Reading Through the Bible in 93 Days

Some of you have been asking about this project that I'm doing for the next few months.  It all started with a comment my friend Crystal made about how much she had been wanting this beautiful new wallpaper for her entryway.  In short, she was frustrated with herself for desiring such a frivolous, material thing more than she was desiring God's Word.  She said, "Why do I want to spend so much money on this stupid paper when I should literally just write Bible verses all over my walls and cover them with Truth?"

So I decided to do just that.  I thought through a few different ways to do it, and I settled on covering the walls with pages from an old hymnal (thanks for the idea, Emily!) and then writing verses over the pages.  I started covering the walls last week - I'm realizing now I should take pictures for you - and when it came time to start writing the verses, I didn't know where to start.

As Fraulein Maria would say, "Start at the very beginning...a very good place to start."  So I rifled through some old emails and found this plan, written by my friend Jenna Battleson.  I began on July 2nd, so hopefully I should be done by the beginning of October.  Although it's a lot each day, ultimately I feel less intimidated doing it this way than if I were to try the more popular reading-through-the-Bible-in-one-year.  One year seems to provide a much greater margin for procrastination.  I'll let you know how it goes.

I pray that this inspires you to dig deeper into His Words, and wallpaper your life with His Truth.

Reading Through the Bible in 93 Days - Chronological Order.

:::UPDATE - September 19, 2011:::
Trying to do an intense Bible reading challenge along with a daily Beth Moore study?  Bad idea.  I have 5 days left in my study, then I intend to try the 93-day challenge again.  In the meantime, I am deleting the table that includes the "schedule" of readings, because it was messing with my blog layout.  Will repost when I try again :)

New Apartment - a virtual tour {Part Two}

I'm finally getting around to posting Part Two of the apartment tour.  Hope you enjoy!

Bedroom Two -

 

This room looks different now than when I first took these photos last month.  And it will look different again in a few weeks.  Right now, a friend of ours is staying here while she works her hardest on graduating high school.  Just a week and a half to go!  The furniture that we have for her is pretty much what's shown here (though I found homes for most of the junk against the wall), but in a couple of weeks, another friend of ours is lending us her daughters' bed, dresser, and vanity, because she is getting bunk beds for her little girl.  I'm super excited to make this now catch-all room into a real guest room.

 This right now is my storage system for my crafty stuff.  I'm looking for a sturdier/more organized way of keeping all of these things together, so maybe if you have an idea, you could share it!

This photo is meant to show how HUGE our closets are, but I just don't think it looks right.  You'll have to take my word for it.  They are gigantic.

Bathroom Two -

To me, a bathroom is a bathroom.  However, if I do decide to do any painting, I think this is the first room I'll start with.  Or maybe the dining room.  Or both!

Dining Room -

 Have I already mentioned?  Almost all of the furniture in our house has been given to us by parents, friends, and neighbors.  And I am so thankful!  A lot of people find themselves newly married and in a pretty big hole of debt because of all the things you need to get when you move out to your own place.  Granted, this would not be the table and chairs that I picked out, but hey.  Mimi's not using them anymore, and the chairs are spinny.   Fun!

 This chandelier is my favorite built-in part of the whole apartment... except maybe the dishwasher.

A couple of close-ups of my little collage wall.  This wall is covered both with things that are extremely meaningful and memorable to me (fountain painting from my trip to the Dominican; pumpkin painting from an artist we met on our honeymoon; dried butterflies from Bolivia [I'll have to tell you about the significance of butterflies later]; the key to remember that the "key" to life is trusting God to give me what I need today and not to worry about the strength, money, grace, or whatever I'll need any time in the future) and things that have almost no meaning but are just pretty (the little gold mirror, the ceramic "love" heart, the upside-down butter dish filled with beads).  Again, if I decide to paint, I want to paint the walls adjacent to this wall in a sort of gold-ish brown to match the mirrors, the paintings, and the goose.

Kitchen - 

 Isn't that mirror by the sink cool?  It was there when we moved in.  Love it (except on days when I'm not feeling exactly thrilled with standing in front of a mirror, if you know what I mean).

 Yay!  Dishwasher!!

