Vitamin Water Out the Wazoo!

Yesterday I saved $70 at Owens. I felt like I was on Extreme Couponers just a little bit as I watched the numbers roll down at check-out. See, every morning I drink a Vitamin Water and Owens usually sells them for $1.25. This can be an expensive habit, so it was to my delight when they included them in their 10 Item Mega Event this past week. Owens’ ad says if you buy 10 waters, each water is only 75 cents. So I went to Owens yesterday after work and was even more delighted to see that they had marked them down further so that each bottle ended up being 59 cents. I bought 40, which saved me $20.After I went home and thought about it more, I was addicted to the savings and planned to go back after going to the rec center. The second time there I bought 100 more, which brought my savings up to $70!! Woohoo!!. AND they didn’t have a flavor that I wanted, so the cashier gave me a rain check that I can use within the next 30 days to go back and buy as many more as I want at 59 cents each.

Now I have 140 bottles of Vitamin Water that I have to store somewhere, but in theory, I won’t have to buy it again in 140 days.!! (that is unless I want to use that rain check )

Erin

He is Relentless

Awhile ago, I was reading through the minor prophets. Zechariah 1:1 – 5 says:

” In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo: ‘The Lord was extremely angry with your ancestors. So tell the people: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Return to Me” – this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts – ‘and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts. Do not be like your ancestors; the earlier prophets proclaimed to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds. But they did not listen or pay attention to Me’ – this is the Lord’s declaration. “Where are your ancestors now? And do the prophets live forever?”

As I was reading this, and the other minor prophets, it struck me how relentless the Lord is in pursuing His people. My mind first thinks that “relentless” has a bad connotation to it, but really it doesn’t have to. Yahweh pursues His people with a righteous relentlessness. Here in Zechariah, God tells the people through the prophet, ‘Look, I told your ancestors, and now I’m going to tell you.. just return to me.’

It took me a little while to mature that thought into 400 years later when God is still relentlessly pursuing His people as he sends His own son as payment so that they can draw near to Him. Yahweh is still relentlessly pursuing His people, even now.

“For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person – though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” Romans 5:6-8

Thank the Lord (literally) for His relentlessness. Christ died for us while we were still sinners – which means that God’s people never did return to Him by their own power and we can’t return to Him by our own power either.

God is relentless for me. He is relentless for you. and that is really good news.

We Were Meant to Hold Hands

Yesterday, a little girl who is about six years old came into our office. She was there to see Corri, but I greeted her and told her my name. I stuck out my hand to offer a handshake and instead she took it and held. I didn’t really know what to do because now I had this little girl holding my hand as I made conversation with her and I didn’t know how to get her to stop holding my hand. She was very nice, and it struck me how easily she had accepted my hand to hold.

My mind these days has been too introspective for my own good and I start to wonder: Hand holding – “What’s that about?”, or actually, the lack of hand holding. I don’t openly hold hands with people anymore except in prayer and with my Dad. Hand holding is typically a sign of being in like or love with somebody special, but when did we stop openly holding people’s hands – what age was that?

When I hold my dad’s hand, it makes me feel much younger and a little bit safer. My hand in his brings security. It’s kind of like when somebody is surrendering, they hold their hands in the air to show they have nothing harmful left. When we stretch our hand out for a handshake, we are saying, “I will not harm you.” When we go as far as to hold somebody’s hand, we say, “I will never harm you and I’ll even give you what I could harm you with.”

Maybe that’s why at some age, we stop holding hands, because at some age, we stop openly trusting other people. We start to realize all the bad things that could harm us and don’t open ourselves for that hurt so easily anymore.

Sometimes we need collision with other people to know that they are still worth trusting – because at our inner core, we were meant to be good to each other. To live in community – to live life with one another.

I am reminded of this when looking at these photos today from a Haunted House photo stream. It makes me think that in these people’s most terrified moment, they act on instinct and cling to one another, because this is what our core wants to do in everyday life as well: cling to one another.  Take a look – they are pretty funny.

