Monday Madness

WEEKEND fun

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Monday LINKAGE

Enjoy this list of wonderful things (arts, crafts, music, and generally things that have inspired in the past couple days).

Sleeping at Last new music
Slothpop new music
beautiful mess blog
inkismyfavorite blog
Oh Joy blog
Friends of the Challies blog
this sermon by John Piper
paper lanterns
recycled fabrics
Dr. Seahorse new cd you can download for FREE

Yes, folks. My post today is mostly pointing to inspiration instead of giving any, but there are more important matters… like planning for this weekend’s SLEEPOUT event to raise money for the Micah Project and cleaning up after a crazy weekend…. and enjoying many uninterrupted cups of coffee, accompanied by Miike Snow, Joy Williams, and Brooke Fraser.

I guess my stories about changing a car battery, learning to jerk in my living room, and making sushi at 4 am will have to wait for another day very soon!

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Caroline 2

music+memorization=GENIUS

Psalm-Justus-Jonas — Image via Wikipedia

Lately, I’ve been working on study skills workshops for several classes. Our students struggle to manage time, organize their materials, and (most importantly) recall the information they cram into their brains the night before a test.

I think these things are universal, but my job is not to figure out how similar are the struggles… I want to encourage the students to push through! In the process of all my searching (I didn’t have all those education courses, so it’s all new to me), I found some amazing resources.

I got so excited about this “Periodic Table of Elements” song that I showed it to everyone who came into my office (and some who happened to be standing outside!). Then, I started to look up more about this man, Tom Lehrer, who set all kinds of information to music. Two things made me love this: 1) learning happens 2) music happens.

After all my rambling about the beautiful gift and calling to THINK, I’ve been more aware of how thinking happens around me. How do the students think? How does the staff think? How do I think? What is my purpose, my methods, my result?

As I watched this video, I couldn’t help but make connections. We are made with minds to think and to seek knowledge. This, from the recent Desiring God National Conference,

“Knowledge that is loveless is not true knowledge. It’s imaginary knowledge, no matter how factual it is: ‘If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God’ (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)

Knowing as we ought to know is a knowing for the sake of loving. Loving God and loving people.” -J. Piper

So, if our knowledge – the true kind – has something other than empirical (numbers and words on pages with red grades glaring up top) implications, then maybe our ‘knowing’ must come about in a way that remains in our life after gradebooks close.

And for this reason, I love that our “knowing for the sake of loving” can come about as it did for David… through music. He wasn’t memorizing God’s attributes on a list so he could spit them out at the end of the week and move on to the list of God’s commands. No, as David was singing and playing and creating, he was hiding God’s Word in his heart.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. (Psalm 119:9-16 ESV)

I love this.

I love that even the process we choose to seek after knowledge can reflect our love for the Lord and can more firmly set the knowledge into our hearts. How many times have you praised God through the words in Psalms? When we set out to find our very strength in the Word, it becomes more than just memorization. It becomes bread.

Here’s a little example of Tom Lehrer in action.

Posted on October 8, 2010October 8, 2010 by Caroline 1

Jesus, Savior, pilot me

I love hymns. I love hymns like I love traditions and tree roots and old friendships that remind you what it’s like to be warm. I love hymns like a heritage uncovered and future realized.

Tomorrow, my parents arrive and the craziness of this week begins. I am thankful God slowed me down today (in the form of a very red eye, a doctor’s visit, and prescription drops that warranted administering every three hours). I am thankful because I read a book (The Stranger by Albert Camus) and I took a nap (in a hammock) and I made a frozen banana/frozen strawberry smoothie (when they are frozen you don’t need ice and it is more delicious) and I spent time with my Bible Reading Plan (much MUCH needed!) and I walked (home from the eye doctor and then ventured out once again between drop administrations) and I spoke with my mom (who was strategically packing and re-packing suitcases and responding to my strange requests) and I journaled (pen to paper is great therapy).

I am so thankful God is sovereign and knows when we won’t admit our failures or our needs. In between some of these very slow-moving activities, I listened to hymns. This hymn, re-worked by Bifrost Arts (a new favorite collection of my already-fave artists), was actually written in 1871 by Edward Hopper, whose ministry was to sailors at the Church of the Sea and Land in NYC.