 We got this cabinet as a gift from Rod's sister.  In our first apartment, we used it for our TV.  But since we bought Kelly and Jay's old entertainment center, this now houses our microwave, snack foods, and random stuff that has no other home (like the blender, crockpot, and coffee maker).  I love having the extra cabinet space, plus it fills up that weird empty corner of the kitchen.  Flower painting by me, painted scarf by Picasso ($1 at the Greenville Thrift Store - oh, how I miss you thrift store).


So that's it!  I hope you've enjoyed the little tour.  And if I'm lucky, maybe someday I can give some of you a REAL tour!

New Apartment - a virtual tour {Part One}

I've been reading a lot (and I mean a lot) of design blogs lately ~ some of my faves are here, here, and here.  They have provided me with much inspiration and some really great, cheap ideas for our new little place, which I've been wanting to post photos of for a long time.  The downside of spending so much time looking at all of these gorgeous, magazine-caliber homes is that I feel a little less than boldly confident about letting you take a peek into my own home.  However, I decorate my home (and I hope you do yours) based on things I like, things I have, and things that are important to me - even if it doesn't always match the "rules" of design.

Also, for the sake of fighting against my own struggle-for-perfect-image, for the sake of honesty, and for the sake of (hopefully) living a life that breeds confidence and you're-good-enough-ness in others, I decided to post photos of our apartment both in it's messy state and in it's picked-up state.  No excuses, no apologies, and no explanations.  Enjoy!

Okay, first the messy ones.

Yikes.

 You get the point.

Now on to the descriptions:

Our bedroom and bathroom ~

 His and Hers closets!

May I draw your attention to a few things?

First, the chalkboard behind the bed - I wanted to paint the whole wall a chalkboard like Emily did.  But it turns out, you need pretty smooth walls in order to do that.  Maybe someday in a different home.

 I made that picture frame jewelry hanger thing inspired by something I saw in my friend Lindsay's room a few years ago.  Fun and practical!  (but not for those short little stud earrings - too hard to get your hand behind the thing without knocking half the earrings off)

I can't remember when I painted this, but it was before I got my puppy, Daisy, during my first year of college (note the chew marks in the upper right-hand corner).

This is the only art project I've ever gotten a 100% A+ on, and it wasn't even for an art class.  I did it for a Song of Solomon project in my Wisdom and Poetic lit class.  The beautiful Susanna Schultz helped me frame it on our first-ever friend date (Hi, Susanna!).

Living room...

 We were going to get a different couch, but decided instead to have grateful hearts and just liven it up a little with some fun cushions (I LOVE the whole unmatching pillow thing that Julie's got in the Julie & Julia movie - I consider these three pillows as step one of the process).

A few details...

I painted these to try and tie in the purple/red couch pillow and purple curtain thingy.  I don't love them, but they work.

Isn't this great!  It's my "creation corner" where I can write music and be an artist.  It, too has changed, since we bought a new keyboard for my birthday - it now sits against the wall under that painting.  Which, by the way, is called "Genesis".

I painted a tiny version of this for my Hymnology class, where I was helping write a hymnal (and create some writings and art to go in it too).  My professor said he loved it so much that I gave it to him and painted a larger one for myself.  Rod framed it for me as a moving-in gift.

Another gift from Rod and a little reminder not to be scared, because "Everything worth doing is worth doing poorly."

This is the top of the bookshelf - filled with important things.  The elephant was the first in a series of gifts Rod gave me when we started dating - gifts that he bought for me, his future wife, before he knew me.  After the elephant (which he gave to me on the day he asked if he could pursue me) came a glass ring (on my birthday), his first piece of cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory, that little orange spice container (which held my ring when he proposed), and a string of pearls (which he gave to me on our wedding day).  The penguin and turtle symbolize a story he wrote about us (which I should really post here - turtle for trust, penguin for patience).  The crystal globe was a gift from Pat & Sue at ICA (because "we are helping the world, and we mean the world to them").  And the vase is just pretty.



I have decided to do this post in two installments, because this is insanely long and it's taking FOREVER.  And there's still so much to show you!  Watch for Part 2 on Thursday.

Also, if I may.  I've been thinking about setting up an Etsy shop online, so I can sell my artwork.  I'm just not sure that anyone will be interested in buying.  Your thoughts?

