Future Peace Corps Volunteer

Honest-to-goodness conversation tonight at dinner:

F: God gives us our food.

A: Yep. God gives us our food.

F: And some people don't have food.

A: You're right. Some people don't have enough food.  What can we do to help them?

F: Give them food.

A: If people don't have enough, we can show love by sharing what we have with them.

F (to herself): Some people don't have food.  I wonder why?

A: 

My child is confronting life's injustices at 3 years old.  Watch out, world.  

See Ya, 2011!

I'd like to thank 2011 for the following:
1. Teaching me to lose and gain and lose weight with more gusto than ever.
2. Showing me just how incredibly broken a person can be.
3. Having my husband call me "uptight" over 100 times.  Which, by the way, makes me more uptight.
4. Two rounds of a stomach virus so fierce that I was so weak I couldn't walk, hit my head on the wall, and knocked myself out cold.
5. Breaking my heart watching a family member struggle with drug addiction and feeling helpless.
6. Letting  me know how it feels to go from meeting all my resolutions to meeting none.  I wouldn't have known just how low I could get without a resolution reminder once in a while.
7. Breaking two iPhones in a month, one within 24 hours of purchasing it.
8. Losing a baby to miscarriage.
9. At least 5 cavities.


2011, you are one bitty.  I'd like to see you go far, far away.

In 2012, I will be thankful for:
1. learning to not just lose weight, but be healthier.
2. every day with the child I have, even the days that aren't fun.
3. getting the opportunity to focus on Amanda.
4. being a part of a community that focuses on Christ and loving others like He does.
5. learning to have more fun.
6. my family and enjoy spending time with them.
7. my friends and show them that I love them.
8. my Savior and spend time with Him.

2012 is going to be great.  I love new beginnings.

Housechurch

I’m going to preface this post by sharing a little about our church. Norman Community Church is decentralized church.  It is not a traditional church in the sense that there are no pews, offering plates, or deacons. Our church is modeled after the first church in Acts 2 so in a sense it’s the most traditional.   We don’t have a building- we meet in houses.  And it’s not because we are trying to save up some money in a building fund somewhere. Our kids go to class in bedrooms and we meet in the living room.  We’ve had friends laugh in our faces at the church we go to.  Ask us if we’re in a cult.  And we’ve had several people looked at us cynically because we don’t have a building.  Sometimes it’s hard for us because we miss things about going to a “regular” church.  Hymns, Christmas plays, youth group ski trips, hearing Leon sing each Sunday.  And sometimes it’s really hard for me because our church is built on being in true community with others and I have a really hard time making friends and staying connected with them.  There are some days when I feel like I’m the only one not “invited to the party,” even after going there for almost three years.  And there are some days when I know it is mostly my fault because I am not trying really hard to be connected with them.  And there are even days when TJ is working and the thought of going to church by myself and feeling like a loaner makes me cry.  Well, that was more of a heart dump than a preface, but this blog ain’t called theAragonLife for nothin’.

Anyway, just when I’m on the verge of hanging up my hat at the joint, God speaks to me through the people there in such a strong way I know it has to be where we are supposed to be.  Today was one of those days.  We read through the passage in Luke 2 where the angels announce Jesus’ birth to the shepherds.  Then we just discussed it- how all the people in that moment must have felt. God, the angels, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds.  And honestly, it moved me.  Like, really moved me.  How the angels were probably speechless until they just starting shouting “Glory to God in the Highest!”  How Mary and Joseph must have felt knowing the secret that this baby was actually God.  The shepherds gathering up their sheep and running as fast as they could to see Jesus.  How God continuously chooses the meek, the stinky, and the humble to do the unimaginable.  It settled me right in to the place where I need to be this time of year- focusing on God sending Himself to earth to rescue us from our own plans.  As we further discussed it, one guy younger than me was sharing and his lip started quivering.  Then he began crying.  A grown man moved to tears over a baby being born in a manger.  Moved to tears by God and His love.  There all of us were- crying- over a story we’ve heard at least 100 times.  Because God’s gift was so overwhelming, because His gift IS so overwhelming. 

And just when I think I’m done with that place.  God is so good to us.  He’s so good to me.