6:00 Update

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I had hoped to be able to update the last post with my Readathon updates, but that’s apparently quite difficult on my phone. Already lost this update once. Won’t try that again.

I did start my Readathon at 4 PM by listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on my way to Walmart to pick up snacks. Once I got home, I started to listen to Coming Apart.

So far I have listened to 104 minutes, bringing my reading time to 1:44. Doing great so far!

I hope to read more with my eyes for the rest of the evening.

Ronnica and the Ridiculously Large Stack of Books

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It’s that time of year…time for the Readathon! I’m not sure how many I’ve done, but it’s been a few. I always enjoy the time spent reading and seeing what others are reading to.

So what am I reading this time around?

Embarrassing, no? I’m pretty sure that this is my largest stack yet, and that it’d take me until June to read. Besides, I didn’t even include a few audio books and a few that I had planned to finish by now, but I didn’t. If I make it through 1/4 of this list, my eyeballs will fall out, I’m sure. Still, it’s fun to have variety and not know what you’re going to pick up next.

Who am I kidding, I always know what I’m going to pick up next. But I don’t know what I’m picking up after that.

I plan on starting my Readathon at 4 PM today, when I get off. Why not, right? My goal is to read for at least 24 hours between 4 PM Friday and bedtime Monday. I’m pretty sure that I’ll make it…gotta love a 3-day weekend. I’m not working tomorrow!

I’ll keep this to a post a day and will try to update every 2 hours as I have in the past. I’m also heading the cheerleading for this year’s event, so I’ll have some administrative stuff to do in the back end, but I hope it goes smoothly!

Which book should I pick up next?

For Illegal Immigration? (re-post)

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On my near-hour commutes to and from the office, I like to listen to talk radio. I don’t feel compelled to agree with the talk show hosts (usually locals Brad and Britt in the morning and Sean Hannity in the evenings), but enjoy hearing opinions that may or may not mesh with my own. The latest hot topic has been immigration. This is a topic that I struggle to come to an actual opinion on, because there are two competing desires within me.

The problem I have with the majority of anti-immigration advocates is that there are often strong nationalist, xenophobic, and ethnocentric underpinnings to this stance. Yes, there are legitimate concerns with national security and law enforcement that come in to play, but all too often I hear people complaining about the increasing cultural diversity as if America has always been static and English is the only language that should be spoken in a civilized country.

As a Christian, I worship a God that is calling all peoples to Himself. America is not the new Israel, a nation chosen by God in some special way. Yes, God has blessed America, and I am incredibly thankful to have been born here. However, my citizenship is ultimately in heaven and that is where my true allegiance lies. This influences how I view American foreign policy.

I’m excited to live in a place where the nations are coming to us. The American church has the blessing of being able to reach out to individuals who come from places where they would never have heard the Gospel. I never want to be a part of a local church that does not welcome “outsiders” whether openly or by simply by ignoring them.

I generally agree with the ideas I’ve heard about the latest immigration bill, but I’m not willing to support it outright without knowing the details. While I don’t like the fact that there is a huge number of immigrants who have entered our country by breaking the laws, I’m not going to push them out. They are no more or less important than anyone else.

The issue of immigration is where my love of rule-following and my love of all people come at odds with each other, but I’m okay with that. I know which one will come out on top.

Originally posted 5/18/2007

This Will Make You Smarter edited by John Brockman (book review)

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I was first interested in This Will Make You Smarter because, well, I want to be smarter. I’ve always found learning about learning to be interesting.

In this book, over a 100 scientist and other intellectuals answer the question, “What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit?” The answers vary wildly and by-and-large are interesting and helpful.

I found it interesting that most people picked an idea outside of their expertise. That makes sense though: these are ideas from other branches of science that they found useful to their own studies and lives.

As one might expect of a book that includes Richard Dawkins, the anti-God bias in the book can, at times, be quite strong. I still think that there are plenty of things that can be learned from a book like this.

Another nit-picky thing is that this book is that it’s obvious that it’s a gathering of a large number of different people’s writings. While John Brockman does a good job of organizing them so that similar concepts appear together, some of the same facts and anecdotes show up several different times. This comes off as a bit disjointed.

If you’re someone who dabbles in science as I do, I would recommend this book. It’s not difficult to understand: it’s written for “everybody,” after all.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of  This Will Make You Smarter in exchange for this review.