Erin

Catalyst (#Cat11) Mind Dump

I have to tell my brain to write out the word Catalyst now instead of #Cat11 after tweeting it up this past week about everything Catalyst. What a fun week we had!!! Missing it a little bit, although it is good to be home.

Dave, Sherilyn, and I left on Tuesday morning to stop at Eastern Kentucky University on the way to look at the campus for Momentum next summer. We were joined by Courtney Cherest, Eric Miller, Cari Friddle, Ben Wilhite, and Wade Yocum for Catalyst on Thursday and Friday. Then, Dave, Sherilyn and I stayed through church on Sunday. Here are some thoughts on the experience:

1. So excited for Momentum 2012 to be on the EKU campus. Lots of neat hubbish areas for students to congregate. Hoping to have student bands playing outside every night.

2. Had a lot of fun riding with Dave and Sherilyn in the car for the week – love trips that bond us more closely. Love having a boss that I can take fun road trips with.

3. Andy Stanley opened up the conference talking about “do for one what you wish you could do for everyone” which is no new quote to the Catalyst connoisseur from Andy, but the thought that fairness ended in the garden of Eden struck me. Too often we restrict ourselves from reaching out because it wouldn’t be fair to focus on one person when others need love and mentorship too. Listen for that ‘nudge’ from the Spirit as to the ‘one’ you should engage and pour into.

3. Jim Collins spoke about getting the right people on the bus and in the right seat in developing your team. Love listening to non-believers talk about biblical principles and not even know it.
Three Behaviors that Help You Thrive: (1) Fanatic Discipline (2) Imperical Creativity (3) Productive Paranoia. I want to look more into Collins’ ‘Hedgehog’ idea. Also, he says that you should turn off electronic gadgets for at least 2 days, every two weeks…. intrigued by this idea.

4. Dave Ramsey talked about repping Christianity with excellence – love this.

5. Francis Chan talked about abiding in God, which really struck a chord with me as this is what the Lord has been teaching me lately. Francis asked the question, “If you could get a transcript of your prayers from the last month, what would you find you prayed for the most?” -should be ‘to dwell in God’s presence.’ Lord, help this to be true in my life.

6. LOVED hearing from Judah Smith as I’ve never heard of him before. Although – why do pastors joke about sex so much just because they’re pastors and married? Judah talked about he Glory of God and asked the question, since when is Jesus not enough?

7. Driscoll talked about how many times the Bible says fear not because the Lord is with us. “What we have to fear more than anything is death, but Jesus Christ’s resurrection conquered death.” Also – got to get a book signed by Driscoll. Courtney and I were 2nd in line with no wait! Yay!

8. Priscilla Shrier – “Something is wrong if you are with God and you are doing all the talking”

9. Great wrap up from Andy about apprenticing. “you will never feel adequately prepared to apprentice another. You are responsible to pass along what you know to somebody else.”

10. Loved seeing Perimeter, Northpoint, and Passion City on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Great hearing from Louie Giglio and again from Andy.

11. Loved hanging out in Roswell, GA with Dave and Sherilyn and looking at all the trendy shops on Canton St.

12. I always feel more funny when I’m with Courtney. I think it’s because she is quick enough to get witty humor so I really step up my game. LOVEDDDD spending time with Court, Ben, Cari, Wade, Eric, Dave and Sherilyn. So Fun.

What a GREAT week!

Erin

One Last Warning

Recently I took my car in to get it looked at due to a number of oddities, one being that somebody told me it sounded like something was wrong with my tire. Sure enough, I need to replace my rear, right tire and rear, left rim. I asked the man at the shop, how soon do I have to get these replaced (after he suggested I go to Tire Barn), he said, pretty soon and “I wouldn’t go out of town with how they are.”

As I backed my car out of the garage, he said one last time in a loud, clear voice, “Don’t take this car out of town!!!”  He is such a nice man and wanted to give me one last warning before I drove away.

It’s like the time I was lost in the ghetto of Chicago and after giving me directions, the nice gas station lady told me, “whatever you do, DON’T get out of your car.” One last warning before I ended up on CSI:Chicago.

