People who have influenced me

I nearly forgot about this post again. I’m not doing too well at this. For the sake of time I’m only going to list the names of people who influenced me, not how. Maybe I’ll fill in that detail later

1. Mom and Dad (obviously)
2. Brandon
3. Gerald Mast
4. Susan Biesecker
5. Norma Duerkson
6. Joann Henderson
7. Sara and Gerald Wenger Shenk
8. Founding members of The Table
9. Bluffton professors like Lamar Nisley, Perry Bush, Jeff Gundy and Pam Nath
10. Lee Snyder

Surely there is more than this, but I’m tired and ready for bed.

Favorite Bible Passages/Stories

Some of my favorite Bible passages and stories- most of them are favorites because I have at one point or another studied them extensively or preached from them. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it? (Oh and these are in no particular order, even though I numbered them)

1. Jeremiah 1:4-10- I studied this one in Hebrew exegesis and for a while in seminary it felt intimately connected to my call, since I was young (24 at the time) and yet felt called to preach/speak
2. Genesis 22:1-19- also studied in Hebrew class. I know many people who dislike this passage immensely, feeling like this is some form of child abuse. Perhaps it is, but when you read it as slowly as I had to read it in my first ever Hebrew class there is nothing quite so intense. Reading this story was the first time I felt the power of the narrative in the Bible. When Abraham has the knife in his hand raised above Isaac and suddenly God speaks, I felt the miracle.
3. John 21- I preached on this one for preaching class, but before that I came across it somehow and it was connected to my call. I am intimately aware that as an introvert I am not called to be a “fisher of men” like Peter was originally, but I do think maybe I’m called to be a shepherd. This passage gave me hope that maybe God calls to more than one kind of leadership.
4. John 4:1-42- The first person Jesus chose to reveal that he was the messiah was a woman who was the lowest of the low in society. She went on to become the first prophet/preacher for Jesus. Enough said.
5. I like all the stories of women in the Bible, even the not so good women (because usually I think they get kind of a bad wrap). I once wrote a single person drama that included a bunch of women from the Bible. Usually the women don’t get the “speaking parts” so I wrote some for them. I keep adding to it. The roles these women played in the story of God is fascinating.
6. Other call stories I like are: Moses (Exodus 3:1-4:17) I love how much Moses argues against his call, and Isaiah 6:1-8, because it is just beautiful.

I could probably list some more, but mostly they related to the “women of the Bible” peice I mentioned earlier.

What I am called to be/do

I’ll admit that when I posted this as a topic I was hoping to come up with a concise purpose statement like my former boss had. However, I think this will need to be a work-in-progress post. (especially since for some reason I didn’t sleep until 4 a.m. last night) Maybe I’ll start with a list, since I like them so much.

• I am called to use my creativity in writing.
• I am called to leadership in the church (although it might not look like traditional leadership)
• I am called to be a prayerful listener
• I am called to be an encourager
• I am called to be an organizer
• I am called to use my intellect and learning to connect the church and the world
• I am called to hospitality in my home

I see the connections with some of these things and not with others. I’ll have to work at it some more at some later time, to try to get these into some kind of statement.

25 things I like about myself

I don’t know if I’ll make it to 25 in the next 15 minutes but I’ll give it a shot

1. I like that I’m a word person- words matter to me
2. I like that I’m a list person
3. I like that I can stay on top of multiple projects
4. I like that I know how to listen well
5. I like that I am generally kind of others
6. I like I try to think the best of others first
7. I like that I am a little naive about things- its better than being jaded
8. I like that I like books
9. I like that I like to cook and try new things in the kitchen
10. I like that sarcasm makes me laugh
11. I like that I have a vivid imagination (sometimes I also don’t like this, but I do like it too)
12. I like that I am a good writer
13. I like that I have smallish feet (silly I know, but I do like it)
14. I like that I have my belly button pierced, even though almost no one ever sees it
15. I like that I can make interesting connections between ideas and concepts
16. I like that I have faith
17. I like that Bible stories move me
18. I like that I look good in red
19. I like that I can understand things about people, sometimes even things they don’t tell me
20. I like that I am a spiritual director
21. I like that I have leadership skills
22. I like that I can take charge when necessary but don’t have to be in charge
23. I like that my little toe is kind of stunted and has a weird little nail on it
24. I like that I am a generally peaceful person
25. I like that I can come up with 25 things I like about myself- believe it or not this a huge progress for me.