The words, well, they speak for themselves. Hopefully, they meet welcome ears… especially those who feel a bit cast about these days.

always

let LOVE FLY like cRaZY

Jesus, Savior, pilot me

Jesus, Savior, pilot me
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treacherous shoal.
Chart and compass come from Thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

While th’Apostles’ fragile bark
Struggled with the billows dark,
On the stormy Galilee,
Thou didst walk upon the sea;
And when they beheld Thy form,
Safe they glided through the storm.

Though the sea be smooth and bright,
Sparkling with the stars of night,
And my ship’s path be ablaze
With the light of halcyon days,
Still I know my need of Thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

When the darkling heavens frown,
And the wrathful winds come down,
And the fierce waves, tossed on high,
Lash themselves against the sky,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me,
Over life’s tempestuous sea.

As a mother stills her child,
Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
Boisterous waves obey Thy will,
When Thou sayest to them, “Be still!”
Wondrous Sovereign of the sea,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
’Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
Then, while leaning on Thy breast,
May I hear Thee say to me,
“Fear not, I will pilot thee.”

Posted on June 6, 2010 by Caroline 1

It’s only Wednesday?

I am exhausted.

I can’t really think right now, but I know I need sleep. My creative writing for the day? I’m working on a rap with a student and we had a fun go of it this afternoon! Writing every day is DIFFICULT!

Lately, I’ve realized how much I read. I read articles, journals, tweets, blogs, posts, books, and more articles that lead me to a little gem that makes me think I know nothing and must keep reading. I realized this when I told a friend today, “Oh, I found this article about guilt by Kevin DeYoung that is really great – you should take a look.” Then he said, “Yeah! You should tell me whenever you find good articles like that worth reading!”

I just stared at him. In my head, I thought, if you are serious then you’ll be getting more emails than you can handle in one day. Between counseling articles, theology, philosophy, and culture, I read a LOT. I take comfort in the piece of advice I remember reading in a C.S. Lewis book – something like a good writer has to be a good reader. So, maybe it’s making me better at the craft, who knows?

Anyway, I wanted to give you a couple things to read or peruse at your leisure… things that I’ve read in the past day or so. My cyber friend (he doesn’t know he is, but we are) Tim Challies does this often and calls it “A La Carte.”

Poison of Quaint Moralism is written by an Acts 29 pastor in Raleigh, NC. He suggests that the South has succumbed to a poison made by their own hands. He says, “Our churches are full of good-looking, upright, moral people. The tragic irony is that our goodness is our poision. A great many Southerners claim Christianity as their religion, mimicking righteousness on the surface while their hearts remain unchanged by the gospel of Jesus.”

Are Christians Meant to Feel Guilty All the Time?

Kevin DeYoung gets to the heart of something I struggle with every single day: guilt. How much should I feel and how much is lacking a full view of grace? Read this article and ponder it yourself.

Joy Ike

This is not an article, but I hope you will link to discover the musical treasure! I first found Joy when I was looking for all things Philly because my friend Nicole decided to move there. She’s not typical, so don’t expect that.

Thabiti Anyabwile

This isn’t an article as much as it is a new person I am following. I love all the people at the Gospel Coalition (partially because I was there in the beginning – the very first Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago) and I am finding new people to respect, admire, and read every day. His unique perspective and style are sometimes just what I need.

Alright, friends. Enjoy the rest of this crazy Wednesday (and the entire Thursday if you read it in the morning!)

Don’t forget….

.let LOVE FLY like cRaZY.

Posted on May 13, 2010 by Caroline 0

snippets, anecdotes, and 7 worst things

Okay, I’m ba-AACK!

Last Saturday, we ventured up the infamous, cloud forest mountain (noteworthy because of my first failed attempt and following lost-on-mountain-adventure). The quaint little cabins welcomed us in the little town of Rosario after the long hike. I was especially glad to reach our destination because we took students with us.

The night was filled with food, conversation, laughter, books, worship, laughter, scorpion spotting, laughter, scorpion killing, worship, and more laughter.

Again, I realized how important it is for laughter to be involved in my life! We woke up early and ventured out to see the sun break through the cloudy haze and then spent quiet time, worship time, reading time, and breakfast time.

We hiked out Sunday morning and we were “sucking the marrow” right out, as Thoreau suggests. I almost collapsed when I got home, if not for the dark chocolate Heather brought from Canada. I took in a Mars Hill sermon, cleaned a bit, and then we made dinner before going to Micah Project. Whew!