One last warnings are like our last chance to tell somebody the most important thing we can muster up to tell them given the current situation. It’s the last chance advice that we throw out there.

How about you? Anybody ever given you that “one last warning”?

Erin

Where Were You?

This morning I was at the Gordon Rec Center at Grace College and was thinking about my time at Grace. I see Grace all the time as I pass it everyday for work and various things. Because I like thinking about the history of places and all the things that have transpired in the past, I got to thinking about the students who attend Grace now. It makes me sad to think that they don’t know Grace as it was in my years (which was not too long ago). The younger classes at Grace don’t know that Alpha Rock used to be in Alpha Circle. They don’t know what Epsilon was like in its glory days and the practical jokes the boys who lived there pulled. They don’t know what Alpha Dining or Alpha furniture used to look like. They don’t know Dr. Plaster or Dr. Forbes. They don’t know the Lancer Gym. They don’t know the people that walked the sidewalks before them.

I think this way a little bit about the students who are in high school in the town I grew up in. The school I attended as changed even in the 6 years since I’ve been there. The students now don’t know that there used to be carpet in the hallways. They didn’t watch Kenai football take state in 2005. They don’t know that there used to be couches in the senior hallway.

I know at the core of these thoughts, I’m being arrogant. I think because I adore my high school and college memories, I can’t imagine anybody else’s could be better than them. The people before me can probably say the same think about when I was at school – that I have know idea about the things that transpired before me.

This made me think of a conversation God had with Job.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.” Job 38:1-4

Just like I think, “these kids know nothing of what has come before them,” God says to me, this world does not start and stop with your life, you don’t know the men and women who have walked before you. Our lives are a nanosecond of eternity, yet somehow we think we have a firm handle on being in control of what is happening around us. And amidst this arrogance we question what God gives us, or doesn’t give us, and He says, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the Earth?

Erin

An Entitled Heart

Last week I flew into Chicago and gained a new perspective. It’s hard not to when you are so many miles above the city and everything looks so tiny and spread out. As I looked down at the little lights of houses and cars I tried to imagine all the little people and was overwhelmed by the immensity of what I was seeing. I was overcome by the thought, “how does God pay attention to my thoughts, prayers, and life when there are all these people.” – And I was only looking at the greater Chicago area.

This perspective makes me think about how entitled my generation and really everybody is. We think we deserve everything, houses, cars, a good job, a nice salary…God’s love.

Our small group is listening to The Village Church’s Habakkuk series. M. Chandler recently said, if you were to ask people what their first thought about God is, or how they describe God, they would say, God is love.  God is love, obviously, but Chandler’s point is that he is also wrath, righteousness, justice, etc.  My point is, and I really can only speak for myself, but it seems that along the way, it has become easy to expect God to love us. We forget that we don’t deserve God’s love and we forget how small we are compared to the rest of the World. It’s easier to remember that there is nothing about me that DESERVES God’s love or undivided attention when I can see from the sky how many people reside just in Chicago. It’s almost like my mind says, “Oh yeah, I’m NOT the point to this salvation story.” Jesus is.  It’s only because of Jesus’ saving work on the cross that I even come before a Holy and Just God.

Reading Amos today, I read in 2:4, “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray.” Prior to these verses for all of chapter one and into chapter 2, Amos tells of how the Lord will not withhold punishment on other nations because of the horrifying things they have done, (burning a king’s bones, threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron, carried into exile a whole people). But Israel rejecting the law and not keeping the Lords statutes are as, if not more, serious.

Reading this I am reminded of how entitled my heart tends to be. Not only do I think I deserve God’s love, but I am rejecting His law and forgetting His statutes while doing it.

The only response to these thoughts, the place I must drive everything back to is, how merciful and mighty is our God? He deserves glory and honor and praises. The Gospel really is the good news.

