More Than Stone

I started buying my daughter everyday minerals about a year ago. It is a nice, but much more inexpensive version of bare minerals. And this has to do with what, you are asking yourself…..

Well…there was a contest and on a whim, I decided to enter her and she is a finalist. The voting now moves to a popular vote and I need your help to help her win this contest.

If you go here
you can see the finalists. She is the last picture. You only have to register once for the forum and you won’t get any junk mail. BUT the voting is calculated daily, so if you could vote every day or as often as you can remember, that would be great. The contest closed on Dec 11.

As you know, if you’ve read the blog for any amount of time, she has had a tough couple of years and I would love to be able to take her someplace to get pampered….the grand prize is a trip to a spa in Austin, TX.

Take a moment and register and vote. At the top of the page, in blue letters, is a link to vote. Her “name” on the voting is “My Daughter”

Thanks!
Jamie

ps If you feel so inclined, pass this on to your friends!

From an article in Exceptional Parent, entitled “SEIZURES AND TEENS: The Impact of Seizures and Epilepsy on Families”

To effectively cope with epilepsy, families must navigate through
three stressful phases. These include the initial crisis period, the
chronic phase, and long-term maintenance of the disorder. In the
initial phase, parents begin to recognize symptoms, explore evaluations
and testing, obtain an initial diagnosis, begin medications,
and increase their knowledge of the condition. This phase usually
takes around six months to two years. In the chronic phase, children
and parents will need to establish a relationship with healthcare
professionals; understand and accept the seizures; disclose
and educate peers and family members about epilepsy; manage
medications; learn about treatment options and side effects;
watch for other conditions such as learning disabilities and mood
disorders; search for appropriate schools and programs; and deal
with bullying, teasing, and stigma. The third group of tasks will
address longer-term effects of seizures. These tasks include coming
to terms with one’s strengths and weaknesses; understanding
what is reality versus perception; establishing long-term goals;
gaining independence; and maintaining flexibility in spite of the
unpredictability of seizures. The growth and independence of the
family members and stability of the family will ultimately depend
on the parent and family’s successful adaptation to the stressors
and ability to address these tasks.

I wish I had found this article last year when I was afraid I was going crazy. I think we are in the chronic phase…perhaps even moving towards maintenance…

I recently heard someone recount the story of the loss of their brother-in-law in the Iraq war. He said that for months the story of Lazarus plagued him. He continuously asked the question, “What does redemption look like when Jesus doesn’t show up and raise my brother from the dead?” Indeed. What does redemption look like when the dead are not raised? Or the house is foreclosed on? Or the cancer isn’t healed? Or the job never comes? Is it as simple as “we do not have, because we do not ask” or is there more to the story?

Since the fall, mankind usually does one of two things when confronted with something unpleasant. We hide or we blame. We cover the unpleasantness with fig leaves or we point the finger at something or someone. When Job’s entire life was destroyed, his friends spent chapter after chapter trying to appoint blame. When things don’t go well for us, as believers, we like to think we can find a reason so that we can zip it up in a nice, neat, explainable package. Well guess what, friends and neighbors? I don’t find that there are answers for everything…I think God is bigger than my explanations and excuses.

Consider the story of Job again. So, there is this guy named Job. He is righteous. He follows the law. God calls Job blameless and upright. So what does God do? He makes a bet with Satan and tells Satan to “do whatever you want to him, just don’t physically harm him.” This is what Job gets after being devoted to God? No matter how often I read the story, I don’t get this. Why would God do this? I have no idea. I can’t find an easy answer to this. We tend to gloss over this part of the story, by focusing on the fact that God restored Job by giving him a new family and more wealth than before. That’s great, but as a mother, having a new family would not replace the old one.

The story of Job doesn’t completely make sense to me. But neither does much of what I see in the world. Why do babies starve to death every day in Africa? Why do wonderful families face tragic events? Why do children lose fathers? On and on I could go with the questions. Furthermore, I don’t have the answers. I don’t know why these things happen, other than that we live in a fallen world and God is not done working towards the new creation.

So, with that said, “What does redemption look like when Jesus doesn’t show up and raise the dead”? In my mind, redemption is when God does not abandon the sufferer. Redemption occurs when our friends face our suffering with us, without hiding or blaming. Redemption occurs when we recognize that God is sovereignly ruling the universe, despite the injustice, sickness and violence that we live amidst.

