Don't Be a Squirrel

I have to confess that I have a love-hate relationship with squirrels. I love them because they're just so darn cute. I hate them because they're mean. My track record with squirrels is that they don't like me much either. At my undergrad, we had squirrels everywhere. They thought they owned the quad and woe to anybody in their territory. I remember one day I was walking across campus to deliver something. Out of nowhere, I felt something hit me in the back of the head. I turned around and there was an acorn at my feet and a squirrel staring me down. Okay, it may not have been staring me down, but it was pretty close. And that wasn't the only time it happened.

But this post isn't about my somewhat amusing history with squirrels. It's about something I heard at church way back at the beginning of the school year. I wrote it down because it hit me between the eyes and I knew I would write about it someday. Here it is: "Don't be a squirrel." Profound, huh?

Here's the gist of it as explained by my pastor. "Squirrels are cute and fluffy and they're rodents!" Squirrels spend their lives gathering nuts and twigs and whatever else squirrels collect just for kicks. They gather, gather, gather, and the only form of giving away they do is throwing an occasional acorn at a stranger's head. The American church is full of squirrels (and let's just be clear that I sadly fall into this category at the moment, so I'm not trying to be overly harsh on the squirrels of America). We take and take and never give away. When we do give away, it's usually begrudgingly. We don't think that building Christ-centered relationships that last should entail any work on our part.

It's time that Christians, myself included, stop being squirrels. It's okay to be cute if it just comes naturally, but the hoarding needs to come to an end. We need to get out there and share ourselves with others. This week take the challenge that I'm giving myself: don't be a squirrel. Share generously with those around you even when you just want to throw acorns. Go beyond the expected in the name of Jesus.

Have a great weekend! Don't be a squirrel.

Top Three Thursday

I thought I would bring a classic back today. It's Top Three Thursday (because I forgot on Tuesday). In case you're new to the concept, it's like my weekly "happy things" list. So, here are three New Orleans restaurants that rock my socks off...

1. Juan's Flying Burrito. Right now this is my favorite place to eat in New Orleans. I frequent the location on Magazine Street, which has an unique personality and look to it. I usually get "The Flying Burrito" which has beef, chicken, and shrimp packed in with traditional burrito goodness. When I was vegetarian for a couple months last year, I got the Super Green (with dairy, because I didn't give up all good things in life) and it was also tasty.

2. Babylon Cafe on Maple Street. This is my favorite Mediterranean restaurant in the city. I used to get food from this place all the time when I worked at a coffee shop nearby. Every Tulane and Loyola student knows this place for good, cheap food. My favorite is the gyro on homemade bread. Their hummus also makes me smile. It's all good.

3. New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood. I feel like kind of a loser for putting this one on the list because it's a chain restaurant. But the Shrimp Creole is sooooo good. I think they have other food too, but I wouldn't know because the shrimp creole wins the ordering debate every time. Oh, and they have free ice cream for dessert. It doesn't get much better than that!

I'm not a New Orleans native so I don't feel overly guilty about not putting some hole-in-the-wall poboy place on my top three list. Maybe someday.

If you're ever in the city, check these places out. They're worth the trip away from the overpriced touristy stuff. Toodles!

Church

Sundays always make me think about church. Not just "going to church" (which I do every Sunday these days, Mom), but "the church." How sometimes I think we just don't get it. How we don't need to be cool to have community, instead we need to have real community and "cool" will just sorta happen.

I pray everyday for a church planting movement in North America. I've been praying this way since I first heard of the concept. I heard about thousands of churches made up of mostly new Christians popping up in countries around the world and my initial thought was "Why isn't this happening here?" My conclusion: North American churches just aren't born that way. It's not who we are. This does not equal me saying we should be this way. I'm just stating a fact. How many of our churches are started with intentional splitting worked into the mission statement? Of those that do, how many actually follow through?

I recently finished the book "The Forgotten Ways" by Alan Hirsch. One of my professors indulged my need to study the edges of Christian thought (or at least the edge of what I usually study) and let me read it for a book review focused on transcultural communication. One concept I picked up was "sneezable" church. Churches that spread wide and fast because they are theologically centered on the most important parts of the gospel and easily reproducible across cultures. How I wish...

