25 Search Results for "summer"

• Bless the Hands that Prepare O Bless the Hands that Prepare Our Food!

  • From: agapejustice
  • Description:

    This blog was first posted on Sojourners God's Politics Blog. For more information please visit Justice at Smithfield-http://www.smithfieldjustice.com/

    During the BBQ Season of summer I attended the DC campaign kick-off for the Justice at Smithfield Campaign. "Smithfield Foods is the largest pork processor and producer in the world, the fourth largest turkey processor and fifth largest beef processor in the U.S." In the early 1990's Smithfield opened its Tar Heel, North Carolina plant, with 5,500 workers who slaughter and process 32,000 hogs per day. The Tar Heel plant is not unionized and overall only about 56% of Smithfield pork processing plant employees are unionized.

    Though raised in Brooklyn, NY, my family hails from North Carolina which makes this campaign of personal importance to me. At the campaign kick-off two young women testified about mistreatment at the Tar Heel plant. A 22 year-old woman spoke of developing such a serious case of carpal tunnel syndrome that she can no longer lift more than 15 pounds. The testimony of this woman had a profound effect on me because I saw myself in her face. At 22 years-old I was a recent college graduate excitedly planning my future. I did not have to worry about an injury that could leave me disabled for life. If my grandparents remained in North Carolina instead of migrating to Brooklyn, NY, I could have easily been one of the Smithfield workers. What separates me from the workers at Smithfield?

    Some of the tasks at the Tar Heel plant include cutting the skin off of frozen meat as it comes down the line, a task that is especially difficult when having to work at breakneck speeds. As stated in the Human Rights Watch report: Blood Sweat and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants:

    Many workers have painful reactions to conditions, but they do not act for fear of losing their jobs. In this report one employee is quoted as saying 'I am sick at work with a cold and breathing problems and my arms are always sore. But I am afraid to say anything about this because I am afraid they will fire me.'

    Workers have also spoken of sexual harassment and racism. How can working conditions like this exist in our modern society? What is the role of race, class and economics in the Smithfield worker struggle?

    As I reflect on the Justice at Smithfield campaign I am reminded of a common request made during the blessing of a meal--"may God bless the hands of those who have prepared our food." As we continue this season of BBQ's let us remember the workers of Smithfield when we bless our meals by asking God to bless their hands and their struggle.

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  • 1 year ago
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• Christian and Democrat: Can Yo Christian and Democrat: Can You Be Both?

  • From: agapejustice
  • Description:

      For many Christians the 2008 Presidential Election was the first time they voted for a Democrat. Recently I heard a NYC pastor discuss the belief he held that to be Christian meant you were Republican, but while attending The Sojourners Mobilization to End Poverty  in Washington, D.C. (a non-partisan gathering of 1,000+ Christians from around the country who came together because their faith inspired them to fight against poverty) he realized that a Christian did not have to be Republican and he resigned from the party. With a focus on abortion and marriage (two very important issues) many Christians are bound to the Republican Party and do not question this allegiance. This summer Christian author, inner-city minister and activist Shane Claiborne admonished Christians to “pledge allegiance to the Lamb” instead of either political party on his Jesus for President nationwide tour. As Christians I think we should align ourselves with politicians and policies that most reflect the message of Jesus Christ who proclaimed in Luke 4:18: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me, to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and to release the oppressed…”

    Worship at The Mobilization to End Poverty
    

      I am currently a fellow for Faithful Democrats  an online community of Christians who are members of the Democratic Party. I know some might find this sacrilegious but there have always been dedicated followers of Christ who we also Democrats. As an African-American Christian my community of faith has overwhelmingly been members of the Democratic Party because Republican policies do not speak to the needs of our community, yet African-Americans are also overwhelmingly pro-life. You may ask yourself how this paring can exist, well for me to be pro-life means I support life from the cradle to the grave. I work towards ending poverty because I know many poor women are pushed into abortions for economic reasons. I do not support the death penalty or war. I think it is interesting that Christians can advocate for children while they are in the womb but once children are born we do not advocate for them to have equal educational opportunities, or a life free from hunger, sickness and disease. Mother Theresa once said “I am so pro-life that if a woman does not want her child she can leave the child with me”; hence so many Children were given to her that she received the name “Mother Theresa”. She is an example of not just holding onto arbitrary pro-life or pro-family values but actually living them out in practical ways.

    Christians Lobbying in D.C.-Holding their elected officials accountable.

