Sacred Mundane: The Blog

Summer is here!!! 

My favorite things about summer: Oregon strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries (are you noticing a theme?), fresh salads, dinner from the garden, early morning sunrises and late night sunsets, and of course–summer reading.

Summer is the time when I stack up on my nightstand all the books I have neglected during the busy year, and dig in like the ravenous bibliophile that I am. A good book, ice cold lemonade, and a lounge chair are all that I need. Of course with two littles I may only make it 1/4 way through my list, but that’s ok. I’ll take what I can get and read the rest someday when they can no longer sit on my lap …

On my nightstand for this summer:

• Love Has a Face by Michele Perry (1/2 way through: Wow!)
• One Million Arrows by Julie Ferwerda
• The Missional Mom by Helen Lee
• From Eternity to Here by Frank Viola (1/2 way through: Great!)
• The Lost Art of Listening by Michael Nichols (1/2 way through:  Very helpful!)
• The Waiting Place by Eileen Button
• Forty Thousand to One by Ben Petrick
• Live Beyond Organic by Jordan Rubin (1/2 way through: Awesome!)
• The Organized Heart by Staci Eastin
• Shopping for Time by Carolyn Mahaney
• A Way With Words by Christin Ditchfield
• Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson
• Love-Powered Parenting by Tom & Chaundel Holladay

(Ok, ok, this list may be a bit long and I have two small children. This may be my Summer Reading List from now until they are graduated from high school….)

Looking for ideas? Might I suggest these must-reads?

• No Longer a Slumdog
• The Hole in our Gospel
• Half the Sky
• One Thousand Gifts

Now, onto the “bite”: The purpose of this particular bite is to downsize. For those of you who know us well you are laughing out loud. We have books. Lots of books. Thousands of books. We both love books and so people give us books and somehow I think our home is a breeding ground for books. That said, we’re learning to purge. We will still keep our well-loved and trusted volumes, and although Tsh says to switch to Kindle … I cannot. At least not now. I love real pages too much. But I’m tossing those that I don’t love. Only the gold nuggets remain. In fact, the back of our car is already packed with 5 boxes of sub-par books headed for the Goodwill truck. We’re on our way!

*THIS JUST IN: just had a great idea from a reader: Check out PaperBackSwap.com and you can swap those mediocre books (in your opinion) for some gems, for free! (Not just paperbacks, any books!) I just signed up and I’m so excited. Check it out!

Finally, just for fun, let’s do a little Summer Reading Giveaway! Here’s the deal:

• Leave a comment sharing 1-3 of your all-time favorite books.
• Toss 5 mediocre books from your house. (recycle or Goodwill or whatever)

So, what’s on your Summer Reading List this year? Do you have some “must-read” suggestions? Please share! I might as well start my 2013 list as well… Thanks for reading!

The sun was shining as I maneuvered my SUV up the winding road lined with lush, green trees. The kids were chatting happily in the backseat as I turned left and followed the signs: DOERNBECHER CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL. We pulled under the massive white arch and pulled into a parking space marked with a smiling child’s face: Patients & Visitors Parking.

I couldn’t help but remember the last time I visited this place, and how I had arrived not in my own car but in an ambulance.  Heidi had quit breathing and we’d dialed 911. They’d whisked us off in an ambulance for the 30-minute drive to this hospital where she received the best of care, and was pronounced absolutely fine, just a little more faint-hearted and breathless than most. (Hereditary?)

Though this visit involved a much more serious situation, our visit was fun and light-hearted. A dear friend’s infant son was having surgery on his skull, and we joined them in the waiting room, Dutch & Heidi providing some comic relief in the midst of their long wait.

As we sat around and chatted we couldn’t help but be reminded how blessed we are to have such tremendous medical care. In developing countries, my friend’s son wouldn’t have the luxury of this surgery, he would instead grow up with severe disabilities.  I too thought of all the children in that place, receiving the finest of care. Though I’m sure there are heart-breaking tragedies every day within those walls, what a remarkable gift that such medical care is even available. We left our visit there rejoicing, and later received a text that the infant-boy was out of surgery and all had gone perfectly. Praise God. 