Erin

 

Social Media Kind of Day

Today, really this week in general, has been a social media kind of week… but especially today. I recently figured out how to link the Momentum twitter (@buildmomentumyc FYI) to the Momentum facebook (facebook.com/buildmomentum) which means that I can Selective Tweet from the Momentum twitter which will place things on the Momentum wall. I already selective tweeted for my own personal wall – but I’m hoping that by doing it more with Momentum we will see an increase in our twitter followers.

The weird thing is – it’s actually happening. Sitting at my desk I get the emails notifying me of new twitter followers. It’s fantastic.

Today I did a bit of research on sharing contacts in Outlook. Turns out – you cant. BUT, Google has this awesome thing they are doing called Google Apps which allows you to share contacts, access a shared calendar and more while using an Outlook interface. AND the best part is that they have a reduced rate for Non-Profits – who knew!!

Also today I explored the world of SpringPad a little more. This thing is so fantastic. Basically, it’s a little like dropbox, however, when you download the Firefox extension, it comes up like a tab on your browser. The jist is that SpringPad is a launching point for storing ideas. When you are surfing the web and want to go back to something later, such as a blog or vimeo, SpringPad allows you to “snip” it and add it to your dashboard. You can add lots of things like notes, articles, reciepes, etc and because I also have Springpad on my iphone and ipad, I can pull up whatever I’ve snipped wherever I want. FANTASTIC.

Another Social Media shout out today: Twitter. I can follow what is happening at the Story Conference (#Story11), and tell Knepper about the free album download from Josh Garrels that I read about on the Catalyst email.

I’ve also, watched Aaron Keyes’ sermon on having a United Heart and posted it on my wall for others to look at, found out what Micah wants for his birthday via his blog, and discovered that my ipad tells me what other apps I might enjoy via the App Store Genius by the apps I already have.

Social Media – where would we be without it? Sometimes it is great to be cleansed of the internet and social media and to get out from under being bogged down by statuses, updates, and sharing.. and sometimes its fun to let Apple tell me what I might enjoy and to indulge in sharing content.

Erin

Remembering

Recently I was asked about the girls in my small group. I am always happy to talk about them. We have spent the last two years together and I can describe each one in detail, their habits, where I perceive them to be in their walks with the Lord, and the things I most wish for them to grow towards. It actually brings me joy just thinking about them. Biblical community is so fascinating like that.

This person I was having this conversation with also was asking me about prayer. These two discussions together reminded me of the early days of our small group and the time I spent in prayer for the girls and our community together. All of a sudden I started missing the beginning times of our group, when I spent time praying that we would grow as a group together, that we would establish community together and that we would grow exponentially individually.

Somewhere along the lines, my prayers were answered and as a result I stopped praying so feverishly for them. How is that? – it seems like you go from one day, you are praying for community like it is air and the next day, you have been breathing air for so long that you no longer pray for it or thank God for it.

I wish we could stay in the mindset of the beginning stages, when I felt like if God doesn’t give me wisdom to lead this group tonight, it’s going to turn out ridiculous, while maintaining the growth, community, and wisdom that can only be accumulated over 2 years.

I guess I will have to be praying about that.

Summer Busy-ness

Tags

desiring God, repentance, Summer

Summers are always so busy, especially working for a conference which culminates a year’s worth of work into one week in July. It seems that all the great habits made over the sleepy winter goes out the door once summer hits.

This summer with dual wedding mania in August, I find myself trying to hold my head above water in my sleeping habits, eating habits, exercising, reading, and most importantly my walk with the Lord.

For a long time, I’ve always thought about how sometimes I wish I delved into worldly sins so that I can walk in open repentance. Like, I wish I did really bad things so I can really understand the need of a savior. Recently I’ve finally realized how much I don’t repent of the things that most certainly grieve God: my apathy and excuses. More and more I feel the weight of my depravity and how much I need the Lord to give me the desire to yearn after Him and spend time with Him and how much I need to walk in repentance of so blatantly putting creature comforts above these things.

I’ve recently started reading Desiring God by Piper. I am really looking forward to delving into being a Christian Hedonist. Above all, falling short of living a vibrant life, worthy of the Gospel only means that I am denying myself complete joy.

‘God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in Him.’ Piper