You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March, 2007.
I am honored to announce an international multi-departmental IHOP/Endis/Forerunner Bookstore/Forerunner Music/Forerunner Media/Information Technology initiative.
For months we have been jointly working on our very own MP3 store. And now it’s finally open. A lot of late night hours, nervous trisket snacking, multiple grande mocha half syrup, extra shot drinks, throwing things against the wall, and banging heads onto desks went into this project. It’s finally up and running. I’m so excited I have entered a state of delirium.
At any rate I wanted you all to check it out.
A big shout out to the following people whom I have grown to love doing this project
IT Staff: John, Jink, Jack – truly the trifecta of cool
Bookstore Staff: Charleen, Lauren, Dale and John – your tedious, mind numbing work made this possible
I have slept soundly for two nights in a row!! That’s right two nights in a row. I was early to work this morning. I have no idea what has changed, but something has… Praise God!
Today is the Pies of March… not the ryes of March or the Ides of March, put the pies of March. Kirk came in this morning with a whole fruit pie and a fork and has been eating at the bookstore counter. Dale brought in moon pies, and Matthias and Lauren have left to fetch us a D’Bronx pizza pie. Arguably D’Bronx has the best pizza in all of Kansas City. That’s saying a lot as I come from a land that highly treasures a good pizza.
Everyone, Happy Pies of March!
Intro
This is going to be my first and (I think) last blog on blogging. A few months of a go there were a lot of really good conversations on the topic. I chose not to jump in because I had already been blogging for nearly a year and it felt awkward to jump into a defintition of what I had already been doing.
Some Basics
I marvel at the sheer amount of blogs that have popped up. I then marvel at the depth and variety of content. I read regulalry about 30 blogs/wordcasts. I don’t often comment. About half the blogs I read are from IHOPpers, the other half are blogs I have stumbled onto by accident and have become somewhat interested in their life stories. They are from all over the country; some are saved and some are not. I love using Google reader, all my must reads are loaded and new posts show on my personalized google page. It’s like having the easter bunny randomly giving you cadbury eggs.
Putting Myself Out There
I started this mostly because I love to write. I love to communicate. I love to tell stories. I live in a unique hour, in a unique day. I have a crazy job. I work with people I love. My family is dysfunctional. I find myself in awkward situations. I can’t journal. Therefore I blog.
Behind Bars
This blog is behind bars. I don’t say everything here. And I am very intentional about it.
1) No gossip. Never say something you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. Ask if necessary. My friends also feel free to point at me during a funny moment and say “Not blog material”.
2) No blogging about job unplesantries. I try not to talk about unpleasant situations involving other people or customers. I am mostly funny/encouraging when blogging about the 9 to 5.
3) Never blog through tears. This is a personal choice of mine. I want to process my emotions with real people and sometimes just myself. I will not vomit on my blog. I often share personal/emotional/vaulnerable experencies later at a more objective time. These are actually some of my favorite entries.
4) Don’t fake it. There is no reason to fake being someone I’m not. I am always “evaluating” my own truthfulness so as this does not become a comedy routine or stage.
5) Speak my mind. Not often in a preachy way, but just enough to feel freeing.
Wrapping It Up
I love this little home I have found. I love reading all of your thoughts and I love that you guys read mine.
From a very warm heart,
K
I will blog about theology, I’m just too stressed out about work tonight to do it. If I have to look at this computer screen for another second I’ll vomit. And that would not be pretty.
10 things you may or may not know about me…
1. The down payment on my house in Kansas City indirectly came through the large success of the Left Behind Series
2. I broke my elbow playing soccer. Two surgeries, two metal screws and a year of physical therapy later I am no longer grossly double jointed in my left elbow.
3. Will Croney used to be my youth leader.
4. Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology was my textbook in theology my senior year of high school.
5. My parents woke me up one Saturday Night when I was seven to watch a really funny episode of SNL.
6. I have familial ties to Italian organized crime
7. I always used to wonder what it would be like to be in someone else’s head/body.
8. I have read Fire Within four times and have led three study groups about it.
9. I directed two internships while working with an IHOP in Chicago. All the interns were older than me. Most by 20 years. One by 40.
10. I am highly claustrophobic due to series of nightmares I had as a child.
Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and the battle of Thermopylae.
It’s a post conference Monday, and that means I spend most of the day in bed. I got up at noon, ate something and went back to bed. Before I nodded off I decided to check the email and the blog world.
I’ve been reading Dave’s fabulous post on global warming (and now the HIV/AIDS epidemic), I de-lurked myself to make a comment. So I went back to read all further comments, and now I find myself trying to sleep but am totally unable to do so.
I cannot sleep because there is no justice. I cannot stop thinking about the very real epidemic of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2005, 3 million people died of AIDS (across the globe). 600,000 were children. And 2 million children in this part of Africa are currently living with this disease.
As Tom pointed out on Dave’s blog, these aren’t just numbers. These numbers have faces. This is a disease that is wiping out a generation of young people. It’s not just an epidemic in Africa, it’s an annihilation.
As one who lives in a Christian community, I must examine myself and my peers. Why am I just now riveted by these numbers? Why am I just now losing sleep over this?
