Silver and Sea Cows

As I mentioned a little bit ago, I've been reading through the book of Exodus, reviewing the ins and outs of the establishment of the Jewish religion. God goes into great detail, telling Moses exactly how the Tabernacle is to be built and how the priestly garments are to be made, and I must confess that I found the descriptions to be a bit tiresome. Somewhere in the middle of reading about breastplates of gold and sapphires and curtains made of the hides of sea cows, the thought occurred to me. "Where in the world did they get these?!? They're in the middle of the desert! Where does one find a sea cow in the desert?"

And I thought back to the earlier chapters in Exodus. God first mentions it in ch. 3. "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians" (Ex. 3:21-22). When I initially read it, I thought, "Way to go, God! Make those Egyptians pay them back for all those years of slavery. Give those Israelites all the silver and gold that they want!" It wasn't until I was reading about the tabernacle that I saw the bigger picture in it all.

God miraculously freed the Israelites and He certainly wanted to bless them in every way possible. Giving them extravagant gifts was a part of that blessing. But God didn't want the Israelites to just hoard all their silver and gold for some unknown time or circumstance in the future when they might need it. He wanted them to use it, to give it back to Him to be a part of a much bigger plan that would allow them to commune with His presence in a way that they had never known. And He not only gave them the material goods to do this, but the actual talents to carry it out, too, through Bez and Oli (as we call them to the kids in our ministry).

It was an incredible picture to me of the true perspective of God's blessings, whether they be material, emotional, or physical talents. Too often I'll receive them and think, "God's giving this to me because I deserve it after all the struggle I went through." In all reality, He's giving it to me to provide me with the opportunity to be a part of a much bigger plan and purpose that He's always orchestrating. Andy Stanley refers to our tendency toward greed in his book that I've referenced several times, It Came From Within. He states, "When we don't have enough, we wonder why. Why not wonder when we have more than enough?" What a challenge to continually remind myself that I am not my own, therefore I must ask my owner what He would like done with whatever plunder He has blessed me with, and choose to gratefully turn over my "sea cows" to His purposes.

Casual Friendships

So one Sunday this past October, Leah Edwards enjoyed a dream come true. I was given two tickets to go to my very first Steeler game. They played the Broncos. They lost. It didn't matter. The day was a perfect day with my dad. While we were exploring Heinz Field, we found this "Designated Driver Booth" that gives you coupons for free medium Cokes if you agree not to drink at the game. We jumped on the deal, enjoyed the Cokes, and later that night, I went to this website to sign up for a special contest they were advertising where you could win an all-expense paid trip to the Super Bowl (if your favorite team was going).

I didn't think much of it until last week when I received an e-mail. It said, "Congratulations, Leah! You are the Steeler's representative for the Responsibility Has Its Rewards Sweepstakes. Even though the Steelers aren't going to the Super Bowl, one of the 30 people that are left can win an all-expense paid trip to the Pro Bowl the week after." (For those of you who are not aware, the Pro Bowl is played in Honolulu, Hawaii.) Yes, I heard my mother's voice in my head telling me this was a scam where they wanted my social security number and bank account, so I called the guy to verify. He said it was true. I said,

"SHUT UP!!!!" (I wrote it in caps for a reason. I think the guy's hearing is still recovering.)

I was so excited to have a 3.33% chance (plus Jesus) to win this trip. In order to qualify, however, I had to verify that I could go from February 8-11 (check!), that I wasn't an employee of the Steelers, NFL, Heinz Field, or Aramark Corp (check!) or a family member of someone who was (check!) OR a friend (ummmmm . . .).

Now let's define "friend." I have struck up an acquaintance, ok, let's say casual friendship with a Steeler player and his family who started going to my church over this last year. What to do?!? There was only one thing I could do. I explained my casual friendship and begged that it wouldn't count as a "friend." I was living in Hawaii Hiatus for several days until I heard back on Tuesday. Casual friendships count as friendships. I was disqualified. I'm a little ashamed to say that I cried. Just a little, but tears were shed.

I keep telling myself that casual friendships are way more important than watching the best football players in the nation in one of the most beautiful places in the nation throughout four all-expense-paid days. I couldn't convince myself of it, either. So I upgraded our relationship to a full-fledged good friend. I hope they don't mind. :-)

Aliens

I was reminded of a funny story from my student teaching days the other day. I was taking my class through their spelling words and we were discussing the word "alien." I asked if anyone could give me a definition of the word alien, other than a strange creature from outer space. One little girl raised her hand and said, "Isn't it that little kid from the news who came here on a raft and wants to stay in America?" (She was referring to Elian Gonzalez, the big news story at the time.) I chuckled seeing her simple mistake and acknowledged that he was an alien of sorts, but that's not why he was given that name.