My Opinion On The Book: Love Wins (Rob Bell)

https://www.robbell.com/lovewins/

Like so many other people, I first heard about this new book through the promo video that swarmed through every corner of the Internet earlier this year.  Needless to say, I was intrigued by the seemingly controversial nature of the “book about heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived.”  People were claiming Rob Bell to be some form of Christian Universalist, and according to Mars Hill church, their lead pastor had (almost overnight) become more popular on Twitter than both Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa.  This book became a best seller even before it was released, so my hubby and I, being somewhat consistent followers of Bell’s works, ordered our copy at Barnes and Noble and finished reading it yesterday.  So there’s the history.  Onto the review.

To someone who reads a lot of books and reads them fairly quickly, I recommend this one to you if for no other reason than to join the discussion and to form your own opinion.  However, if you’re choosy about what you read, my advice: choose something else.  The ideas presented here are interesting and emotionally gripping, but they sadly lack the research, thoughtfulness, and academic responsibility that I feel are an absolute must for a book that wants to perform such an overhaul on orthodox Christian doctrine.  My two most frequent thoughts while reading this book were, “Where did he get that information?” and “Oh, I just wish someone else would have written this book.”

If you have had the pleasure of flipping through Drops Like Stars or watching any number of the Nooma videos, you will know that Rob Bell is a master when it comes to crafting stories, drawing connections, and really just making you feel.  But to me, with a subject as serious as “the fate of every person who ever lived”, you’ve got to have a little less fluff and a little more meat.  This book tends to blaze some new trails when it comes to ideas such as the eternity (or lack thereof) of hell, the concept that heaven and hell are actual places, the people who are “in” and the people who are “out”.  Yet as soon as the bridge starts to get a little rickety and the logic starts to falter, rather than arduously sticking with it and carrying it through for us to prove a point and take a stance, Bell just seems to conveniently change the subject or at some points, end the chapter.

He continuously and dismissively mentions what “the people in those days” or “those hearing the message of Jesus” would think; yet he never provides a footnote, an annotation, or even a hint as to where he got his information.  The closest thing we get is a section in the back called “Further Reading,” which feels more like a friend’s blog and less like a thoroughly compiled bibliography. 

My concerns were heightened when I looked up a few things he did reference only to find that he seemed to be stretching the words to make them fit his claims or leaving out some extremely vital information.  An example of the former was in talking about the Biblical story of the rich man and Lazarus, who both die and the rich man is taken to Hades while Lazarus is taken to “Abraham’s side.”  If you know the story, the rich man asks Lazarus for a drink of water to quench his thirst and sooth his burning mouth.  The answer?  “…between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” {Luke 16:26}  Rob Bell explains that even in hell, the rich man is still asking Lazarus to serve him, meaning he hasn’t truly died to himself yet and admitted humility.  Supposedly then, the chasm that cannot be crossed is only in the rich man’s heart.  Does that seem like a stretch to you, too?  An example of the latter is in explaining that the word used for “eternal” (as in “eternal punishment”) can be taken more as the intensity of the experience and less as the actual amount of time it takes.  From this premise, Bell seems to suggest that maybe hell doesn’t last forever; maybe it’s just so intense for awhile that it feels like forever, but then it’s over.  I like this idea and I want it to be true.  However, what is left out is that the same word used in “eternal punishment” is also used in John 3:16 when referring to those who believe in Jesus and will therefore receive eternal life.  That seems like an important point to mention.  (Both of my examples are from Chapter 3 – “Hell”.  For a review of Love Wins that deals more with the actual content of the book, I recommend reading this one or this one.)

I deeply care about Rob Bell’s ideas, and I believe he longs for truth and God’s Word more than a lot of people are giving him credit for right now.  But I just wish someone would have instilled in him the importance of citing sources, backing up claims, and writing responsibly.  Especially on so crucial a topic.  I would love to believe some of what he’s saying, but it is so hard without the evidence to support it.

Unfortunately, because of this, I ended almost every chapter with a feeling of frustration and a desire for a deeper treatment of the topic at hand.  I, like so many others, have questions about heaven, hell, what the Word of God says about them, what the character of God says about them, and what it all means. 

