Wine, cheese, crackers, and Project Runway all while curled up in bed.
(Yes, I know I’m fulfilling a stereotype. But come on! This is awesome.)
13 Years of Letters
For the past thirteen years my mother has been writing me a letter on my birthday and putting them in a little collection. Tonight, she gave me those letters. I cried as I read them, they brought back many memories and are such an amazing testament to God’s great faithfulness and of a mother’s deep love for her son.
I am amazingly blessed. The past few days I’ve been blinded by the immediate, but spending time tonight reliving thirteen years of life has given me a broader perspective. God is so faithful. I can step into the future confidently, even if I’m not exactly sure what that future is.
“Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me!”
-Psalm 66:20
Thoughts racing. Ideas brimming. Expectation of the future deep in my heart.
The terrifying and exciting of the unknown is especially tangible tonight.
Will I ever get to sleep?
(This melatonin better work.)
Crumbs from the Communion Table: If Christians have a bad reputation, maybe it's because we need more empathy.
Last week, CNN.com ran an article asking if Christians are a “hated minority.” In the piece, some evangelical Christians suggest that they are being demonized for expressing their religious view that homosexuality is a sin, and that this is proof that Christian views are no longer…
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To put it more provocatively, the content of the faith that sits deep down in our hearts is verificable and knowable only by the way we speak, the way we act, and the way we generally treat other people. It’s talkaboutable. It’s funny. It’s open to investigation. Questionable. Deniable. Objectionable even. Like wars on terror, jobless rates, and the foibles of famous people, it’s something we get to hold up to the light of everyday conversation. If we don’t, we could hardly be more throughly brainwashed and intellectually dead, and religiously speaking, we could be no more thoroughly damned.David Dark, from The Sacredness of Questioning Everything
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It is our Christian culture to invite those to tell only the story of victory and spare the gruesome details of the scarring war. We can reside if we are made clean and presentable, those who are still writing their story must wait for absolute victory before they can share it with others.
Jennifer Knapp
via Rachel Held Evans’ Blog
(read the whole post here)
Brown Butter Waffles with No-Churn Blueberry Ice Cream
Really nice recipes. Every hour.
I am making this. Soon.
Probably in Seattle. With fresh blueberries from the Market. And real maple syrup. Yes.
(via ijwalker)
“Generally, persuasive speech tends to manifest bivalent logic: Right versus Wrong or True versus False.
That is, persuasive speech tends to seek a movement from one opinion (the wrong one) to another opinion (the right one). In many folk conceptions, this opinion shift is often called ‘conversion.’”“The trouble with a bivalent theology, despite its “stickiness,” is that it is a theology that lacks depth and nuance. Worse, depth and nuance are seen as symptoms of unfaith. Complexity is devilish. Witness a comment in these posts where nuanced conversation is deemed “academic” and, by implication, “wrong,” unfaithful, and, again by implication, devilish.
The point is, deep, considered, critical, and reflective theology is NOT sticky. Which poses some problems. Binary, bivalent theology will always mimetically outperform deep theological ideas. Deep theological ideas will be too difficult to communicate via the sound-bite and bumper sticker. “
Absolutely fascinating thoughts about the differentiation between folk/persuasive/popular theology and real theological thought.
From Richard Beck’s blog Experimental Theology: http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2007/07/sticky-theology-part-4-persuasion-and.html
Everyone says that turning 21 is the best.
However, Taylor Swift begs to differ.
I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, huh?
(in all honesty, I just really like cake)
Designer. Photographer. Manager. Event Coordinator. Music Enthusiast. Jesus Follower. I have a pretty sweet life.