    

     I am critical of both major parties and personally want to see our country move past the two party system that dominates because more choices will ensure that we have a true democracy. At the end of the day if a candidate is dedicated to those who Jesus calls “the least of these”, than that person will get my vote whether they are a member of the: Democratic, Republican, Green or Independence Party. As Christians we cannot let our dedication to a political party, or even the American flag surpass our dedication to the Gospel of Christ. Our true citizenship is in the Kingdom which includes: Black, White, slave, free, male, female, rich, poor, American, Mexican, undocumented, citizen and anyone else who is born-again.  I think Lisa Sharon Harper author and co-founder of NY Faith & Justice put it best when she stated: "Evangelical Doesn't Equal Republican or Democrat”. 
    

    A Book to read:
    I would encourage all of you to read Matthew 25, review the platforms of the different political parties, and then prayerfully ask God who you should align yourself with, the answer may surprise you.

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  • 1 year ago
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• agapejustice

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• shopping for a cause shopping for a cause

  • From: jessarosey
  • Description:

    hey, so i've always been a big believer in organizations and mission work.
    and now that i have lots of money from my summer job i want to buy a t-shirt/goods from organizations.

     

    i love such organizations like Invisible Children, Light Gives Heat, Heart Support...other stuff

     

    does anyone have any other organizations that I could check out?

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  • 1 year ago
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• dvinedscontent

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  • Since: 1 year ago

• Pricey Caps and Unflattering G Pricey Caps and Unflattering Gowns

  • From: jamiebg
  • Description:

    Ahh... The smell of accomplishment. It's also the smell of paying your own bills and finding watermarked paper so your internships and workstudy jobs will seem more like...experience. I love this time of year because it takes me back to Spring, 1998. I was graduating from Emory University with a double major in Sociology and Women's Studies with a minor in African American Studies. (my conservative WASP-y Dad was so proud.) Here are some highlights of that weekend...
    
    1. My commencement speaker was the Dalai Lama. Yes, that Dalai Lama. The best part was his holiness' speech lasted 9 minutes. Since the Georgia heat was bearing down on a couple thousand overdressed but educated souls, he chose wisely.
    
    2. Often, when you graduate you get a fake folder with no diploma inside. But when you pay upwards of $35,000 a year in tuition, they're able to hire someone to coordinate it so you're handed your actual diploma. Unless you are Chris G., who was sitting next to me. He did the dance of going on stage, having his name called, hearing his family hoot and holler and then stopped for the memorial portrait. However, when he sat down, we simultaneously opened our folders. Mine had a shiny certificate that guaranteed me a difficult job search. His had a shiny letter that guaranteed him summer school since he had failed Chemistry.
    
    3. I proved that weekend I had not inherited the "pack rat" genes of my parents. We packed up Betsy, the Chevy Cavalier and their truck with the big uglies, like furniture. In the midst of this, I contracted some sort of walking penumonia/ebola virus. My parents took off a day before me which left me with clothes, kitchen items, books, and a death-wish illness. Betsy filled up much quicker than expected and my utensils, textbooks, and tchotckes ended up in the dumpster. I've never looked back.
    
    What do you remember about graduation from college, high school, or kindergarten? (kindergarten graduation is technically the dumbest event ever. Yeah, I said it.)

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  • 1 year ago
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• The Art of Busyness The Art of Busyness

  • From: lmwilliams2009
  • Description:

     

    I love to stay busy. Texting a friend the other day, I told her that my life, after my college graduation, has been boring, because I haven't been busy. I love being busy! Every minute of the day, I feel I need to be doing something constructive, or my idea of constructive. I have been trying to stay busy, I just finished my Americorps application. I have have a list of 25 books to read this summer and I've already finished 2 of these books. I am also studying for the GRE. I've even started working out again to fill my day.

    But, there are things that I could be doing that I haven't. Looking for another job, as both of my current jobs are looking gloomier and gloomier. I also need to write thank-you notes for my graduation. I had been really good at receiving something, and right away writing my heartfelt thanks for whatever I had received. I could be cleaning my room which needs re-organizing and maybe even some pitching of things I horde. 

    Maybe my idea of busy is making sure I'm doing the things I want to do. That doesn't sound right. That sounds more like selfishness. I'm selfish. Admitting it is the first step. But, I need to not just admit, but commit to the fact that I have priorities that I have decided are unimportant because I just don't want to do them. I think if I were to get these things accomplished, I wouldn't have this dreading feeling in the pit of my stomach that I should be doing something.