 

A Year Later: Reflections on a Crazy Week

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A year ago today, a tornado hit Raleigh. This tornado was not especially strong but it was decently wide and quite long-lived, traveling over 60 miles before it lifted. It left quite an ugly scar on Raleigh and killed 4 people. This tornado and the others that weekend were soon eclipsed by a much worse tornado outbreak only a couple of weeks later.

This tornado passed less than a mile from where I was then living, taking out the major power lines to our area. The associated storm ripped a part most of the trees in my neighborhood and scattered debris everywhere. That evening as I was trying to make my way home for the first time in a week (before I knew that was futile), I drove through some of the worst hit areas. I later walked through my friend’s neighborhood where one street was obliterated while the streets around it were left intact. A couple weeks after the storm, I had the opportunity through my job to visit the mobile home park where several children died, in order to provide some housing counseling to families who lost their homes.

Growing up in Tornado Alley, I’ve always found tornadoes fascinating. One of my favorite memories is of my dad showing my brother and I the beginnings of a funnel cloud (while my mom was yelling at us to get back into the house). I even was a meteorology major for about 3 semesters.

Still, being so close personally to a tornado shook me, in a way no other storm ever has. I now have seen firsthand, if only in small ways, the devastation and lost. Having a greater appreciation of the power of the world God has created has helped me to see just how much larger God is…and how devastating our sin is.

While I would not want to go back to that week and half of being away from home and having pneumonia, I’m glad that I went through it. I have grown closer to my Rock because of it.

Where Does Our Hope Lie? (re-post)

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In spite of the gloomy weather, the impending crowning of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and the prospect of tomorrow’s New Testament test, I’m feeling upbeat. You know why? Because none of this caught God off guard. He’s not thinking, “Uh oh! What do I do now?” What allows me to be filled with joy in this world of shifting sand is the constancy of the Creator who is ever faithful and ever true to His words that He’s so generously recorded for us in the Bible. Instead of looking at the waves and the wind, I need to focus on the steady arm of our Heavenly Father and the marvelous work done by His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross.

What pessimism those who don’t have an all powerful, all good God must have! Where lies their hope? In themselves? I know I frequently let myself down. In humanity? One look at the many genocides and wars of the 20th century would cloud your outlook at any hope of an utopian society. In money? One tumultuous day on the stock market or one thief could take that all away. In a loved one? They may be here today, and gone tomorrow.

No, these things provide little realistic hope that tomorrow will be better than today, or that today will even be better than yesterday. Instead, let me join with Habakkuk and say,

“Though the earthly things I counted on do not come to pass,
Though my money and resources are taken away,
Though the people around me fail me,
And though the political future looks dim,
“Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord GOD is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And make me walk on my high places.”
-Habakkuk 3:18-19 NASU

Thank you for allowing me to candidly speak from my heart.

Originally posted 11/8/2006

Why I Can’t Live without the Church

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This post is inspired by Rachel Held Evans’ posts a couple of weeks ago about why she left the church and why she returned. I wouldn’t say that it is a response to those posts, though.

Perhaps you find the title a bit dramatic, but I use the term “live” in the title on purpose, and not as a hyperbole. I may be able to “live” in a physical sense without the church, but without it, I would not be able to thrive. And what is living without thriving?

Here are a few reasons why I can’t live without the church:

1. I am prideful. I think I can do everything on my own. Being a part of a church reminds me that in fact I can’t do everything and I shouldn’t try. I need others.

2. I am sinful. The church helps to remind me of my own sin and points me to Christ. On my own, I am much more likely to think I’m doing just fine.

3. I am an individual. I tend to think I stand alone, particularly as a single woman. But the church reminds me to reject American individualism and embrace that I am a part of something much bigger than myself, and my greatest identity is not in “me.”

4. I am a single woman living alone. I need a family where I can serve and rub up against (Proverbs 27:17). Living alone, it’s super easy to believe that everything is all about me.

5. I am gifted. God has giving me gifts not for me to hoard them and think I’m super awesome, but to use them to bless others.

6.I’m a 21st Century American. I have many of the blind spots, influences, and weaknesses of the culture around me. Through the church I interact with others of different ages and cultures. These interactions help reveal my own biases.

7. I need the Word. Yes, I can read, study, memorize, and hear the Bible on my own. I can listen to sermons online, on the radio, and on television. But doing these things alone allows me to perpetuate my own false ideas about the text, as I can read and listen to what I choose.

8. I need the Holy Spirit. Yes, I believe the Holy Spirit lives within me and can and does guide me. But He also lives within other believers and if I’m not interacting with them in a non-superficial way, then I’m not allowing the Holy Spirit full access to my life.

