engage

my friend, ken is living in new zealand with his new wife, ellie and is doing youth ministry there. he wrote this about a month ago and i though i would post it. it's good stuff. . . enjoy!


I see it right now, sitting in Starbucks enjoying a coffee. The church and culture in contact.

I see this businessman dressed in fine designer clothes. He's got the hip orange tie, the sharp lined dress shirt, a nice matching (but not at the same time) pants and jacket combo, designer watch, thin-rimmed spectacles and Italian leather boots. He is here to do his work...on his lunch break no doubt. He has his macchiato and sandwich, his palm pilot nearby, at the ready. This man feels, and by no doubts is according to company standards, at the top of his game.

Then this girl walks in. She shoves the chair next to him out of the way with her thigh, there's a screech as the wood tears along the tile. The man is visibly shaken. She's dressed in a black and white outfit. This girl is hip, young, and modern. She looks half grunge/half chique, and like her get-up she just doesn't make sense sitting next to this guy.

He's here to do work, she's here to take a break from shopping and to chat with a friend. He's bought coffee and validated his right to sit down and stay for a while, by all rights she is loitering. Polar opposites, diametrically opposed, and yet sitting right next to each other.

Then she bumps into him as she shifts her things.

She apologizes quickly and forgets about it, continues her coversation, her life rolls on. The man's macchiato workspace has been disturbed. He gets uncomfortable and looks around the coffee shop for another place to sit, to reclaim his zen. He can't find one.

Moments later she leaves, easing the tension. She goes back ou into the world, he goes back to carefully unwrapping his plastic coated sandwich.

It shouldn't take you long to figure out the parallels between the church and culture and this little anecdote. The businessman = the church, the girl = culture. Do you see it now? Isn't so true? Our church culture almost doesn't understand how to process contact with the outside world. We, by our own standards, are doing fine. We are dressed hip and we are working hard. We have our worldviews all figured out, our little place in the world (but not of right?) to work out our own problems and figure out our own plans. But then these people, this culture gets in the way. It shoves things around, causes distractions, even has the audacity to bump into us and get in direct contact with our world.

What do we do then? Condemn it, look for ways to avoid it, get out of it. Instead of engaging with it we run from it. The sad thing is that instead of creating an opportunity for witness we instead allow the people of the culture walk away, we miss our opportunity to expand God's Kingdom because we were too busy protecting our own.

I understand that the world is a scary place, especially for people who have been living their lives out in the Christian subculture for so long. I know because I just emerged from a four-year-long Christian bubble up on a hill, enclosed by a gated community...no joke. The world, in all its confusion and contradiction is a scary place for Christians. Yet, we have no reason to fear and hide.

Instead we should be emboldened to engage our culture. To dialogue, to discuss, and when it's appropriate to defend. Jesus tells us in Paul's second letter to Timothy that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but "one of power, love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7). It goes on to say that with this we should "fan into flame the gift of God," to proclaim his Kingdom through the gifts he has given us.

Jesus Christ, by his Spirit, has given us each gifts and abilities that are unique to us for the expansion of his kingdom here on earth. He has also given us a holy calling in the world, our vocations, our jobs, the things we do day-in and day-out. He has made us technicians, builders, farmers, assistants, mechanics, teachers, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, and children. It is within these spiritual callings where our gifts make sense where we can engage the world.

Furthermore, we have the confidence of the Spirit to lean back on. Christ promises us that as we engage the world, and as the world challenges, and yes even persecutes, us we will be given the words to speak, words that the world cannot contradict (Luke 21:10-19).

So, what am I trying to say here? Engage the world. Go out and engage. Don't retreat and don't look for another place to hide, engage. Get in dialogue with people who hold different beliefs, talk to someone at work or at school that you are diametrically opposed with. Don't hide yourself in a "holy huddle" of other people who think the same way you do and condemn the same movies you condemn. Instead, go watch the movie, talk with the person, and engage.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

May God bless you this upcoming new year. Remember the reason for the season!