The situation came to mind last night as I was reading through Exodus. Somewhere between cooking goats in milk and more information than I ever wanted to know about the innards of a ram, I noticed a very interesting command of God's. He actually says it twice in a matter of two chapters. "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt" (Ex. 22:21). Again in the next chapter He says, "Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt" (Ex. 23:9).

I suppose it stuck out to me because I wondered why God had to say it, nevertheless say it twice, in the first place. It was not that long since they had left Egypt. Surely, they remembered what it was like to be mistreated and foreigners in a strange land and they would never want to do the same to someone else. Well, wouldn't they?

And then I thought about the typical human response to pain. Whenever we are in some sort of physical pain, it's all consuming. It is very difficult to think about anyone or anything else besides the pain and we can't imagine how we took a pain-free life for granted and vow that we'll never do it again. After the pain subsides, however, it's really easy to forget what that felt like. Maybe we remember that it hurt, but somehow the intensity of the pain gets lost in our memories, and we move on in our healthier existence.

While this may be a gift from our Designer in one sense (as I would imagine women would never have more than one baby if they truly remembered what that pain was like . . . so I'm told), in another sense it can cause us to forget what it felt like to be so helpless, so vulnerable, and in need. We get better and hear stories of others in pain and may sympathize with their situation, but we do not allow ourselves to embrace compassion and empathy and remember, truly remember what it was like to be in that position, a person in physical pain, emotional pain, mental distress, an alien in a foreign land of sorts.

I think that's why God had to remind the Israelites, and why He has to remind me not to mistreat aliens in our land. He knew our propensity to live in a self-centered existence, concerned about our plight when we're in it and quick to forget the feeling when we are freed. I pray that God would help me hear the stories of the hurting and aliens around me and truly hear and see them as He does. I pray that He would give me His heart and guide me with His Spirit to know how to best enter in and use my past pain to soothe the pain of those that He brings to me, "to remember what it was like to be an alien" and bring the freedom that He brought to me to those who also need it.

T-12 Days and Counting . . .

A few months ago, my entire perspective on birthdays was changed when I realized that sometime not long after one's 27th birthday, a very special celebration occurs . . . the 10,000th birthday. That's right. 10,000 days of life. And today, my little Microsoft Paper clip reminded me that mine is coming very soon, on February 5th. I've already got my small group working on some ways that we can celebrate the day as one to remember, but I thought I'd open it up to the blogging world as well. Any ideas out there? And if you'd like to see an example of just how memorable this day can be, check out my initial inspiration. (Thanks, Brad!) If you'd like to calculate your own age in days, use this date calculator.

Leewards, Circa 1993

I was going through a desk drawer today that I haven't cleaned out in at least the last 10 years. I found a wealth of old artifacts, letters, and school assignments, most notably my journal from my 9th grade Honors English class. I had to laugh out loud as I read some of my entries, and realized that this was my first blog (before blogs even existed) in terms of having a public journal for others to read. I thought I'd include verbatim one of my clearly profound entries that I made on September 22, 1993. It is entitled "Personal Chicken."

If I were issued my own chicken I would want to train it to be a wonder chicken. I would name it MacGyver because the TV character MacGyver is an extraordinary man and MacGyver the chicken would be one heck of a chicken. It would take some time and a lot of patience, but eventually MacGyver would be the smartest chicken in the world. I would teach him how to add and subtract corn kernels and when he got the trick I would give him a reward, of course. I would train him to be able to do extraordinary stunts and tricks. Through all the training I would love my chicken and give him the best of care. He would get 50% of all the profits we made and would hopefully be very happy. However, if things don't work out and MacGyver turns out to be stupid, I can always count on him to be a good friend.

If you thought that was entertaining, you should see my entry entitled, "National Aardvark Week, March 7-13."

No Treo!

February 10, 2005. After extensive research, interviews, and yes, even prayer, I made a decision that I considered to be fairly significant. I went to my Verizon store and purchased a Treo 700w, making the big jump to a smart phone. I felt pretty confident about my decision and was excited to use and understand my new major purchase. It was only a matter of days, however, that I began to question my decision. Too many days for me to return the phone without penalty, but not enough days to justify its poor behavior.