When will we stop reading Scripture …

As “an owners manual” for life.
As a book that justifies our own hatred.
As a book that justifies our own righteousness.
As a book that justifies our own cultural milieu.
As a list of rules that everyone else is breaking.
As a book full of little bite sized “truth nuggets”.
As “Jesus’ Guide to Good Morality”.

When will we begin reading Scripture…

Without looking for 3 points and finding appropriate alliterations, because the story itself just isn’t enough?
As a story versus a list of logical, systematic categorizations?
With our eye on where God is taking this whole thing-namely A New Creation.
As the tale of God’s broken, fallible followers.
As a five part play, in which act 5 is not yet written.
As a beautiful, sweeping narrative of God’s actions in the world.

What happens when you put two taboo subjects together and discuss their relationship with each other? Find out by following the links to this month’s SynchroBlog. Money and Church is the topic. Do you
think they belong together? or is it a problem when they meet?
Follow the links, and watch the fur fly!

The Check That Controls at Igneous Quill
Pushing The Camel: Why there might be more rich people in Heaven than in your local Church at Fernando’s desk
Trusting God - A New Perspective at Eternal Echoes
Silver and Gold Have We - Oops! Subversive Influence
Lord, Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz at Hello Said Jenelle
Walking With the Camels at Calacirian
Zaque at Johnny Beloved
Greed and Bitterness: Why Nobody’s Got it Right About Money and The Church at Phil Wyman’s Square No More
Kirk Bartha at Theocity
Money and the Church: A Fulltime Story at The Pursuit
But I Gave at Church at The Assembling of the Church
Moving Out of Jesus Neighborhood at Be the Revolution
Money and the Church: why the big fuss? at Mike’s Musings
Coffee Hour Morality at One Hand Clapping
Bling Bling in the Holy of Holies at In Reba’s World
Magazinial Outreach at Decompressing Faith
Money’s too tight to mention at Out of the Cocoon
Bullshit at The Agent B Files
The Bourgeois Elephant in the Missional/Emergent Living Room at Headspace
When the Church Gives at Payneful Memories
Who, or What, Do You Worship at at Charis Shalom
Tithe Scmithe at Discombobula
The Church and Money at Khanya
Greed at Hollow Again

Ok, so I have 3 people that check my blog and it has summarily inspired me to post something witty and clever. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything. An update will have to suffice. I am currently going back to school for nursing and am having to retake all my sciences since it has been longer than 5 years since I was last in college. “5 years!”, you say, “How could that be? You couldn’t be a day over 25”. Ahh, my friends, alas, I am a bit over 25.

As I age, (ever so gracefully), the aforementioned sciences are kicking my young looking behind. Frankly, if I were to make a solution containing 33.6 g KCl with a total volume of 250 mL, I don’t care what the molarity of the solution is. Perhaps you do. If you find that question intriguing, maybe you’d like to take my final for me. My email contact info is below. Amidst my sciences, I am also taking a survey of the Old Testament and wish I had more brain power to dedicate to this class, as I’m really enjoying it. In the meantime, I’d like to leave you with perhaps the most blasphemous lament in the Scriptures. I find the honest humanity of Jeremiah in this text absolutely intriguing.

A brief history: Israel had already been crushed. Judah was on the way out with the Babylonian storm clouds right over the horizon. Yahweh has demanded that Jeremiah speak truth to Judah, who has her head in the sand. Now his friends want to kill him for raining on their parade. So, Jeremiah, takes Yahweh to task. Amidst his railing against God, Jeremiah praises God, then promptly wonders why God didn’t just kill Jeremiah in the womb. I love the raw nature of this lament.

Jer 20:7 O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.
Jer 20:8 For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
Jer 20:9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
Jer 20:10 For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my close friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.”
Jer 20:11 But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
Jer 20:12 O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.
Jer 20:13 Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
Jer 20:14 Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!
Jer 20:15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you,” making him very glad.
Jer 20:16 Let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon,
Jer 20:17 because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.
Jer 20:18 Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?

Okay, Okay, so as a good friend pointed out, I recognize and admit that I have dropped off of the proverbial blogosphere. I am currently back in school and seem to somehow use up all my words there. I can’t, however, seem to bring myself to shut the blog down, as I think I may be inclined to write while I’m on break from class.

My vow to you, the one person still checking this blog:

I will be back.