God left the ground to circle the world

remember the sabbath:
1. find a day in the week that you can do no work
2. do things that bring you joy
3. do things that honor God

Matt. 1:28-30 (msg)
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Longing only to know You

"Sometimes I feel as though I were born in a circus, come out of my mother's womb like a man from a cannon, pitched toward the ceiling of the tent, all the doctors and nurses clapping in delight from the grandstands, the band going great guns in trombones and drums. I unfold and find flight hundreds of feet above the center ring, the smell of popcorn in the air, the clowns gather below, amazed at my grace, and all the people chanting my name as my arms come out like wings and i move swan-like toward the apex, where I draw my arms in, collapse my torso to my legs, roll over in perfection, then slowly give in to gravity. My body falls back toward earth, the ground coming up quick, the center ring growing enormous beneath my falling weight.

And this is precisely when it occurs to me that there is no net. And I wonder, What is the use of a circus? and Why should a man bother to be shot out of a cannon? and Why is the crowd's applause so fleeting? and... Who is going to rescue me?"

Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller

shake it.

my darling courtney came to cinci this past weekend. she came with me to the church i'm visiting and we had coffee/tea at the speckled bird.

this week at work has been good. i think i was experiencing burnout or something- and lately i've been loving it again. today i asked a girl if she was a veteran (we were filling out a housing application) and she thought really hard and said, "no. but i am US citizen." :) i always wish i had someone with me to chuckle with.


i went and did jazzercise with a friend from work today. i think i grinned the whole way through. there was this tiny woman in the front row just wiggling and workin' it, and at the end of each "routine," she would go to the side, towel off and chug some water. it was too cute. the instructor would speak the song lyrics, and try and tie them in with the dance moves we were doing. such as, "are you drowning... in your own sweat?" although the class was fun, i probably won't make it a habit. but it's good to try things at least once, isn't it?

and here's a tip. the "hyde park" kroger is most often a mess of suv's in the parking lot and the aisles are packed with people. if you want to go at a time that you can get in and out, i highly recommend valentine's day night, about 8pm. heh. there's just about no one in there. it's probably a good time to meet people too, as the only other people there are in the same boat :)

the weekend is upon us once again. this week went quickly. hope everyone enjoys their fridays.

cheers, darlin'

first things first. may i give a grand kudos to puffs plus with vicks. this genius invention was a joy during my days and nights with the flu. well done, puffs, well done.

so that first day of being home sick may have been "strangely nice," but being doctor ordered to stay home and finding out when you do try to go out that there's a good chance you will faint in front of people is not so much nice. the past several days have been a blur of sleep and dizzy awake, but have been positively accented by a very loving roommate and a mom to the rescue. and i think now i am on the road to recovery... yea!

over a year ago i came across this job description on career builder :

Outreach
A recent local study indicates that at least one third of homeless individuals in Cincinnati suffer from mental illness. Individuals who are living on the streets or in shelters often do not know where to go for help. Our Outreach Worker encounters individuals living in parks, cars, abandoned buildings, and other places not meant for human habitation, as well as individuals staying at emergency shelters. We work with these individuals to help them build trusting relationships and to obtain needed housing and mental health services.

Tender Mercies works in partnership with Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (GCBHS) to operate the PATH program (Projects for Assistance in the Transition from Homelessness). This program expands the outreach services for individuals with mental illness, maintaining a presence in shelters, soup kitchens, parks, streets and other places homeless people frequent. Making initial contact and establishing a relationship with an Outreach Worker is often the first step in breaking the cycle of homelessness.

i applied, thinking the job sounded too good to be true. and low and behold, one year ago this week i began what has been the blessing of this job! my team is amazing (two of them just called me and told me to come back to work :), i have gotten to learn a lot about homelesseness in the US and social services first hand, and i have worked with some very precious people that make my days worthwhile. this job has made sense when very little else has. so there ya go, cheers to one year!

