I read a quote this week from a young adult trying to overcome self-injury (or, cutting, as it is often termed). The woman claimed that the blog she kept as a record of her attempted recoveries – one that, I should mention, also linked to many other blogs dedicated to overcoming self-harm – was her therapy.

At first I thought, oh, that’s nice. Blogs really are so useful for sorting out thoughts.

And then I thought, wait, will that work?

I’ve never been to therapy, although I’m pretty certain there were times in my life that I would have benefited from such a thing. (Read a sample chapter from Anne Jackson’s book Mad Church Disease here – she is a believer in therapy for Christians for the sake of a more objective outside perspective on certain situations, especially ministry issues.) But I couldn’t help thinking that even though blogging can be helpful for certain things, I’m not sure it should qualify as therapy.

The idea of therapy is that you entrust your problems and concerns to another person hopefully qualified to give you tools for overcoming said problems and concerns. Blogging, to me, is more about expressing your own ideas and opinions. Sure, we can help one another in a blog conversation, but it just isn’t the same. Is it? I mean, I have the power to delete your comments, you know that, right?

Maybe therapy should be your therapy. What do you think?

Dan and I are dreamers. We dream about music projects and writing projects. We dream about what our kids will grow to be and how lovely it will be to grow old together even when they leave us. Sometimes our dreams are original – ideas for songs or  books. Other times we see another person’s project and recognize a dream we didn’t even know existed in our own hearts.

That is what happened when we heard about CompassionArt. Dan has long admired Martin Smith of Delirious? and the CompassionArt project was instigated by Smith as a way of uniting art and social justice. Every writer, some of the biggest names in worship music, gave up all royalty rights to the songs on this recording and turned them over to a number of charitable organizations. This is the kind of thing we would LOVE to do with our lives.

We’ve been listening to the CD for about a week. We’d like to add a couple of the songs into our regular service rotation and the idea that the CCLI royalty money will benefit the poor is inspiring. This is one of the promo videos.

Just thought I’d tell you about another thing I’ve been enjoying lately.

Besides the terror of Finals Week, a humiliating Mathematics placement test, a sick child, etc., the final straw on Thursday evening was when our happy dog, Chuck, was accidentally hit by a car in front of our house. He died later that night.  I would like to consider this post an apology to anyone who has loved and lost a pet because I probably used to make fun of you. Now I’ve joined your ranks. I can’t believe how much I have cried over the last couple of days.

I’m not ready to blog eloquently about him or neatly list all the reasons why I know I’ll be back to myself soon. Instead, I’m going to take a break. Probably just a week or so, but I wanted you all to know. Don’t worry about me, my heart has been broken before, I know it mends well! It just seems like a good time to indulge in a mini-sabatical.

Did you read all the great Seven Word Wisdom comments for graduates below? Here’s a funny thing, so many of you wrote something about “dreams” or another form of destiny chasing. Do you actually do this or is that just something we say to other people? (This is the question I’m asking myself a lot lately.)

I recently earned a copy of Donald Miller’s short DVD “Let Story Guide You.” I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoyed this teaching session. First of all, I kind of heart Donald Miller, but, its OK because so does my husband. : ) Secondly, the ideas contained in his message about the power of story are life-changing. You can see a short clip if you click on the link.

I’ve been hearing bits and pieces of this material for awhile. In fact, I’ve kind of been nervous to listen to the entire message because I knew one of the catch phrases: “What if your life was a movie – would anyone want to watch it?” I had to be honest – I’m not sure!

Don (Can I call you that? I mean “Miller” alone sounds so high-school sports team-ish and “Donald Miller” sounds so formal. You really don’t strike me as a formal guy.) distills the elements of story into these required elements: 1) a likable but not perfect lead character, 2) a worthy goal or objective, 3) some conflict, and 4) an acceptable resolution. The sticking place for me is the “worthy goal or objective” and being brave enough to chase it.

The most powerful part of Miller’s message (high five!) is the fact that an acceptable resolution doesn’t have to be a fiary tale ending – everything doesn’t have to work out perfectly. The power of story is in its telling. For us, in its living out. Don uses the fact that narrative is the most common literary form in the Bible as his illustration, but each story doesn’t end with a 3-point sermon. Instead, we learn about living a life with God by reading the stories of others who have already lived their story.

