No tengo mi voz

I'm almost done being sick, but today I have no voice at all. Well, I guess I have a few squeaks. I talked way too much this morning at church, so this afternoon I'm trying to avoid talking.

If I have to, I'll whisper, but I'm trying to use other forms of communication. Earlier today it entered my mind to speak in Spanish as another way to communicate. No wait, that uses my voice too. That's silly. Lesson learned.

But, then again a couple of hours later, it seemed to be the solution again.

abc's...123's

When I was a kid, adults were the people who always knew what they were doing and where they were going. They were confident and knew how to get around unfamiliar places.

Now that I'm an adult, I look around at fellow adults and realize that none of us are as confident as we seem to kids. Maybe that's why it takes someone to turn 40 before they really feel like an adult. In a way none of us knows exactly what we're doing.

Maybe that's why Jesus told us to come before God like children because that's what we are if we really think about it. That's what we are when we let the masks fall.

Iced tea...

I'm sick. Last night I slept for 12.5 hours. I'm still sick, so I should be sleeping right now...1:18 a.m.

But, I'm not. I'm feeling awake, restless, and unsettled. I did have iced tea for dinner, so my extremely caffine-sensitive body might be enjoying that. But, now that I'm up, I think God is keeping me up. Maybe for two reasons. One, I asked him to draw me closer and help me be more dedicated in pursuing him. So, we've been having a sort of date. But, there's another thing.

I can't stop thinking about Uganda. I think God called me into battle tonight. And, since you're reading this blog, I think he's calling you into battle as well. The people of that country urgently need our prayers...urgently - meaning as soon as you read this. They also need our voice. We have to believe that the bit of influence we have over our government through our representatives can make a difference. Click on this to find out what's been happening in Uganda. And, go here to find out the reason for the urgency and how you can help. As God's people we need to do some battle for our brothers and sisters. Read this:

Remember the command that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: 'The Lord your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.' Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers until the Lord gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise. - Joshua 1:13-15

Being Real

Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.

- The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis

Thoughts on the tip of the pyramid

I'm sitting here at Coffee Roasters working on the coffee table book from our trip.

Randomly I'm struck with how lavishly I've been blessed. I have hope in Christ and his blood over me that gives me reason to face each day with excitement and wonder. I have the luxury and wealth to be able to spend my day working on expressions of art and spirituality.

As I enjoy these things, people just like me endure war, fear of fate, oppression, fear of the next hour, aching stomachs, fear of their brother, fear of their god. They have no time or peace of mind for art.

I don't think I was given these things because I'm a Christian. God didn't give me these things because I worked hard for them. It's not even because I prayed for these things. It's confusing, but I'm reminded that he expects us to spread out our material and spiritual wealth. Because I am rich in many ways, I need to make others rich around me.

Some Bible for your day

Envy is one thing I struggle with. Often I compare myself to people who have amazing relationships with God and get envious. That seems better than envying someone's car or clothes, but it's not. It's just as tragic actually. Maybe more.

The verses that comes to my mind when I struggle with this is John 21:20-23. Jesus is giving Peter the famous Feed-my-sheep pep talk. He's singling Peter out, having quality alone time with him - all this great stuff - and Peter interrupts Jesus with an envious concern. (At least that's how I see it).

Peter sees the disciple whom Jesus loved and says, "What about him?" Jesus pretty much responds with, "What I do with him is none of your business....What you need to worry about is following me" (Leah paraphrase).

My first wedding

Last Saturday I got to photograph my first wedding. Beautiful day. Gorgeous couple. A good friend. And, a lot of fun.

Check out the wedding pictures here.

Well, this is different.

This is a picture of my widget that tells me the weather every morning. I think my widget was excited about the SNOW in Riverside because it drew pictures of little snow flakes all over the top. Usually my widget doesn't go to such great lengths.

Wow, snow. I've seen it one other time in Azusa, but that was more like rain with a couple snow flakes here and there. This morning at 8:00am there were little snow balls rushing out of the sky. I even felt them to make sure they weren't hail. No white rooftops this morning, but I can still say with confidence that it snowed.

I have no doubt that global warming is occurring. On our trip both countries we visited had extremely unusual weather. My parents in Wisconsin have a really cold winter with NO snow. And, here we are in California with Wisconsin's snow. I hope this causes everyone to be more responsible with how we are using the earth.

Oh yeah, we're home.

There are some people who read this blog who I don't see regularly. So, I just realized that those people have no idea if we got home safely or not. Well, we did. We're home and gradually getting back to normal life.

A couple months ago I decided to quit my teaching job so that I can focus more on writing. So, now I only work three days a week. My first project is to work on our coffee table book covering our most recent trip. I'm really really excited about it. Rob and I experienced and learned a lot. We have so much we want this book to say, but mostly we want it to be supernatural...way beyond us. We want God to speak to and inspire people through it.

All that to say: we're home and looking forward to the next step.