Tell me what you know...

My newest favorite musician is a woman named Sara Groves, who has actually been putting out CDs for many years. I discovered her, thanks to the Relevant Podcast, and have fallen in love with the way she interprets the world.

If you think about it, we are all doing this, every single day - in every action we do, we are interpreting the world around us. Some are able to do it through music, some through art, some with words... It is an absolutely essential part of our human nature. Every day we are figuring out how and why we exist in the world, and what our relationship is to the world. How do you interpret it?

With her music, Sara Groves makes beautiful connections to our humanity and God's nature. She tells stories and celebrates people. Music moves me, and some days I wish I had the gift of songwriting. But for now, I will have to simply enjoy the work of others. This is the chorus from my current favorite Sara Groves song, off the CD of the same name (Tell Me What You Know).


Tell me what you know
About God and the world and the human soul
How so much can go wrong
And still there are songs...


I thank the Lord in Heaven that I will always have a song to sing. I praise Him because we will always have songs to sing, despite the presence of so much pain and evil in the world. Through the darkness and desperation, there is hope. People are good. God is just. The world is beautiful. And I will keep on singing.

Tell me what you know...

New Photos, Finally!

I finally uploaded the pictures on my camera to my computer. For you today: a visual tour of the past couple weeks in the life of Wendy.

For Christmas, my parents surprised me with a new digital camera! Okay, well they didn't exactly "surprise" me with it, since I had asked for it. But it was still a surprise! My mom did a wonderful job of researching and picking a really good one. My first real chance to play with it was on the way up to Chicago for a friend's wedding.


This camera is amazing! It does things that I did not know cameras could do! My favorite features are the macro mode (so you can take really close-up pictures of things) and the color filter mode, pictured left.

Once I got back to Pittsburgh, I spent New Year's Eve downtown, enjoying the First Night festivities. Among other things, we got to see a performance of the Balmore Highlanders (I think?) Scottish bagpipers, drummers, and dancers. It was really cool!!!
Also unique to Pittsburgh is the fact that at midnight, our New Year's ball goes up, not down. I wanted to get a video of it, but my camera was out of memory. Maybe next year!


I've had a lot of fun posting and arranging pictures on my new Flickr account. Initially, I got an account because I really like searching other people's pictures and saving them as "favorites" so that I have someplace to look for inspiration when I'm crafting or painting or writing. After a while, though, I decided that it's only fair for me to post pictures of my own, too! I am by no means a professional photographer, or even a talented amateur. But it makes me happy, and I suppose that's all that really matters! :)

After-Christmas Update

Well, much to my surprise, my parents got me the first pieces of the Willow Tree Nativity set! I had told my mom about it, but I didn't know that she was actually going to get it for me! I now have the basics of the nativity - the most important parts, really. Joseph and Mary holding baby Jesus, a shepherd, two sheep, and a donkey. I've taken most of my Christmas decorations down already, but I think I'll leave that one up a little while longer...

Speaking of Christmas decorations, the one thing that is STILL up in my apartment is... the Christmas tree! We got a live one, which brought me great joy. The only problem is that no one was home the week before Christmas, and now that it's more than a week after Christmas, the poor thing is extremely dry and brittle. Yesterday I took off the ornaments and garland, but had to stop before I removed the lights because it hurt my hands so much! The floor is getting covered with a good carpet of dried needles. We have been warned, in a missive from the apartment complex, to thoroughly wrap our tree up before transporting it so that we don't get pine needles all over the building. But my mom's solution to the problem is much more fun: our tree is next to the sliding glass door, which leads out to our third-floor balcony. She thinks we should just drop the tree over the balcony, thus removing the need to wrap the tree up at all! I think my mother is a genius.

In related news, the other significant present I got for Christmas was a digital camera!!! My mom makes us give her lists every year at Christmas, and I put a camera down (along with a MacBook) as a joke, not actually expecting to get one. But I did -- and it is amazing!!! That camera does things that I didn't know cameras could do! The day after I got the camera in our belated Christmas celebration I had to drive to Chicago with some friends, and I spent pretty much the whole four hour ride taking pictures of things and fiddling with my new toy. I'd love to show you the pictures, but I'm currently in Panera without my camera and cord, so the next time I'm around I'll definitely let you all in on the new-camera goodness.

Nativity

In decorating my apartment for Christmas this year, I realized that I have a very small supply of Christmas decorations. This is okay, because I have a small apartment, and so what decorations I do have can adequately fill up the space. Plus we got a sweet live tree, and even though it is sparsely decorated, it is lovely. :)
However, there is one Christmas decoration that I greatly desire to have: a Nativity set. And not just any nativity set, but this one:

The Willow Tree Nativity set, designed by Susan Lordi. I have given other Willow Tree figurines to my mom for various holidays, and I really really like them. This Nativity is just BEAUTIFUL, and I love it. The only problem is that the combined price for the entire set is about $290.00!!!!! Honestly.... That's ridiculous, I know. But I love it. Fortunately, you can buy it in pieces. The plan is to buy one section at a time and eventually get the whole set. (Even better would be to get other people to buy it for me!) I'm anticipating that it will take me 5 or 6 years.

