on remembering

On the (rare) days I drive to school, I have the friendly UK parking garage elevators to help me remember which floor I parked on:

Helpful, considering the dozens of small details I remember (or, try to) these days:  

My locker combination.  Not locking the keys in the Jeep.  Packing a spoon with my lunch on the days I bring yogurt.  That Contracts happens on Monday/Tuesday/Thursday this semester instead of Tuesday/Thursday/Friday.  These things are so much harder for me than they should be.  

But while not locking my keys in the car is good, there are other things.  More important things...

The book of Deuteronomy talks a lot about remembering.  Remember the Lord.  Remember what His laws are.  Remember why His laws matter.  Remember how He led you through the desert.  Do not forget...  

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.  Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees...  You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me."  But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today...  [from Deuteronomy 8:10-18]

Lately I just feel the need to remember.  Last year was a big year, a blessing year.  A mountaintop year.  And this year is great, in so many ways, but there are things I need to remember from the mountain.  Things that, while we were on the mountain, we said we would never forget...

I want to remember - and I mean vividly, deep-down-in-my-soul remember - the chaos of Mondays at the Brick House.  The frantic washing of dishes.  The blasting karaoke machine, the broken English, the shouting voices.  The way that ice cream to make milkshakes was like manna from heaven and would always show up, somehow, from somewhere.

I want to remember the power that is in total and complete transparency.  The transparency that comes at 6:30 on Friday mornings in a room full of best friends with bared souls, open bibles, and muffins.  That comes on warm Sunday afternoons with brothers and sisters on blankets under Rowan Oak trees with Newks chicken salad and Mama Jo's to-go plates.  That comes when love triumphs over judgment, and everyone knows it, and everyone acts on it.  Weekly.  Daily.  Always.

I want to remember the constant encouragement.  The answered prayers.  The excitement, the laughter, the pain, but the joy.  To remember - really, truly remember - that we were dead, but now we are alive.  That we had needs, and that He met them.  That someone died, on a cross, to save us.  And that absolutely must change everything.

It's not that I have forgotten these things.  I could never truly forget.  But that's just it.  You never start out thinking you're going to forget.  When you leave your car on the fourth floor of the parking garage, when you see the friendly UK elevator, you assume you'll remember.  But come 4:00, after a couple hours of property law, citation quizzes, and library time, that memory of where you left the car is a little bit fuzzy.

Another thing...  Remembering gets a bad rep because people equate it with living in the past.  That's not what I'm talking about.  God didn't tell the Israelites to actually go back to the desert.  He told them to remember the desert to strengthen them for the now, to keep them on track for the future.  That's why remembering matters.  Not so we can dwell on what was, but so we can take what was and use it to help us today and tomorrow, and the day after that.

So this is what I need to do, and I'm inviting you to do it with me.  Let's take some time and think about where we've come from, where we've been.  How He was more than enough.  How He's always been more than enough, to everyone, always.  And we can draw from the strength of those memories for whatever challenges we're facing today.

Let the Word, let your memories, let this post be your friendly UK parking garage door.  Not because you've forgotten, but because we can always use the reminder.

He has been faithful.
He will be faithful again.
Remember.

Yesterday, I met Sam.

Every day I walk a mile to and from the law school.  Every day I pass apartments, bus stops, a hotel, and the UK hospital.  I stand on street corners with undergrads, pharmacy students, hospital janitors, patients, and surgeons.  And every day, we march together to the beat of Lexington's drum...

Beep-beep, beep-beep.  
Wait.  
Beep-beep, beep-beep.
Wait.
And then finally: South Limestone.
Walk sign is on to cross South Limestone.

Yesterday, towards the very start of my walk home, I found myself right behind a boy in a red hoodie.  We walked at an almost identical pace, so that it would have been impossible to try and pass him or for him to really distance himself from me.  We walked awkwardly in this rhythm for three-fourths of a mile, even stopping to cross at all of the same crosswalks.  And neither one of us ever said a word.  Until...

After about 15 minutes of walking and waiting, boy in the red hoodie turns down a side street.  "Good," I think.  "I can walk faster now."  But before boy in the red hoodie gets too far away, he turns over his shoulder, grins, and yells - "Nice walking with you!"  To which I stop, look after him, shake my head, and die out laughing.

