11.22.2009

i love sundays :-)

Lately, I'm beginning to realize how much I love my church family. I love worshipping with the same people every week and sharing my life with them.

For years I thought that I had to try and make my church change. I had all of these visions of having a cool church...one with all of the amenities, lots of people and loads of resources. Sure, that would be nice. I read all kinds of books on leadership and church growth, attended conferences and even studied it in school... but now I find myself wondering...why? What's the big deal about changing culture, the fabric of a beautiful loving church? Why do we need to be more relevant? The Gospel is the Gospel...it never changes. I am finally beginning to see that the beauty of this little urban church is that it is real, authenic, genuine. It is imperfect...but lovely.

My mom has always quoted the Velveteen Rabbit to me ever since I was a little girl. There's a part in the story when the rabbit is talking to the old rocking horse about being real. The horse says that one becomes real when all of the fur is rubbed off from too much hugging and it is worn out from many years of play. I say...real genuine church is people being real before Jesus and each other. It's not in the packaging or the image...

I love my little church full of love. God is moving in our times together....and when we are apart...we are growing. I love watching Jesus work in us. Soon, He will be working through us...

11.21.2009

Just a "needed" non-day...

I have done absolutely nothing today. Really. I'm not kidding. Nothing. Wben it got dark a couple hours ago, I suddenly found myself regretting the loss of a day. It feels like a non-day. And I don't like non-days :-) However, in my attempts to feel better about my complete and utter laziness...I have not had a true day off for a very long time. It's been at least a month of weekends out of town and weeks full of flu/flu shots and after work meetings. So, I tell myself...just relax. Ha! Easier said than done...I don't like the feeling of laziness...unproductiveness.

On another note, yesterday at work, while doing my most favorite job ever...filing loose papers (the worst of the worst filing because I always put it off for months and then on a slow-er Friday, I have loads of papers to file), I had a moment of truth. You see, lately I've been feeling like life is a whole lot of daily...yes, the get up early, go to work, work all day, run a few errands, come home after dark, go to bed and do the same thing tall over again the next day type deal. I always say I want to be a writer, but then I always say I have nothing to say...that hasn't already been said. So somewhere between the H's and the M's, I decided...I'm going to start blogging again... I have so many thoughts every day...that if for no one else but me, need to be articulated.

Then, on a whim, I decided I had to get out and DO something social for once on a Friday night...and we went to the cheap theater. We had nachos and popcorn for dinner and sat on the back row... The movie: Julie & Julia...a movie about a disenchanted almost thirty something woman from Queens who loves to cook and who is a closet write that doesn't believe in herself who finally decides to complete something! She decides to attempt to make all 524 recipes in Julia Childs' cookbook in 365 days and blog about it. It changes her life...as simple and mundane as it sounds... she finds herself and rediscovers the richness of her marriage and her greatest treasures over the year's time. Her love for Julia Childs' cookbook also tells Julia's story which took place about 50 years prior to Julie's. It's a lovely, unique film, refreshingly different than anything out there right now...that's for sure.

Anyway, I just found it ironic that the same day that I decided to re-engage my blog, I happen upon another woman's (true) story of self-discovery and enrichment through blogging. So, here I am...it's been a very long non-day...but I'm here... Today, I do not have much to say, but tomorrow is certainly another day. And not a non-day, tomorrow I will be with the people I love most...at least some of them...and I will celebrate the life that God has given me... I look forward to another day...