i feel like walkin' the world

i'm home sick today. i haven't been stay-at-home sick in about 3 years, so it's been strange. and i don't really know how to go about getting well. my remedies:

oatmeal, pineapple, green tea, books and movies. oh and sleeping a lot and drinking lots of water. it's been strangely nice.

so i wanna go somewhere(s). i'm ready to dust off my travelin' shoes and hit the road (or air). there are so many options! if only i had a friend with a private plane...

i'm no fighter, but i'm fightin'

oh, so many things i'm thinking about right now! last week someone told me i think too much, which at the time i agreed to, but the more i think (heheh, i just can't stop!) about it, the more i wonder if maybe some folks don't think enough? okay, that may sound weird. let me use a song from wicked to illustrate. fiyero, this facy cool guy who gets kicked out of school after school shows up at shiz. he asks what the students do for fun, and someone tells him they study. his response is:

The trouble with schools is
They always try to teach the wrong lessons
Believe me, I've been kicked out
Of enough of them to know
They want you to become less callow
Less shallow
But I say: why invite stress in?
Stop studying strife
And learn to live the unexamined life

Dancing through life
Skimming the surface
Gliding where turf is smooth
Life's more painless
For the brainless
Why think too hard
When it's so soothing
Dancing through life
No need to tough it
When you can slough it off as I do
Nothing matters
But knowing nothing matters
It's just life
So keep dancing through

Dancing through life
Swaying and sweeping
And always keeping cool
Life is fraught-less
When you're thoughtless
Those who don't try
Never look foolish
Dancing through life
Mindless and careless
Make sure you wear less
Trouble and rife
Woes are fleeting
Blows are glancing
When you're dancing
Through life

and that's not to say that we should always go around thinking too hard about everything and not enjoying what's going on around us. but i do think we should be more in the habit of examining ourselves and our surroundings. a couple days ago i read 1 Timothy, and this stood out to me:
"Be diligent in these matters, give yourself wholly to them. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Perservere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." 1Tim 4:15-16

i digress.

and on to my recent thoughts:)
i'm still reading Three Cups of Tea, and there's a part where he actually has the opportunity to go and pay his respects to Mother Teresa in Calcutta shortly after she died.

"Safely back in his basement, during the winter of 2000, Mortenson often refelected on those few rare moments with Mother Teresa. He marveled at how she lived her life without the long trips home, away from misery and suffering, so she could rest up and prepare to resume the fight. That winter, Mortenson felt bone-tired." 237

i find myself wondering that a lot, too. how so many people who have made such an impact never seemed to become exhausted and drained like i so often feel.

i also recently read,
"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galations 6:9

so then i'm thinking, okay, how does one not get tired of constantly being poured out? not to mention i don't feel very poured into right now... but that's another tangent altogether. :)

so this morning we discussed lent: the church's challenge for this season is to focus on justice, and, specifically isaiah 58. isn't it weird when people read things and it's eerily relevant? i love it.

Isaiah 58

True and False Fasting

1"Cry aloud; do not hold back;
^(A) lift up your voice like a trumpet;
^(B) declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2^(C) Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
3^(D) 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,^[a]
(E) and oppress all your workers.
4Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5^(F) Is such the fast that I choose,
^(G) a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the LORD?

6"Is not this the fast that I choose:
^(H) to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps^(I) of the yoke,
to let the oppressed^[b] go free,
and to break every yoke?
7Is it not^(J) to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
^(K) and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8^(L) Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
^(M) and your healing shall spring up speedily;
^(N) your righteousness shall go before you;
^(O) the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If you take away^(P) the yoke from your midst,
^(Q) the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10^(R) if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
^(S) then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be^(T) like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12^(U) And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.

13^(V) "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure^[c] on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the LORD honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking^(W) your own pleasure,^[d] or talking idly;^[e]
14then you shall take delight in the LORD,
^(X) and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;^[f]
(Y) I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
^(Z) for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

that's all for now.