Biking is good for your health....so are friends...and good things, like community.

This morning my best friend Alison and I woke up at 4:30 to ride our bikes to church so she could open the cafe. I've become a wierd morning person. And Ali's wierd in general. So it's been a fun morning. Anyway, she decided to start riding her bike to church for two reasons. They are as follows:
1. She's lacking in the vehicle department and rollerblading to church has proved dangerous in the past... lets just say someone who wasn't alison and might have been me might not have known how to operate the brakes on her own blades and may or may not have been inches from

death on rickertt.

2. The fresh air will do her good
Sitting in the cafe this morning, I realize more and more the beauty of community. Donald Miller speaks well on the method of personalized spirituality that is projected in so much Christian teaching today. He goes on to point out that Biblically, community and faith go hand in hand. When I try to grow in a vaccuum, (even that of a Christian community) I begin to lose the relational ability to connect with people in a relevent, empathetic way. I get caught up in my development and my thoughts and faith becomes something that is driven by a strange selfishness. I think its safe to say that a lack of shared faith can lead to a lot of spiritual pride. Have you ever been discouraged by a Christian leader who isn't able to admit struggle or weakness? It leaves others in the community with a feeling of shame and an inability to connect at a heart level. The community as a whole misses out. When we practice this self-involved faith, we reject the fullness God offers us in the community he has created us for, and take away from those whose stories are inseperable from our own: friends, co-workers, leaders, aquaintences, those we are leading, people we chat with on a plane... Why is it that I find myself experiencing guilt when I realize I'm lonely? Because too often and too casually Christian culture reminds us that we must only rely on God, never man. And while this is true in the sense that God is our first love and the only One who will never let us down, i think an evil misconception seeps in that to need others is to be weak, to be lacking in faith. I love that God has created us as relational beings, and love the community he has surrounded me with. Amidst hardship and change and confusion there have always been these beautiful people who I've gotten to share life with. I pray that God will continue to reveal to me how to love recklessly.
written by Alison's best friend-the great and ohh so humble Kelly Shea

Answered prayers

God answered my prayer through small bills on Friday night.

Innovators

So I work at one of the most influential churches in the country. I am the affectionate face that everyone sees when they walk in the front doors.

Yep, that's right...I make the coffee.

Which is a good job because I not only get to meet new people everyday, I also get to serve the staff of the church.

These people are the cutting edge leaders in America today. The innovators of the mega church world. These minds are brilliant and these people are the adrenaline pumping, risk takers of vocational ministry.

So you would think that this risk taking, and innovation would branch into their coffee drinking.
Not true. These staff members like what they like and they are not willing to change that.

As one staff member told me this morning, "We need something stable in our lives, something that's consistent and the same."

To all those who enjoy their cafe' o lays, skim lattes with two packets of splenda, their vanilla caramel chai frappes, and their safari sunset ice teas with honey I salute you, and will continue to make those drinks so that you may feel some consistency in life!

Questions

So as I was openening today I was thinking about my first semester of college. I have discovered that God totally blessed me with my first year. I had the best classes, with the best proffesors or all kind. I also met some of my closest friends my first semester. It was a blast.

I realized this because I think that one of the biggest problems at Bible college is the fact that everyone is afraid to ask questions. It happened to me second semester. I just stopped asking questions in class because I was afraid I would look stupid, or worse heretical.

That scares the crap out of me, literally. If I stop asking questions how in the world am I going to help people in ministry? If I stop being invested in and growing how in the world am I supposed to help people grow?

To all who are in college, highschool, jurnior high, Ask questions!

To all who are out of college...do the same.

To everyone in life...ask questions! Get curious about life. If we don't ask questions we start assuming and you know what happens then.

The world ends, because no one knows what really is going on, and we end up electing a communist/socialist marxist who thinks that the best thing for the American people is apple jacks with chocolat milk.

"Home is where the Heart Is"

So, I moved home last week. It was really hard. I had no desire to come home, but I know that God has placed me here for a couple of different reasons.