I continue walking, taking my usual shortcut through the hotel parking lot, and thinking about the boy.  About how much nicer that walk would have been if we had talked to each other the entire way.  About how, when I first started school here, my least favorite thing was that no one on my daily walk would speak back to me when I said hello as I passed them.  About how, four months later, I had become just like them, exactly as I vowed I never would.

I make it through the parking lot to turn on Waller and realize boy in the red hoodie is back, now about fifteen paces ahead of me and walking up the steps to his typical campus-area house.  He sees me.  I yell to him, and he waits for me on his front porch.

Boy in the red hoodie is no longer boy in the red hoodie.  He is Sam, UK student who lives around the block.  And he knows a faster shortcut than I do, through a grassy area, behind the hotel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sam jolted some life back into me.  Sam reminded me that just because the Deep South's hospitality and friendliness I grew up with isn't exactly the common thing up here, that doesn't mean it isn't the right thing still.  Reminded me that, despite hundreds of pages of dense reading and impending final exams and a largely auto-pilot lifestyle, I do not live in a world of cardboard cutouts.  I march to the beat of Lexington's drum with immortals, with very real lives, and very real souls.  Even if the voice telling me when it's time to cross the street is automated, the people I cross the street with are not.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"To live is the rarest thing in the world.  Most people exist, that is all."
[Oscar Wilde]

Thanks, Sam.  I meant it when I said I hoped you have a great rest of the week.

quoted: the original george w

A little bit of post-election perspective, from the man who started this whole presidential thing anyway:

"We must never despair; our situation has been compromising before, and it has changed for the better; so I trust, it will again.  If difficulties arise, we must put forth new exertion and proportion our efforts to the exigencies of the times..."

[George Washington]

For the record, I am not thrilled about the results.  But I'm standing by my Rule #1 - just don't freak out. Roll with the punches, guys.  We (Republicans, Democrats, Independents, non-voters, I don't care who you are) have just been given an occasion.  Time to rise to it.  

Ready...set...GO.

#USA

:)

Just a little mid-week reminder...

Source: iwastesomuchtime.com via Katie on Pinterest

Except for maybe you should work now so you can play this weekend.  That's what I'm aiming for.  Canoeing trip before it gets too cold?  Absolutely, as long as I get my homework under control.  (Check out how much more responsible law school is making me!)  Legal Research and Writing, bring it on.

But still you should probably go ahead and play a little. :)

list the happiness

"Life belongs to the living." (Goethe).  

Also, the goal is not simply to survive each day but to live it to the fullest.  

Even further, I do not have to go to law school.  I get to go to law school.  

Just a couple of phrases I've been repeating to myself during the times when I start to get frustrated with my confusing Contracts homework, the tricky dial on my cheap combination lock, and my rescheduled late-afternoon Civ Pro class.  If you're having a rough day, repeat those phrases.  (Substitute law school for wherever you find yourself.)  It works well.  Trust me.

Despite the intensity of school, there are a lot of small things making me happy today:

September weather
new Avett Brothers CD
Square Table Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins
the fact that tomorrow AND Thursday I finish class at 2:00
NFL Sunday football is back
Monday night UK Wesley Foundation time
1 Corinthians 1:8-9
making lists - like this, and not of the thousand things I have to read :)

Along the same lines of my last post, here are some muy interesante links for you to check out:

Saturday Down South article - SEC football feature about the economics involved in small schools like Idaho playing SEC teams like LSU, Ole Miss, Florida, and Bama in coming years

ISideWith.com - In case you haven't yet, it's time to inform yourself on the ever-looming presidential election.  This website has you take a quiz and matches you with the candidates who share your views. Very helpful in determining who you might want to vote for as well as making you think about a few of those tricky policy questions you've just been ignoring... (Ex: "What do I think about the citizenship of illegal immigrants?" or "Does the national debt really exist?")

Southern Living's 20 Best Apple Desserts - Oh yes.  I got this email around 3:00 today and it totally brightened the 1L seminar I was stuck in.  I love fall.  Apple desserts are in many ways the epitome of the season.  I can't wait to start making some!