I'm sorry if this has seemed disjointed or incomplete, but sometimes our deepest longings are those that are hardest to express.

The Haps

Hey internet world. It's been a while. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not. It feels good to take a hiatus every once in a while. A lot has happened since October. I'll try to give you the rundown without boring you to tears.

The Fall 2010 semester came and went. Last time I talked about surveys that I handed out on campus. That went well and I made an A on the paper it was for. I learned that college students don't really volunteer as much as they would like. Maybe if they had a few less papers to write...but possibly not even then. I ran into a lot of motivation issues. Overall, all I can say for my semester is that I survived. My friends noticed a drastic decrease in the amount of time I spent smiling and generally being happy, but I made it through.

Which leads into another big change that has me smiling more these days. I got a new job. I love the coffee shop that I worked at. I miss the people everyday. What I do not miss is rude customers, working odd hours, and never having a weekend off. Now, I work on campus as an office assistant for one of the important, head guys. The only con of this job is that I can't wear jeans. I used to live in jeans (although, Ronnie, I can still wear my sweaters.)

With the new job and the loss of constant stress that the former job caused, my new semester is going splendidly, even though I'm still taking an insane number of hours. For those who are geeks like me and want to know what I'm taking: systematic theology 1, transcultural communication, intro to new testament, a preaching class, and a class about Islam.

Speaking of Islam, I went to the Middle East near the end of last year. I loved every minute of it. I got to travel with and visit some of my wonderful friends who I am fortunate enough to have crossed paths with on this crazy adventure through school. I learned about culture, strategy, and theology. The stuff that I can use anywhere I go. I wasn't there long enough to miss it, but I miss it. The picture below is of the three of us who traveled together standing under some Roman-era columns. (The history major in me thought that it was pretty stinking awesome that they didn't care if you climbed all over their ancient artifacts.)

With that, I will wish you a good night. Extra down time may mean more communication in the future, but I've stopped making promises :) Toodles!

Random Thoughts from a Random Life

Surprise, surprise. Another month has gone by without a word from me. What I've learned this month is that reading and interacting well take up just as much time as writing a zillion papers. It might actually be harder.

I was watching the Alabama game the other day with some friends when I started thinking about the concept of the "timeout." In college football, as I understand it, there are three timeouts for each team per a half. That means that twelve times (if you count both teams together) during a sixty minute game, everyone gets to take a break. I know that there may be some deep level strategizing going on in the background, but all the the same, things just get to stop for a minute. I found myself wishing that life was like that sometimes. When I'm having a really bad day and everything keeps coming at me, I wish I would make a T with a hands and take a break without losing any time from my day. That's just a passing thought from a girl whose friend offered the advice of "Memorize early, memorize often" for ethics class.

In reality, this semester has been completely draining. I'm drained emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I get drained emotionally when we have classes like I had yesterday in college ministry where we talked about working with students who are thinking about having an abortion. (I can't get the number 11,224 out of my head. The number of children aborted in the state of Louisiana alone in 2004.) I get drained spiritually when I spend so much time at school learning theory that I don't have any time to actually go out and practice. I get drained physically when I go to school from 8-12, work from 1-8, and then have to get everything else done before going to bed, only to do it all again. Sometimes I think it would have been easier to go into computer science like my mom wanted me to...End of pity party.

Today, I went to Tulane/Loyola (they're separated by a wall) to hand out surveys for a research paper I'm doing. Interacting with the students on campus, talking with them about mid-terms and the existence of truth, made me really miss being a college minister. There were students who would have sat and talked all day if I didn't have to move on in order to get my research done on time. I was good at the talking part of my former life. I may not be tons of fun, but I sure can listen and respond.

With that, I wish you a good night. I have research to sift through :)

Five Years Later

If you had asked me five years ago where I would be today, New Orleans would not have been on my list of possibilities. That's because five years ago today the room that I'm sitting in was underwater.