    That's it! That's the feeling. The feeling that I should be doing something because I'm supposed to be doing something. Since I have always put off something or another, I wonder what it feels like to truly have nothing to do? Have put this feeling upon myself? Have I made my life feel lacking just because I haven't put my sheep in the right pasture?

     If I can commit to getting these priorities done, I definetely feel accomplished rather than always waiting for that next thing to take my mind of important matters. 

    "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 (NASB)

     

     

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  • 1 year ago
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• Shame Shame

  • From: kristincharles
  • Description:

    Shame takes on many forms, doesn't it?
    
    That memory you just can't shake
    The silent addiction
    A vacant left ring finger
    Ugly words
    Stolen purity
    Debt piled high
    
    For me, shame was written all over my body.
    
    Ever since I can remember, I've ignored warnings about the sun. I grew up going to the beach every weekend that I could - to read, surf the waves, and soak up the warmth. I life guarded and taught swimming lessons outside for years on end. I tanned to get ready for prom, just like any other high school senior.
    
    And for me it was more than getting a tan. I hated who I was without one. I could barely stand to look in the mirror. In the winter, I was one of those tan out of a cream bottle kinda people. You know, the rusty orange type. And then there were bronzers. I used them too and they were nasty. My face was a summer tan, my neck was a winter white, with a distinct line marking off the seasons. Yuck.
    
    At 34, I'm paying for it all. Biopsies every 6 months, stage 2 melanoma, and umpteen moles lobbed off. I always go in for routine checkups and they find just one more problem spot. Next week I go in for another excision of a precancerous area on my arm. It's a "hotspot for Melanoma," as my dermatologist says. Lovely.
    
    Anyway, I used to get all worked up over all this. Worried that I'm harboring cancer somewhere in my skin, worried that I wouldn't see my children grow up, worried for my parents' sake, worried that I wouldn't get to grow old with my best friend.
    
    I can't lie and say these are never concerns anymore, but they certainly aren't keeping me awake at night. The more I know of God, the more I know that He is good, and the more I am learning to accept His goodness - in whatever form He chooses to reveal it.
    
    It's not ironic to me that I was reading Psalm 73 when my dermatologist called last week. Verse 26 reads, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
    
    "My flesh may fail, " and that it has. "But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
    
    While I was processing the latest results, a fleeting thought almost found residence in my soul. "Your skin tells a story of your shame." The words were ugly and heartless and cruel. Immediately my eyes welled with tears. Sure there's shame in that I hated myself and I was desperate for the approval of others and I didn't know my worth in God. Sure there's shame in the addiction to outward appearance and the blind acceptance of our culture's obsession.
    
    But that's not the story that's read here. No sooner did I hear words that cut and condemned, I heard another take on those scars. In a quiet voice, God said, "Your skin tells a story of your Savior."
    
    My scars may have spoken of shame, but not anymore. Now they tell a story of redemption. Of God creating a new life within me that no longer seeks its own. Of God restoring beauty to a girl who couldn't stand to see her reflection. Of God healing wounds that were far deeper than what the eye could see.
    
    Shame only serves to perpetrate and oppress and annihilate. But Jesus came that we may have life and live that life to the fullest expression.
    
    My scars now tell a story of Jesus. And His is a story worth telling again and again.

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  • 1 year ago
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• Wrapping it in Pretty Wrapping it in Pretty

  • From: jamiebg
  • Description:

    I generally avoid conflict. The people pleaser that resides full time in my lovely mother has a summer home inside of me. I have coined a term: "wrap it in pretty." The concept is simple - try to communicate things in such a manner that drama is almost impossible to occur. I have developed it into an art form, with much success. My co-worker calls this being "Southern." Of course, she means it as a negative, because we can find ourselves wrapping things in so much pretty that we can no longer discern the real message. We sacrifice the truth in order to keep feelers cozy and unharmed. The downside to avoiding conflict.
    