I liked posting the Coldplay video so much last time, here's another one.  Mumford & Sons this time, "I Will Wait."  New album coming soon. :)

And also, can't go without saying - eleven years have passed.  Remembering heroes today.  #9/11.  #NeverForget.

If you're busy, stressed, whatever this week, try to focus on the little things.  List them out, and soak up the happiness.  And always remember - we are more blessed than we think we are.

be inspired

Here’s to the new possible.

So says one of the many Olympic-themed commercials that have aired on NBC throughout the past two weeks.  Of course I love the commercials during this time, because I love everything about this time.  Watching every sport, learning about every athlete, celebrating every time the US national anthem is played.  I really am obsessed, and it makes me stop and wonder at times…why?  Why do I love this so much?  This AT&T commercial holds part of the answer.

The Olympics represent more greatness, more perseverance, more determination and drive than anything I’ve ever seen.  These athletes are among the most dedicated people in the world, and it is seriously inspiring.  I mean, try explaining the amount of work that goes into winning 22 medals – 18 of them gold – to become the “greatest Olympian of all time.” 

via

I can barely even begin to fathom that.  I would say that it’s impossible.  But it’s not.  Because Michael Phelps just did it.  Of course, he is a one-of-a-kind example.  No one has done what he has done.  But no one has done what a lot of other athletes these Games have done either…

How about Gabby Douglas, being the first African American woman to win gymnastics all-around gold?  Or Kayla Harrison bringing home the first United States judo medal ever?  Misty and Kerri winning women’s volleyball gold for the third Games in a row?  Things that might not have seemed possible.  Turns out they are.

But the list goes on, and oftentimes, has little to do with winning an actual medal.  Think about Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, a double amputee running – and often keeping up with – the rest of the athletes.  He epitomizes possibility.  Or Mohamed Mohamed and Samsam Mohamed Farah of Somalia, both excited to simply compete and represent their beloved but ravaged nation.  They represent hope.  What about Sarah Attar, the first woman from Saudi Arabia ever allowed to compete in track and field?  She is a dream come true, and an example of change before your very eyes.  And Manteo Mitchell, the US runner who completed the last 200 meters of the relay prelim despite breaking his leg in the middle of the race.  He reminds all of us to never, ever, ever give up. 

You don’t have to chase gold medals or athletic perfection.  The inspiration these athletes provide translates into just about every area of life.  Like another Olympics commercial says (Nike, this time) – “find your greatness.”  And again, from Powerade - "Favorites don't shock the world.  You do."  Propaganda and nicely timed marketing?  Maybe.  But it's true.  Haven't you just witnessed it?  With dedication, determination, and drive, you can accomplish anything, overcome incredible obstacles.  These athletes just did, and so can you.  So take a lesson from the Olympics and chase your dreams, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whatever your dreams might be.

Here’s to the new possible. 

Be inspired.

go forth

Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister... [Mark 3:34]

“Isn’t it crazy how we’re all in God’s will but we’re going all over the place?”

Picnic talk at Rowan Oak, Sunday April 29.  It is crazy.  So crazy I’m still not really certain what to do about it, even though at last the time has just about come... 

This year has been better than I could ever express.  I’m not sure why the Lord chose to bless me, and bless my friends, with community and with life so much greater than we deserve, but for some reason He did, and so we have sought all year long to live a life worthy of what we have been given.  Over the course of the year that has looked like a lot of different things; in a nutshell, it has meant prayer, encouragement, service, milkshakes, camping, breakfast, disc golf time for the boys, coffee shop time for the girls, Sots, Muffin Club, and more.  It has meant spending intentional time with others, reaching out to them and seeking to show them what Christ has done for us and what Christ wants to do for them.  It has also meant spending intentional time with each other, encouraging each other, rebuking each other, laughing with each other, and loving each other as only brothers and sisters can.

And now, at long last, it seems the year is up and that it is time to go.  To go all of the places we have always talked about going.  To do all of the things the Lord has prepared for us to do.  When I say go, I mean go.  For a couple of us, go means stay – stay in Oxford, finish school, continue to hold down the fort and look after those we are leaving behind.  For the rest of us, go means go, quite literally.  To Georgia, Kentucky, Texas and Jackson, to South Africa, to the Middle East, and even to places yet to be revealed.  Some of us go to what seems like our dream job, and some of us go to Ninevah.  But however we feel or whatever we fear, we go.  We go in peace, and we go boldly, because it is the Lord’s will for our lives, and because it is why we were brought together in the first place.

