my heart belongs.

for the longest time i thought i'd lost the best of me.
but i'll be damned if i quit now and that's for sure.
all I ever wanted was for You to look at me and know i'm all Yours.
when You touch me i know there is purpose in my life just know i'm all Yours.
i'm a mess, i confess that i'm nothing without You and
there's nothing i can do to prove to You i'm being honest.
now i see everything and yes i've known it all along.
i was so lost, but now i'm back.
i finally know now where my heart belongs.
i never want to lose such a big part of me again.
-come what may by tsa

avoid poverty.

you need only do three things in this country to avoid poverty-
- finish high school, marry before having a child, and marry after the age of 20.
only 8 percent of the families
who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor.
-william galston, clinton white house

work.

listen to your heart.

it's hard.

"and it's hard.

it's much harder than I thought it would be,

but there's more good than bad.

and you don't just give up."

-the story of us

unless.

"unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better, it's not."
-dr. suess

completely crazy.

i've been a little bummed recently because a ton of my
friends are leaving off for these spectacular adventures this
summer and i'm stuck at home doing nothing.
my friend allison is interning in germany,
robin is at field school in ohio being an "armature archeologist",
my sister is going to language school and volunterring
in guatemala (read about her adventures here), and my friend
kelsey is moving to vermont for the summer.
while everyone else is taking off to do these amazing things,
i am here at home doing everyday, mundane things
like cooking, working, running, and being with family and friends.
but when i started to think about it, my summer is going to be
anything but boring; in fact it's going to be completely crazy.
i have four jobs and i'm taking an online class (or maybe two, i'm
on a wait list). last summer i worked two jobs and did nothing else,
but was still busy, so adding two more and classes is going to be
insane. i'm also training for a half marathon, which hasn't been
too hard to find time for over the past few weeks, but when my
other jobs start, it'll be difficult. and i've been having a bunch
of doctor's appointments recently which seem to be like another
job in themselves haha. add to that seeing friends, doing chores,
walking my dog, keeping in touch with my friends on their adventures,
trying to read books on my long list, and finishing up a couple
projects, and the summer is going to be gone in a second.

i'm looking forward to being a division director and cabin
counselor at camp cherith this summer, working at concerts
at darien lake (including blink 182!!), nannying for 3 weeks,
working at frontier field for red wings games, taking a
sociology of family class at MCC (and maybe a spanish class),
and all the other fun things i have on my calendar.
this summer is going to be insane and i hope i have time for sleep!!

slaves.

i've been slacking recently on my posts.
they've mostly been pictures or things i've been cooking.
mostly because i've been home from school and not
doing much besides working, training for the half marathon,
and spending time with family and friends.
but i've still been reading!
i picked up the book disposable people by kevin bales
from the library last week and it is sooo fascinating.
a teacher of mine had recommended it as one of the best books
on modern day slavery, so i added it to my list of books to
read months ago. the most important thing i've learned so far
can be summed up in this excerpt...

"although the direct value of slave labor i nthe world economy may
seem relatively small, the indirect value is much greater.
for example, slave-produced charcoal is crucial to making steel in brazil.
much of this steel is then made into the cars, car parts, and other
metal goods that make up a quarter of all brazil's exports. britian alone
imports 1.6 billion in goods from brazil each year, and the US significantly
more. slavery lowers a factory's production costs; these savings can
be passed up the economic stream, ultimately reaching shops of europe
and north america as lower prices or higher profits for retailers."
pg. 23 of disposable people by kevin bales

this was so crazy to me when i first read it! when we buy something
that is significantly cheaper than a top brand of the same item
sold somewhere else, it may not just be because you got
a good deal or the quality is less. it could be because somewhere
down the line of production, innocent people were being exploited.
obviously, this would be almost impossible to discover because
a consumer can't trace an item back that far to know.
there are more slaves now in the world than ever and the types
of slavery being used now are different, more profitable for the
slaveholders and more destructive to the lives of the slaves.
the first step towards freedom for these slaves is raising
awareness and becoming educated.
the more people that know, the more who will step up and
try to stop it. another book that my sister recommended to me
is not for sale. i hope to read that next.
i've posted on here before about sex trafficking which
is a type of the new slavery that kevin bales discusses.
also, i wanted to share a quote that i've posted on here before when
talking about the prisons in america fits a little with this topic
and makes you think about imprisonment in a different way...

