How much do I love Lincoln Park?

Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much.

Seriously. This weekend has been true rest for me, the weary. And it's only Saturday afternoon!

Things that make this weekend perfect: college roommates, their sweet apartment in Lincoln Park, public transportation and the number 11 bus, friends in from out-of-town, dinner and drinks at a neighborhood Irish pub, Four Weddings and a Funeral, SATC, sleeping in (!), the ferris wheel at Navy Pier, and (maybe) a Cubs game!!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Those blessings are named Sara Beth, Sarah, Hillary, and Kristi. I am at rest.

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart

Today I woke up and set about my list of cleaning chores for the day. And in the middle of scrubbing dog drool off the walls of the laundry room, I was overwhelmed by the joy of the Lord in full force!

It was so unexpected, but I needed an attitude adjustment and my discouragement was replaced with joy.

Hallelujah.

New Beginnings

First, the obvious: I am a Wheaton College graduate! Graduation weekend was an absolute whirlwind, but my family was all in town so it was very special. Goodbyes were pretty tough, especially with the roommates. I have so taken that part of community for granted. They shaped the way I experienced Wheaton, and for that source of solidarity to end so abruptly seems cruel.

After moving out of campus housing (has it really only been 7 days?), I went on a retreat with the 6th graders from church. We had a blast with our team-building games, bonfires, girl talk in sleeping bags, capture the flag, and ghost in the graveyard. Oh, to be 12 again. The retreat was amazing, and I hope as meaningful to the kids as it was for me.

When the retreat was finished, I moved into my new digs in Elburn. It's a sweet house (I have my own room) and the couple is really cool. The first triplet came home from the hospital today, and I'm really anxious for the rest to make it home, too...can't imagine how their parents feel.

So my life looks dramatically different now than it did a week ago, and while that's overwhelming to me, I'm also looking forward to the freshness. 4 years is enough in one place for me. Time for something different.

the end is near

I feel like tomorrow is the culmination of the past 16 years of education. That is a really heavy weight to put onto one day, and it is finally beginning to weigh on me. I've known it was coming, and in so many ways, I've prepared for it, but today, it finally hit me that this is the end. There's a lump in my throat and a heaviness behind my eyes, but I'm not ready to cry quite yet. There are a lot of important things to do first: thank yous, goodbyes, cleaning, and packing (oh so much packing).

Politics Irritate Me

Apparently President Obama has cancelled the National Day of Prayer. Christians everywhere are up in arms over this oppression. Allow me to throw in my two cents: I'm glad he cancelled it.

In the past few years, the National Day of Prayer has been reduced to symbolic deism. Official events (i.e. the National Day of Prayer Breakfast) have not been conducted in the name of Jesus Christ, in fact, prayers offered on the National Day of Prayer are not directed to Jesus at all. For fear of rejecting another faith or giving offense, prayers are offered up to an ambiguous, unnamed heavenly deity. Since that is the case, I support the cancellation of an event that is no longer about the Christian God.

My second reason for supporting this move by President Obama is that America is not a Christian nation, and anyone who still believes this nonsense is fooling themselves. Nothing about the way we operate as a nation (whether our economic system, our foreign policy, or the nuclear weapons we maintain) is characteristic of Christian love. Since that is the case, I am happy to further the distance between our nation and the triune God. The more separated church and state become, the better our Christian witness (as the Church, not as a nation) can be. I want my faith to reflect my God, not my nation. I want my life to be a testament to the grace of God, apart from the actions and policies of the country I live in.

Don't misunderstand me: it is right to pray for our nation, for our leaders, for our national authority. It is also appropriate to plead to God for forgiveness for the ways this nation has taken advantage of our position and power in the world. Despite the cancellation of the National Day of Prayer, I do encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for this nation. Pray to the one true God, pray for President Obama, pray for blessing and forgiveness, but don't pray your prayers in the name of the state. Pray because you are a Christian and you believe that God is sovereign over all nations. Pray that Obama's administration would allow the Church to act like the Church apart from the state's power and authority.

My patriotism is subservient to my relationship with Jesus Christ. Always.

EDIT: President Obama has not cancelled the event, simply scaled back the government's participation in it. My feelings on the topic stand unchanged.

Paradigm Shift

For the last 2 days, I've been writing a final paper for an elective course called Media, Religion & Society. My topic is broad and unmanageable, I'm running out of time, and the research is far more captivating than the actual writing. In short, the paper is a disaster.

What's more, Shane Claiborne is wrecking me.

I picked up The Irresistible Revolution because I thought I could profile Claiborne's simple living community called The Simple Way as a corollary to the megachurch phenomenon so popular these days. And I don't even want to write this paper anymore, I just want to read the book! There is something so profoundly worshipful about their approach to community. Their bottom line is "small things with great love." What a standard to live up to.

I am also struck by the fact that they are successful apart from income. In fact, they live frugally (in the Franciscan sense - for real). And I'm being hit hard with this concept: Christians aren't called to be rich. They are not. It is not biblical. The kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor. And this, right after I have purchased a very nice car, secured health insurance, both things I "need," but not really.

I'm not overcome by guilt, I'm not going to rush out and join a simple living community. I'm not going to give away all my clothes, but I'm going to stop purchasing them. I have ENOUGH.

What I am going to do is to search for the hold that Brand Jesus (not the resurrected Son of God, but the symbol of the religion I have purchased through my American consumerism) has on my life, and eradicate its traces. If you want to know more about Brand Jesus, buy the book of the same title by Tyler Wigg Stevenson. It will not make you comfortable. Like Irresistible Revolution, it will comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. It will open your eyes and you will probably have to wrestle with its contents, like I did. But your response will probably not be to write a 20 page paper on it. Your response will be more introspective and have more to do with self-discipline. Yours is the better option, trust me.