I got my first smartphone three years ago – the HTC Eris, one of the very first Droid devices. Let me be clear, I am NOT an early adopter type. I wouldn’t even have hopped on the smartphone bandwagon back then, but my ex got a new cell phone carrier and data plan without consulting me, so I was locked in. Once I had one, I really enjoyed it, but I still didn’t care about keeping up with the latest, coolest technology. So I’ve hung on to my Droid long past my renewal date. However, this year I started to see the benefits of the iPhone, at the same time that my Droid started having hiccups. I decided that when the iPhone 5 came out, I’d get the 4S because it would be super cheap then! Right? WRONG. When I excitedly logged onto Verizon around the release date, the 5 and the 4S were the SAME PRICE. So I disgustedly gave up and ordered the 5. I’ve since learned that you have to wait several weeks (or longer) after a new release to see a price drop on the old version, but what’s done is done.

My shiny new phone finally arrived yesterday! I’m excited, but am having a hard time setting it up, and I’m not even 100% sure it’s connected/working. I can barely navigate it. This completes my personal switch to Apple, but apparently my learning curve is still steep. I also hoped this phone and its 4G could overpower whatever secret signal blocker is installed in my office building, but the battery is draining just as fast as the Droid’s did. Bleah.

Anyway, I welcome tips, app recommendations, and links to sales on the new charger. :) I get to join Instagram now! Yay!

2 Comments + Posted in: what i'm into

This week I’ve listened to a couple of sermons that have blown my mind. You can listen here and here. The pastor, Jean Larroux, was an assistant pastor at my church YEARS ago. I used to go to all his Bible studies (and I wasn’t even attending there at the time). Now he has his own church in Alabama, and I sometimes listen to his sermons online while I work. In this series he’s addressing “parking place theology” – the false belief that obedience should equal blessing. This is rooted in a false belief that, even as Christians, in Christ, we still have to work to appease God or put a smile on His face – e.g., we do a good deed, and God rewards us with a good parking place at Target. When we believe this, our faith becomes no different from karma, or tribal people making sacrifices to the rain god. Wow.

When I really started to think about this topic, I was STUNNED by all the ways it manifests in my life. As Jean says, it’s easier, for some of us, in theory, to live by the Law than by grace. I am a born Good Girl and rule-follower. I like a how-to. I like a list of concrete steps which, if followed correctly, will yield a good, predictable result and a gold star. I can endure a lot of difficult things if I know there will be some reward or payoff. But we’re not promised a payoff in this life. Many of us have sought and struggled to honor God and do the right thing in the midst of tragic or unjust circumstances, and bad things happened anyway. Sometimes they kept on happening. Or we just didn’t get the rewards we were expecting. I have a lot of personal experience with this. I do believe that God, like any Father, is pleased when we genuinely want to please Him, but we shouldn’t do so to earn His love or anticipate some compensation for those lame efforts.

I’m muddled about how redemption factors into this whole deal. Where’s the line between hoping for God to redeem a wrong or loss (which He’s proven throughout Scripture and history that He loves to do), and looking for our good parking place? I don’t know. I will never have all the answers. But these messages gave me a start.

3 Comments + Posted in: faith

(I welcome muffin tin cleaning tips)

Now that it’s October, I can enjoy all the pumpkin things I want without feeling weird about it! A friend linked me to this banana oatmeal muffin recipe, and of course I adapted it for pumpkin. You could really make these with any fruit! As made below, these muffins are around 140 calories each and LOADED with Vitamin A (I ran it through a recipe calculator). They’re also flourless, which I guess is healthier and provides an interesting texture. The best part: the only bowl you need is a blender! No need to pre-beat eggs or separate wet and dry ingredients. Fastest cleanup ever.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins
Makes 12.

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups oats (whatever kind you have on hand, though old-fashioned is preferred)
1 cup plain lowfat Greek yogurt (I used Dannon Light & Fit)
2 eggs
¾ cup sugar or sweetener of your choice
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¾ cup to 1 cup canned pumpkin (or other pureed fruit of your choice)
Pumpkin pie spice to taste
Dash of vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare a 12-cup muffin tin. If you’re using paper liners, be sure to spray them well – the batter will be sticky.

2. Put oats into the blender about a cup at a time, blending until smooth. Add the other ingredients and blend. You will have to stop and stir a few times.

3. Divide batter into muffin liners (very easy since you’re pouring it directly from the blender) and bake for 20-25 minutes.

I’m excited about further experiments with this recipe!