“in the face of the largest prison buildup in the history of civilization, with two million citizens in prison, and one in every three black men under judicial constraint, we start to wonder what good the thirteenth amendment is if slavery is illegal unless a person is convicted of a crime.” (152, the irresistible revolution by shane claiborne)

another huge thing i've realized is that even though i am
completely disgusted with the people that are directly
involved in modern day slavery and i cannot understand
why they would do this, God still loves them and cares
so deeply for them. and honestly, i should too.
also, even though most aren't directly involved in slavery, almost
everyone is indirectly involved and has the responsibility as a human
being (and a christian, if you are) to do something.

from the kitchen

homemade veggie pizza and homemade chex mix
which was sooo easy.
i've also been making lots of fish and omelets and
roasted zucchini.

be still.

kiss.

what if.

mmm

today for mother's day (and my first day back home for
the summer) i made my mom and family a delicious
mushroom and zucchini lasagna.
it was pretty tasty. :)

interesting...

this is probably the most interesting donating opportunity
i've ever come across...
donate your used bras
check it out :)

from my kitchen :)

homemade peanut butter eggs for easter.
these were so good and so easy!
i wanted to dye some purple, but we didn't have blue dye. :(

homemade apple pie made with my friend, carley.
(we store bought the crust though. i mean were baking
in a dorm, we had no other choice, haha)

carrot cupcakes me and carley made for easter.
we dyed coconut green to make "easter grass" and used
egg shaped jelly beans and peeps to decorate.

not yet discouraged.

"every new child comes with message
that God is not yet discouraged of us"

i need to make one.

color.

the irresistible revolution: part IV

quotes from the irresistible revolution, chapter four.

you can read part l, part ll, and part III here, here, and here.

“according to mother teresa, it is among the wealthy that we

can find the most terrible poverty of all- loneliness.” (93)

-

“the Gospels were not just for mother Teresa and st. francis,

and that the sermon on the mount is as meaningful today as it was two thousand years ago.” (98)

-

“we do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named nicodemus.

but if you tell me i have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God,

i can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor,

because Jesus said that to one guy too..but I guess that’s why God invented highlighters,

so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.” (rich mullins, 98-99)

-

“sometimes i was incredibly frustrated and angry, wondering how

these extremes could exist in the same world, let alone in the same church” (99-100)

-

“Jesus never says to the poor, ‘come find the church.’

but he says to those of us in the church, ‘go into the world and find

the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned.’ Jesus in disguises.” (tony campolo, 102)

-

“with the most sincere hearts, we do not want to see anyone

walk away from Jesus because of the discomfort of his cross,

so we clip the claws on the Lion a little, we clean up a

bit the bloody Passion we are called to follow.” (104)

-

“their rebirth will cost them everything they have” (104)

-

“we can end up merely cheapening the very thing we want folks to

experience. this is the “cheap grace” that…dietrich bonhoeffer called

“the most deadly enemy of the church” (105)

-

“funny that one of the first stories of the early church in acts is the bizarre

tale of a couple named ananias and sapphira, who withhold a portion

of their possessions from the common offering and then lie about.

peter confronts them in a way that seems quite rude (not very seeker sensitive),

and then on top of it God strikes them dead (not very tolerant or inclusive).

perhaps we should be thankful that God isn’t into that anymore,

otherwise we’d have much smaller congregations.” (105-106)

-

“everyone can be a christian but no one knows what a christian is anymore” (106)

-

“true, the cross is not always seeker sensitive. it is not comfortable.

but it is the cornerstone of our faith” (106-107)

-

“the more I read the Bible, the more i felt my comfortable life interrupted.” (107)

-

“what we do is not nearly as important as who we are” (108)

-

“what would a twenty-year-old Jesus have said if they asked him,

“what are you going to do when you grow up?” i don’t know, maybe

something like, “i’m going to turn the world upside-down. i;m going

to hang out with prostitutes and tax collectors until people kill me.” (108)

-

“somehow I had missed the fact that singles was a beautiful means of

discipleship and that church history is filled with folks who

followed God as singles- Jesus for one…” (111)

