The Road Not Chosen

What I've Been Clicking

Occasionally I make lists of sites I've found interesting or useful. Here's my list for this week:

A geek blog which has the unusual name of The Dead Console Society has a great page called "The Writer's Haven". That page has some of the most wonderful links to writing resources that I've ever come across. Everything from Lynch's Guide to Grammar & Style to the hilarious Urban Dictionary (caution: can contain some obscenity) can be found. Believe me, I've wasted lots of time here!

Philosopher.org explains complex philosophical ideas in terms that even I can grasp. It's also a lot of fun (for me anyway) to see what the human brain will come up with to try to either explain, replace or do away with the existence of God. Having been a fervent existentialist from high school until I became a Christ follower at age 22, I still have an interest in different veins of philosophy. A lot of Christians shy away from learning about this topic but when the Apostle Paul argued with the great minds of his day on Mars Hill, he was effective because he knew what they believed and thus knew how to show them a better way. Jesus does tell us to be "shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves" (Matt. 10:16). So get smart & check this site out!

Librarian Chick is another great site for links to other sources. You can find sites about Math to Foreign Languages to Poetry and much more here.

I will admit being a huge fan of beautiful (computer) wallpaper. Digital Blasphemy has amazing photos that you can save to your computer. My current favorite is "Sakura" which is so lovely, it makes me feel peaceful just looking at it. They have a section for free photos or you can pay to have a membership. (They will not spam you, by the way.)

Need a reminder of how amazing & powerful our God is? Check out the Hubble Site for images of stars, nebulas and galaxies that will (hopefully) make you shout "hallelujah!" and give glory to Whom it is due.

There, I think I've given you enough things to help you waste what is left of your day. Have any good sites you've visited lately?

Peace & Security In My Lifetime

Doesn't that sound wonderful?  Isn't that what we all want, peace & security in our lifetime? No one wants to live with war and turmoil.

I've been a Christ follower for 26 years, been in several churches and on staff at most of them. I've seen good pastors, great pastors, & evil pastors. Unfortunately, I've experienced church splits and been in churches that would have been better off closed. I've been on staff at a large Word of Faith church where the pastor was greedy & corrupt. I've been in a church where the pastor was compassionate and kind. I've been in a church where the pastor started out kind but turned manipulative & cruel. I've pretty much seen it all when it comes to churches.

When we've been through tough times as Christians something in us wants things to just be fine, with no conflict, only calm. Unfortunately sometimes we knowingly, or unknowingly, compromise to get that peace. King Hezekiah, in the Book of Isaiah, had seen God do amazing things, from delivering Israel from the Assyrian's to being healed of a deadly disease. In fact, soon after being healed, Hezekiah had visitors from Babylon. He showed them all his treasures: the gold, the weapons, the palace. After they left, Isaiah asked him about the visitors & what they had seen. Hezekiah said "I showed them all my treasures!" Isaiah then tells him something that should have made Hezekiah fall on his face & beg for mercy. The prophet says the Babylonians are going cart everything away, even the king's own descendants. Not only that, but they will become eunuchs & slaves! What does Hezekiah say? "Well, at least there will be peace & security in my lifetime." (Is. 39:8)

Sometimes I'm like King Hezekiah. I want people to see all my cool stuff. I want to live a nice, quiet life. I don't want to think about what happens after I'm gone. The only hitch in that is that I'm a Christ follower, meaning I'm suppose to follow in His footsteps & example. One thing Jesus didn't have was peace & security in His earthly lifetime! He wrangled with the Pharisee's, the Roman's, His own family & friends. The one thing He did do all the time was to declare the Kingdom of God had come. Oh, and that means that warfare has come, by the way. He promised us that we would have to fight, a lot! Matthew 10:34 say "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

But wait! Didn't He also say He'd give us peace? Yes, but let's read that promise again: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27) When we want peace & security in our lifetime, that can tend to be peace from a worldly perspective, not a heavenly one. Our job is to "fight the good fight of faith". There is an enemy who would like nothing better than for us to be lulled into complacency during our lifetime. That enemy doesn't want us to fight or to make sure that the Kingdom of God not only advances during our generation, but also during the following generations. Psalms 145 (one of my favorites) says it like this:

Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,
         And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
         And shall declare Your mighty acts.

