Community
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26 Miles of Clarity
One of my friend’s challenged me on Wednesday to start thinking bigger than I was. To not sell myself short on that dream job and to recognize that I do have a lot to offer without going back to school. I looked for some jobs, re-opened my Twitter account, and am updating my resume. It was sorta a lot to handle and I got very excited/overwhelmed at these new possibilities. So since we had Veteran’s Day off and I have officially given up sleeping in ever..I got up at 5:45am and set out on a bike ride. My goal was to bike to Banzai Cliff and back-a beautiful lookout on the northern part of the island. The sunrise was spectacular and there was the most amazing rainbow in the sky. As I was riding, I was able to just think and pray and re-evaluate my life. I got home 2.5 hours later after biking a very slow 26 miles. Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself for just being able to complete regardless of how long it took me. And bigger than that, just feel like I have gained some clarity in my life over what is next and what I want.
I can say confidently that I am loving life here and that while the next step is not set in stone, a plan is slowly coming together and I am letting God have all the control.Next goal..a 100k bike ride with my friend Andrea! -
Your Story Must Be Told
| 09 NOVEMBER 2010
You tell what you know, what you’ve earned, what you’ve learned the hard way. You watch it fall on what seem to be deaf ears, and you mutter something under your breath, something about pearls before swine. But then 10 years later, you realize one fragment of your story has now been woven into someone else’s, a very necessary thing, a bridge to a new way of understanding and living. I didn’t need proof from a theologian or a tip from a church practitioner. I needed a piece of a story, something real and full of life and blood and breath and heartache, something way more than an idea, something that someone had lived through, a piece of wisdom earned the hard way. That’s why telling our stories is so important.
There are two myths we tend to believe about our stories: the first is that they’re about us, and the second is that because they’re about us, they don’t matter. But they’re not only about us, and they matter more than ever right now. When we, any of us who have been transformed by Christ, tell our own stories, we’re telling the story of who God is. Preaching is important, certainly. But it can’t be the only way we allow God’s story to be told in our midst.
I’m less and less interested in the ruminations of a scholar and more and more compelled by stories with grit and texture and blood and guts and humanity. I’m compelled by stories from everyday people whose lives sound a lot more like mine than the stories of superstars and high achievers. I’m compelled by stories that are ugly at the beginning and then oddly beautiful, stories from around the world, stories that laugh in the faces of gender and racial and socioeconomic boundaries.
I’m not interested in talking heads discussing war and poverty from behind a desk or from behind a pulpit. I want someone to look me in the eye and tell me they’re scared too, sometimes, about the mess we’ve made around the world and the violence both around us and within us. And then I want that person to invite me down on my knees right next to them, shoulders brushing, listening to one another breathing in and breathing out.
The biggest, most beautiful story in the world deserves better than to be told by the same voices over and over again. The story really is actually being told through our little stories, and by sharing our lives, not just our sermons, we’re telling God’s story in as reverent and divine ways as it has ever been told.
When I worked at a church a few years ago, it was my job to help people tell their stories on Sunday mornings at our gatherings. And a funny thing happened. When we were at the coffee shop, when it was just me and them and their story, their story came out in fits and starts, unvarnished and raw. We cried and laughed, and every time I was amazed at what God had done in this person’s life.
And then almost every time, when they arrived on Sunday, they looked a little less like themselves. They were kind of a distant, polished, fancy version of themselves, and more remarkably, when they walked up on that stage, they sounded a lot less like themselves. They stopped believing their story was enough, and they started saying all the phrases and quoting all the verses we’ve all heard a thousand times, turning them from sacred songs into platitudes and cliches. They did it because we as a community have trained them and have been trained ourselves to believe a story isn’t enough.
I could not disagree more. Let’s resist the temptation to hide behind theology the way a bad professor hides behind theorems and formulas. We dilute the beauty of the Gospel story when we divorce it from our lives, our worlds, the words and images God is writing right now on our souls.
And let’s stop acting as if religious professionals are the only ones who have a right and a responsibility to tell God’s story. If you are a person of faith, it is your responsibility to tell God’s story, in every way you can, every form, every medium, every moment. Tell the stories of love and redemption and forgiveness every time you experience them. Tell the stories of reconciliation and surprise and new life wherever you find them.
My life is not a story about me. And your life’s not a story about you. My life is a story about who God is and what He does in a human heart. There’s nothing small or inconsequential about our stories. There is, in fact, nothing bigger. And when we tell the truth about our lives—the broken parts, the secret parts, the beautiful parts—then the Gospel comes to life, an actual story about redemption, instead of abstraction and theory and things you learn in Sunday school.