Whew! 25 things in 10 minutes. I didn’t think I could do that. Time for bed now I guess.

Birthday Project Gone awry

Well its now 12:09 on the 6th, and therefore I have already messed up my birthday project. However, since I have not gone to bed yet I’m going to pretend it’s still Friday.

There are two reasons I didn’t post today. One is that we are in the middle of Snowpocalpse 2010. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15  inches fell up to this point and another 10 or so is expected. So, instead of doing anything that I would normally do on a Friday I have spent the day reading, napping, watching the snow fall, drinking coffee and generally messing around.

The other reason is that I didn’t want to write about my disappointments- the topic of the day- during snowmageddon. It seemed like too serious a topic for a day that was an unexpected break. And so I’m invoking one of my TBA’s. And I’ll write on disappointments in my life at some later date.

But in the spirit of reflection I will note that this is not the first time weather has interfered with birthday plans. This weekend my parents were supposed to come visit to celebrate my birthday. However, as I watched the massive storm come up through Georgia and North Carolina it because obvious that that would be a bad idea.  My parents have rearranged their schedules to come up next weekend, to celebrate my actual birthday. So not all is lost. But I was remembering a very specific birthday from my childhood when we had an ice storm  on the day of my birthday. I got out of school, which seemed like a good birthday present. But then the electricity at my parents house went out and was out for most of the day. So the planned birthday feast turned into cake and something that didn’t need to be heated. Maybe sandwiches, I don’t remember. Luckily the prerequisite heart-shaped  cake with pink frosting was already made.

Okay, it’s now 12:17. Brandon is going out to shovel our driveway again and I think I’m going to bed.

Best Moments

A few come to mind…

“I want you to be my pastor”- I as sitting in my adviser’s office my senior year of college talking about what might be next for me when another communication professor came by and said to my adviser, “You’re convincing her to go to graduate school, right?” My adviser said, “We’re talking about it. She did MIP this summer. She’s interested in ministry and thinking of seminary.” And this other faculty member said to me, “Oh, you should do that. I want you to be my pastor.” I can’t tell you how many dark seminary days were brightened by remembering that exchange. The faith those faculty members had in my intelligence, ability to lead, and spiritual gifts has kept me warm when seminary got cold.

The moment I got engaged- I know it seems cheesy, but you have to understand B and I had been dating for 6 years. I had been anticipating this moment for a very long time. And it was just about perfect. We were at a dinner theater where we went in our first year of dating as an alternative to him attending his Jr./Sr Banquet (think prom for Mennos). He had managed to steal out of my bedroom a bottle he gave me with a secret message in it. I had never looked at the message, choosing to have it be kind of a mystery. He snuck the bottle out, removed the message, which said something about being an angel and him loving me, and penciled in the words “Will you marry me?” at the bottom. Then he told me during intermission (when dessert was served) that he wanted me to open the bottle and the message now. I knew it was coming, but it was still just about perfect.

Least Favorite Things

• Driving in the snow- even though it is my duty as an Ohioan to make fun of how often Virginia cancels things due to snow I’m secretly happy when they do.  It gives me an excuse to not go anywhere. In my defense the only accident I’ve been in that was my fault was on snowy, icy roads- and I managed to do a 180.
• Making plans that don’t work out- I’m a planner. If my plans don’t work out it is very disappointing.
• Fibromyalgia, cancer, bipolar and chronic asthma- People I love have these illnesses and the illnesses have dramatically changed their lives.
• Olives and mushrooms- I avoid them. Occasionally I can force one down, but it’s pretty hard.
• Pants that are too long- I do not know why clothes manufacturers think that women with my size waist and hips are all 6 ft tall, but they do.  It’s frustrating.