Of course, I realize many of these questions will remain unanswered, but I sincerely yearn for a book to be written (or a book to be recommended to me if it already has been written) that will deal more reliably and thoroughly with this eternally (pun intended) important and crucial subject.  If you know of one, do tell.  And if you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

A Death and a Birth

In the past two weeks, I have witnessed both the death of someone I have known my entire life and the birth of someone I will know for the remainder of my life.  One occasion brings extreme sadness and moments of despair and one brings extreme joy and moments of wonder; yet I am struck by the similarities of these two starkly contrasting events.

The first parallel that I notice, and the one that made me detect the others, is that both of these instances make people involuntarily speak in hushed tones when entering a room.  There is a loud silence that accompanies both the end and the beginning of a life – in one instance, an empty silence and in one a very full one.  There are no signs hung that say “please be quiet”, yet there is a holiness there that makes us do it anyway.

People drop all of their plans, calendar pages stop turning, and loved ones travel for hours and hours in order to be together.  It doesn’t matter what plans we had – we will drop them and celebrate this life.

My mind is filled with thoughts and pictures of those closest to the celebrity – the bereaved spouse, the new parents.  I feel intense amounts of emotion, of grief, of joy, of worry, of astonishment.  I wonder to myself, “What will their life be like now?”  I am sleepless with wondering.

In both cases, the leading lady is amazingly unaware of the commotion she has just caused.  She might experience a similar disruption at certain times in her life, when another dies or another is born.  And in that way she can understand a little better about her own death or birth.  But she is not really there to witness it for herself.

A great number of hugs, photographs, and casseroles are shared.  And an even greater number of prayers.

I am amazed every time I think about the humanness of it all.  The life-ness.  We have all faced birth – in a variety of ways, of places, of hands.  And we will all face death.  There is mystery involved.  And hope and curiosity and fragility. 

If you think about it too hard, your eyesight will start to change, and it feels like you’re floating just outside of your head.  I have no conclusions to be drawn here.  Simply commentary.

Fighting the Boogey Man

Whenever Rod and I rent a movie, we always watch the previews - makes us feel more like we're at the movies.  Last night, we saw a preview for Black Swan, some creepy suspense movie about a ballet dancer who's out to get another ballet dancer or seduce her or something like that.  Anyway, I woke up in the middle of the night from a scary-feeling dream, and no matter how hard I tried, I could not get the images from that preview out of my head.  I kept seeing Natalie Portman with red eyes, staring down at a shrivel-y black feather that she had just pulled from her own skin.  And it took FOREVER to get back to sleep.

This afternoon, though, I was driving home from work, and I had just the opposite problem - I tried to remember what about my dream was so scary-feeling, and I tried to imagine the same Natalie Portman face.  But I couldn't.  Or maybe I could, but it didn't seem half as disturbing as it did at 2:30 this morning.

Does that ever happen to you?  Something seems one way in the middle of the night, and then the opposite seems true once you're fully awake?  Whether it's a frightening image you can't get out of your head or a song lyric that sounds really poetic or an idea for a new cooking show that would just be wonderful - sometimes you just cling to an idea all night, and then the sun rises and you realize your once-wonderful idea makes no sense at all.

I spend a fair amount of time thinking about heaven, hell, what happens after people die.  And I can't help but wonder if I am living in the middle of the night right now.  If the ideas that seem so clear, or the fears that seem so real will just sort of fade away when I finally wake up - when I die.  C.S. Lewis writes about heaven not as some spirt-y, dream-like place, but as a place where we will be more aware, more real, more us than we are right now.  He says the questions that we have, like "Does God know the future" and "Why does praying for healing sometimes work and sometimes not", will not be answered - they will just make no sense.  Like asking, "How heavy is yellow?" 

I like that. 

I like thinking that the doctrinal disagreements we might have or the confusions we might be stuck in are just a symptom of our not-fully-awake-ness.  And that when we are bathing in the glory of God, when His Spirit surrounds us like morning sunshine, all of the scary shapes and shadows will go away, and we will finally be able to see.

"For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully,
even as I have been fully known."
{1 Corinthians 13:12}

Fortune Cookies

I've been thinking a lot lately about certain tidbits of wisdom that have "gotten me through" in the last few years.  Some are profound, intellectual, and complicated.  Some you'd expect to see written on the bumper sticker of a 17-year-old high schooler's Oldsmobile station wagon.  But all of them have been important to me at one time or another.

