God Created a Farmer

Every Wednesday I have the privilege of teaching confirmation.  I really enjoy going.  Not only because the students are a great bunch of kids, but because I feel like I learn so much.  I often find myself calling my Dad (my pastor growing up) and telling him about the great things that I learned that night.  My Dad listens and then we have a great discussion about whatever the subject was.  The whole time I am sure my Dad is thinking, "Yes dear sweet daughter, you learned those things when I taught you confirmation too."

The other week we were discussing stewardship.  Which in short is our duty to care for our environment.  With this discussion came the reading of Genesis 27-30.  To sum it up God created humankind and made us caretakers of the land and animals.  Stewards of the world.  Then it goes on to say that we totally jacked that up and then there were thorns, disease, painful childbirth and death. Just to name a few...

What struck me most about all of that was that the first profession was farming.  A relationship was created between humans and the earth. Now you can't talk about that relationship without hearing Paul Harvey's gruff voice...

"And on the 8th day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker!”.

 So, God made a farmer. 

You may think this rings a bell and for those of you who watched the Superbowl last year you may remember a certain Dodge Truck commercial...

Starbucks Theory

I have a theory when it comes to the economy, it is call the Starbucks Theory. 

Although I am not a big coffee drinker I still have made my way into Starbucks for a cup of iced caramel whipped cream with sprinkles amazing goodness (might not be the technical name).  A drink like that runs around $5 or so.  Like I said, I am not a "once a day" Starbucks customer, but I know people that are.  I guess to make a long paragraph short...drinking "The Bucks" daily is not cheap, but consumers are willing to pay it.

When I moved to Kendall County Illinois in 2008 there was not much as far as shopping went.  Then came Target and a Kohls with a strip mall attached.  When I was volunteering one weekend I met some people who had the inside knowledge of what businesses were going to come to this area.  There were names like Jcpenny, Barnes and Noble, Bath and Body Works, Chilis and Buffalo Wild Wings.  Kendall County was welcoming business with open arms. 

Then as we all know the economy took a Thelma and Louis nose dive off the cliff with no air bags.  All of the businesses that had not yet made their presence known in this area pulled up steak.

Fast forward to Fall 2013 and in one of the strip mall business windows hung a banner letting everyone know that a Starbucks was coming soon!

My theory is this, if people are willing to pay $5 a day for a coffee drink then the economy has to be getting better.

We Run As One

This past Sunday I participated in my first ever half-marathon. In all of the racing packets there was a blue arm band with yellow writing that said,

"We Run As One - Boston 2013". 

We were asked to wear it at the start of our race and when asked, raise the banded arm as we observed 26 seconds of silence for the events that took place at the Boston Marathon this year.  So as all 7000 + runners stood behind the starting line we all raised our arms to the sky and silenced our mouths for those 26 seconds.  While I stood there I couldn't help but let tears tumble down my face.  I thought about what the race stood for.

"The legend states that Pheidippides, a greek messenger, was sent running from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon (in which he had just fought).  It is said that he ran the entire distance (we observe the spirit of the story with a 26.2 mile race) without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming, "We wοn", before collapsing and dying.^{"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon)}

The message that I take from the story is to run the race, deliver the message, and fight the good fight.  So in those moments of silence before our race I felt we were doing just that.  We were delivering the message loud and clear, "Violence will never destroy our spirit".  In that moment I became overwhelmingly proud to be a part of this community of people called runners.

Mother's Day

 

For Mother's Day I knew that Noah would probably not know exactly what I would like so I went ahead and bought myself a dozen chocolate covered strawberries.   I figure he would want me to have my absolute favorite sweet. 

 

Before I finish my story I should probably explain to those who don't know about my son and his blanket.  My husband and I call Noah "Linus" because he totes his blue blanket around just like the Charlie Brown character.  He also loves to suck his thumb while holding a corner of the blanket.  There are times when I have been rocking him to sleep that he will have his eyes closed and will still search the blanket for the corner before planting his thumb in his mouth.

 

 

Now back to the story...

On Mother's Day when I went into Noah's room after his nap to get him out of his crib and I found him sitting in his crib sucking his thumb with the blue blanket corner in his hand.  When he saw me he got a big smile on his face and started yelling, "Mommy!".  I asked him what he got me for Mother's Day and without hesitating he grabbed his blanket and handed me the corner. 

 

Talk about something sweet for Mother's Day :)

Barabbas

The name Barabbas means

"Son of the father"

Make the name gender neutral and it means

"Child of the father"

Ok, so lets go back to Jerusalem, way back.  The people had a choice.  They could save Jesus from a fate of crucifixion or Barabbas.  We know how the story goes.  The people asked for Barabbas, the sinner to be saved and wanted Jesus' blood. The text says that Barabbas is a criminal, but lets call him what he is, just like the rest of us, a sinner.   Now I have to admit that the  Bible doesn't always keep my interest like some of my other favorite books, but there are some stories that just stick with me and this is one of them.

