Two weeks of blogs smashed into one entry

Here are a bunch of things running through my mind. I don't have long to blog the next couple of weeks, so in no particular order:

#1- When I was in LA last week for my LAST WEEK EVER of graduate school, there was a big buzz on campus that a fellow Fuller alum, Rick Warren (you may know him as the Purpose Driven Life guy) was hosting John McCain and Barack Obama at his church, Saddleback, for a discussion of faith, politics and all things election-related. I wish I could've gone, but my flight was for that morning. There are videos of this up on the internet and I'd encourage ya'll to check it out. I've heard critiques from the Right Wing "how dare you let Obama speak about abortion at a church!" and the Left Wing, "McCain had the upper hand listening to Obama and planning his rebuttal before his turn!" But whatever. I think it's an interesting and cool thing that Rick Warren did to invite both candidates to So Cal for this discussion. Check it out.

#2- Did you know that Louie Giglio of Passion is planting a church in Atlanta?! His worship leaders are none other than Matt Redman (moving here from England) and Chris Tomlin (leaving his church in Austin) and Christy Nockles (whom I love.) It's been something stirring around in Louie for a long time, and though it means leaving North Point and his good friend Andy Stanley, they are fired up about it. I've been thinking about it all day, wondering what it will be like, and how it will diverge from both Passion and NP. It's sure to be a mega-church mega-fast, that's the one thing I know. I look forward to visiting and hearing the podcasts. We can't wait to see Louie when the Passion World Tour comes to Vancouver in October!

#3- I am taking the biggest exams of my academic career on Friday and Saturday for 9 hours. They span the breadth of Scripture and historic apostolic Christianity (from Biblical times, to the early church, the Reformation, modern thought, etc.), and all Theology therein. As I answer, I must also be congruent with the Polity of the Presbyterian Church... I am just a little bit intimidated. So pray for me to pass. It's amazing/humbling how much I DON'T know after all these years studying this stuff!

#4- The night my exams end we are flying to TX. It's a red-eye, not ideal, but we wanted to max out the leave Los gets for free for house-hunting (9 days). We're only going to be in Corpus for 48 hours, but in that time, hopefully we'll find our dream home and I'll get hired at a church. Go big or go home, right? So pray for that too. (and for some sleep) When we leave TX, we're flying east, to spend a couple days in FL (Jax) and a couple of days in SC (Charleston), to see some sweet friends both places; we're hoping for maximum connection time with each party involved. 5 states, all in a week's time!! Are you stressed out listening to the agenda?

#5- Meanwhile, back at the ranch: the first weekend we're gone our realtor is going to have an Open House here. Pray for someone to fall in love with our house and put an offer in for it!

#6- My September should hypothetically be relaxed. I mean, I have to write 31 pages and read a few books to finish up summer quarter. But that's it. Then I am done and done. So if I don't blog for a while, you know why...

Carpe diem. Or something like that.

Australia intro to sermon:)

Have you ever come back from a “vacation” and been exhausted? Have you ever thought you needed a vacation from your “vacation?” I use quotation marks with the word vacation because my husband has banned me from using that word to describe future trips we take. This week he said that a vacation would be relaxing and being rejuvenated from the stress of normal life. You see, trips I plan are nothing like that… they are more like adventures.

For some reason I think I need to cram as much as possible into our trips. Who knows if I’ll ever go back to a place? So I want to make the most of every opportunity. We just went to Australia for a couple weeks. I wanted to see a new part of the world, to hear the orchestra play at the Sydney Opera House, to smell the Eucalyptus as we hiked through the Blue Mountains, to taste interesting new foods and wine, and most of all to swim in God’s aquatic masterpiece, the Great Barrier Reef.

Everyone we met there from other parts of the world laughed when we told them our itinerary; they were taking months to accomplish what we jammed into 10 days. And wouldn’t you know, after adding too many things to my proverbial plate, my body finally called it quits. I got sick. And let me tell you, a 13 hour plane ride with a splitting headache and ears which refuse to adjust to the pressure, is miserable.

Now, if this were the first time this had happened to me, I might hope for your sympathy. But unfortunately, this has become a pattern in my life on vacations. My family jokes that I only get sick in exotic destinations. Apparently my brain is too dense to realize that my body is sending the message, “Stop! Stop. Adding too many things to the agenda is not healthy. It is dangerous, and it can destroy you.”

Perhaps you all are wiser than me, but I wonder if you also fall into the myth that ‘more is more’ in some way? I could preach a whole sermon on how both our culture and the church is frequently saturated with this lie that more is more or better. And those who rebel and ascribe to the minimalist, less is more, philosophy aren’t automatically off the hook either, because usually there is some pride and judgment in comparison to the other camp. We can make idols either way. There is a need to throw out that whole continuum; life is not about either end, indulging or abstaining, or achieving mythical ‘balance’ to have an equal ratio of each. Life is about being faithful to God and living in rhythm with him. And if we are entangled in idolatry, making anything else bigger than it deserves to be, we can’t devote ourselves whole-heartedly to God. We need to learn how to let things in our lives be in their proper places, so that we can make the most of our lives