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Chubby McChubbster-Chubb!

okay, so the holidays are the worst time of year for those who are watching their figure, but i actually have a little bit of a celebration!

i lost my first five pounds!!! YAY! i started weight watchers about three weeks ago and it's totally working! i'm really surprised that i'm losing weight during this time of year rather than gaining the weight.

*** snaps for kelsey!! ***

even though i lost some weight, i still feel like the chubby girl in the room. you know, it's so hard to date when guys see the CHUBB first! i'm enjoying the single life, but it totally blows when you might be interested in someone and they don't even give you a chance. seriously, guys! come on!!! i do have to admit, i don't think i would be attracted to me right now because of my weight, but it still hurts a little.

another topic of conversation:

i know this is totally random, but i have to tell you about the goodness of our God! mom and i went shopping today to return this purse she bought me for christmas and the parking at the mall was seriously ridiculous! so, i prayed for a good spot. . . guess what?! God totally gave us a great parking spot. i mean, it was competitive out there. people were getting feisty and we got a spot. just wanted to brag a bit about our amazing God!

christmas eve is tomorrow. yikes! where did 2007 go? i'm graduating this year. i'm going on internship this year. i'm living on my own this year. i'm paying my own bills this year. and i'm growing up this year. AHHHH!

now that i got that out of my system, i'm going to bed. good night!

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wicked!

my last fall semester of my college career is over. :( we celebrated at chili's, which was fun. i just can't believe we have one more semester to go and then we're all done! sad day!

kelly, leanna, peter and daniel

carolyn, kim, and will

me and carolyn

oh!! i was planning on going home with my sister yesterday morning, but kelly's parents decided to buy tickets for us all to go see wicked!! it was AMAZING! i had such a great time!

me and megan hilty (glinda)!

i flew out this morning and i'm flying to philadelphia tomorrow morning...i'm such a busy girl!

that's it.

blessings and merry christmas!

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Searching the Depths of My Soul!

i love being single!!!

for the first time in my life, i am really enjoying being unattached and not having a boyfriend! i love that i can make decisions that don't really effect someone else. i love that i can go out with friends and not have to worry about either asking "the boy" along or making sure that he doesn't feel left out. i love having my own money and time.

i love being selfish for a change!!! i've been worried about other people for so long that it took getting sick for two weeks, two days of laryngitis, and awfulness to realize all of this!

God is so good!

amen!!!


on another note. . . i am a huge fan of finals week. yes, stress levels are at an all-time high, but it's just so much fun! there seems to be an abundance of time where everyone just hangs out. i spent an hour of my time tonight being beat up by the boys downstairs. it was great!! i never had boys and i never had any kind of lesson on how to take care of myself in matters of this caliber, but i think i held my own. peter held my hands over my head while daniel threw tennis balls at me and will smashed a dusty pillow at my head. it was ridiculous, but totally hysterical and fun! i totally gave peter a welt from hitting him with a roll of wrapping paper, but it's all good. . . don't mess with the kels-inator! ;)

honors recital was tonight. i sang a soprano arietta. it was wonderful and i was extremely proud that i sang soprano for the evening (i'm a mezzo). anyways, there are some amazingly talented people here at CUI with me. i love concordia!

alright, i probably should get some sleep before my lame final in the morning. i have a wonderful three hour block of nothing tomorrow, so i'm pretty excited about getting to do nothing. yeah!

blessings!
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facebook stalking!

facebook stalking!

you know you do it, so why is it such a big deal when somebody gets caught mid-stalk? isn't that why facebook was invented? it's the perfect way to keep track of your friends, what they're doing, what they're saying. . . and, the occasional crush! i mean, what better way to make sure your crush doesn't talk to anyone else than to send all the girls on their wall mysterious and threatening messages to make sure they keep their distance? it's the perfect way for those passive-aggressive types to keep their men in line!