Within those black and red letters there is such beautiful and painful poetry.

The people ask for Barabbas or "Child of the father".  They are asking for themselves without even knowing it.  They are asking that the "Children of God" be saved and not meet the fate of death.  When they are asked who they want in replace of Barabbas they say, "Jesus".  They can't save themselves from death.  Only through the blood of Jesus, their Messiah can they be saved.  In that scene Jesus is not surprised that the Children need him.  For that is why He is there. 

Beautiful.  Painful. Poetry.

 

Happy Easter

1,000 Cranes

Fun run, Cranes, an Cancer survivors:  How are they connected?!

Several months back my boot camp instructor Paul had mentioned to me that he was heading up a 5K/10K fun run in Plano, IL in April 2013.  My other boot campers and I decided that we would sign up for the 10K (this is what peer pressure does to a girl).  Paul told us that the proceeds from the event will go to the "1,000 Cranes Retreat for Cancer Survivors".  I made a mental note at the time to research the origins of 1,000 cranes, but like most of my mental notes this note got lost in the junk drawer of my mind somewhere between the tape dispensers, post-it notes and all in one screwdriver.

This Christmas I was reminded of the "1,000 cranes" when my nephew Collin handed me a paper crane that he had folded and explained to me that he learned about a girl who had cancer and her goal was to fold 1,000 crane because it would make her well. 

So tonight I looked into the legend of the 1,000 cranes and this is what I discovered (from several sources and sorry for not citing them, but this is a blog not a paper):

~It is legend that a crane lives up to 1,000 years and throughout Asia this bird is a symbol of hope, happiness, and eternal youth.  From that came the idea that if you fold 1,000 origami cranes, one for each year of a cranes life, a crane will visit you and grant you a wish.  Shortly after the end of World War II there was a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki who was diagnosed with leukemia after being exposed to radiation after the bombing of Hiroshima.  Sadako became determined to fold 1,000 cranes in hopes of recovering good health, happiness, and a world of eternal peace.  She completed 644 before she died, her classmates folded the remaining 356 to honor her.~

So how does this all tie in?  Well the 1,000 Cranes Retreat for Cancer Survivors takes the hope that the cranes represent and gives those in attendance some rest for their soul.  By participating in an event like the Plano Baloney Fun Run you get to be part of their opportunity and in my opinion (which is almost never, but usually correct) this is good for your soul too. If you are interested in the race you can look up Plano Baloney Fun Run on Facebook or go to active.com to sign up.

I am declaring that this year be the year of 1,000 cranes! 

Find a way to "fold some cranes" for people in your life :)

Crane made by Collin Beduhn 

Pink Highlights

This past weekend my family celebrated our Christmas.  For the past few years my Dad has had a drawing for $100.  If your name is chosen you have the next year to spend the $100 on any person or cause that you think needs it.  I am still waiting for the year that my name is drawn :)
This past year my sister Chelsea had the honor of choosing the home for the money. This is the story that the $100 took.

~My sister explains that this fall she was getting her hair cut at a salon in Muscatine, IA (where she now lives).  Her stylist was finishing up with a customer who looked to be about 6 years old and she had beautiful brown hair.  She was telling the stylist that she loved her new hair cut and she thought her sister would be very jealous. 

Just before Christmas my sister visited the same salon for a trim.  Chelsea noticed that her stylist was putting pink highlights in a little girl's hair.  As she sat there she realized that it was same girl that was there the last time Chelsea had her hair cut.  In her mind Chelsea questioned why a girl so young would be getting highlights.  When the girl was finished getting her hair done she came and sat on the couch next to Chelsea.  The girl looked at Chelsea and said, "My mom said that I could get pink highlights in my hair before it all falls out." (Talk about a humbling moment)

Following that appointment Chelsea was heading out of town to see some friends from college and on her way out of town she stopped by a gas station.  When she was checking out she noticed a donation can sitting by the register.  On the can was a picture of a six year old girl name Riley who has brain cancer the same girl who just had touches of pink added to her hair.  There was a benefit planned in the month of January for her.

So it was destined that the money would go to Riley and her pink highlights. ~

As my sister told this story to us my eyes filled up with tears. Chelsea adds that on the facebook page regarding Riley there is a picture of the little girl with a smile and the absence of those pink highlights and beautiful brown hair. 

 For me this story isn't about Chelsea being generous to a girl she doesn't know.  This story is about being humbled.  I am guilty about making snap judgments of people all the time.  Our purpose isn't to judge, but to find out the story.  It is amazing how much difference a story can make.