It was fascinating how in the beginning of the year I felt like I was leaving my family and last week I had that same feeling. I had developed such rich and incredible friendships this year. Friendships that really are soul filled. I didn't think that I would have such a sadness on moving home but then I realized that part of my heart is in Lincoln. Actually more like there are different parts of my heart around the midwest because I seemed to have given it away to those whom I loved at Lincoln.

My heart has been scattered around the midwest...some of it is in Mexico and some of it is in the foggy streets of London. As I look around I see my heart in different parts of this place too. I have invested and developed great relationships with certain people here in my 'home' town and it is like slipping my hand back into a fitted glove in the summer time. It feels good because it fits, but it tends to sweat and become uncomfortable after awhile because its the wrong season.

My "home" are the people that have captured my heart.

"American Beauty"

So, I have come home, and God moved right when I stepped into my old room, but that's for another time and place.

I have finished the book Captivating, and it was Amazing. Stasi and John Eldredge write it together and it is a book about what it means to be a women of God. Yea, that was my reaction to it too. I scoffed at it all year until I sat down and read it and my calling from God has cleared up a bit more. It's still extremley blurry but I feel like God is slowly making things known to me.

I see women like Joyce Meyer and Beth Moore who are women of great faith and great teaching, but their primary audience is to women. This role needs to be filled because women need leaders who they can learn from and who they can relate to. I am not one of those women.

My role, my calling, is to bring beauty back to the church, through communication and leadership. I'm not talking about the beauty the world seems to be fixated on, I'm talking about the beauty that is found in Christ alone. The beauty that was given to Eve on the day of her creation. The beauty that made God think that things were "very good."

It is a beauty of feirceness and gentleness. This beauty has been stripped from the church and needs to be nurterd back to health. Joyce Meyer and Beth Moore have started that nurturing with women of their generation, and with the family.

I want to start that nurturing with the leaders of the church. I want to see this beauty be brought to the stages of every church so that the men can be called back to the strength of who they are meant to be.

Sickness

I'm sick of Postmodernism.

Give me something solid, concrete, real.

crazy friday nights

me and my two closest friends at lcc, jess and scotty

me, scotty, mel, corbin
me, jess, mel

So I have had some interesting and adventurous friday nights, but this one tops the charts. A buntch of my friends and I decided to go to Buffolo Wild Wings for dinner. We ended up taking three cars but by mishap at the end of dinner there were six people crammed in one car. So off we went to first Wal-Mart and the Meyjer we were on a mission to find the game Balderdash which we did and while in these stores we also played the game follow the leader.

We then headed back to Lincoln to play the game that we had purchased, now you would think that is where the night ends. However, you would be mistaken. At around 11 the game ended and we decided that we wanted to get into mischief. So Scotty, Corbin, Nick, Christy, and I headed off to find an Adventure of some sorts. We ended up in Kenny in the basement of a school with one of the largest boilers I have ever seen. We then went to Clinton from there. One of our last stops was a one room school house, and this is where our tail takes a turn for the worse.

We only had one flashlight inside the school house and we heard this noise. It was a scratching noise of some sort coming from the basement. As we shifted our weight suddenly our good friend Scotty fell through the floor, and what he saw was something that he couln't really describe. He stood up after gaining his balance and saw a man, bending over and eating something. Scotty didn't know what it was, it could have been an animal or a small child. Well that will get you running in the first place, but the only problem was the mean dog that was gaurding the stairs. As we watched in horror I knew we had to do something. So three of my companions and I decided to distract the dog so Scotty could get away. We headed down the stairs and started taunting him. Which was good enough for him. He lunged at us with his foaming mouth and we ran. So did Scotty. As we all ran down the long road to the car all we could hear was the dog chasing after us and the pounding of our own hearts. We all got in and started driving away.

We all still wonder who that man was and what he was eating, but some things are left untold.

I love the Foo Fighters. There are many bands that have filled my time up in the last three months, but I can always come back to the Foos and they treat me with the utmost respect.