And also:

They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom
         And talk of Your power;
To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts
         And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
         And Your dominion endures throughout all generations...
The Lord is righteous in all His ways
         And kind in all His deeds.
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
         To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
         He will also hear their cry and will save them.

So today I ask the Lord to help me not be like King Hezekiah, but to fall on my face & cry out to the One who can not only save me, but save the world. And to that end, I pray with King David:

Praise be to the Lord my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.

Tolerance Rant

No, not mine, although I agree with everything you're about to see, but Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Couldn't have said it better myself!

First Steps

Evan had his first job interview yesterday. We are working with several agencies with the goal of helping him find employment in a secular setting. By that I mean that he has only worked at our church before. While this is great & something that will certainly continue, we feel it's important for him to work in the community with people he hasn't grown up around. Our local Advocates for Independent Living office offered him a part-time job one morning a week doing office work. They definitely want to work it into a paying position with a lot more hours. Right now they will be getting to know what his talents and abilities are so they know what he is capable of doing.

I will take him there the first couple of times and then he will be taking the OATS bus. The OATS bus "provides reliable transportation for transportation disadvantaged Missourians so they can live independently in their own communities." In other words, it's like taking a regular bus, but is free and they will make sure Evan gets from Point A to Point B, without getting off somewhere he shouldn't (like the video store!!)

It's interesting how God has brought the right people into our lives at just the right time. This has happened over and over again throughout Evan's life. At the moment we are blessed to have a wonderful advocate named Nan from our local SB40 office. Senate Bill 40 Boards are local county boards for mentally retarded and developmentally disabled adults founded by Mentally Retarded Citizens of Missouri in 1968.  The tax levy, approved by local voters, provides funding for residential, vocational and other related programs and services. (Just in case you wanted to know!)  We received SB40 funds this year to help with our personal costs involved in Evan's hospitalizations, such as hotel bills, gas, food, etc. Each DD adult in Missouri is entitled to $2,000 per year to help cover costs that insurance & other funding does not cover. What a huge blessing this is!

Anyway, Nan saw our difficulty in getting all the different agencies involved in Evan's life to work together. Apparently she has a tremendous gift of persuasion (either that or she knows a lot of dirt on these people & has blackmailed them!) and has pulled together a meeting for us next week. At this meeting people representing 7 different agencies will all sit down at the same table & help us brainstorm ideas for this next phase of life Evan is in. This is something that Evan's case manager from the Regional Center is supposed to do (& has been asked by us numerous time to do) but has not done. We are just very grateful to God and to Nan who are both working on Evan's behalf.

In other news, I am appalled that Newsweek had Christopher Hitchins, well-known Atheist, review the book about Mother Teresa. Isn't that kind of like asking someone who hates movies to review one? Or someone who doesn't believe in love to write a love poem? Maybe no one else was available that week...

In Other Words

"They gave our Master a crown of thorns. Why do we hope for a crown of roses?"
~ Martin Luther ~  

Matthew 27 tells the story of Jesus appearance before Pontius Pilate. After Jesus fate has been decided he is handed over to the Roman soldiers who make a crown of thorns, place it on his head, and begin to mock him. As he stands there, the weakest yet strongest of men, I often have wondered if it was difficult to not call down the hosts of heaven to slaughter those soldiers and save him from their lashes. I am quite sure that is what I would have done! We know that Jesus did indeed endure this mocking & beating, understanding that it was truly going to get worse before it got better.

