What are two things that just get you fired up? That make your heart rate soar and your adrenaline flow when you are confronted with them? The things you would fight for regardless of how foolish you looked, or how alone you stood?

Mine are injustice and disrespectfulness.

What are yours?

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It’s time to do this again…I am bumping this post to the top on the account of “meeting” about ten new people this week who have either been lurking a while and have just started commenting, or have just recently found this little corner of the web!

So…I am wondering who else is out there!

Without further adieu…please introduce yourself if you already haven’t below…and read through the list of FlowerDusters (did I really just write that? YIKES!) who often drop by my humble abode.

who are you?
where are you?
whaddya do?
how’d you get here?

anything else on top of that is icing on the cake!

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I rarely post actual journal entries on my blog, but i was feeling very Jerry Maguire last night as we drove to a screening of the movie first snow (which, by the way, was so-so). You know the moment when Jerry wakes up in a cold sweat and composes his mission statement [not memo]? I had one of those moments last night. It is very rambling (thus the reason i rarely post journal entries) and hopefully by some miracle you will make it through….Here goes:

Unity. Something I have been seriously testing my heart on lately. Unity within the Church is so hard to come by lately it seems. From internally (my perspective as a PK growing up, and spending collectively seven years in full time vocational ministry)…it is so easy to tear down individual people with whom you work, to get frustrated with a certain department or ministry within the organization.

And externally: gossip, lying, betrayal; the Body of Christ beating up other members without a second thought. Generally speaking, local church congregations are competing instead of partnering to impact the communities in which we all are placed to be the Christ to those around us.

While there is always room for constructive criticism, iron sharpening iron per se, it should be handled with love, and Biblically, face-to-face. Not behind closed doors (or behind backs).

In the area of communication within a local church, something I have been a part of for the last two years, we especially are ever-so-fierce (without intending to be, I’m sure).

I have both been on the giving and receiving end of other church’s communication pieces, being hypercritical of their design and mistakes. I have also been hypercritical of ministries within the congregation where I serve.

What is troubling is the ease of which I have done this, and also have seen it done. When I truly reflect, I feel such conviction about conversations in which I have taken part, grumbling about this person, this ministry, this church…and how desensitized many of us have become.

These rants (subtle or obvious) litter our everyday conversations, blog posts, emails. And if we are so vocally open about them, what is truly the condition of our hearts concerning unity?

What is the condition of mine?

We tear apart the Body, piece-by-piece, oblivious to our actions…or their consequences. Again I quote the great Colson: Unity is the single most effective form of evangelism. I am learning how important this unity is. For the sake of believers…but also for the sake of those who don’t yet believe.

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there are only 36 blogs to which i subscribe. i check out probably double or triple that on any given week, but i am only subscribed to 36. some of them haven’t updated for a while. i’m getting bored.

who should i read? why?

(by the way, i’ve added some easy options if you don’t subscribe to flowerdust.net and would like to. they are over there on the right…see ‘em? very well.)

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last week, i got to meet with published author, lake pointe member, and overall amazing woman, mary demuth. and recently, we added to our staff the knowledgeble kurt bruner, who was previously on staff at focus on the family, and an author of several books.

both mary and kurt graciously read over the articles i’ve written in the last year, and responded with encouragement and feedback. something that has impacted me the most was something kurt noted:

I encourage you to try telling a few uplifting stories to test your craft. Strange as it may sound, it is easier to write about evil characters in drama, murder in fiction and painful situations in non-fiction than it is to portray the good and beautiful as truly appealing. That is why Tolkien is considered by many to be the greatest writer of the 20th century – he managed to portray the heavy darkness of evil without blinking, yet makes you yearn for the light of goodness.

Yeah, he totally nailed me on that one. So has my husband.

I have a little over a month until my next article is technically “due” and at this point, I know I must venture into the realm of uplifting. Easier said than done. I am by default a melancholy soul, and although consider all things joy, and realize God wants to give me abundant joy, it is easier for me to write about my mistakes and shortcomings (because they end with redemption).

I would really appreciate your prayers as I listen to the Spirit’s voice while determining what I am supposed to write about next month. And if any of you have advice or encouragement or even writers you love that have a more positive slant to their writing, feel free to share their links or articles.

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should i hat?

or should i not?

the other day, chris and i were wandering around urban outfitters at mockingbird station before seeing a movie. i fell in love with a particular pink hat. however, as one would imagine, i can not afford to spend $24 on a hat i would only occassionally wear.

upon discussing this dilemma over dinner with our friend and coworker andrew, andrew mentions he has a few similar hats at home, brings them up to work today, and below is a shoddy camera phone shot of me in said hat.

i have never been a hat-wearer. i have big ears, so maybe i should have been one. last year, i had you vote on my glasses. this year, it’s the hat. i ask again. should i hat? or should i not?

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