4 Comments + Posted in: baking, fall

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To Be Told: Know Your Story, Shape Your Future by Dan Allender
I read/studied this book over the summer with some ladies from church, and finished it on my own this month. It didn’t provide me with a life path or anything, but it affirmed some things I’ve already learned. It can be slow going, but everything really came together in Chapter 10. I highlighted almost the entire chapter.

Julia’s Cats: Julia Child’s Life in the Company of Cats by Patricia Barey and Therese Burson
I needed this charming, uplifting read (with adorable photos of cats!). As the title indicates, it’s a little Julia Child biography anchored around the cats in her life. I’ve been going through a Julia Phase for a couple of years, and as a fellow cat person, I loved hearing her story from this angle.

Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will by Kevin DeYoung
My small group leader gave me a copy of this book after I mentioned my fear of making wrong decisions. The message is that God’s will is not as mysterious or personalized as most of us are taught. God doesn’t turn us out into a maze and expect us to figure out His specific plan for our lives – He gives us wisdom to make good choices, and freedom to choose among options that are pleasing to Him. For the most part, this book encouraged and refreshed me!

Major Crush by Jennifer Echols
I’ve always wanted to write the Great American Band Novel, and Major Crush is by far the best example I’ve found so far! Virginia and Drew are new co-drum majors of their high school band. With controversy over Virginia’s election as drum major, a last-minute change of band directors, and the fact that Virginia and Drew aren’t speaking to each other, things are looking bleak. Can they achieve success as a team both on and off the field? This was my first Jennifer Echols book, and I’m looking forward to reading more of her stuff. Based on her other book covers, I didn’t expect her to be so funny – like a YA Jennifer Weiner. It’s obvious that she wrote this partly from experience, because the little touches of band life ring so true. LOVED IT.

Slammed by Colleen Hoover
I reviewed this here. Very good!

Starring Me by Krista McGee
I reviewed this here.

All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin
This novel, set in NYC in the late 21st century, combines elements of The Godfather, Charles Dickens, The Hunger Games, and many other well-known themes into a really original, engaging story. Anya is the unwitting heiress of the Balanchine crime family (specialty: chocolate production and smuggling), which is falling apart years after the murder of her parents. After years of staying out of the action to protect her siblings, Anya is gradually forced into the leadership role that is her destiny. I liked this book SO much more than I thought I would! (It doesn’t hurt that it shares a title with one of my favorite songs of all time.)

Books for September: 7
2012 year to date: 52

Add a Comment + Posted in: book reviews, reading

I’m having a moment of deep contentment with my life. They hit me every once in a while. I’ll be driving, or hanging out with friends, or on the couch with my cats, and I’ll just think, My life is really okay. For a little while I’m untouched by worries about the future, or the constant feeling that I’m a disappointment. I can exist in the moment, knowing that while I still wish some things were different, what is RIGHT NOW is good and fulfilling and can be honoring to God. I can even choose to be simply thankful for these moments of clarity, instead of turning around and scolding myself for not feeling that way all the time.

The irony is, even in a lot of Christian culture, we’re no longer really encouraged to feel content with our lives. Contentment breeds laziness and not living up to our full potential. Contentment means we must not be aware enough of our sin. Contentment makes you happy with the simple things in life, instead of endlessly striving to build something important and lasting. My small group leader recently gave me a copy of Kevin DeYoung’s book Just Do Something, after I mentioned struggling with fear of making wrong decisions. The book really encouraged me – it’s challenging in a helpful way, not a despair-inducing way. What struck me most about it was DeYoung’s observation that our generation approaches life decisions in the opposite way from the last few generations. For the most part, our parents and grandparents didn’t get all angsty about the direction of their lives. They chose a career, chose a spouse, moved forward on that path, and did the best they could. Whereas our generation is told that we have to keep working until we achieve THE BEST. Only THE BEST possible avenue for our lives will do. It’s not enough to have a job – it has to be the RIGHT job, your CALLING. If you get married, first make sure that person is God’s perfect choice for you! It’s exhausting, and DeYoung gently suggests that it’s all a bunch of crap. The important thing is loving God, keeping His commandments, and developing wisdom, and letting everything else fall into place. That philosophy gives me permission to enjoy life. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have goals, but it’s okay to take joy in a pile of clean laundry (even though it’ll be dirty again tomorrow) or a well-composed e-mail (even though only one person will see it) or brunch on the porch with friends on a sunny day. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, not to complete intensive five-, ten- and twenty-year plans.

On that note: Happy weekend!

5 Comments + Posted in: imperfection, reflections