The last few days together have been so sweet, and continue to be sweet.  This weekend we attempted camping one last time, only to be ousted by mosquitoes and chiggers in the middle of the night.  But with a grove of cypress trees, a full moon, and a beautiful sunset, how could we not be reminded that everything is all right?  How could we doubt that God has orchestrated all of this as part of his perfect plan?  Just like all we have seen this year so far.  Just like always.

It’s hard to process this stuff, to think about change and about saying goodbye, to deal with finals and packing and the weight that all of it is.  Or, at least, it’s hard when we focus on it.  But when we focus on Christ – when we fix our eyes on the eternal perspective, on running to win the prize – we realize that it is actually quite easy to go and to go boldly.  After all, we’re actually not going away for all that long.  Yes, it’s inconvenient to not be able to hang out at the Brick House all together every single day for the rest of our lives.  But one day soon we will be together again, for eternity, doing what we all love best – worshipping at the feet of Jesus, together, forever.  And that day is sooner than we think.

  

Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.” [1 Samuel 20:42]

Go forth.

by name

This week is trying its absolute hardest to get the best of me.

For whatever reason, this week is dragging on and on. I am tired and overwhelmed. I am confused about law school, I only understand a fourth of what we talk about in my English class, and I have barely seen my roommates at all. I have done very little work on my thesis because I have done way too much work in the Ceramics room. I am so very ready for the weekend. And while I know none of these are even close to real problems or burdens, this is how I feel.

Good thing it matters very little how I feel.

Last night in the midst of all of the thunderstorms, the clouds rolled back to reveal the stars shining very brightly. And as I stopped to look at them, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought that the stars are the same everywhere. (Ok, maybe not quite - in South Africa I could see the Southern Cross, which was awesome. And they definitely don't have that here. But still...) There are stars in Africa, stars in Amsterdam, stars in Sumpango, Guatemala. In Maine, in Kentucky, in New Jersey, and in Oxford. Thousands of them. Billions of them. And there is One who has placed them there and calls them each by name.

This morning I woke up at 6:30, despite feeling exhausted, to go get some breakfast with 2 of my best friends. We concluded that we're all overwhelmed, and all ready for the weekend, but we reminded each other that there is One who calls us by name who has this all under control.

So I am still exhausted and confused and ready for the weekend. But I am so thankful for the One. And I am thankful for stars and friends and a BBB Secret History omelet too - which, though less crucial to surviving an overwhelming week than the One, still manage to make everything better than it was before.

2 more days. Bring it on.

new places, new friends, new year

Seeing new places can change your life. Meeting new people can change your life. Combine the two, and I've had a definite whirlwind of a start to 2012. South Africa is absolutely, positively beautiful. I've tried for three days now to upload pictures of the mountains and the ocean and the penguins (yes, penguins - who knew?), but for some reason I can only get these two to work. Fitting, somehow. Because while the mountains and the ocean and the beauty definitely leave an impact, it's always the people that change you a little bit more...

Meet Timo and Nicol, the new friends I was blessed to spend the week with. I cannot imagine anyone being any more amazing to a total stranger than these two guys were to me.

This boy and I have pretty much the same taste in everything. Seriously, it's crazy.

I got back to Kentucky on Wednesday, but it already seems so long ago and so far away. And, to be honest, I'm not really sure what to do now, with only a few days of holiday left and so much to take care of. I know this for certain: I would go back in a heartbeat. I miss the summer weather, breathtaking views, the constant tea breaks, and my new friends trying to teach me Afrikaans and swapping awesome music. But I also know these things for certain: the world is actually a lot smaller than we think it is, God is actually a lot bigger than we think He is, and there is incredible purpose in every single interaction that we have. So much more purpose than we could ever predict or realize.

So while I'm currently still a little overwhelmed by it all, I am thankful beyond words for the experience of South Africa and the ways it shaped - and, probably, will continue to shape - my life and especially this new semester. 2012 is going to be a big year; I can't imagine a more incredible way to start it!