That afternoon I curled up with a book that painted an entirely different scene. No Longer a Slumdog depicts the reality that hundreds of millions of children wake up to every single day. You’ve probably seen the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, which gives a powerful insight into this atrocity, and in this book KP Yohannan and Francis Chan expand on this to help us understand the reality that millions of children face right now, this very minute:

• 150 million children aged 4-14 are forced to work as child laborers.
• Every year an estimated 1.2 million children become victims of trafficking.
• Nepali women and girls, some as young as 9 years old, are sold into India’s red-light district — 10,000 to 15,000 per year.
• Sri Lanka is touted as pedophile’s paradise, with up to 40,000 child prostitutes–mostly boys–trafficked to serve tourists.
• 250 million people are Dalits in India, below all castes and considered less valuable than animals. Another 500 milion people in India suffer from need and abuse as members of the “Other Backward Castes” (OBCs).
• Together, Dalits and OBCs make up more than 60% of India’s population, representing a population that is well over twice that of the entire United States. In fact, more than 1 out of every 10 people on the planet today is either a Dalit or an OBC. 

So excited to join SimpleHomeschool today! Will you head over there with me? Our topic applies to every area of life…

I am a homeschooling beginner. My only claim to expert knowledge is the fact that I was homeschooled thirty years ago, was raised by a precious homeschool pioneer, and sat clutching my doll at 5 years of age while The Teaching Home magazine snapped our photo for its cover.

I know, hardly expert status. With just two young pupils of my own, I am very much a beginner. Yes, I’ve read books. I’ve learned from Jamie and many others with more experience. My son reads and writes and we practice life curriculum every day. But one of my greatest homeschooling goals is to remain a beginner and help my children do the same.

Instead of raising experts, I hope to raise beginners.

Why? Am I celebrating mediocrity? Encouraging ignorance? … (Read the rest here; Thanks!)

I had just received the email from my agent: She had sent over the book proposal to Moody Press and they were interested. It sounded promising. Chances were they were just receiving it and perusing, perhaps googling my name to figure out who this no-name blueberry-girl was. I clicked down to my next email, from a reader: “Your site hasn’t been working all day…”

What? I click over to here to see. Nothing.

What?! The site is down? I email Jeff. He’s busy, in a meeting. Though I know it’s ridiculous, I feel panicky. We finally have a lead with a publisher and now in the very same hour my site is gone? What on earth?

I begin to pray. And pray. Keep clicking. Still not working. Finally I practice what I preach and go into my bedroom and lower down on my face. Flat.

And remember who He is and who I am.

As clear as an audible voice I hear,

“Everything I have done, I have done in spite of you.”

Three clear pictures come to mind. It’s true:

When I was a Senior in high school I had an interview for the full-ride Ford Foundation Scholarship. Though I was an organized person, I forgot about the interview. The day of I was tooling around the house, when I suddenly realized with horror that my interview was scheduled for that very moment. I threw on clothes, cried my way through the hour drive into downtown Portland, drove the wrong way down a 1-way street, and ran in a dead sprint down the sidewalk in high heels. The scholarship committee had waited an hour past the time they were supposed to leave for the day.  I had spent zero time preparing and apologized a hundred times for being late. In spite of my failure, God gracious gave me the scholarship which paid for my entire undergrad and seminary education. Amazing grace.

When I was 22 and God had broken my heart, I had forgotten about Jeff and was convinced no man would ever love me so why try. I was down, discouraged, depressed. I certainly wasn’t doing anything to “get” a guy, in fact if I were a guy I certainly wouldn’t have wanted me! And it was at that lowest point, when I felt ugly, unwanted, and unloved, and God swooped in brought Jeff to me. At the exact moment I felt most unworthy, He showered me with my husband’s love. Amazing grace.

When we were selling our dream home, and I had worked so hard for almost a year trying to sell it, there came the weekend when I hosted a girl’s retreat, and left the house a mess. Jeff had been home with kids and had scurried out the door for church with the house in complete disarray. After 90+ showings of the house being perfect, it was this day that our house sold. It was this day, when our house was most imperfect, that the perfect buyer came and made us an offer. In spite of our mess, our weakness, our imperfections. Amazing grace. 

Isn’t that the beauty of the gospel? God loves to do His work in spite of us. On the day we feel most unworthy, in the midst of a situation we’ve thoroughly botched, when failure is the only emotion we feel, in a way that leaves no shadow of a doubt that He is God and we are not, that all glory and honor belong to Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will, for the glory of His name.

Everything He has done, He has done despite us.

Rest in that today, dear friends. He does it all despite us.

~

(No, I haven’t heard from Moody yet… keep praying? Thanks for reading.}