Until then, though, I still really feel like I need a Nativity set for my home (wherever that may be in the next 5 or 6 years). So as an alternative to the complete Willow Tree set, last night I purchased this Nativity Set, much more affordable at $19.99:














Isn't it cute??? AND, if you push the star, Junior the Asparagus sings "O Little Town of Bethlehem." SO CUTE!!!

Well... That's all really. I just wanted to share my excitement with you all. Merry Christmas!

Wherever you are, be all there

Youth and college ministry is such a roller coaster ride! I struggle with knowing what to do, knowing if I'm having an impact, feeling unappreciated, being frustrated with a lack of involvement, being annoyed at the immaturity of the students, perplexity at the students' desire to just stay where they are instead of growing/changing, and so many other things. I feel like I don't do my job well enough, and that if I were only more dedicated and more disciplined, I would be seeing so many more results. I know these feelings are not limited to people in ministry, but I think that in such an objective field without easily measurable standards, we have to create the standards ourselves and we always set the bar too high.
I've recently come to the realization that youth/college ministry is not where I am "called." I love working in the church, I love the idea of connecting people to God in new and exciting ways, teaching them, and sharing with them the wonderful things that have happened in my life. But there are too many frustrations that I face working with students. I compare myself with my coworkers and see so many places that I fall short. I like the church, but I don't think this is what I'm best at. It would be easy to get caught up in thinking that I only have a year and a half left with the CCO, and excited about my future possibilities.
But I've come to another realization recently. In being unsatisfied with where I am and looking to the future, I am not honoring God where I am. I talk a lot with my students about the future. One of the main concerns with Christian college students is knowing where they are "called" -- the neverending search for that place that God will bless them. We all experience that at some point in our lives. The Christian lingo tells us that we have to find that perfect place that God is calling us to; we have to listen for His voice to tell us where he is leading us. Unfortunately it's rarely that easy. And I think that if finding God's call for our lives is the main driving force of our beings... we are never going to find it. We will always wonder if this is "it," if this job or this place is the best that God has planned for us. We will always be looking for the next best thing even while we try to rely on God's providence.
To truly find that call, though, I think that we need to stop looking for the best perfect thing. God will bless us and use us wherever we are. I am feeling discouraged and unappreciated with my job NOT because this is not where God has called me. I am feeling discouraged and unappreciated because I am not doing MY best to honor him. If we are living to the best of our ability, honoring God in all that we do wherever we are, he will bless us wherever we are. Cheesy and cliche that it is, that old phrase was right -- Wherever you are, be all there.
For now, I am here, in Pittsburgh doing youth and college ministry, and from this point forward I will BE here with my whole heart. No more trying to figure out what I'm "really" called to do. God wants to bless this ministry through me NOW. He's not the kind of God who holds promises of the good life over our heads like a carrot in front of a rabbit. If we bless him, wherever we are, he will bless us as well.

Come and see

Yesterday at our college fellowship group, Sister Elena shared with us about community. I wasn't sure what she would share; honestly I expected it to be something "same old, same old" because over the years I've heard a lot of teaching about community. Sister Elena is certainly gifted and qualified to teach, and so I suppose it was in a moment of cynicism when I found myself pleasently surprised at what she shared with us.

John 1:35-39
The following day as John stood there agains with two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said, "Look, there is the lamb of God." Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned around, saw them following, and said, "What do you want?" They answered, "Rabbi" - which means teacher - "where do you live?" "Come and see," he replied; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of the day.

Of all the passages there are in the Bible about community, I had never heard this one before. By Sister Elena's admission,it was both about community and call, but on both counts it was new to me.
First, we see that John acted as a signpost for the other disciples who were with him. Only after he told them that Jesus was the Lamb of God did they leave to follow him. All of us have people in our lives who point us toward God.
Next, Jesus asked them (rather directly, in this translation) what they wanted. In order for him to help them and lead them, he wanted to make sure they were after the right things. And the disciples were on a quest. They didn't stutter or stumble when Jesus asked them what they wanted, they simply told him.
Then, not only did Jesus invite them in, but they stayed with him the rest of the day. They saw Jesus' home and made themselves comfortable in it. In community, the home is an important thing. It's not just a place where you sleep and cook dinner; your home represents a part of who you are. By inviting people (or not inviting certain people) into our homes, we are demonstrating what's important to us.

The words come and go... Some days I just do not feel eloquent. When inspiration strikes, I love to write! I compose emails and blog entries in my head, long before I am near a computer. But some days I sit there with a blank page before me, and I just cannot summon the effort required to write. It's not that I'm in a bad mood, or depressed, although occasionally that happens. I am a good writer. I like crafting words, arranging them to my liking, drawing readers into my head for a brief time. But without inspiration, I avoid writing much because I know it's bad. So today, good reader, I apologize. I intended to write about a book I'm reading, and talk about how as Christians we are called to be good at whatever we do, and do it with the grace of Christ. But I'm just not feeling the word-flow today. It's taken me a good twenty minutes to write this short paragraph, and so I think I'm going to call it a day. Until the inspiration strikes again...