My life as a poet

The Trip, November 26, 2005

Little man
Brown-skinned, smooth
Looking up at Papi

Eager to show your worth
Strength, usefulness
As Papi works

Muñeco, vamonos
Solamente los hombres
Tú y yo

Sitting in the front seat
Looking out over the slick street
Heading to the garbage dump

Hysterical link

Thanks to Ocotillo's Desert Garden I have just seen a hysterical link--ode to nursery rhymes, Bono, and celebrities. (Notice how George W. Bush is out of step with the hand motions!)

Fantasy for the day

To move the family to West Virginia and write children's books.

Almost heaven, West Virginia...

Micah Girl

Contentment, Thy Name Is Thanksgiving OR What Is Your Top 12 List?

The secret to a contented life is to give thanks in all things for all the mundane blessings that knit together the sinews of your life.

Here is a quick, off-the-top-of-my-head listing of my blessings.

#1 Hubby--the best friend I've ever had. Good-looking, supportive and so much fun. Smart, spiritual, affectionate. A great father. And so much more.
#2 My three children with wildly different personalities, vivid imaginations and tender hearts.
#3 Homeschooling--spending quality and quantity time with my kids and teaching them to follow their interests and discovering their particular talents and guiding them to follow Jesus with their lives.
#4 Ministry to postmoderns--Could it be any cooler than to work with college students and to engage them in an active faith that makes a difference in the world?
#5 My humble church--our small, urban, diverse congregation that is a mostly functional little family.
#6 My home on a street with immigrants from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
#7 My Jesus, the One who is realer to me today than when I first knew Him.
#8 My health
#9 My joy
#10 My parents who raised me to be confident and adventurous
#11 My crazy life journey that has brought me through many different vocations (student, actor, corporate worker, minister, wife, mother, homeschooler)
#12 The ability to read and think and interact with the world.

Tag, you're it. What's is your top 12 list?

Micah Girl

I'm not surprised to be a hobbit

What else would I be?


Hobbit


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

I figure if Deep Soil can do this silly quiz on her blog, so can I.

Micah Girl

Day to day

It is in the day to day of life, the petty squabbles, the endless cycle of housecleaning, the need to fill out paperwork, the unreturned email, the guilty feelings about not keeping all the balls in the air are when you feel like your three full time occupations that you do simultaneously are not done well enough. It is in this muddle of stuff that I feel overwhelmed by inadequacy.

Not most of the time, of course. Most of the time I am confident and cheerful and grateful for the privilege I have of being married to my love, homeschooling my kids, ministering to college students and living in a comfortable home. But times like this, at the end of the semester, when people around me are unraveling with workload stress, when I am tired and feel the push of holiday celebrations rushing in on me, when my inadequacies are highlighted by those that I love who feel I am neglecting something that is important to them, then I grow discouraged and cannot sleep.

These are also the times that I chafe when I think of the way I hammer myself with the ideals of a Proverbs 31 woman, and yet think if I could only achieve that then all would be smooth.

What I really want is be clothed with strength and dignity; and able to laugh at the days to come. (Proverbs 31:25) Not to be sleepless and cranky and overtired.

Micah Girl

And now for something completely different...

A holiday week beginning...
A lighter work schedule...
A more intense family visiting schedule...
A rolling down the hill into the end of the semester and the beginning of the Christmas season.
Let me savor the chance to reconnect, to celebrate and to relish.

Incarnated God Man let me remember the season of your birth.

Choose your master, slave

Why are we obsessed with what we get out of church? Why do I hear complaints of "I'm not being fed, I need to find another church." Why do we not instead just be the church wherever God has called us and make it a place of community, and depth and richness. If our needs are not being met, then perhaps we are being asked instead to serve. Discipleship is a call to service after all.

If it is harder for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven, then how much harder is it for an American or a Western Christian to get in? Is this why our churches are overall so tepid and consumeristic? Is this why the gospel is a commodity to be marketed instead of a truth to be lived? Is this why persecuted churches in Asia, Africa and other developing areas are growing with no resources but the Spirit and sometimes not even the word of God in everyone's hands?

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16:10-15

How do we avoid being Pharisees and instead become true disciples? We are already slaves but we are able to choose our master. Help us to choose wisely.

Micah Girl

Random thoughts on time

Clock
Originally uploaded by rstovall.

Life is short and sweet and hard. People die too young and mean people live on and on. But, by faith, I believe that God is good and merciful and ultimately in charge.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
2 Peter 3:8-10