Heb 12:2-3 exhorts us to "... fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." I have gone through many seasons in my life when I have wrapped these verses around me like a blanket. As a young Christian I was often confused when people would become angry when I tried to tell them about this wonderful gift of Jesus that I had just found. Later on in my journey, I learned to hit my knees and ask for grace to endure when a particular co-worker was endlessly cruel & hated me so much (by her own admission)that she only communicated to me through notes left on my desk. (Our desks were right next to each other, by the way.) I tried many times to break through her walls, finally coming to the understanding that it was not to be. The day I left that job she walked me to my car & broke down in tears, saying she wasn't sure why she had acted that way. I was able to forgive her because I knew Christ had forgiven me for all the horrible things I had done to him in my past.

Even though I have had these experiences, and many more like them, it seems that too often I am taken by surprise when the thorns of life prick at me and even entangle me. It's as if I have forgotten that we are to be like Christ, to share in His sufferings as well as His glory. Just a few months ago, as my son lay horribly ill in the hospital, I came to the abrupt realization that I was ticked off at God. I thought God would let Evan off the hook, that he wouldn't have to share those sufferings because he has Down Syndrome. Yet no Christian is exempt. And why should we be? Christ is our example, we are to follow him in all things, even this.

Human nature being what it is, soft, lazy, frail, we want, hope, plead and beg for the crown of roses. A life full of just blessings, as if we already lived in heaven and not on earth. I remind myself that roses, sweet and fragrant, come with the thorns attached, just as the Christian life, full of blessing, beauty and wonder, comes with its own painful cost. There is a wonderful song my husband wrote called "To Carry The Glory". Here are some of the lyrics, which I think perfectly sum up what our lives are all about:

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who is living in me

For the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God

Who loved me and gave Himself for me

It's the God Who made light to shine from darkness

Who is shining in our hearts

To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

In the face of Jesus Christ

What earthly cost could be too great a price

How could there be too great a sacrifice

To carry the glory of God in the earth, To carry the glory of God in the earth

To carry the glory of God in the earth, as He's shining through our lives

              1997, Harold Forbis, Used by permission.

                              All rights reserved

 

 

Hi. My Name Is Lori And

I'm a book addict.  Yes, I will admit to that but compared to some of the more harmful (& illegal) addictions of my youth, a book monkey on my back isn't such a big deal. Here is a list of what is piled in my stack at the moment:

On Writing by Stephen King - This book has been recommended to me so many times I decided to finally read it. I'm also thinking I should be able to glean some good ideas for my Language Arts class from here.

Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott - Anne Lamott can be fairly controversial in some Christian circles. I, however, love her honesty about her journey with God. While I rarely agree with her political views, and sometimes not with her religious views, I do identify with the struggle to conform ourselves to the image of Christ, which she writes about a lot. I read my students an essay she had written about trying to not hate Pres. Bush because she knows that if Jesus loves him, she needs to love him also. Their initial reaction was to be ticked off that she hated Bush. I then asked them if there was someone in their lives that they had hated or at least disliked & what they had done about their feelings for that person. We had quite an interesting discussion!

The Scribe by Francine Rivers - I've only started reading Ms. Rivers in the last couple of years. In looking for books for my students this year, I came across this one. It's the story of Silas, who recorded a lot of the New Testament scriptures. I plan to read it this weekend. It's short so I should be able to get through it in a day.

Night by Elie Wiesel - Again, this was a book I found for my class. I really wanted to have them read "One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn but the language was way to raw. "Night" conveys a similar personal journey that I think will be easier for my students to relate to as Mr. Wiesel was just a teenager when his family was taken to the concentration camps. He discovers that "God is there in the suffering" which is something we all need to know.

Announcing the Reign of God- Evangelization & the Subversive Memory of Jesus by Mortimer Arias - Wow, what a title! It's actually about the Kingdom of God shown within the 4 Gospels.

What are you reading right now?

And Our Priorities Are????

