Fair Wages for Katrina-area workers

Click here to send a message to Washington that local workers rebuilding after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina need to be paid fair wages.

Here is text from the Soujourners site:

Restore Fair Wages for Gulf Coast Workers!

On Sept. 8, President Bush issued an executive order suspending the application of the Davis-Bacon Act in the hurricane ravaged areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The law requires federal contractors to pay workers the average or "prevailing" regional wage for public construction projects. The act's suspension allows contractors to pay as little as $5.15 an hour - the current federal minimum wage - for these projects.


Workers who lost everything in the rising waters cannot be expected to support their families on $5.15 an hour. As these women and men begin to rebuild their lives and their communities, they desperately need a just wage from their government, not a pay cut.


It's time to take action. Send an e-mail urging your member of Congress to co-sponsor legislation to reinstate the Davis-Bacon Act.

Fasting & Marathon Running

Living life is like a marathon of perseverance and long-term commitment. The last few weeks I have been running in all the right places and haven't fallen and been unable to continue, but I have been running on empty. I have been fasting spiritually because I am so busy doing everything else and my heart is hungry for God.

Lead me back to You, Lord, that I can feast at your table and not run this race alone.

Micah Girl

Marriage, passion and idolatry

Since I work with college students and it is my desire to lead them into passionate relationship with the Lord of the Universe, I think about devotion to Jesus often. I teach about it, sing about it, design worship experiences to engage them in it, and focus my ministry around it. And yet, when I look at my own heart, I wonder about Christ's priority in my own life.

Jesus is so real to me that I always feel He is right at my side. That is the privilege of having gone through suffering, that is the reward for having spent time in the depths. And yet in spite of His nearness, when I sing about Him being my single-minded passion, when I think about the joy of living solely for Him, I wonder do I really do that?

I also wonder if my marriage becomes a kind of idolatry if my husband has first place in my heart. Now I know that I should love and respect my husband, to seek to serve him in love and to commit myself to him for the rest of my life. What I have trouble with is figuring out how not to fall somehow into idolatry when Jesus is the true lover of my soul, and my wonderful husband is just a shadow of the universal romance that God has with His people.

Certainly my husband is not perfect and our relationship has conflict and bumps in the road but we truly love one another and seek to serve God together, to raise our family with love and creativity, and to enjoy one another's company. So how could I fear this imperfect vessel taking the place of God in my life?

Is this a musing that only happens in my own private universe or has anyone else ever wondered about this?

Micah Girl

Blessed are the meek...for they shall inherit the earth

God, grant me the humility to be meek, that I might be completely dependent on you for all good things, and spend myself completely in your service knowing that all of my resources are from you and for your glory.

May I be worthy to inherit the earth by being empty of all but the desire for your glory.

Amen

Things I wonder about

Is it possible...

To become addicted to Flickr?

To love your husband too much?

To balance your life so that you die with no regrets?

To so grow in relationship with Christ that people see Him before they see you?

To create a sacred space wherever you go?

To live a life that is a benediction to those who are around you?

To re-enter the blogosphere after being gone for a month--which is surely a light year in virtual time?

Blessings on you as you muse...

Micah Girl