-

i had come to see God as lover and provider and to desire a life of singleness and poverty”(111)

-

“God created us in his I age, and we decided to truth the favor” (bernard shaw, 112)

-

“we create a western conception of the mediterranean peasant revolutionary

who lived two thousand years ago, whom we can relate to and who

cares about what we care about (eats at mcdonald’s and vote republican).” (112)

-

“’shane, we need you to play Jesus, because you are white and

from america.’ ouch! God forgive us.” (113)

“i asked participants who claimed to be ‘strong followers of Jesus’

whether Jesus spent time with the poor. nearly 80% said yes.

later in the survey, i sneaked in another question. i asked this same group

of strong followers whether they spent time with the poor,

and less than 2% said they did.” (113)

-

“we can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did…

we can adore his cross without taking up ours. i had come to see that

the great tragedy in the church is not that rich christians do not care

about the poor but that rich christians do not know the poor.” (113)

-

“i truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning.

and when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end. (114)

soooo adorable.

jars.

live fully.

“people who have only good experiences aren’t very interesting.

they may be content, and happy after a fashion, but they aren’t very

deep. it may seem a misfortune now, and it makes things difficult,

but well—it’s easy to feel all the happy, simple stuff.

not that happiness is necessarily simple.

but I don’t think you’re going to have a life like that,

and I think you’ll be the better for it.

the difficult thing is to not be overwhelmed by the bad patches.

you must not let them defeat you.

you must see them as a gift—a cruel gift, but a gift nonetheless.”

-peter cameron

i saw this on another blog-that i'm currently obsessed with-

and wanted to share it. there are many verses that state this same

thing in a different way...

romans 5:3-5 not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

james 5:11 as you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. you have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

james 1:2-4 consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

so whether you wish to be interesting, deep, better, a receiver of all gifts,

one who perseveres, has good character and knows true hope,

counted as blessed, purely joyful, or mature and complete, not lacking

anything, then i'm afraid you must suffer, struggle, and experience

misfortune. and in the end, this is what will make you a person

who knows what it is to live and live fully.

shelves.

water.

i was going to summarize this post by sophia bush on her own blog

and put it into mine, but instead i decided to just paste what she said in here. :)

She says it well, so why spend time trying to change it? here you go...

December 6, 2010

Water Bobble

It's no secret to any of you who pay attention to what I'm up to that I am incredibly passionate about the environment. Sometimes my 'green tweets' are overwhelming, I know. But I cannot suppress my passion for the earth. And neither should you. We live here! And we've got to take care of this place. After all, it's a pretty amazing planet.

And this big blue ball we all live on is a whopping 70% water. Maybe that's the reason that most people don't realize we are in a water crisis. But the climate is changing, and so is the availability of clean water. In many countries clean water is not available at all. Thus you can imagine why I am bummed that more people don't consider the source of their water, or even realize that it is precious.

A lot of us satisfy our desire for 'clean' water by going out and buying bottled water by the caseload. But here's the funny thing. Bottled water is less regulated than municipal or city water. I know that tap water can often taste funny, but usually that's just minerals or leftovers from the purifying process - And bottled water is expensive! On average, in America alone, $17 billion is spent per year on the stuff! And for what? To have water you can carry around with you? I am a fan of staying hydrated, but is it worth that kind of dough? I think not.

The expense aside, bottled water is also costly to the environment. It takes over 1.5 million barrels of oil per year just to make all of the plastic bottles that hold the overpriced water that isn't as clean as the water that comes out of your tap. And sadly, most of those bottles are never recycled. EACH plastic bottle thrown away takes anywhere from 450 – 1,000 YEARS to decompose!!! And we throw away millions per year in the US alone. So clearly that is not working out for us.

But this amazing little device is working. The Water Bobble. The makers say it better than I can. "We set out to satisfy our desire for fresh, clean, portable water while minimizing the considerable costs bottled water imposes on our environment and ourselves. We decided to reinvent the water bottle. We needed our bottle to be recyclable and resilient. We needed to hold costs down. We refused to sacrifice style in favor of function. In essence, we wanted it all." And they got it.