If I could ask you to do just one thing, it’s this: consider that your own silence may be a part of the problem. If you want your community to be marked by radical honesty, by risky, terrifying, ultimately redemptive truth-telling, you must start telling your truth first.
If we allow the Gospel to be told only on Sundays, only in sanctuaries, that life-changing story will lose its ability to change lives. When Christ walked among us, He entrusted the Gospel to regular people—not religious professionals. If you have been transformed by the grace of God, then you have within you all you need to write your manifesto, your poem, your song, your battle cry, your love letter to a beautiful and broken world.
-I love this article! I pray that my life may be marked by honestly and openness and that my story may be used in powerful and mighty ways. Keep telling yours too!!
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Alive
I took this quote from a friend..Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. ask yourself what makes you come alive, and godo that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -Howard ThurmanI read it today and realized that this is my current dilemma. I have not quite yet figured out what makes me come alive. I do know that I felt the most alive while I was in Africa and that teaching does not always make me feel super alive. So this is my prayer and pursuit. That I will find that passion that truly makes me come alive..and that I will have the courage to follow it no matter what.You May Also Like
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My First 10k
After today, I am convinced I have a loose screw somewhere. I decided to run a 10K this morning. First 10k race I have ever run, although surely not my last! However, this was not your normal 10k. No, this race was mostly through the jungle. And I am not talking path through the jungle, I am talking rocky, twisty, vine-covered jungle. At one point, I grabbed a branch two seconds before my head would have gone smashing into it. and it has been raining so much here that it was slippery. But boy was it a fun race! and it ended pretty well too!
So here’s out the morning went. Woke up at 4:30am. Ate breakfast. A wonderfully amazing couple named Ben and Rebecca picked me up at 5:30am to take me to the race. We get there, get signed in, and then the announce starts giving instructions. First thing he says is, well, it is definitely longer than a 10k. Great, I think..not only am I running through the jungle, but now I am running more than 6.2 miles. So we start at 6:30am and run uphill for the first 30 minutes. Literally straight up a hill. But trust me, that was the best part of the run. We make our first turn and I get lost! Leave it to me..thank goodness I only got lost for about 2 mins and turned around and found the correct path through the jungle. I would say half the course was through the jungle. It was tough-and so slick I walked quickly through most it. Then a gravel path that was again straight uphill. More jungle, only this time going downhill. Only thing worse than running uphill. Running downhill esp. when its wet. You have to tiptoe down to avoid slipping and falling flat on your back! When I finally made it back to the road I have never been more happy to run on concrete in my life! Finally something I could pick up some speed on. However, I was also very tired at this point. But I eventually found and passed the one runner I had been pacing with and ended up coming in second for the women!! Best part about it-I won $50! and I have never felt better about accomplishing a race.
I did it! I ran over 6 miles through the jungle and while it was hard, it was BEAUTIFUL! I will have to try to find some pictures so you can see exactly what I am talking about!
So one race down, many more to go! Next weekend-easy 4.7 mile run up and hill and back down!! My new friends Ben and Rebecca are going to pick me up and we are all going to do it!
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YEAH Training
I spent part of the day Saturday at a resort for training for this YEAH program I am the advisor for. I got to bring my 8 students with me and Anna, the third grade teacher came along as well. My students did excellent. I was SO proud of them! They had some really really good ideas for how to improve the health and fitness in our school. And they got pretty excited about the project. Not to mention they fed us some amazing food and gave us some really good information. It was one of the first days I can say I truly am starting to love my job. Yes, I have always liked it, but Saturday was just a cool opportunity to see some of my students in a different environment and to get to do something a little more fun! As much as I enjoy planning lessons and writing tests, I think this project will be a nice break and give me a chance to really mentor and work with some of my students in a more one-on-one basis. Plus it will benefit the school as a whole because being healthy is always a good thing!
The training was in Garapan which is a more touristy part of Saipan so Anna and I spend the rest of the afternoon acting like tourists:) It was so fun!!! We took pictures, bought souvenirs, and got ice cream at McDonald’s. (I realize we spent all morning learning about health, but both of us run enough that we could justify it) I love hanging out with her! It is so nice to have someone here to enjoy the island and act like a tourist for the afternoon. 🙂
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Half-Marathon Training..GO!