I won't go into all the problems that I experienced, but let's just say that I was on a first name basis with several members of the Verizon customer service team after regular phone calls to them lasting anywhere from 20-120 minutes each (which, despite all my frustrations, I have nothing but the highest praises to give them). I met Nic, a helpful and efficient customer service rep training for the national tae kwan do team and the next day I tried to encourage Sarah, another rep in his office, to go meet Nic because he was really nice. (She tried to tell me that I didn't talk to Nic, but spoke with Mario, and I explained to her that although that was his official name, he likes to go by Nic. It's amazing what you can discuss with a complete stranger across the country in a 2 hour conversation.)

Even after receiving a new replacement phone, I have still been extremely unhappy with the performance of my little Treo. I tried to see what my options were yesterday and was told that I can wait until December 10, 2007 to get a new phone or pay $430 for a new one in the meantime. I left the store sad and frustrated, and yes, confused.

I prayed as I left, asking God why I was in this kind of position if this phone purchase was something I prayed about in the first place. Did I hear wrong? Was it silly to pray about a phone decision? Am I over-spiritualizing things? I even talked about it with my mom, and she encouraged me to press in a little more about it.

It seemed like God challenged my thinking to get beyond my perspective in the situation. I thought this was a bad decision, a mistake, a regret. Maybe, His most important priority when He was directing my steps was not my satisfaction with my phone purchase. Maybe He wanted me to cross paths with Nic or Sarah or any of the other customer service reps I met, and He knew that the best way to do that was to buy a phone that I like to refer to as the bane of my communication existence.

And maybe I am just overspiritualizing things and trying to console myself in my poor decision. But at the very least, I will thank God for the opportunity to meet Nic, Sarah, and the rest of the crew and pray that He would continue to work in their lives and help me survive the next 10 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days until December 10 is here at last. :-)

Dancing Popcorn and Cokes

Yep, it's been a long time since I last wrote. I just tried to get through all my regular blog reads and I was doing pretty well until I got to Batterson's blog, and then I just couldn't catch up. This past week has just been one of those weeks when the worlds of school, work, and everything else came crashing together in one crazy altercation that clearly pushed the blogging world and the exercise world out of orbit. I hope to get them back in the regular rotation soon, as I know they serve to add a lot of balance and health to my world.

Speaking of balance, I'm going to try and go get some sleep in the balance. I just thought I'd do a quick sign in and let the blogging world know I'm still here and I'll post more soon. In the meantime, I'd just like to say that although I can't prove it yet, I'm pretty sure that the designers of Spider Solitaire somehow worked subliminal, addictive messages into their game that draws people in to play "just one more game" when they really shouldn't. Kind of like those pictures of dancing popcorn, hot dogs, and cokes in the middle of movie previews that made people storm the concession stands. Sneaky Spider Solitaire people.

Changing of the Guard

I enjoyed a mini-revelation the other day as I was reading through a new book, It Came from Within, and praying afterwards. I love those "Aha!" moments from God. Makes me feel silly that I didn't realize it sooner, but glad that He's patient to teach me just the same.

For many years now, I have always felt challenged by the proverb found in Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." I took the words very seriously, and for whatever reason immediately equated the scripture in the context of relationships. I saw it as a charge to stay emotionally, as well as physically pure when dealing with relationships with the opposite sex, and to not pursue those arenas until God so directed and clearly revealed that this was THE relationship that He had planned for me.

The reason that I've always felt so challenged by this is that I've had a tendency to stay at one of two extremes in this process, finding it very difficult to find a happy medium. I'm get so determined to guard and protect my heart that I end up building walls and barriers that don't allow anyone through, thereby shutting down opportunities and potential for meaningful relationships in any arena. To compensate, therefore, I easily go to the other extreme of wearing my heart on my sleeve and sharing my dreams or hopes or passions or visions with anyone, also not appropriate to what God intended.

I feel like He revealed to me two things:

1. It's not up to me. - I've read Phil. 4: 6-7 many times, but for some reason, never noticed the end of the verse so much. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus." Isn't that cool?!? As I give these matters over to Him, He will take care of it for me!
2. The True Enemy - I had always thought it was important to guard my heart to protect it from hurt and regret. That's why I worked so hard to put up certain walls. In reading Stanley's aforementioned book, however, I realized that the thing I needed to guard against wasn't necessarily getting hurt in relationships, but "heart monsters" like guilt, anger, greed, and jealousy. These are internal enemies and no matter how many walls I may build around me, I will still struggle if I don't ask God to help me deal with these, because I'm still inside the wall. I am the problem! I saw that guarding my heart didn't necessarily mean protecting it from getting hurt as much as it meant guarding and tending to it like a garden, pulling up roots of these "monsters" that will kill it and keeping the soil soft for our Heavenly Father to plant what He wishes.

