The Power of Connection

I have always been a "people-person" in that I enjoy being with people and entertaining.  But, this week was one of those weeks that we entertained alot and we spent a ton of time with people (which is why my blogging has been slim!). I hosted a dinner for some models here in the city, our small group had a cookout, some very good friends stayed with us, and I gave a baby shower.  Yes - a little over the top in one week, but honestly, it was refreshing.  A good friend and mentor in my life, Tim Elmore, said that he approaches life and every relationship as a host.  I have tried to live my life that way - I'm sure not succeeding all the time.  What does that mean?  To me, it means seeing how my connection to someone can benefit someone else.  Whether it is introducing a new person in the room to someone I think they might connect with or just making sure no one is sitting alone. Making the effort to be welcoming - to be thoughtful -to make others feel that you are adding value to their life by just being you. We will reach the 6 month mark here in the city next week.  Having a week like this,  I rediscovered just how much more fulfilling my life truly is when I can serve others and do life with them.  The power of connection - it brings perspective to your own life when you share your journey with others.  You get outside of yourself and see the world in a whole new way.

"Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind..."  I Thessalonians 5:11

Neighborhood moments

When you live in one place for along time, you take for granted some of the things that make that place your home.  Moving to a city like NY...well, you can imagine.  This week, I have had a couple of what a friend of mine calls "neighborhood moments."  When you see someone you know on the street and they see you and you both smile.  This place is starting to feel like home and I'm glad.  God has brought and continues to bring new friends into my life each week - new friends to share life with everyday.  It's good..good to feel like I'm home.

My DaVinci Code Movie review

In spite of the negative reviews of the movie, we saw it last night.  Most of the time, I really don't believe reviews because I end up loving a movie that critics hated! Unfortunately, this time, they were right.  I did read the book so I know I had some expectations, but it was such a disappointment.  I am a huge Hanks fan - probably the worst acting I have ever seen from him.  Not only was it slow, the actors lacked emotion and they were not believable.  With SUCH a great cast, I was so frustrated with the lack of character development.  Paul Bettany as the monk was the most believable.  The way it was shot was boring.  They revealed things that didn't need to be stated. OK - I could just go on, but I won't.  If you enjoyed the novel, rent the movie in a few months.  Don't waste your $10.  Go see Over the Hedge with your kids - it was great!

Andrea Zittel: Critical Space

This afternoon , I visited the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Chelsea.  Critical Space is the first comprehensive survey of Andrea Zittel's work to take place in the US. For the past 15 years, she has used her everyday life as the force behind her artwork.  From designing clothes to be worn everyday for 6 months, to creating diets based on dehydrated foods, to making furniture that changes your view of space - she has been willing to explore all of this.  I was amazed at the intellectual depth that was required to create such detail in the furniture and the clothes. She gave such deep thought to how to create spaces.  One of her quotes basically said that creativity is more explored when their are limitations imposed on the creator.  The struggle to fight for creativity helps us to explore spaces that we would have never gone. Total freedom sometimes causes us to not fight for the space.  This resonates with me - I fight for my creative "5 minutes" everyday now  that I am a mother.  If I can write a chorus or re-write a verse of a song that I am working on - I feel very successful.  Andrea's work inspired me today to fight for the space to be creative.

Ipod Confidential

This morning, at my weekly IAM fellowship breakfast, we were discussing music (which is not a regular topic).  We were talking about the fact that in this digital age with ipods, it is NOT cool to just listen to top 40 or main stream music.  The COOL thing now is to have the strangest, most obscure indie band tunes our your "recently added" playlist.  BUT, if we were honest and a reporter was doing an undercover story on our ipods, it would reveal how "uncool" we really are (i.e. - my  table).  Yes, we would have maybe some unknown artist - a friend that has just started to get their music out there or some download from a band we heard about from someone else - but bottom line...we like top 40.  We like Pop music!  We have our Counting Crows, Justin Timberlake, Goo Goo Dolls, and maybe (like my friend ,Stan) Celine Dion's greatest hits.  So, it's OK - you can be honest.  We are not as cool as we would like to be.  Confession is good for the soul....

