Biblical hope is substantial faith regarding the future. Hope looks at the shattered remains of the soul hit by the storm and envisions not merely rebuilding, but rebuilding a life that has even more purpose and meaning than existed before the loss. Hope is the dream of shalom, the anticipation of joy that courses through us and prompts us to rise and rebuild, to envision and risk for what is not yet. Hope takes the experience of loss and powerlessness and uses it as the raw material for writing a new and unexpected story.
– Dan Allender, The Healing Path
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(via People of Wal-Mart)
I loathe Wal-Mart. Especially on weekends. But yesterday, I had one of those realizations that Wal-Mart was the only place with everything on my diverse shopping list. So I headed into the belly of the beast on a Sunday afternoon.
I appreciate Wal-Mart’s low prices and large, varied selection (which is why I have to go there occasionally to avoid making a hundred stops). I like their Canopy home stuff, too. But the size, atmosphere, and inefficiency of the place exhaust me. Even at the back of the store, about a mile from the registers, you can still hear them beeping. Everything is so spread out that I keep missing items on my list and have to turn around multiple times – and, thanks to frequent remodeling, I never know where anything is. And, most of all, there are the people. SO MANY PEOPLE. Everywhere you want to be, there are at least two other people, totally unaware of their surroundings and/or moving at a snail’s pace. There’s always a screaming child within earshot. Finally, every checkout line is at least five people deep no matter what time it is. Going late at night makes no difference at all.
For all of these reasons, I’m usually thisclose to a nervous breakdown by the time I leave Wal-Mart. I don’t have these problems at Target (although their constant restocking is becoming annoying), or at the Neighborhood Market near my house, which is smaller, more convenient, and much more pleasant than a Super store. But if I need bagged salad, feta cheese, a wall clock, and a can of spray paint, it’s still the only option.
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I’m struggling to come up with “original” content today, so here’s a fallish picture and a few good random links:
The Granularity of Prayer, from Conversion Diary.
Hopeful thoughts about Christian growth, from Ligonier Ministries.
Creamy tomato soup, from The Crepes of Wrath (I’m a big fan of all her recipes).
Not failing better, but simply failing, from Work in Progress. This one addresses things I’ve been seriously pondering for a while.
Carried away by grace, from Chatting at the Sky.
Oh, and The Social Network was amazing. I wished I had a big group to discuss it with afterwards. There are a few uncomfortable parts, but it’s a great conversation starter about the changing natures of privacy and business, personal values, etc. It made me thankful to be (barely) a Gen Xer, to have grown up without cell phones and the internet, and graduated college before this Pandora’s Box opened. Also, if Mark Zuckerberg (or at least his movie incarnation) hasn’t been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, he ought to be.
One of the winners of the Myla CD giveaway never e-mailed me to claim her code. She didn’t provide an e-mail address or other way to get in touch with her, so after waiting for a response for two weeks, I will now draw a replacement winner!
And that winner is…CASEY!!!
If you don’t already have the album by now, let me know and I’ll give you a code. :)
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Sorry about the blogging absence – I’ve been in Orlando on business. Although we had meetings and stuff, we also had some fun downtime. Here’s a quick recap:
– We carved out a few hours for outlet shopping, and I found my red wool peacoat at the Gap Outlet! Once again, research paid off – I knew that the price was good and it was the style I wanted. Pictures to come once it actually gets cold enough for a peacoat.
– I enjoyed way too much amazing food:
Ten-layer carrot cake – appropriate for a dinner on 10-10-10.
– At one of the lunches, the CEO sat at our table, right next to me! I was intimidated and afraid of saying something stupid, but I did chat with him a little bit.
– We went to the Everglades for airboat rides and an alligator show. I was thrilled to be in such a Florida environment and couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. We saw lots of birds:
Great blue heron
Egrets and ibis
Bald eagle!
Then I got to hold an alligator! This one was about four years old, and it felt nice. :)
– One night some co-workers and I went to Downtown Disney:
– At the Orlando airport, I was pre-flagged for random screening. It had never happened to me before, and I had to wait at the first checkpoint for fifteen minutes with no explanation. Then I was patted down and questioned while they examined every item I had on my person. It was fairly traumatic. I mean, I’m glad it keeps airports safe, but they could be a little more sensitive to nonthreatening women traveling with equally non-threatening-looking female co-workers.
Other than that, it was one of my most pleasant business trips ever!
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