OK, Celebrity Obsessed America, yell it at the top of your collective lungs & get it out of your system: "Britney is washed up!" There, do you feel better now? Sheesh, how pathetically obsessed with someone's failure can we possibly be? And don't get me started railing against all the comment's about her being "fat". I wish I was that "fat"!

Let's focus on some real news shall we? For starters it is the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. There are loads of issues attached to those events that could use some good water cooler discussion. There's also the General Petraeus report about what's going on in Iraq. Hear's a link to his entire statement to Congress. It's only 9 pages long and worth reading. Oh, yeah, Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American who was held for no reason in an Iranian prison for 4 months was just released. Her story is worth pondering for those of us who realize we might someday be imprisoned for our religious beliefs.

If nothing else, America, go for a walk, play with your kids, read a good book (or The Good Book!). Please get over this junior high-ish fixation with the clique you always wanted to get into but couldn't. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to continue my reading journey through "Night" by Ellie Wiesel. I'm pretty sure he's not to concerned about the latest Hollyweird controversy.

Playing Catch Up

Well, dear reader, if you have been wondering what I've been doing the last 10 days I'll try to fill you in. School started on Aug. 22nd & that meant I plunged back into my 11th & 12th Grade Language Arts class with great joy & anticipation! We kind of alternate years between teaching primarily Lit. one year & primarily writing & grammar another. This is the writing & grammar year & I have thrown in a heavy emphasis on vocabulary. Each student got a brand spankin' new Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Happily, 3/4th's of my class was very excited about this. We tackle about 10 new words a week plus a couple of bizarre words that I throw in for good measure. In an attempt not to bore them to tears, we are reading a few books. On Friday we started Animal Farm, by George Orwell & will be working through that for a couple of weeks.

On the non-work front, last week was the week of doctor appointments, mine this time, not Evan's. With all the brouhaha surrounding our son the last few months, my "issues" have been left on the sidelines. For several months, my ears & jaw have been hurting. After a visit to a specialist Monday, I was diagnosed with advanced TMJ & arthritis of the jaw. He told me the news very gently, like I was going to be upset. My response was basically, "Whatevah!" I just don't have it in me right now to get upset by stuff that all I can do about it is pray anyway.

Evan continues to adjust to being a working man. He does tire easily so we have to be careful with him. He had a blast this weekend with his friends, one of whom has a Wii game console. Evan apparently took to it like a duck to water, much to the joy of his friends! He, of course, now wants one!

We've had quite strange wrangling's with our county probate clerk who oversees our administration of Evan's assets as we are guardians & are accountable for how we spend Evan's money. It's been quite the process that has taken place over the last 4 months, trying to get things in a format she likes. All communication has been between our lawyer & the clerk, which probably wasn't the best thing in retrospect. He kept telling us we needed to change this & that, get canceled checks, don't get canceled checks, blah, blah, blah.

Finally, we got fed up and decided to go to the source (the probate clerk) for a detailed explanation of what we needed to do. Harold met with her Friday & we were astonished to find out that Missouri has few set laws or format for the accounting of funds in guardianship cases. A lot of things are just up to the judge who signs off yearly on how the assets were spent. We found out several things we were doing wrong that our lawyer either didn't make clear to us or didn't tell us about. We also found several things that were just up to the judge's discretion. Harold got to speak to her also. (It's one advantage of living in a small town that you go to the courthouse & you're probably going to run into whomever you need to see.)

Apparently my obsessive receipt keeping & notations of every penny spent threw the clerk & judge off. It was too much information for them. How that can be I do not know. I mean, we supposed to give an accounting right?? Instead of either writing a check or using Evan's debit card so there will be a record of what is spent, they just want us to write him a check a couple of times a month for cash. And, no, we don't have to account for how the cash is spent. On one hand this is easier. On the other hand, if we were evil people we could be buying lottery tickets or meth with that money for all they would know! *Sigh* At least it will be easier next time around. I hope.

Our Labor Day weekend has been fun & we've had some time to relax. Hopefully, yours was the same. Off I go for a snack & then early to bed. Have a good week!