One thing

There are a lot of things I could tell you about today, but this seems to be consuming my thoughts...

... was released today. I'm not sure music has ever been more personal. I'm not a musician, and I've never popped in a cd and heard my own grief until today. I know it is their grief, but at the same time, in that deep sense of community, it is ours as well. It was like hearing, knowing, and feeling every note. Kyle talked about how their music always magnifies the voice of our church in the world. To me, grief and hope have been the biggest sentiments in our voice these past months. B Collision rings them loud and clear.

Nerd Alert!

Luke just gave me a nerd alert for being at home on a Friday night and working on my sermon. Ok, maybe I am a bit of a nerd, but it's my first time to preach at Journey and the first time I've spoke in a church on a Sunday and people have actually allowed me to call it "preaching". I am excited and slightly nervous, but it's a good nervous. Pray for me Sunday at 5pm and before then if you get a chance.

Journey Road Trip to Waco

So, my amazing mentor, Danielle Shroyer, is preaching at UBC this Sunday!!!! It is very exciting. I am glad my Waco community will get to meet her. I am coming along with some friends from Journey. So UBC pals, if you are free for lunch on Sunday, we should definitely hang out. I am so excited that my two worlds are going to collide.

DC*B Could Be MSN's Artist of the Month!!!!!

How exciting!!!! Here's a blurb from the msn web site. I'm thinking this is closer to the credit they've been deserving for a long time.

David Crowder Band
In only a couple of years, David Crowder and his band have single-handedly redefined what contemporary Christian music should sound like. While Crowder is unafraid to make direct and straightforward pledges to his savior, he seems extremely restless creatively and tries his hand at any style that suits him. Even Crowder's fans in the Christian music community had to be blown away by the album "A Collision or (3+4=7)," a literate, pensive and complicated album about death. It won the Dove Award for Best Rock Album, and has even secular fans wondering what's up next.
Vote now for Artist of the Month

Today

It's been a sad day for me to be alone in the city, away from so many people I love. Today is my sister's birthday, and I'm not there. I cannot tell you the last time I was there for one of her birthdays, but tonight my mother was fixing ozark pudding for her. This is a favorite dessert of my family, which is tricky to make and incredibly fattening, so my mom hasn't made it in years, and it's 35 for the sister. That seems like a big one.

Jennilyn and Kyle shared a birthday, so everyone back in Waco is on my mind today as well.

Josh is in Calcutta for the next few days spending time at Mother Teressa's house of the dying. How hard. I can barely imagine what it must be like for him to be there. I've always imagined it as one of the most compassionate and sad places on earth.

I tried to make the most of the day though. I drove to the supermarket in Josh's Xterra and listened to Cademon's "Mother India" and cried and prayed for a little while. I bought cupcakes for women's group tonight in honor of Jenni and Kyle. Jen Wilson, former UBC all-star and charter Journey girl, stuck around and we told Ubc stories. It was a good ending to a bittersweet day.

Rubble

So I just finished reading Plan B by Anne LaMott. Wonderful. Part of my mentoring experience is leading a women only group on this book. We met for the first time last night, and next to getting to hang out with Danielle, it was probably the highlight of my time in Dallas thus far. I love hearing people's stories.

I am beginning to develop a sincere appreciation for LaMott. As Danielle said today I can't agree with everything she says, but I really appreciate her perspective. I didn't stay in bed crying when we went to war in Iraq, but I like her because she did. Yeah, she's probably more "liberal" (whatever the heck that means) than anyone sheltered me has ever met, but I like getting to love someone I strongly disagree with. I might dump Donald for her actually. What a scandal! Maybe I like her so much because she is an emotional window pane. She's love a whole lot, and she's deeply experienced loss. Anyways, I just wanted to share probably my favorite part of the book. It seems like it applies to my life right now as well as so many other people I care about.

"Rubble is the ground on which our deepest friendships are built. If you haven't already, you will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and you never completely get over the loss of a deeply loved person. But this is also good news. The person lives forever, in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through, and you learn to dance with the bandaged-up heart. You dance to the absurdities of life; you dance to the minuet of old friends. "

Thank God for friends, and liberal women with dreads.

Crushes

Thursday, some girlfriends and I were having a conversation about crushes. I have two kinds of crushes. The first and much less serious ones are on boys who smell good, look good, and make me giggle. I never fall hard for these guys. They are usually too good looking to be trusted. By that I mean that there are about a million other girls who they could choose, most of whom are much prettier than me. Very similar to a celebrity crush. The second kind happens almost in a split second, and boy are they stubborn. These are the guys who are genuinely good and kind and you know it from the first time you meet them, and I average at least a year on a boy like that. Seriously. It's happened to me about four times. Once in high school, twice in college, and once more in seminary. Sometimes you just know some is amazing from your first encounter. I've never been hoodwinked. All those fellas have turned out to be even more phenomenial than I expected, although they never crush back. That's the part that sucks. I really don't know why I am writing about this, but I've just been thinking about it. No Dallas crushes yet, except maybe the boy who sold me furniture, but I'll never see him again. That was a type A crush though. Those really don't count.