That’s it for now. Maybe I’ll come up with a few more.

Favorite Things

Someone asked me how long my favorite things list would be, and I told her it will be exactly as long as it is.  I imagine that things I want to add later I can add to the TBA posts at the end of the month. So here it goes:

• Things that are warm and soft, including but not limited to: my cat, fleece blankets, pajama pants and slippers
• Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, most especially dark chocolate with chilis, and very most especially Xocolatl from Dagoba (hint, hint)
• Mindless movies- either ones that I’ve seen lots or ones with really predictable plots, especially chick flicks with predictable plots. Terrible, I know.
• Fiction that makes me think- one of the reasons I’m really enjoying being in my book club
• Exercise with Friends- I’m pretty much unable to exercise on my own, but I LOVE exercising with friends
• A good hug at the end of a bad day
• Long, hot baths.
• Family Traditions- like eating the same food on certain holidays or saying the same cheesy joke every year.
• Date Night
• Watching Bones with Amy online (Dr. Who is an acceptable substitute for Bones).
• Hulu- I feel a little guilty about this, but we have el-cheapo cable so this is how I can get my Daily Show fix and other such things.
• Walking in the country- I’m pretty sure this is going to come up later, at least under “favorite smells” so that’s all I’ll say for now.

12 seems like a number of favorite things for the moment.

Okay… a few more I thought of since I got home

• American Shakespeare Theater in Staunton. There’s nothing else quite like it.
• Sherando Lake south of Waynesboro. It’s a beautiful park and a great place to camp.
• Sleep- I sometimes have trouble sleeping, so when it happens it feels like a miracle.

Birthday Month- A project

I started this post thinking that this month has exactly as many days in it as years I’ve been alive. But this is wrong I think. (Math has never been one of my strengths). I’m turning 29. I guess this means I’ve been alive 29 years, not 28. Oh well, so it goes. At any rate, I’m going to attempt a project for my birthday month, that is to write in my blog every day this month reflecting on my life thus far (as though I don’t do that in my blog all the time). This will also fulfill one of my 101 in 1001 assignments- provided I complete it.

So here is an attempt at 28 topics for the month (some serious, some not so serious)

1. Favorite things
2. Least Favorite things
3. Best Moments
4. Disappointments
5. Things I like about myself – also on my 101 in 1001
6. What I feel called to do/be
7. Favorite Bible passages
8. People who have influenced me
9. Ways I’ve changed recently
10. Favorite Places
11. Things that inspire me
12. Favorite books
13. Things I want to do
14. Places I want to go
15. Things I need to get over
16. Favorite smells
17. Things that have changed my life
18. Things that make me laugh
19. Things I do because I have to
20. Things I would change about myself
21. Books I want to read
22. What I would do if I could do anything
23. What superpower I would like to have
24. Movies I could watch again and again
25. TBA
26. TBA
27. TBA

(Okay the last three are if there’s something i want to go back to and write more about, or if I think of something else) And there are only 27 because this counts as my first post for the month.  One thing I noticed already is that this is a very list-based list, which means many of these entries will be lists. But that’s okay. I love lists.

Now on to another list, my to do list for the day.

January is the Longest Month

I dislike January immensely. I have never lived in a place where January is anything but a bitter cold, gray month. My family has bad associations with January because when I was 2 or 3 we were all in a horrendous accident on January 13. For most of my growing up my mother had some kind of anxiety around January 13 that lasted most of the month.

This January has been particularly long for me. I got the stomach flu on January 6th. Fell down a flight of stairs on January 8th creating bruises all down the left side of my body, and messing up my knee. Had my first cavities filled on January 14th. Worked 10 hour days January 18-21. And am now beginning to think I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, given that I’m completely exhausted and yet can’t seem to sleep. Ugh!

And that’s just physical pain. Emotionally I’m dealing with a major church transition, which is calling into question my own call and making me face some very old and very sneaky demons in my past.

When my inner optimist finds its way out of that it tells me, “there are only three more days in January. You can do it. ” I try to remember that.