9. Others need me. Not because I’m special or so great, but because God designed His church so that we each have role, and if we aren’t there to fill it, it will go unfilled or become an extra burden on someone else.

I could go on, but I want to publish this post. What other things should I add?

A year ago today: With Prince Charming or Not

Stories of a Tech Support Girl

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I absolutely love my job. I mean, I come in to work and feel like I get to “play” all day. Solving problems, being the know-it-all…I just plain love doing this work.

But like in any job working with people, funny things happen. Here are a few that have happened in my first few weeks:

- About once a day, I have to answer an email explicitly addressed to “Sirs” (one time, it was “Gentlemen”). Similarly, after choosing the option for support and the caller gets me, I’ve had a couple men say, “Oh, I was wanting technical support.”I guess it goes against common perception, but our tech support team is split evenly male and female. We all work hard at what we do and know a good bit about what we do (we’re always learning, as we’re constantly encountering situations new to us). Being a man or a woman simply has no bearing on whether or not we’re good at our jobs

- Actual conversation (with obvious details changed):

Me: Thank you for calling MyCompany, how can I help you?

Caller: Actually, I was calling for CompetingCompany.

Me: I’m sorry, but we are not affiliated with CompetingCompany.

Caller: Okay. But I just had a question. I want to use CompetingCompany to blah-da-de-blah-da-de. How do I do that?

Me: I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with the CompetingCompany product.

Caller: Well, if it was MyCompany, how would I do it?

Sneaky lady. I answered her question as if it was MyCompany, which probably helped her figure out how to do it with the competitor’s product. Oh well, hopefully she remembers that we have customer service via phone, and they don’t!

- Emails that contain sentences repeated for emphasis make me laugh. As do those which use caps (intentionally) and/or lots of exclamation points. I promise, you don’t get any faster or better service for these extra steps.

- Direct quote from a client’s email: “I think I’m in love with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

That’s one place that I’ll gladly approve of a string of exclamation points. Well, sorta. Just glad that he lives across the pond. You know, just in case.

A year ago this week I was watching my friends’ 5 kids for the week (and though I just had allergies)

Sober Good Friday (re-post)

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In an effort to provide you good content, I’m going to occasionally (no more than once a week) re-post old blog posts. Some of you may remember some of these posts, but I hope they will be a blessing to you.

Today is Good Friday, a holiday I never really thought about growing up. We never got it off from school or had any special activity at church, so it was never more than a passing thought. I just thought that is was a part of the Catholic calendar that I need not pay attention to, kind of like Ash Wednesday. Easter, however, was a rather big to-do with Easter baskets, chocolate bunnies, Easter dresses, and Easter eggs.

I’ve since come to realize the importance of Good Friday. Without Christ’s death, there is no resurrection. Yes, Christ’s resurrection is something worth celebrating (without which we have no hope – 1 Corinthians 15), but in a rather more somber way Good Friday deserves celebrating, too.

On this day we remember the work that Christ did on our behalf. Because you and I have sinned against an infinite, holy God, we are worthy of eternal punishment. That’s the just reward for our actions. No amount of good works can counteract the wretchedness that we are.

Yet God did not leave us there. Instead of requiring of us what we cannot do, He did it for us. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live a sinless life and to die. Since He did not sin, His death wasn’t deserved or necessary. He chose to die that we might live (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Our Savior died not because of His sins (since He didn’t have any), but because of ours. Good Friday is somber not because He died (after all, He comes back to life!), but it’s because of our sins that He suffered so.

Understanding Good Friday gives proper perspective to Resurrection Sunday, Easter. It allows us to remember why it is a holiday!

While God did the work of salvation on our behalf, He forces it on no one. He offers it up as a gift, one that you and I can choose to take. This changes everything for the one who accepts this gift. As a Reliant K song says, “The beauty of grace is that it makes life unfair.” Instead of being rightfully cursed, we are unjustifiably blessed!

If you are a Christian, I challenge you to spend some time thinking on the Cross today, maybe reading Isaiah 53 or one of the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion (such as Matthew 27:11-61). If you aren’t a Christian, but are curious about what Good Friday is all about, I would suggest that you check those passages out as well.

If you have any questions about what I’ve said or would like to discuss this, please leave a comment or email me. I know that I might not have been as clear as I would have liked.

Originally posted 3/21/2008

Two years ago this week I planted my first garden