Hi Becky -- thanks for visiting my blog today and for your truly life-giving comment on my post about body image. It lifted my spirits to read it. I wrote you a short thanks in return. And now I came here and saw your SO CUTE haircut. I wish my hair could do that! I tried to make it do that -- or something close to it; I asked the hairstylist to make it like Meg Ryan's in You've Got Mail -- except there is one problem: I have thick curly hair that will NEVER look like Meg Ryan's in You've Got Mail. I had hair envy of her so bad, and I could do nothing about it! Now I have hair envy of you. Hmph. The madness never ends! :)
Anyway, thanks for visiting. I'm glad to have now made your acquaintance and look forward to continuing in it!
A few weeks ago I noticed an announcement in our church bulletin for the annual women's tea. We women were heartily encouraged to attend to enjoy some fellowship and a testimony from a woman who had adopted a child from oversees. Strangely, my response to this announcement was decidedly negative. In fact, inside my head it sounded somthing like "blech-no way do I want to go to that." I began to wonder why my ire was raised by this church sponsored tea party. After all, I have been to high tea before several times and enjoyed it very much. In fact, I was going to be having "tea" at a friend's house the following weekend. So why the distain for this particular tea? After some contemplation, I realized that I was feeling frustrated because many churches I've been to only offer this type of event for women. It's like they think when women get together with each other all we want to do (and should want to do) is talk about tea cups and knitting and our ...
I told God recently that I was bored with him. Pretty gutsy of me, eh? I couldn't believe my own audacity, and yet that was how I felt, and I figured I should at least be honest about my offensive feelings since God knows them anyhow. And I wondered, what would provoke me to tell the God of the universe that I was finding him uninteresting, ho hum, nothing to write home about? What brought me to this point? And did I really mean what I said? After discussing it with my ever-lovin' husband, I realized that what I meant when I told God I was bored with him was that I was actually bored with the ways of knowing him that I have experienced thus far. 25 years of life in the evangelical world has filled my brain with tons of repeated words and ceremony. I'm bored with praise choruses. I'm bored with organ music. I'm bored with guitars and mediocre worship leaders. I'm bored with sermons, and psalms and phrases like "Blessed be the name of the Lord," and ...
This Thursday we attended a lovely Maundy Thursday service at our church. As a part of the remembrance of the last supper, we participated in communion together. This time, however, instead of passing the elements around to the seated congregation as they usually do, we were invited to come forward and partake of the Lord's supper while standing in small groups at the front of the sanctuary. Jeff and I were used to this form of communion because our church in Illinois had practiced it regularly, and we had grown to love the personal, symbolic encounter of sitting together at table with 11 other members of the church family and being personally served the elements by an elder who actually knows your name. I find it so powerful to have someone look me in the face as I take the bread and say "Becky, this is the body of Christ, broken for you." After such a penetrating yet communal experience with the elements, something is lost for me when I receive communion from an usher w...
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Anyway, thanks for visiting. I'm glad to have now made your acquaintance and look forward to continuing in it!