These bottles are manufactured here in the USA, they are certified BPA-free, Phthalate- and PVC-free, and made from recycled PET. They are also recyclable should you ever tire of them. They come in a 13oz, 18.5oz, and a 34oz size. The adorable little filters, which come in a variety of colors and last two months each, are carbon based. They remove organic contaminants and they also exceed the NSF International Standard (sounds fancy doesn't it?) for reducing chlorine taste and odor. BAM. No more funny tasting tap water! And, since the filter is built into the sport top, anywhere you go, anytime, you can fill up your bobble, and it filters your water as you drink it. No extra step necessary. You don't need to fill up a big filtration jug at home. You don't need to worry about finding 'clean' water to go in your reusable bottle. You make your own.

You can peruse their site for more info.

http://www.waterbobble.com/

And if you want to know how lucky we are to have clean water, check out Charity:Water. This is one of my favorite groups, working tirelessly to bring a basic human need to those who need it most. Did you know that "almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. Unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all disease and kill more people than all forms of violence, including war?"

Check out the site to learn more.

http://www.charitywater.org/

end of the semester sentiments

the irresistible revolution: part lll

quotes from the irresistible revolution, chapter three.

you can read part l and part ll here and here.

"from my desk at college, it looked like some time back
we had stopped living christianity and just started studying it." (71)
-
"we pretend to be unable to understand [the Bible] because we know
very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act
accordingly. take any words in the New Testament and forget everything
except pledging yourself to act accordingly. my God, you will say, if i
do that my whole life will be ruined." (soren kierkgaard, 71)
-
"i went looking for a christian. i looked around hoping to find
someone else who might be asking, what if Jesus meant the stuff
he said? and i kept coming across dead people...
it was hard to miss that these dead people might have lived a little
longer had it not been for reading this little Book." (72)
-
"we are called not to be successful, but faithful"
(mother teresa, 78)
-
"what we are doing may seem insignificant, but it is more
important that we do it." (78)
-
"we can do no greaty things, just samll things with great love,
it is not how much you do, but how much love you put
into doing it" (mother teresa, 78)
-
"i also heard many a volunteer scolded for not putting enough
gravy on the rice, since the plate was being served to Jesus himself." (78)
-
"as you walk into [the morgue in the home for the dying in calcutta],
a sign on the wall read,s "i'm on my way to heaven" and when
you turn around to walk out, another sign says "thanks
for helping me get there". i could truly say, "where, oh death,
is your victory? where, oh death, is your sting?" (1 cor. 15:5) (79)
-
" was finally seeing a church that was storming the gates
of hell itself to save people from its horrors" (79)
-
"the true atheist is the one who denies God's image in the
'least of these' (dorthry day, 79)
-
"we are the flesh and blood of Jesus alive in the world
through the Holy Spirit-God's hands, feet, ears." (79)
-
"namaste means "i honor the Holy One who lives in you" (80)
-
"one of the lepers explained to me that oftentimes
lepers don't even know the words thank you because they
have never needed to say them." (81)
-
"what would the world look like if we truly believed,
as the apostle paul figured out, that we no longer live, by only
Jesus lives in us (gal. 2:20)? (84)
-
"Jesus healed the sick, but they eventually caught some other
disease. He fed the thousands, and the nest day they were hungry
again. but we remember his love. it wasn't that Jesus healed a leper
but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers.
and the incredible thing about that love is that it now lives inside of us." (85)
-
"beyond the miracles, what has lasting significance is love" (86)
-
"i remember praying the leper colony each morning with the brothers,
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
and perhaps for the first, time those were no longer empty words
that i hoped would come true someday. they became
words we are not only to expect to come true but also to enact." (87)
-
"a new community marked by interdependence and sacrificial love" (87)
-
after mother teresa died, i was in an interview with some reporter
who asked me if mother teresa's sprit will live on. i said, "to
be honest, mother teresa died a long time ago, when she gave her
life to Jesus. the joy and omcpassion and love that the world
finds so magnetic are only Jesus, and that is eternal." (88-89)
-
"i knew we could not end poverty until we took a careful
look at wealth." (89)
-
"i was returning to a land of lepers, a land of people who had
forgotten how to feel, to laugh, to cry, a land haunted by numbness." (89)