    To me, being "Southern" or just plain rude, is sharing the conflict with everyone but the person directly involved. We wrap it in "pray for me" or "I'm confused about..." when really we are just assembling our front line for when the real battle begins. It's all about having people on your side. And know that I'm as guilty as the next in using this military technique. However, God is pretty clear on this one: 'If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, JUST BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.' Matthew 18:15
    
    You can't argue with God who designed or Bill Withers who wrote or Will Smith who sampled - "Just the two of us, we can make it if we try..."
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Learn more about my laughable life at http:jamiebg.blogspot.com

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  • 1 year ago
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• Why the Frigid Weather Changed Why the Frigid Weather Changed My Thinking

  • From: betha
  • Description:

    Growing up in Florida, I always anticipate how cold the weather will be during our “winter” months. Between the unbearable humidity and the blinding summer sun, each year I hope that I can use at least some of my sweaters. I went to NYC a few years ago and also lived in Alabama for a year so I have quite the winter clothes collection. I never get to wear any of it during our Florida winters. It’s usually a couple layers, and as most Floridians dare- sandals.
    
    But this year, the phrase “careful what you wish for” became very true in my life.
    
    It was pretty hot during Christmas- I remember going to Miami with my family, swimming in the ocean and getting tanned.
    
    However- January came bringing it’s fierce, cold self.
    
    It was cold. No, frigid. No, Antarctica descended on this southern state. I wore everything I owned- including those pea coats collecting dust in my closets. I woke up one morning to it being 28 degrees outside. I didn’t want to get out of bed. Scratch that- I didn’t want to live if it meant having to face that weather.
    
    But isn’t that what I had been waiting for all summer and through Christmas?
    
    I wanted the cold. I wanted to wear my pretty coats and boots and hats and everything in between. I guess I’m more warm-blooded than I thought.
    
    There was one night, I wasn’t having a particularly good day, and I was coming home from an intense conversation with one of my friends when the cold weather just got the better of me. I literally almost started crying because I was so mad at it.
    
    If it was a person, I would have cursed it out and caused some major physical harm.
    
    Why was the one thing I had been anticipating for 6 months become my worst enemy?
    
    Because we can never be satisfied.
    
    And our satisfaction is only fleeting.
    
    Compare it to anything you have looked forward to. I recently worked myself for an entire year saving and begging my parents for that beloved white 16GB iPhone I now have. It was like a newborn in my hands. I cradled it for weeks. I put a protective covering around it so no harm would be inflicted. It was my baby and I was it’s mother. No one could touch it- only look.
    
    And yet this past Sunday at the children’s church I help run, I had one of the kids running around for about 20 minutes with my phone and I never even realized it. It didn’t dawn on me until I actually saw him waving it around.
    
    Again- satisfaction is fleeting. No matter how bad or how long you may want something, those desires will become common to you once you attain what you want.
    
    So what do you?
    
    Well my response is to keep optimism alive. Stay excited over the future and what the future can bring, but also live in the moment. Step back and enjoy your surroundings, because one day you will miss it.
    
    Think of kindergarten naptime and how badly you didn’t want to sleep for your teacher-but probably this moment you want nothing more than that bumpy mat and your blanket.
    
    Think of elementary school and recess. A whole hour to just run around and relieve frustration- tell me you are not thinking of starting an impromptu game of kickball in your head right now.
    
    High school was annoying wasn’t it? Forced to go to classes and be around people “you could care less for”? But for most of us, we could be more free-spirited with our money and time back then. 
    
    If you played sports, practices were never anything you would look forward too. They were pretty much dreadful. But if you could run one more suicide or spend 5 more minutes in the batting cages today, wouldn’t you take that opportunity?
    
    College is something you start with high anticipation only to scream “Hallelujah!” a few months before graduation. I’m almost done and I have a countdown with my days numbered. But I’m trying to remind myself- no matter how stressed I am, in 5 years I will miss this season of my life. Just like the summers I take for granted and hope for cold winters- when that coldness I hope for doesn’t meet my expectations I long for the past heat of summer.
    
    Look forward to the future, but live the moment. You won’t have another season like the one you are living in.

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  • 1 year ago
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• lavieenvogue

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• Be like this child Be like this child

  • From: tara lamont
  • Description:

    Every now and again, I experience a phenomenon of words chasing me. In this case, its a scripture from the book of Matthew in the Bible. Here below is the text that I find myself being drawn to again and again.
    

    Matthew 18
    The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven
    1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
    
    2He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
    
    5"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.

    
    
    Why on earth would Jesus ask his followers to become like little children? I remember reading in the book "Speaking of Faith" by writer, Krista Tippet and her comment on this scripture.
    
    
    She said something like, 'I laugh every time I think of Jesus telling us to be humble like little children. I'm a parent and humble isn't what come to mind first when I think of how children behave.'
    
