. Consistency is key! Well, feeling real life on my fingers was key for the past four days and maybe you’ll just take my word for it.

In the case that you’d rather read a few words, I’ll indulge you with some snippets. In short, I get overwhelmed sometimes. I looked up the definition for overwhelmed, because I love words, and 1, 2b, 3, and 4 seem appropriate.

o·ver·whelm (vr-hwlm, -wlm)tr.v. o·ver·whelmed, o·ver·whelm·ing, o·ver·whelms
1. To surge over and submerge; engulf
2.a. To defeat completely and decisively
b. To affect deeply in mind or emotion
3. To present with an excessive amount
4. To turn over; upset

Before my mom starts to worry about an impending nervous breakdown, I don’t think “submerged, affected deeply, presented with an excessive amount of something, and turned over” are altogether negative things.

It’s just too much.

Well, here are the snippets, anyway. Some are good and joyful and some are sad and painful. Maybe you can take all the overwhelming pieces and make sense of them.

My light bulb in my room is burnt out and I don’t seem to have the right multi-tool (which I was convinced could fix anything) to unscrew my complicated ceiling light), so I have been crafting for the last few days on my floor with the light of my computer and a desk lamp. I’m a little worried about the following: the color combos I am coming up with, my failing eyesight, the way I insist on spreading everything out around me and then bending over it for hours.
Watercolor. It’s amazing! Where has it been all my life?
The Christmas decorations have now been up in Tegucigalpa for a good, long month. Christmas songs are streaming out every speaker and you won’t find me a bit disturbed. Whoever made the rule that Christmas can’t start until after thanksgiving obviously never considered that, “Come, let us adore Him” is a year-round invitation!
I want to write. Sometimes I want to write ideas and notions so badly that I can’t touch a keyboard for fear I won’t do the idea justice. Words are so weighty. They are heavy and cumbersome and I love them. I wish I could find the space to fit the bulky words that have taken up residence in my soul. I’d love to park them somewhere nice.
We are in the final stretch for our Operation Christmas Box. We’re doing our own version of Christmas in a shoebox for the beautiful children of Amor y Fe y Esperanza. I’m so PUMPED!
I’ve got chocolate glazed pumpkin cookies cooling in the kitchen and 31 amazing seniors to deliver to tomorrow. Yep – THIRTY ONE seniors brought their Bibles to chapel today. My prayer is that the Word would be ALIVE to them. I watched and then chewed through this message by John Piper on Sunday, “Holding Fast the Word of Life” and I want more than anything that we would hold fast to the words spoken by the Creator of the Universe! “He is the Vesuvius of joy” and we turn our heads and say it is boring. Ouch.
Here is an excerpt:
I hate sin. I mean I really hate it. I know this isn’t a surprise, but this week it was closer, raw, and ugly. I hate sin that causes families to break up and the sin that causes sons and daughters to hurt and the sin that leads girls to believe lies and the sin that prevents me from being at all useful. I hate it.
I’m still mulling over ideas about art and beauty. This is certainly one of the topics in which I’d gladly submerge myself, but I can never quite put the pieces together to write about it.
I love this quote from contemporary artist Makoto Fujimura about art and culture,”We have a language that celebrates waywardness – but we do not have a language to bring people back home.” That’s kind of “it” in a nutshell, I guess.
Another thing I don’t mind being submerged in is God’s promises. Whenever I’m faced with hardship or a tough conference or the gnarly sin sneaking in to steal joy all over the place, I remember. I remember God is sovereign. He is good. His plans are never thwarted. Yep, I’d like to be daily “presented with an excessive amount” of His complete sovereignty.
Guess, what? THANKSGIVING is this week! I’m super-duper pumped to throw my thanks everywhere. I’m planning a Thanksgiving dinner this Friday for my senior ladies, which will involve a monstrous amount of baking. I’m also super pumped to set up our own version of a drive-in movie in someone’s backyard.
Last, but not least… tomorrow is the first-ever pep rally led by the first-ever pep squad coached by first-ever coach (you guessed it) me. I’m pretty sure this is the first time in history that someone is trying to calm high school nerves about a high school event at the ripe old age of 26! I almost couldn’t sleep last night, because I’m just sure the girls are going to get out there (they have absolutely no idea what they are doing) and then run off and I’ll be left to animate the crowd with my antics (which are usually reserved for small dinner parties!). Lord, help us!

Well, there it is. A comeback from a hiatus heaped up high with the verb “overwhelm.”

If nothing else, I pray this night finds you

letting LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on November 22, 2010November 22, 2010 by Caroline 4

the Gospel, the Law, and doing good

I’ve just got two links for you today, folks. I am going to need every wink of rest I can get tonight. Maybe my mom was right… too much coffee!!

The first is an interview with Tullian Tchividjian about the Gospel and the Law.

The second is a video preview for a documentary film “Cool it” with Bjorn Lomborg.

I won’t add my two cents for once in my life. What do you think?

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Caroline 0

MUSINGS IN THE MIDST

a study in good work, neighbor love, and kingdom come