So I give you...my Fortune Cookie Collection of Words of Wisdom from the Century's Collection of Wise Words from Fortune Cookies!!! (Or something like that).

#1 - "Everything worth doing is worth doing poorly." 
This was told to me by a dear professor, Rick McPeak, and this sentiment is single-handedly responsible for multiple pieces of artwork, difficult research papers, original songs, life-changing letters, and most importantly, my ITEP proposal (basically, the crux of my college career and the reason I was able to graduate in 4 years with a major I love instead of in 5 years with a major I hate).  Simply, these words give me courage.  I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself when it comes to art, music, academics, and anything that has to do with creating something out of nothing.  More times than I am proud to mention, I simply decide not to do something because I fear not being able to do it perfectly.  What if I paint a picture and I mess it up?  What if I compose a song and it's not honest?  What if I write something and no one can resonate with it?  Rick would say, it's better to give it a try and make it 80% of the way than never to try at all.  And when I obey his words, I am usually surprised by how well things go. 

#2 - Fill in the blanks: "This _____ won't ______ itself." 
This laundry won't wash itself.  This paper won't write itself.  These dishes won't wash themselves.  This dinner won't cook itself.  I'm not sure where I first heard it, but this phrase helps me reconcile the things I have to do with the age old problem of pure procrastination.  If there is something I'm not looking forward to doing, I can put it off and put it off as long as I want.  But the ultimate truth is, at some point, I'm going to have to sit down and do the thing.  So wouldn't I rather do it now and get it over with than have it hanging over my head for the next three days, and then still not enjoy doing it any more or less than if I would have done it right away?

#3 - "The raft is not the shore." 
An old Buddhist proverb.  Strangely enough, even though this advice was first given by Buddha, it has helped me overcome more Christian theological humps than almost any Christian proverb out there.  Religion classes in college got me into a (sometimes bad) habit of questioning elements of my faith and asking myself, "Why do I believe this" and "Should I even believe this?"  Unfortunately, I am very much a throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bath-water kind of girl, so the moment I realized there was a discrepency between one verse in Matthew and the corresponding verse in the three other gospels, my immediate reaction was to completely discredit Matthew's entire book.  However, when I remember the words of Buddha, I can satisfy the ugly urge I have to immediately run to the nearest shelter of logical common sense, abandoning all faith and mystery.  Instead, I can take a deep breath, remember that it's okay to not know all of the answers, and be happy just floating on the faith of my childhood until I can come to an adequately satisfying resting place of an "answer".  In the same way, when I do finally settle on an "answer" to whatever theological question I am wrestling with at the moment, this phrase helps me remember that what I think might be the safest conclusion may be only the raft that gets me to the shore of truth.

#4 - "Who of you by worrying can add a single moment to your life?"
Jesus said this during His sermon on the mount, right around the time he talked about the birds not being afraid of starving and the flowers not being afraid of going naked, because God knows their needs, and He provides for them.  Whenever I find myself in a downward mental spiral of worst case scenarios and what if's, I try to remind myself of these precious words from One I love.  Some time ago, I was thinking about having a child and how awful it would be if someday my son or daughter were climbing a tree and they fell and broke a leg or an arm.  My mind flashed through all of these terrible images of a screaming, scared, 7-year old in the emergency room, of a really bad fracture that would require surgery, of a doctor messing up during surgery, damaging a nerve, cutting a critical artery, handicapping my child for the rest of his or her life, having to have all of this weird medical equipment crowding our home, enduring curious stares from passers-by, and so on and so forth.  When I realized what a terrible fantasy I was putting myself through, I paused and thought of these words - how can worrying about something and imagining all of this help anything?  Part of my mind wants to justify worry and tell myself that if I think through every possible scenario, then I will be more prepared for something if it ever does actually happen.  But the truth is, bad things could happen.  And no matter how "prepared" I think I am, those bad things are still going to be really hard.  So is the answer to never let my children climb trees?  No.  The answer is to pray protection and safety over my family, to practice common sense, and to leave it all up to God's will.  To believe that He will take care of me and work everything, EVERYTHING, out for the best just as He always has done.

Those are just a few of the many life proverbs that have been helpful to me.  I would love to hear some of yours!