A day in the rain

So, I woke up this morning with a firm resolve..get it done.  When I was in college, my days were ordered for me - class (if you don't go, you fail music classes!), piano/voice lessons, rehearsal with the band I played in, and food.  I find as I get older my mind tends to wander to so many things I want to do and not the things I need to do.  Probably not much different from your life . Time is a luxury that should never be wasted. It has been raining here for 2 days and I have a tendency to get melancholy when it rains.  BUT, today, I got it done.  Yes, it is the end of the day, but I got this blog in, didn't I?  Why am I rambling about something so trivial?  Today was a good day.  It doesn't matter what I had to do today - the point is that I had a good day and I want to celebrate that.  I don't celebrate the good days as much as I should.  I tend to dwell on the days I didn't feel a success as a wife, mother, employee, or follower of Jesus. Today - I made it happen.  I just wanted you to know...

Why Church?

The hardest thing for me about attending church is my familiarity with the whole deal.  I grew up in a preacher's home and I have been on staff at various churches in some role for almost 12 years.  I have attended a variety of worship services from the Don't-even-think-about-making-a-sound-in- here to the did-we-even-talk-about-God-at-all experience and everything in between.  It's hard for me to even sit in a service and not immediately start dissecting elements.  My brain is messed up - I know that and I have to deal with that.  BUT, before you begin to think I have become a cynic (which there have been times in my life that I definitely fell into that category) I do have something positive to say. In the last year,  I have sensed in my soul a need to connect the past with the present when I worship God corporately more than ever-total connection.  I didn't grow up with alot of tradition in our worship style which I think gave me the opportunity as a teenager to engage with my dad in planning services.  However, there is something that stirs in my heart when I hear about how faith in Christ has withstood the ages through wars, sickness, government, and man's arrogance.  When I participate in responsive readings written many years ago, I feel connected to those writers.  When I read aloud from God's Word with other people who are on this journey with me, I feel connected to them.  When I sing a song written last week, I am overwhelmed at the freshness of God's Spirit in our lives.  When I sing a song I have known since childhood, I am connected to a God that knew me before I really knew Him.  This TOTAL connection I speak of I experienced yesterday when I attended Trinity Church in Greenwich, Conn.  There was a freshness as well as a respect for the sacred that engaged me wholeheartedly.  I worshiped God and my heart was encouraged.  Thank you, Ian, and your team for creating a worship experience that allowed me, the calloused-sometimes-cynical worshiper to drop my guard for a moment and commune with God.

Screwtape on DaVinci Code

Screwtape On The DaVinci Code
by Eric Metaxas

My dear Wormwood,

I trust this finds you as miserable and stupid as ever. I am pleased to take a respite from our usual tutorial and venture into something a bit broader, but vastly instructive for our larger purposes. To wit: I shall today croak a paean of praise to a particular work of middlebrow non-fiction. The genre has been particularly good to us, Wormwood! Do you remember The Passover Plot? Or that excellent hoax by Erich von Daniken, In Search of Ancient Astronauts? You may snigger now, but in its day even that harebrained rant proved helpful to our cause. As did most of the books on The Bermuda Triangle and "UFO's". And don't get me started on Shirley MacLaine's Out on a Limb! Oh, but Wormwood! Those books were mere types and shadows of the one that has in these last days transported me to ecstasies of embarrassing intensity. It is a type of "romantic thriller" (penned by someone under the unwitting tutelage of an old crony of mine from the Sixth Circle); it is titled The DaVinci Code...

to read the rest of this, go to www.ericmetaxas.com

Chris, I'm sorry!

Yes, I am an American Idol fan.  This year has been the best overall in talent, in my opinion, so as a singer, I have looked forward to Tuesday nights.  It's my fault and the millions of other people who thought Chris had it wrapped up and didn't vote on Tuesday night - I am so good about voting every week, and yet, I forgot on Tuesday and I am sick about it! So, Chris, I apologize.  No matter though, I WILL buy your record when it comes out! Those who are left are not the best 3 of this season, by far.  So, once again, America gets so close and then we drop the ball.  So who am I pulling for now?  I'm going to have to go with McPhee.  She has the most potential as a singer to really go somewhere because of her musical background and versatility.  Her record will be phenomenal! So, I am a little down today - but it's my fault..sorry, Chris - you are still the man!

Uncreated One

We finished a sermon series at the Gallery in March on the attributes of God and we were memorizing Psalm 19 as a team during this series.  I wrote this song out of just living in that passage for the past few months - really trying to wrap my mind around the concept that God has been and that He has no beginning.  I think I understand better the no end thing, but no beginning really makes my mind just baffled.  Thus the title...this is just a vocal and keys so be gracious, but I really want to put it out there for you to listen to and wrap your mind around this concept.  Oh, and read Psalm 19 today if you get a chance...