I started reading Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (twin brothers of Joshua Harris from I Kissed Dating Goodbye) because I hoped to find some brilliant ideas for inspiring my students. Nothing makes me crazier than perfectly capable young people living beneath their God-given potential. Well, I found inspiration, but a lot of it applied to more than just my students. It applied to ME!

The message in Do Hard Things is based on Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to not “let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set the example for believers” in all matters of virtue and faith. The Harris brothers point out that the term teenager has only been in use for the last 50-70 years and, obviously, isn’t mentioned in the Bible at all. In other words, our cultural idea of being a teenager is a phenomenon that imposes ridiculously low expectations on otherwise capable young people. This book challenges teenagers to do hard things in five different categories:

1. Things that are outside your comfort zone.

2. Things that go beyond what is expected or required.

3. Things that are too big to accomplish alone.

4. Things that don’t earn an immediate payoff.

5. Things that change the cultural norm.

Even though I still FEEL like a teenager, I realize I’m not exactly the target demographic for this book. Still, I am challenged by this message of excellence. I would reccommend this book to the ‘tweens and teenagers in your life (and you could read it first).

Also, The Rebelution Blog put together a Modesty Survey that I found valuable. Christian girls anonymously asked questions about the way they dress and Christian guys answered. Sometimes it is helpful to see specifics when it comes to the modesty question. It is a topic I’ll probably take up later, but for now you might want to look at the work of some teenagers trying to do hard things!

It is the start of a new year and yet many of us are all too aware that the world in 2009 is already stuffed with war, insecurity, poverty, and unrest. I find comfort in this passage from Lamentations 3. This lament is actually part of a carefully crafted acrostic poem – beautiful literature, especially  if you can read Hebrew! Michael Card writes about laments in his book A Sacred Sorrow.

If you struggle with the concept of suffering as a part of the Christian life you should read this book. Card explains the idea in a lyrical voice that will leave you softer and more at peace with God. The lament is a lost art in Western Christianity but Eastern Christians have understood its power for centuries. The idea is that instead of pretending you are not suffering or “claiming victory” without exploring the root of your actual feelings, you take your lament directly to God. As you pour out your honest thoughts and complaints, a natural shift will happen. Almost every lament Psalm takes this course. The path to praise is often through lament.

There is so much to this concept and I could take you through the literary structure of a lament for a really cool example of how it works, but you have parties to attend and exercise equipment to pull out of the closet. We’ll talk about it later. For now, here is a little soul food for your New Year in the form of lament!

17 I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.

18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the LORD.”

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.

20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

The worst part of any vacation is the packing. The worst part of vacation packing is the packing you do when you are heading home. The bags never pack as neatly on the way home as they did on the way out the door. You have to sort through the dirty clothes, the could-be-worn-again clothes, and the clothes still in the suitcase untouched. The leaving suitcase smells like dryer sheets and the going-home suitcase has any number of unfamiliar smells about it.

I heard a preacher once talk about the way God wraps up seasons in our lives, how he literally gives us time to savor the ending of something before we move onto something new. His example was the graveclothes of Jesus left alone in the empty tomb as a reminder that the season of death was over. The linen cloths could have transfigured along with Jesus’ body, but they remained as a symbol of the transition.

That is what packed bags are for me today – a sign of our movement from vacation to routine. I’m thankful for it but wish, as I do with most transitions, that is was over. But there must be a reason. As Dan wanders around his childhood home gathering the loot his own children have accumulated over the holiday I know we are nearing our departure time. As I try to cram several new outfits in among the old ones, I am reminded of our blessings this holiday season. The packing gives us a chance to reflect and assess. We will load up our van tomorrow and embark on the 6 hour drive that always provides us valuable talk time.

Hope all your transitions over this coming week are smooth but revelatory. Enjoy the journey into a New Year!

My favorite part of Christmas is setting out the Nativity. My mother-in-law bought me all the pieces to our Fontanni set over the course of a few years. The style is very classic, but the pieces are made of resin and won’t break when little people insist on rearranging the figures to suit. Several years ago Jesse insisted on a very particular arrangment: all figures facing the Baby Jesus in concentric circles outward. It was the sweetest reminder of how we should be focusing during the holiday season to walk up to the piano and find all the Wise Men with their backs to the “TV audience” but their faces to the Audience of One.

Watch this clip from Igniter Media. They do great multi-media stuff for churches. This piece on the Nativity is especially good.

Merry Christmas! Happy Jesus Watching!

I once edited a review on a book that examined the need for margins in a person’s life. The idea is that you need to build margins into your day to help you avoid stress and burn-out. 9:00 class run late? No problem, since you built in a 30 minute margin before your next appointment you won’t be tardy. You get the idea.

I remember thinking, how wise. How very smart. What a great way to say that.

But, I clearly don’t know how to do this in my own life. Seriously. I have NO margins!

When I have no margins, it is a household disaster when one of the kids is too sick for school. Since at least 2 out of 4 have taken turns being ill over the last week you can imagine my state of mind.

When I have no margins, the homework that I actually enjoy becomes a dreaded task. Since my finals week is perfectly corresponding to our outbreak of the Plague you can imagine my state of mind.

So, dear readers, here I am checking-in because I so very much love this venue and you’ve been sorely neglected. I do apologize, but since I was too busy squeezing in that editing job between my non-existent margins, I don’t even know the title of that book, so there is apparently no help for me.

When I called into work today my wonderful boss, noting the terrible weather and my challenging week, said, “Maybe this is just the day you needed to get yourself some rest.” I almost cried – further proof of margin-less living: tears when someone gives you a break.

So, I found a margin today in an unexpected way and I hope you do too.

This interdenominational group gives specifically to fresh water projects, but you could follow the principles and give to the mission of your choice. Our family is definitely scaling down Christmas this year but probably not for all the right reasons. Still, thinking about giving gifts of presence instead of just giving presents is inspiring. Check it out:

Sometimes it is good to remember the smallness of my place in this world. It is good to remember that my problems are relatively small and proportionately easy to solve.

On Sunday night at church I was reminded of this by the simple act of the man sitting in the row behind me. He didn’t say anything to me. In fact, I’m sure we’ve never exchanged more than a few words. He is from India and is still conquering English, but his actions preached an eloquent message to me in that moment.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the turmoil in the Pakistan/India region in recent days. It is the kind of drama that I usually watch clips about on the news and still don’t understand exactly what has happened, even though I have dear family members living in that part of the world. I am embarassingly uninformed. I need a good long conversation with my Dad about it; he always helps me make sense of this kind of thing. But, anyway, I’m sure you have heard that tensions are high and people are nervous.

At the end of our church service, I sat in my row absent mindedly. My hands were already moving to gather stray sippy cups and rogue crayons when I felt a swoosh of air as the quiet Indian man behind me stood to his feet, arms stretched toward Heaven. A few people had gathered in the altar area to pray, but the church was otherwise seated and awaiting our dismissal. Dan was singing a worship song, but this man did not join in. He began to pray in that upright position. I couldn’t understand a word, but I felt every emotive syllable. His homeland was in distress and he would not be content to simply sit in the safety of America and not intercede for his people.

I am certain I have rarely seen this man express emotions like the ones he was releasing to God in that moment. He was fervent, and I couldn’t help but utter a small prayer of my own. Help them, God. Make a way for peace. Protect the innocent and let justice be done. Amen.