I loved New Orleans growing up. We came here as a family when I was in high school and I made another trip here with friends in college before Katrina happened. I remember being enthralled with the city's French background because I was learning to speak French at the time. I remember loving the music and wishing I could play clarinet like that woman in the street. I remember getting recruited to my school early on by missionaries who got their degrees here and my dad who thought it would be cool to have a daughter who lived in New Orleans. My thoughts were "Sure, if I end up doing the God thing I'll definitely think about it." I also remember looking at my college roommate the day we found out the city flooded and saying "I guess I'm not going to school there after all."

I'm ashamed to say that I did not help to rebuild New Orleans. I didn't help to rebuild a home or work with disaster relief. Instead, I tried my best to ignore New Orleans. I didn't want to see one of my favorite cities in such a bad state. It worked for a few years. Then, God had something to say about it, as he often does.

The fifth anniversary of Katrina went by relatively quietly in my world. I got up and went to church where no mention of the hurricane was made. I went to work where none of my customers said one word about it. The only time it crossed my path was while reading the Sunday edition of the Times-Picayune. It talked about the unsolved murders that took place around the time of Katrina and how the city's civil system fell apart. It also talked about the state of the city today.

If I had to choose a word to describe New Orleans now, it would have to be 'hopeful.' The city is rebuilding. Five years later, people are still returning. The population is reaching pre-Katrina levels in all areas of the city expect for the Lower 9th (but I wouldn't want to live in an area without a police substation or nearby hospital either). Tourists are coming back in greater numbers each year. New Orleans now has a better education system, a better levee system, and a Superbowl trophy won by a team that was as down-and-out as the city they call home.

The pictures that have been playing on the news are not New Orleans anymore. They are important reminders that help those who lived through Katrina grieve and remember. But that was the past. It's time for the future. There is still rebuilding to be done, and the people still have that so-what-we're-not-perfect attitude, but there is an abundance of hope.

And Life Keeps Happening

I want to say that I'm surprised that I haven't written anything since my birthday, but I'm not. I can say with honesty that my long absence has been for a good reason: I've been busy. I took three online summer classes in June and July, which took the majority of my writing energy with them. This semester will be more about reading and interacting, so there is a good chance I'll get to write more about things I'm passionate about. I hope I do. There are ideas in my head that I don't always feel safe (would that be the right word?) expressing at school but still want to put out there for discussion. Nothing against my school, but they are who they are. I knew that going in.

I have five classes this semester. My first class of the week is a college ministry class having to do with discipleship. I know. I know. I got the correct sequence messed up: take college ministry classes then become a college minister, but I've always done things my own way. Less than a week into the semester and I've already read an entire book for the class, I Once Was Lost by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp. I'll probably write a lengthier book review of it later, but for now I'll say that it wasn't a bad read and had many good things to say about leading young adults in their faith pilgrimages.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have two classes: Personal Evangelism and Ethics. I can already tell that I'm going to like Ethics. I never took an ethics or philosophy class in college (I don't know how I got around that) so that will be relatively new territory. I'm going to be honest and say that I'm not as excited about my other class. I have a deep-seated tension about the methods we are going to be taught and sent out to do in the city. Jesus is not a vacuum cleaner and I'm not a very good cold-call salesman. It doesn't help either that my very knowledgeable and Christ-loving professor sounds like a guy straight off of TBN. His words are helpful but his style of speech makes my cringe. On the up side, I think I'm going to be on an evangelism team with others from my church, so it won't be as bad as I've been imagining in my head all summer.

My other two classes are Old Testament and Community Ministries. My OT class is a hybrid which means that most of it is online but we meet in the classroom once a month. It's good for my work flexibility and not having information we read simply repeated by a professor twice a week. In my community ministries class, I got roped into a group project having to do with campground ministries. When I saw our list of choices, my first thought was "anything but campground ministries please" but that's what everyone else was excited about. After the others agreed on the topic, they decided to ask me what I thought. My words might have been "I'm down" but my face probably clearly expressed "I want to knock you down." Yet another way that God reminds me that life is not all about me and what I want.

So, there's what's been going on. Hope all is well with you.