And if I look closely I think we can attribute some of this pleasant oblivion to living in reaction. All around us there are celebrities and “relevant” culture trying to sway our activism; Angelina and refugees, Oprah and poverty, Gore and global warming, Bono and Africa. It’s easy to dismiss these characters as immoral (or simply non-christian) people fighting for “token” causes. But let’s not dismiss the causes. In fact let’s just talk about the causes and forget about the characters.
Bottom line; Jolie is talking about a Christian cause. Bono is talking about a Christian cause. Oprah is talking about a Christian cause. I can feel the grimace in a lot of you as I describe this but I am going to keep going.
Caring for the poor, the lost, the destitute, the motherless, the sick; these are the ways we become Jesus to the people around us. These are the causes we should be heralding (and many have).
I’m just saying let’s not waste our energy judging “poster children” for these causes. Let’s spend our energy, our awareness on actually loving and interceding for people who are lost and dying. It’s easy to live in reaction of our pop-culture, but let’s stop. Let’s attach faces and tears to those causes and be moved to places of prayer and ministry.
So blast you Sliker, I’ve officially lost sleep over this. And here’s a map I think makes your point visualy.
Okay, so I’m starting this new thing. New for me. Every Thursday I hope to turn my thoughts slightly more theological. I am for the record nervous about this. I have stayed out of debate for nearly 5 years now. I was worn out after four years of academic private school theology courses. I love them now, with perspective, at the time they seemed a little too highfalutin and not quite practical enough. But I value the tools that they have given me and the good foundation I stand on because of those teachers/classes.
So tonight I bring to you a discussion I had with the brilliant Alicia Good. She doesn’t have a blog of her own, I’m sure she will eventually. Most of the thoughts below are hers, but in her brilliant way, she brought me on this journey of discovery and made me think that I figured out something, when in truth I stumbled into her fascinating thought process and saw something I had never seen before.
Jesus was God who made himself weak. It is one of his defining characteristics. He is the God who made himself a man, gave himself limitations. He accepted the ultimate pain and grief in a position of total weakness. It’s upside down. It doesn’t make sense for a king to hold himself this way. Yet this is our example of perfection; perfection/strength in weakness.
Isn’t it funny how we despise weakness? We make every effort to make ourselves seem stronger, wiser, independent, needless. Admitting weakness actually causes pain in many a soul. You know what? All this denying, all the fronting, all this faking strength; it is a sin. It is directly opposed to Jesus. Jesus is the perfect example of ultimate strength born in the weak human frame.
This made me think of the Antichrist; the opposite of Jesus. He is a man, he is actually weak. He isn’t God. He is just a weak broken human. Yet he hates weakness. He hates brokenness. He hates anything that isn’t strong or powerful. Just like every evil leader throughout history (Hitler, Stalin, Mao), he hates weakness to a point of annihilation. These men hated weakness to such a degree that they literally killed those who they considered weak. They hated being around weakness, in part because it probably reminded them of themselves. It reminded them that they were not God. These famous dictators acted in the spirit of the Antichrist, exalting their weak human frames to god-like status.
And this made me think about how at the end of the age there will be signs and wonders both from God and from the Antichrist. One of the questions often asked is how will we know which is which? I think in part we will know them by motivation. There will be signs and wonders born out of weakness. And there will be signs and wonders born out of the hatred weakness. The motivation of the Antichrist will be a strongly branded humanism. It will be clear to those untainted by the exaltation of man. Those who are familiar with their weakness, those well acquainted with their grief will recognize signs and wonders done in denial of these things.
Let’s get acquainted with our weakness. Let’s get real with our neediness. Let’s meet Jesus at the cross.
Bookstore antics from yesterday can be seen here.
Okay, so I’m still a total insomniac (we’re working on three weeks now). I’m tired of reading, I’m tired of watching Dog the Bounty Hunter, and I’m tired of talking, I’m tired of texting, I’m tired of cleaning, I’m tired of doing sit-ups and lunges, I’m tired of watching the Real Housewives of Orange County (don’t even start, I know, I know); all of this in an effort to get some decent sleep. I’m tired of waking up in the morning and almost falling asleep in the shower.
Last night as my tired mind became grumpy, I jumped out of bed went downstairs and pulled out a long neglected hobby. That’s right I pulled out my crochet hook and a scarf I’ve been plugging away at (in a soft yellow and gray). I sat there for an hour or so and just hooked it (or knotted, as I also like to call it). I did it in total silence. I have trouble doing things in silence normally I’ll have some music going or be talking or something.
Something about the rhythm of crocheting is so relaxing that I can be in total silence and really enjoy my thoughts. And do you know that when I crochet I always think about Psalm 139. “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” God knits. He knots us together in this secret sacred rhythm. Just as I’m making that scarf, touching each knot, finessing each edge, God made me, he formed me, he brought me together.
I’m a survivor. I am one person knit together who survived the first modern generation of legalized abortion. I think about this as I knot together this uneven, pathetically over-sized scarf. I think about this new organization I found, Feminists for Life. Just because I love equality doesn’t mean I buy into the culture of death so prevalent and popular.
I thought about all this and the various angles and it felt good to think in a beautiful rhythmic silence. It was good to cry out for justice and become more thankful for my life, my breath, for all the knots so lovingly knotted.
{this post is brought to you in part by insomniac: inside the sounds of breaking down}