I think that redemption is one of the most beautiful images I have ever encountered.

Shower Time

Last semester, there were lines occasionally in the shower room. Everyone was on their own and if you were late to class then it usually was because someone was taking a long shower. Usually it didn't matter but this morning it was different.

You know you have become a communal floor when the girls know each others schedules and are asking each other if they want to take a shower first. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal but God has transformed this floor in such a short time.

I guess that happens after eight months living with each other. It was cool to listen to, this morning.

God is Good.

Book Plug

So I recently bought Brian MCLaren's new book the Secret Message of Jesus, which I am quite excited to read but I am not allowed to read it until I get home. My friend also bought it today and said that he fell alseep reading the first chapter, but I'm still holding out for it.

Instead I am going to read his book Generous Orthodoxy, which I have been avoiding kind of.

I'm just really really excited about my new purchase and I am excited to get challeged. Pick it up if you get a chance.

Children are like dogs, if you hit them enough there going to think they did something to deserve it.

Death strikes again

There are very few things that absolutley infuriate me and one of those things is death. My roommate used to work at Taylor University, in the cafeteria and five students have died and four of my roommates co-workers ended up in intensive care in the hospital because they got into a car wreck last night.

Well one of my roomies co-workers actually died this morning. I hate what death does to the human soul and how it tries to tear apart what God originally put together. Its hard because i love my roommate a lot and there has only been two other moments where i have really cried because of the hurt that another person is going through. I had my third experience like that tonight with my roommate.

Death sucks. I hate it.

Stupid Christianity

Yap, that's right...Have you ever run into one of these? Every church has one or more if they are lucky. Stupid Christians. I use this term fluently in saying that there are certain Christians who are sadly stupid. In a specific way...

These are the kind of people who know the message and hear God's voice and blantanly ignore Him. Christians who are making poor decisions, and who are justifying those poor decisions with the idea that Jesus loves them, and that people should love them just as they are.

News FLASH- Christ calls us to himself. Christ states that we are called to be mature in the faith, so that we can know what is right and so we can grow eating the solid food Christ gives us. We are called to know the difference between what is right and what is wrong, and we are also called to know that if we do not do the right thing, we are sinning.

I just find Christians who are consciously sinning to be stupid. The whole idea that we can continue to consciously sin and hear God clearly enough to follow his spirit is full of blatant stupidity.

Mockers grow up. You know the Truth, so start living it out.

WalMart

Isn't it intresting how our environment can shape our ideas.

I recently got an email to be a rep. for WalMart, and the first thought I had was No. The reason being is that they are not unized and they also treat their employees with disrespect. The reason I stick by the union thing is because my mom is part of a union and when they go on strike they are told not to go to WalMart because it would be misrepresenting what the union idea stands for.

I just thought it was something to quickly write about so I can enhance the idea later in life.

shocked

Naperville woman, friend tangle with wrong 'victim'
Sharp-eyed, 88-year-old widow foils purse snatching
By Bill Bird
\
STAFF WRITERST. CHARLES She was supposed to have been their "pigeon." She turned out to be more like an eagle-eyed raptor.
Despite suffering a fractured left knee and head bruises after being flung to the sidewalk, an 88-year-old woman managed to turn the tables on two purse snatchers, giving police a detailed description of her attackers and the license plate number of their getaway car.
That enabled police to arrest a man and a woman on felony charges of robbery and aggravated battery in the case, said Paul McCurtain, public information officer for the St. Charles Police Department.

Bond was set Tuesday at $50,000 for Alise L. Hockett, 20, of 7S428 Plainfield-Naperville Road in the unincorporated Green Acres neighborhood near Naperville's west side; and at $75,000 for Marcus A. Montgomery, 30, of 39W791 Dairy Herd Lane, St. Charles.
McCurtain said the trouble began at 10:22 a.m. Monday on the 300 block of Oak Street in St. Charles, just west of the city's downtown area. The victim, a widow from Geneva, had come to town for an appointment with a professional tax preparer, McCurtain said.
Hockett allegedly walked up to the woman and distracted her while Montgomery approached her unseen, McCurtain said. A scuffle ensued after Montgomery grabbed the victim's purse and she resisted him.

