90 miles a minute

i remember when i used to write in a journal every day... yeeeeeah.

we'll get there again someday.

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the past month has been incredibly productive. it's always amazing to look back and see what the Lord has done - but that reality is even more compounded when huge things happen in a small amount of time. such is life lately! i feel like my whole world has been set in motion, and it feels so good. if thoughts could travel and be metered, i'm sure they would live up to the adage of '90 miles a minute'... at least. and the motion is not only evidenced by my personal schedule and thought life - my relationships have also gotten a huge burst of energy as well. whether its family dinners, girl talk over coffee, or phone dates/real dates/facetime dates/quality time with Tim... my heart is daily being renewed. and speaking of Tim... quick updates:

i'm in love. he loves me back. (whew.) God, as always, is so faithful - and it's been really happy in my head lately ;)

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somehow in between the craziness, i've still maintained my habit of reading like a maniac. my love for 'Hastings' buy-and-sell bookstore has been re-stimulated, and it is an often excruciating weekly effort of my self-control to not go buy just one more glorious, second-hand paperback... its almost an addiction, but we'll pretend it's not. (herego... making it even more probably that it is, in fact... an addiction.)

i've been reading 3 different books this week:

1. Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix - - July 15th. Who's with me?!?!

2. Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water - - been working on this one for 3 weeks.

3. 1 Corinthians - - been working on this one for years.

0bviously, Harry Potter is just a fun one. duh. but the other two are kickin' me in the pants. i've pretty much decided that Madeline L'Engle is my hero (heroine?), in all things literary. although she is a human and therefore not perfect, her insights usher me closer to an understanding of Christ, so that i find myself growing spiritually every time i turn a page in one of her books - whether it is fiction or non-fiction, makes no difference. to me, she is very like C.S. Lewis in this regard... God definitely has used the pens of these artists, to show me His heart. for their writings, and for the spectacular, universal archive of books in general - i am grateful.

and then there is 1 Corinthians...

how many times have i read this book, yet somehow it is new every time. truths jump off the page and pierce my heart as if it were made of rice paper. the Word is unique from every other book, in that it has the power to set crooked ways straight. other books may be able to show us the error of our ways - but it does not have life to pour inside us and make the impossible possible. it may enlighten, but it cannot instruct a man's heart in the way it should go - it may inspire, but it cannot provide purpose to those dreams and inspirations. the Word of God, however... does this and more. it blows my mind.

"For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

... indeed.

i'm going to go ahead and use this public platform that is "my blog" and recommend 1 Corinthians as reading or study material to anyone needing their views of Christianity in culture "freshened" or clarified. as i've been working my way through it again and taking it apart, my own views and values have been strengthened, tested, and rejuvenated. this one tiny book has so much to say about topics our world is dealing with more and more in all of its arenas - social, political, financial, relational, emotional, medicinal, etc... i have found it bolstering, and it has helped my mind to stay focused during this season of activity and progress.

i'll leave one excerpt with you, and then i'll cease my rambling... i hope everybody has a great weekend, or month, depending on how soon i can find time to write again :)

"I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, 'I will destroy human wisdom and discard the most brilliant ideas.'

So where does this leave the philosophers and the scholars, and the world's most brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never find through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save all who believe...

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes, or powerful, or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful...

God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom. As the Scriptures say, 'The person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the Lord has done."

(1 Corinthians 1:18-21, 26-27, 30-31)

Amen.