haha!

in all seriousness, it really is true: the shameful secret passion of facebook! when will it come to an end?

i think i've been blogging more these past few weeks than i have in my entire life!

i finished my paper! all 18 (or so) pages! in vitro fertilization: a look at science and theology. ask me anything about IVF and i will tell you! i'm a walking encyclopedia. actually, now that my paper is finished, but i'm really contemplating whether this is something that i would want to present in the president's showcase in april. if i win, i get $1000! hmmmm. . .

okay, after hearing mom talk about it and seeing her look A-M-A-Z-I-N-G this past weekend, i decided to crack down and do it myself. i'm joining weight watchers. i started counting calories a little over two months ago and it just hasn't been working. so, i'm going to try it for a month. tonight's my first meeting and i'm stuck in the limbo-land of nervous and excited. i'll let you know how it goes.

i have nothing to do today for two and a half hours!! actually, i think i'm going to go see a movie. i've been wanting to see "august rush" for a while and none of my family is as intense about music as i am, so they're not really into it. actually, in all my good intentions, i'll probably just end up vegging around the room, watching TV or stalking people on facebook or something. . . maybe i'll work out?

we'll see!

blessings!

scratchy throat & a strained thumb

i have a scratchy throat today. . . it's not that the scratch is killing me, it's just super annoying. i mean, i'd rather have a normal feeling, healthy throat, or a sore throat, but not the middle-of-the-road scratchiness. . . argh!

for those of you who are enduring the freezing winter and snow, today is a b-e-a-utiful 68 degrees with the sun shining brightly! i'm wearing a t-shirt and jeans w/ a light jacket and i got a little warm today. . . i know, thanks for running it in, kels. . . i'm just a little bummed that it's this warm!! i want the snow! i want to be cold for a change and actually feel like it's christmas. california's wonderful, but it's not the same when it's supposed to be a wintery wonderland of snow.

i've been listening to too many christmas carols

my friend, steph strained her thumb from cutting out too many paper christmas trees at church on monday. . . her thumb went numb, so she went to the campus nurse and they told her that her thumb had been strained and she wasn't allowed to cut anymore for the rest of the semester! haha!

off to writing a paper for science and theology!

i forgot about it for the earlier post 2 seconds ago

again w/ the word vomit. . . my roommate is taking this history and development of the english language class & she's been teaching me a lot of fun things about how words became words in our englishness. tonight, she was explaining the history behind curse words, like "fokkinge" & "krappe" (you don't have to be a genius to know what words these are). . . anyways, you can imagine how much fun we had w/ these. like, did you know there's a "fuking (pronounced foo-king) india? or nowhere, arizona? flippin, arkansas is also a town! there's the flippin wal-mart, the flippin school, & watch out for those flippin police officers! :)

adding to the list of almost-fatal accidents

5. 4th grade. . . electrocuting myself on the playground by touching a broken light socket. what's w/ the electricity?

6. burning popcorn in the microwave so bad, there was a tar residue! i was 13 & i wasn't aware of the little popcorn button on the microwave

i feel like i'm a walking target for death &/or destruction!

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happy advent!

i was relishing how much i love the movie, "empire records" today. . .

others around me (& myself) keep reminding me of how important it is to think before i speak. i have this tendency to just blurt out things without thinking about them. generally, it tends to amuse those around me, or my roommate, but on the rare occasion, my blurtedness can hurt.

anyways, today was a day for major blurting! i was in choir before our concert & we were running through a part for the 1st altos on pg. 6 of a song. in my head, i was intending to say "what about the second's [altos]?" instead, i blurted out "WHAT ABOUT THE SEX?" because it was on pg. 6 & seconds. . . get it? yeah, talk about word vomit.

all in all, the concert went well & the second altos were amazing, as usual! ;)

i ended my day w/ a fabulous christmas white elephant party. it was the highlight of my day!

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