    Children are present, they live in the moment, and aren't afraid to try new things. Children are honest, they are trusting and wide eyed at the world around them.
    
    My great nephew came over to my house this last weekend and had a great visit. He played with action figures with my son, played tag with my daughter and by the end of the afternoon was content to wander into my kitchen and say, "Can I have a ba ba?"
    
    My great nephew is three and in that stage of transition from diapers to big boy pants, but every now and then he loves to have one ba ba to relax with in the afternoon.
    
    I smiled at him and said, "I'm sorry little guy, but I don't have any ba ba's at my house anymore."
    
    He was shocked. "No ba ba's?", he replied with hie eyes wide. "No, sorry. There are no ba ba' here."
    
    The next day I found out that when Eli went to his Grandma's house, he was still wide eyed to the fact we had not bottles at our home. He told her, "Granma, there are no ba ba's at Cunkle Iron's house!" (Cunkle Iron is Eli for Uncle Ian) I find it interesting that what Eli found so amazing, I never would have even noticed. Children notice things that as adults, we often miss or would never consider.
    
    I learned something else from my great nephew that afternoon. While he was shocked that there were no bottles of milk at my house, he wasn't angry at me. He didn't take out a disappointment on me or anyone else. He learned the fact, it surprised him, and then he went back to happily playing with action figures in the living room. He moved on with his day without any effort or regret.
    
    Jesus is brilliant in his teaching us to become like a child. While children are unpredictable, excitable, and all the adjectives that can be used to describe them; they are tiny reflections of ourselves. Except their actions and living is much more in the moment. Children are very good at living a fluid and aware existence. Children are great teachers to those who have forgotten how to live in the current moment.
    
    Life may have disappointments, like Eli and no ba ba's when visiting your Uncle's house. We can choose to sulk or we can choose to roll with what life hands us and move on. My nephew is great at moving on to the next adventure with his eyes wide open and filled with wonder. That is a lesson that I can learn from him, a humble child. He is the best teacher.
    
    
    Eli the summer of 2007 - I call this photo "Welcome Wagon" For the record, he does have a diaper on. :)

    
    Questions to ponder:
    
    How can living more in the present help me in living?
    What are some aspects of living more like a child that you'd like or dislike?
    Think of yourself as a child. Are there any ways of working out problems that your childlike self could solve?
    Is it easier to live like a child or an adult?
    Jesus is quick to place himself in the same place as a child, a place of humility and powerlessness. Can I do this as easily?

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  • 1 year ago
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• Roommate woes Roommate woes

  • From: DustandPearls
  • Description:

    Boy oh boy, have I had some crazy roommates.

    There was my summer roommate in intern housing in Manhattan who would go out every weekend night (ok, some weekday nights too), get rip-roaring drunk and stagger home at an ungodly hour. The better weekends, I would wake up on Saturday morning to find her sprawled out on the floor of our room, soon to wake up to a throbbing hangover. On one of the worst weekends, I woke up around 3 am to discover she had brought home a reggae singer from some nightclub and was (noisily) getting down to business with him mere feet away from my bed.

    In college, I shared an apartment with 5 other girls, 2 of whom were atheists, the rest of whom (including me) were on leadership with our evangelical campus ministry. Our apartment life quickly devolved into a who's-more-pious contest. In that sneaky, silent way at which girls excel, we would wake up early to be seen studying the Bible at the kitchen table, see who could host the most small groups in our respective rooms, and proudly chastise the others for watching TV shows that were too risque.

    Post-college, my roommate issues have stubbornly stemmed from the same problem: the roommate whose boyfriend all but moves in, sometimes even spending the night a lot, sometimes just hanging around 24/7, but always making me feel like I have a third roommate who is sucking up all the resources and cleanliness without paying a nickel towards the rent.

    Of course, this is 100% my fault. I am always too hesitant to broach the issue with my roommate, worrying that she will first get mad at me, then tell her boyfriend that he has to curtail his visits, with the result that they will both be mad at me. Our friendship will be forever tainted.

    But that should be fine. I AM paying half of the rent, after all. I deserve to feel comfortable in my own apartment and not worry about running to the bathroom in my bra in the morning because I might run into HIM. Especially when both roommates are Christians; we should be able to bring up these kinds of moral issues in a nonjudgmental but firm manner.