So…. I am not making excuses, I just want you all to know that “Every Day in May” took place in my journal for the past two days. Well, that’s not entirely true. On Saturday night, Heather and I wrote a song that will never be sung again or written down. I wrote the words as they fell off my lips and I happily considered it my writing for the day.

Today… well, I decided to go back to the prompts from creativewritingprompts.com and I landed on number 231 which says, “List the 7 worst things to say to a person who just got dumped.”

Hm. It’s not really my cup ‘o tea, but we’ll see how it goes. I do like that it is going to be short, because I am WIPED out! Today after school, we met up with Diana and Maria and played some cards in McDonald’s… then picked up Sara and made some AMAZING orange, mango, ginger chicken with vegetables over long grain rice.

So, maybe 7 things is all I can muster right now, anyway. 🙂

SEVEN worst things you can say to a person who just got dumped (in no particular order)

1. “Oh, don’t worry, that girl I saw him with was probably just his sister.”

2. “Hey, you’ll survive! I mean, I’ve been dumped many times… and you kind of just get used to it, you know?”

3. “What did you do? I thought you guys had such a good thing!”

4. “I’m sorry. I mean, I can’t say I know how you feel, since I got married and everything… but it must be real tough.”

5. “I never told you this, but me and him… we, uh, well, we like each other.”

6. “I guess God doesn’t want you to have a boyfriend.”

7. “I wonder what you’ll do now…”

Hm. I’m a fan of creative writing prompts, but this was completely and unsatisfactorily uninspiring.

Well, I’ll just say it was probably inevitable to have a day where I didn’t love the prompt, the character, or the process. It happens.

Every Day in May Project, day TEN (days eight and nine are in my head or my journal)

Okay, now for that fleeting, precious thing called sleep…

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Caroline 3

trees and used books

Whoa. Christina’s post yesterday (all the way from LA, I might add) sure rustled some feathers! How true, though, that the only way to expose darkness is with Truth. Regardless of the sin you are dealing with – unhealthy views of the body can take all sorts of forms – Truth exposes darkness and leads to Christ, the only Healer.

Well, here’s what I’m reflecting on, many countries and cultures away…

The blooms of white flowers on my favorite tree outside our house gate. The smell is something like lilac mingled with gardenias, but not in a strange perfume-mixing way. No, it’s in the just-the-right-amount kind of way that grabs my senses every time I walk by and makes me stop to admire.

I think Psalm 23 is something like that. God’s beauty and peace is so strong a scent that we are made to lie down in green pastures and led beside still waters. There is something in the beauty of it that demands attention and response. So, I respond every morning and every night as I walk past. So sweet the smell!

This week is trudging right along, but I am finding so much encouragement from Joni Eareckson Tada, whose words just happened to be shelved tightly between a weathered Mary Higgins Clarke and a worn paperback Tom Clancy in the used book stacks at Metromedia. I have been so refreshed by her sincere heart and wisdom. The yellow pages smell like Laura Ingalls Wilder and deep trunks full of treasured things. The wisdom – oooh the wisdom – is a treasure in itself!

Here is a little tidbit:

Suffering sets the stage on which good qualities can perform. If we never had to face fear, we would know nothing about courage. If we never had to weep, we would never know what it was like to have a friend wipe tears from our eyes.

and here’s another:

When God tells us to suffer, sometimes our tendency is to use our very trials as an excuse for sinning. We feel that since we’ve given God a little extra recently by taking such abuse, He owes us “a day off” when we can do as we please. This is a continual inner battle for me…And it is so easy to justify. Son’t I already have to give up more than a lot of Christians just be being crippled? I say to myself. Doesn’t my wheelchair entitle me to a little slacking off now and then?

When we feel like this, if we sit down and examine our lame protests in the light of the Bible, they will vanish one by one.

And all this from a woman who became paralyzed from the neck down after diving in for a swim as a teenager. What a testimony her life has been since! Check out more here.

Hope this day is blessed for you and always remember, even in suffering….

let LOVE FLY like cRaZY

🙂

oh, and PS, you should check out my brothers from Tanzania and Nigeria and the story of their first/last prom in the US.

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Caroline 0

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

WEEKEND fun

Monday LINKAGE