April 2007

Hey blogging community,

I’m trying to find a good book to read on the AIDS epidemic. I want to learn about issues in Africa- what are the trends, what is being done, what still needs to happen? If you have any book recommendations, send them my way! Thanks all!

no i am not trying to raise $2000 (but if you would like to raise $2000 for me i would not turn it down)

I lived with the most amazing girls when I went to UW-Madison. We worked hard to support each other in school because we were all fairly crazy- we all were really good students and were involved in a lot of stuff (which means, at UW-Madison, that you are insanely busy and stressed at all times). Throughout the year we would go to the library together, stay up into the night helping each other stay awake, quiz each other, make flashcards, go on starbucks or chipote runs for each other, and make each other laugh to take the edge off the stress… we did whatever it took to get all of us through college.

Finals, of course, were the worst. I can’t remember what semester this started, but we had a tradition of making a “finals thermometer” on our dry erase board. Every year I would find out how many finals each roommate had and add them all together. There would be around 30 finals and I would make a tic-mark for each final along the thermometer. When we came home from taking a final we would fill-in the thermometer a little more. The last person would get to draw the liquid exploding from the top and we would all celebrate finishing finals.

Unfortunately I don’t live with my roommates anymore so the tradition of the finals thermometer is over…

but only two more weeks until I finish my last assignment as an undergrad

and only 19 more days until I get that diploma

and if there was a finals thermometer in my apartment it would be only 5 tics from the top

i’m almost done

Are we going to let people starve so that our agriculture economy can grow? Sure sounds like it…

This is quite an interesting article (orginially from the NYTimes), worth reading and weighing in on. click here

How much is our economic prosperity worth in our country, that we are willing to let others starve? This is sickening to me…

Do you ever feel the urge to do a cartwheel? Some days I do- like today. It doesn’t even feel like spring outside (it’s below 40 degrees right now here in Chicago) but there is green grass and no snow and I feel like doing cartwheels. I’m not even good at cartwheels… they are never straight and I just look silly. Maybe if I were twelve I could get away with doing awful cartwheels but at 23 I just look ridiculous running around outside in the cold doing awful cartwheels. Too bad, I think I’m going to do some anyways!

It’s those simple things in life that make it worth while. Today I walked around downtown Chicago in a part of the loop where I had never been before. I just couldn’t get over how big the buildings are and how amazing the urban jungle of the inner-loop is. I’ve lived in Chicago for over a year now and it still astounds me!

I’m off to celebrate two birthdays- two of my middle school girls turned 12 on Friday and we decided we needed to celebrate! I’ll probably do some cartwheels on my walk over!

What is suffering? Before my small group did the stations of the cross (’holy week- monday’ post) I asked them when they had last suffered… or seen suffering. A few could name times they had suffered, several thought they had never suffered, and all of them could remember a time that they had seen suffering.It was interesting to me that this group of girls had grown up living so far and so protected from suffering that many didn’t even believe they had experienced it themselves. What unnatural lives we live here in America, trying to keep ourselves safe from suffering.

Then I reflected on my own life. When had I truly suffered? I could name a few times, but to be honest I haven’t suffered much. I’ve gone through some really hard times, but how bad does a situation have to be before you can call it suffering?

Maybe this week is hard for American christians because we are so used to protecting ourselves from suffering. Maybe it is difficult to come face-to-face with the suffering Christ because we don’t come face-to-face with suffering in our own lives that often. Or maybe we do… Maybe our suffering runs deep beneath the surface. Maybe we live in a peaceful nation where we have enough to eat and have opportunities to make our lives better, but maybe we suffer from stress, loneliness, and despair… Maybe our suffering runs so deep and that makes it even harder to carry. We can feed the hungry and we can care for the sick, but how do you cure loneliness and purposelessness?

If we step outside of suffering we can see that it is a profoundly beautiful thing. In suffering we all become equal. And we all suffer- it’s part of the human condition. Suffering is the great meeting ground upon which all of humanity has something in common… we all know suffering. And in suffering all of our differences disappear and we are reduced to our simple, bare humanity. In suffering, we can all relate to one another- one suffering human can touch another in a way that cannot be done through joy and celebration. Suffering is a great equalizer, because in suffering we have to fully embrace our humanity.

And I think that is what is so profound about Christ’s suffering… we can meet him there. In suffering Christ is fully human…. In his miracles, in his words, his parables, his acts we can get so caught up in his divinity. But in his suffering we see his true humanity. We can reach out and touch him in that humanity because we, too, understand suffering.

So this week I hope we can embrace our suffering and our full humanity. I hope we can embrace our brokenness, our pain, and our weakness. I hope we can embrace our humility and our powerlessness. We can strive for the divine, but when we let ourselves be fully human we can meet the suffering Christ there.

Even though it is now wednesday, i’m going to write about monday.

I haven’t really reflected much on holy week since I became a Christian. Growing up in the Catholic church this week was a huge week. I remember the palm processional on palm sunday (this was so awesome to me when i was a kid). I remember the Thursday night footwashing service and veneration of the cross. I remember the stations of the cross on Friday and the black shroud over the giant mosaic jesus that was behind the altar (it’s the one in the picture). My favorite service of the year was the easter vigil. It was on Saturday night- it was long, but the church was dark and we all got candles (I still love playing with candles). We would sit in the dark pews, and even though I fell asleep or almost fell asleep during most of the long easter vigil services, I loved listening to all the stories of the bible… we would start in Genesis and read a few passages all the way through the bible.

There was just so much symbolism in those services… so much meaning. I didn’t get it all then, and if I did I think I would have become a Christian much much earlier, but I still loved those masses.

Monday night I brought some of my old Catholic tradition to my middle-school-girls small group. I wanted them to really get what this week was all about (something that is very hard for me to even do). I got this idea to do the stations of the cross with the girls. I spent all afternoon researching the stations of the cross, writing descriptions for each station, painting each one (yes, I painted all fifteen…) and setting up the room with pillows, candles, sheets, and paintings. It took far more time then I usually spend planning for small group, but it was completely worth it.

All I can say is that God spoke that evening- to me and the girls. I saw them really get it, and those moments are my favorite in youth ministry. We all spent time with God, we all reflected on that holy yet so very horrible day that Christ carried his cross, and we prayed. I now have a shoebox stuffed with the prayers the girls wrote at each station. Such profound prayers from such young people… It’s amazing to see God work.

We need to bring the holy and the sacred back into our lives. We need to give ourselves time and the space to slow down to experience the holy. And sometimes we need to stop reading and learning about God and simply let ourselves experience Him…. those are the moments that change us in profound ways… those are the moments we will remember forever… those moments we touch the Holy…