McCurtain said the woman was pushed to the ground with enough force that she fractured her left knee and sustained bruising to the left side of her head.
Hockett and Montgomery took the purse and fled in a vehicle as the victim lay on the sidewalk, McCurtain said. Despite her injuries, the woman "was able to provide police with a description of the offenders, as well as the license plate of (their) vehicle," he said.
An emergency radio broadcast concerning the crime was heard by Geneva police, who curbed the vehicle just after 11 a.m. near a strip mall, McCurtain said.

Montgomery and Hockett were taken to the St. Charles police station for questioning. The victim was released from Delnor-Community Hospital in Geneva after undergoing treatment there for her injuries.

McCurtain praised the woman for remaining calm and alert during her ordeal, calling her "a very, very sharp witness."

Hockett and Montgomery are charged with robbery of a person over the age of 60, aggravated battery of a senior citizen and aggravated battery on a public way, all felonies. They are scheduled to be arraigned April 13 in Kane County Circuit Court in Yorkville.

Alise Hockett is a good friend of mine from highschool who actually attended my highschool small group. I think that God is moving through this situation though.

The Beauty of Surrender

Take my heart and lay it down.
at the feet of you whose crowned
and take my life and letting go
I lift it up to you whose throwned.

And I will worshhip you Lord, only you Lord
And I will bow down, before you, only you Lord

Take my fret, take my fear, all I have im leaving here
Be all my hopes, be all my dreams
your my delight sweet my everthing

And I will worship you Lord only you Lord
And I will bow down, before you, Only you Lord

And its just you and me here now
Only you and me here now

And it's just you and me here now
Only you and me here now.....

words written.

I miss Kelso.

I remember at fusion last year when he kneeled down on shawn's shoes and pulled his pants up really high and mocked shawn. It was really funny. We played jenga and would think up funny things to say before we pulled out each block. I remember that Sunday he was going to each lunch with his grandparents and I remember the last look he gave me before he left.

I remember going on my first mission trip with him, and doing chicken wire the hard way.

I remember tag preaching my frist sermon with him.

I remember when he would teach me new games on wednesday nights and we played one that involved rock paper scissors.

I remember the time that he told me I could keep the video camera on, on the plane even though we were landing and all electronics needed to be turned off.

I remember getting excited about school with him.

I love the memories even the hard ones.

hard day

us so i don't blog about my days specifically but i decided to do it today. I strangly had a hard day. I cleaned some and sat down with Ezekiel today and talked with him and at the end of the conversation I was blown away by the experiences that he has with God and after the first real experience he lands in a camp and it says he stays there-overwhelmed.

That's something i can relate to. The feeling of being overwhelmed, and i feel like that was my main feeling today. I sat down and read some of my books for class about Biblical interperatation which was half interesting and half overwhelming. What does the Truth really look like and who's right in interperating it? Which i know isn't even the right question to ask.

Then I entered into some pretty challenging conversations. Some questions that I came up against were questions I had no answers to. At least not at the moment.

I just feel like i have a lot of information and I don't have anything to do with it. It's like I am constantly sitting and listening to sermons about what I should do and how i should live but there is not application at the end of the message. I guesse that is what I have to get too.

I guesse that is where faith comes in...a lot of different ideas.

Reaching out

So I have recently discovered Henri Nouwen's book Reaching Out on my bookshelf and decided to pick it up.

He blew my mind.

This is an amazing statement that is just in the introduction.

"During our life we become more aware not only of our crying lonliness but also of our real desire for a solitude of the heart; we come to the painful realization not only of our cruel hostilities but also our hope to recieve our fellow humans with unconditional hospitality; and underneath all of this we discover not onlyl the endless illusions which make us act as if we are masters of our fate but also the precarious gift of prayer hidden in the depth of our innermost self."

I actually read the first chapter as well and encourage everyone to pick this book up.