So I wonder what you think. In the DVD Miller mentions a friend who started Blood:Water Mission. When Miller himself was first gaining the revelation of this idea of story, he spent several days alone seeking God for what his “worthy mission or goal” should be and decided on The Mentoring Project, an organization addressing the fatherless crisis in America.

These are awesome goals, but I wonder if there are other ways to live your story effectively. Ways that don’t require founding a non-profit organization? What other kinds of worthy goals or missions (don’t forget – the ones that require a good amount of conflict are the best from a storyteller’s perspective) do you think would qualify? If someone produced the movie of your life, what goal or accomplishment would you be pursuing?

It is Graduation Season around here. (Soon to be followed by Wedding Season – another favorite!)

I thought we could whip out a little SevenWord Wisdom awesomeness for the occassion!

Look at that Graduation Baby! Now, two years later, Claire (the one of the far right) gets a turn at Kindergarten Graduation! We’ve heard about nothing else since January, so I hope it lives up to all the hype. And don’t worry, there will be sappy posts celebrating her commencement, no doubt. Next week we’re also off to Uncle Drew’s graduation from nursing school. Then we’ll hop right into ceremonies and baccalaureate services here also. Whew!

So, I want to know. What is your Seven Word Wisdom for a graduate?

Will you be like the speaker at my high school graduation and say something practical: “Life’s hard. But trust God. Short, too.” (Seriously.)

Or maybe you are more of an optimist like me: “Dream big. Live to serve. Journey well.”

Share!

I read a lot. The great thing is that even when I’m reading sometimes-boring books such as Internal Relations: Perspectives and Controversies, sometimes God just lets something pop out to me and make perfect sense. Take, for example, this sentence from the end of my most recent chapter on global warming.

Wait, before I give you the quote, I should mention where my brain has been lately: Heaven. Eternity. I’ve been reminded that living for an after-life is often the only thing that keeps me going, maintains my faith. I really don’t know how an atheist makes it through the really tough stuff in life. I would be a terrible, terrible athiest. So, I’m thinking a lot about how important the reality of Heaven is to me and how that reality should change how I walk through this life.

Now I’m reading this chapter on global warming, which is a trendy topic and all but one that leaves me with more questions than answers (and that just gets annoying). I am not nearly as “green” as I would like to be and yet I’m not all that motivated to change. I mean, I DID start using squirt bottle hair spray in junior high to help with that flouro-carbon thing. Also, I really think a compost bin is something I might do someday. But, why isn’t anyone talking about how much energy is wasted when we all blow dry and flat iron our hair everyday? (Have I mentioned how many hair stylists with whom I have shared a “you know, I don’t want to die with a flat iron in my hands” conversation only to have them give me a haircut that ONLY works when styled with a flat iron?)  Are we only environmentally responsible as long as it doesn’t cost us too much, especially in terms of vanity?

So, get ready, because all of this came smashing together when Keith L. Shimko (the author of the global politics book) wrote this concerning global warming:

[. . . ] the most critical challenge might be to people’s ability to take an apparently distant and seemingly speculative future into account in shaping their present behavior.

True for the environment. True for our souls. Thanks, POS 270!

Today – Thursday, April 20th – is Poem in Your Pocket Day! We almost missed it! If you go to this Poets.org page you can download pocket-sized poems to print. Apparently cities and libraries all over the country are hosting special events, but the main idea is to keep a poem in your pocket and share it with people you meet all day long. Tell me your day would not be seriously better if the person in line in front of you at the grocery story pulled a poem out of his pocket and said, “Would like to hear some poetry?”

I have some favorite poetry, from the Bible and from other sources, but I will admit that my not-quite-literary favorite right now is in Macy’s bedtime book, This is the Sunflower by Lola M. Shaefer. It begins like this:

This is the sunflower

tall and bright

that stands in my garden

day and night.

Our favorite part is this:

these are the birds

full of song

that crack the seeds

black and brown

found in the blossom

yellow and round

that crowns the sunflower

tall and bright

that stands in my garden

day and night

The poem in this book rocks back and forth like the chair we sit in every night. By the time we get to the end, I’m ready for bed too. (I was also inspired to create a sunflower fort in our backyard garden this summer . . . more on that later!)

Share some poetry today if you get a chance!