I have wanted to run one for awhile. I started training before I left for Saipan, but sorta fell off the course in the midst of moving and settling in here. But I have been running almost everyday and have gotten to the point where I can run 4 miles easily and ran 6 the other day. So I found a training program and started yesterday! I don’t necessarily have a specific race in mind, but there are half marathons every other weekend here so it shouldn’t be a problem to find one to run when I am finished with the training. I plan on doing one in early January-they have a winter festival of runs. Which makes me laugh because there is no winter here..although I have heard that by January the rain has stopped and the weather is beautiful. Sunny, not so hot, and perfect I have been told. Seems like a good time to run my first half! And Saipan just seems like the perfect place to do it..so much of this experience has been about getting out of my comfort zone and trying new things..why not tackle 13.1 miles? 🙂
So here goes the beginning of many weeks of running…good thing the scenery is so beautiful!:)You May Also Like
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YEAH
Never a dull moment in my life-even when I move to the other side of the world on a small island, I can always find plenty to do! So I have been named supervisor for a project called YEAH-Youth Engaging in Advancing Health. I will be in charge of my school in promoting healthy activity and eating. The project is being funded by the Public School System and I am pretty excited about it. I have gathered myself a little team of 10 5th and 6th graders to help me and we will be working all year on this. First order of business, I get to go to training! I will be spending my Saturday at a resort eating and learning all about this project. It will be fun to meet some more people and get some tools to help my students and school. I have to admit I am pretty excited. I think it will be a very fun project to work on!
I will probably keep you updated on it because talking about the amazing weather, the beach, and the island is probably boring you all..hee hee!So off I go to get SCS healthy, active, and happy:)You May Also Like
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My Dad Is An Ironman!
(You get two today! and a promise I will pick up the blog pace!)
My dad completed his first ever Ironman today! Oh how I wish I could have been there, but thanks to modern technology I was able to follow him the whole race and sorta see him cross the finish line. I can’t not explain you how nervous I was. My dad has been talking about this for years and been actually training for the past year. It all came down to this. I knew that short of something medically going wrong, he would finish, but man, my nerves were all a tangled mess and I watched intently on the little blue arrow that was my dad travel across the 140.6 mile course. As soon as I knew he crossed the finish line, there was this overwhelming sense of relief and pride that came over me. I have always thought my dad could do anything. He has always been my hero-and today he did something that not a whole lot of people can say they have done. Complete an Ironman in under 14 hours!!! Oh man, the cheers ran high-thank goodness he finished over my lunch or my students might have thought I went crazy! So I can officially say my dad is an Ironman..and I am getting a shirt that says that:) and while I am so sad I missed out on the actual event, I know that he knew how much I was cheering for him and that Saipan is where I am supposed to be. Plus, they took lots of pictures and I got a review of it from him just over an hour after the race!I love you dad! Way to go! -
First Week of School
So I did it! I made it through my first week of school without killing a student or quitting my job. Actually, it was really good. I learned a lot though! Teaching is a whole new world for me so it was a week full of learning for both myself and (hopefully!) my students. I have 8 classes a day-all different which is a lot to begin to with. Add to that equation that I have no curriculum or books for any of the 8 classes and you a new dimension to the difficulty. Finally, add to it that I have students from Kindergarten through 8th grade that don’t speak English as their first language and you can come to the conclusion that life is busy! and that perhaps I am doing alright considering all of that. And let me just tell you, to anyone that thinks teachers have an easy life because they get three months off in the summer has NEVER been a teacher! The work pretty much never ends and I am putting in way more than 40 hour work weeks all to make pennies compared to most jobs. But am I in NO way complaining-I love my job!! I love being a teacher and I especially love being a teacher here. The kids are great-they are adorable and so fun. They have been so gracious as I try to learn their names and struggle through attendance each day. And I mean, leaving work and heading to the beach has its perks too:) Although most of the time, I spend my nights grading papers and preparing lessons. I am sure as time goes on it will get easier and things will fall into routine. Or at least I am really hoping that it does.
So one week down..who knows how many more to go, but I am sure each one will bring new challenges and rewards-so is the life of a teacher!You May Also Like
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NPR News update
If nothing else, maybe Economics will get me a date:)
Economy
Undergraduate Economics Sees Popularity Surge
Listen Now [4 min 34 sec] add to playlist
All Things Considered, March 1, 2009 · At Ohio’s Oberlin College, registration in undergrad economics classes is up 25 percent this year, and the chair of the department says he’s never seen anything like it. Host Robert Smith finds a similar surge in the classrooms of American University and across the country. So is undergraduate economics getting sexier? In a word: yes.