    So why am I still here in this situation, with my current roommate's fiance slowly taking over our place with his enormous shoes and toilet-seat-leaving-up ways? Does anybody else have to deal with this??

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  • 1 year ago
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• DustandPearls

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• Sky and Earth: Cloud Shadows Sky and Earth: Cloud Shadows

  • From: Coming Hope
  • Description:

    Cloud shadows rumble across my face. Out of place fences reign in teeming green and jagged crests. Somehow, this violence preserved is a peaceful sanctuary. Angry earth crust can never really be tamed, just enough to inspire wonder and rest. Maybe this is because the mountains have faced so much over the years, yet remain stable and confident of their mark on the world.

    Cities and businesses are built around the mountains. Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado is one of 58 fourteeners – mountains that jut 14,000 feet above sea level. The chiseled granite rock anchors the eastern slope of the state, and even the streets of downtown Denver were constructed to provide the best view possible of the peak.

    Isabella Bird with the third lady to climb Longs Peak in 1873. She was an English lady who spend her life traveling in America and other countries and wrote extensively about her adventures in letters to her sister. She was one of the first travel journalists. After her ascent of Longs Peak, she penned these thoughts:

    “From the summit were seen in unrivaled combination all the views which had rejoiced our eyes during the ascent. It was something at last to stand upon the storm rent crown of this lonely sentinal of the Rocky Range, on one of the mightiest of the vertebrae of the backbone of the North American continent, and to see the waters start for both oceans. Uplifted above love and hate and storms of passion, calm amidst the eternal silences, fanned by zephyrs and bathed in living blue, peace rested for that one bright day on the Peak.”

    Explorers can never resist the call of a mountain. But mountaineering as a profession is more about sharing a common experience than lone conquering. History is chuck full of men and women on a conquest- even at the risk of seeing the highest mountain in the world as their last glimpse of life.
    What is it that calls the human heart to such risk? Creation screams the glory of God, but how we all respond to that scream is personal and deeply spiritual.

    After attending college away from the mountains, I found myself severely infected with mountain fever upon graduation. This summer I wandered everywhere I could, taking pictures and just filling up on the wilderness, a staple of my growing up years.

    It is funny how people are attracted to different types of wilderness. My father lived in Moab, Utah when he was very young. Even though he has lived in Colorado longer, he dreams about the red dirt, desert and arches. He remembers every street of the town and wants to retire there. How can one place have such a sway on him?

    For the Israelites, the wilderness was not a comfort. From their perspective, it was a place of broken promises and failed attempts to measure up to God's standards. But over and over, His love reached out to them and offered them redemption. The only problem was that they didn't take it.
    “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”
    Hebrews 4:2

    The Israelites even had an opportunity to meet Him on the mountain but were too afraid to face working out their secret sins. Yet, God met Moses there and offered a way to relationship. The 10 commandments can seem harsh and unforgiving, yet I see them as God saying to His children, “I crave relationship with you! Rely on me to guide you, to move you forward in life.”

    On top of Mount Siani, God reached out to heal a nation. Perhaps summits still represent God's desire to heal nations and even our deepest personal violences. Perhaps battle can turn into peaceful respite. Perhaps the wild way is far richer than the safe. You won't know until you strap on those hiking boots and move forward up the trail.

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  • 2 years ago
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• blondiekatie

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  • Since: 2 years ago

• Re: What books are you reading Re: What books are you reading?

  • From: Ashley Emert
  • Description:

    Katie: It's funny you mention A Wrinkle in Time. When I was in summer school last year (I went to Northern California with the English department and we had to take two weeks of school before heading out there), there was nothing to do because everyone was gone, but the library was open (hooray!) so I checked out that book and a few others I'd been meaning to re-read. I remember reading it in fourth grade and really disliking it for some reason. It was fun to re-read it, though—especially

  • 2 years ago
  • Views: 104
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• jen_insight

  • Views: 34
  • Since: 2 years ago

• Re: What books are you reading Re: What books are you reading?

  • From: Ashley Emert
  • Description:

    Garbo Speaks: The only thing I'm asking for as a gift for Christmas is an old typewriter. I've wanted one forever! Hopefully I'll get it. I feel like it'll inspire me to write more—I used to write short fiction and poetry a lot, so I think having a typewriter will bring that out more. I also want to start being pen pals with people and typewriters just seem to go hand-in-hand with that. 2 years ago

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• chelsilu

  • Views: 8
  • Since: 2 years ago