Obviously, wisdom still plays a big role in appropriate emotional, physical, and spiritual boundaries in relationships, but I feel much more at peace letting God do His part, and working with Him to do mine.

12 Angry Men (and 1 Happy Girl)

Yesterday was one of the best days that I've had in a long time. Truly. One that I genuinely and thoroughly enjoyed. I was so sad to see it end.

I had jury duty.

I realize that sometimes I can be prone to hyperbole and sarcasm, but honestly there is none here. This really was such a fun day for me. A few reasons why:

• A mini-adventure - I realize more and more how important a break from routine is in my life. I think this is why I like traveling so much, too. When we go through our typical routine in life, we are basically in contact with the same 25-75 people each week. When I do that day in and day out, I think I subconsciously define the world as those 50 people, and view my problems, situations, and dreams in relation to how they compare with similar problems and situations of those 50 people. When I break out of my routine, I'm reminded of how big and diverse this world is and consequently, how amazing our God is for creating it all. It puts things in a healthy perspective.
• New learning - I love learning new things and yesterday was a day full of new experiences. I'm pretty sure that those lawyers thought I was a nutcase when I was sitting in the front row waiting to be questioned with a big smile on my face because I was so excited to be there. I learned so much about our judicial system, which is truly amazing when you think about the fact that our founding fathers decided to create a system where people are judged by a jury of their peers, regardless of education, background, race, prosperity, or age. What an incredible responsibility and opportunity we have as American citizens.
• People - I met several new friends throughout the day and was reminded of how much attitude can affect a sitution. 80% of the people acted like they were the ones on trial while others were able to accept the situation and make the best of it. Definitely an important lesson to remember in the future. I loved meeting new people.
• Reading/Writing - I forced myself not to take my computer or work down with me after writing my "stoplight" post a few days ago. I just took my Bible, my journal and a book. How much fun was that?!? I finished the book which was very good and very challenging (It Came From Within, by Andy Stanley) and left feeling so refreshed and energized. The thought occurred to me, "Hey Leah, maybe you don't have to be locked into a room for 9 hours by way of a summons to enjoy time like this? Maybe you can start creating margin for that in your every day life?" Novel idea, isn't it.

I didn't get chosen for any trial, so they say that I can get called again after 1 year from my previous service. Here's hoping! :-)

Mountains and Valleys

Working with students and kids gives you some of the best and hardest moments that you could imagine. These past two weeks have been some of the hardest. The day before Christmas Eve, I got word that one of my favorite middle school kids (who is now 16) was diagnosed with leukemia. The day after Christmas, I heard that two girls (age 10 & 12) who are serving as missionaries in Senegal with their parents, had been hospitalized with a particularly serious form of malaria that resulted in them being life-flighted to Paris and one girl going into a coma. Tonight I just got home from a memorial service for another loved middle school boy (who was now 18) who passed away on New Year's Eve from a drug overdose. I would be lying if I didn't say that there has been more than one time when I've had to ask God, "What is going on here?!?"

I know that He is deeply involved and cares about each of these situations. I praise Him that the boy w/ leukemia seems to be responding from initial treatments, and one of the girls has been released from the hospital and the other is coming out of her coma. And there were well over 500 people who came to the memorial service and heard a message about God's saving grace. Clearly, He is working to redeem and restore that which the enemy clearly meant for evil. But the pain is still there. The hurt is still there. The tragedies are still very real.

Maybe that's why the older I get, the more significant John 11:35 becomes to me. "Jesus wept." I learned it at a young age, being the shortest verse in the Bible, but the profundity in the statement resonates with me anew. His friend Lazarus had died. He knew he was going to die. He knew he was going to raise him to life again. And although there may be much scholarly speculation about why He cried, He cried. Not only cried, but wept. Jesus wept. The raw emotion that He so unabashedly exhibited speaks a world of comfort and compassion to me in these kinds of moments that surpasses any words. I, too, will weep with these families and friends, and I'm sure it won't be the last time. And in the midst of that suffering, my Savior is right there beside me, weeping with me, and speaking forth life into the darkest of situations.

Red Light, Green Light

I read a really interesting post yesterday that challenged my thinking about the Sabbath in a new way.

Mark Batterson's post "E-Mail Resolution" pointed out that taking a Sabbath is in all reality a trust issue, just like a tithe. (You'll have to scroll down a bit to find the post even though it was just posted yesterday. The man is a blogging fiend! What a role model.) For whatever reason, God has extended me a lot of grace that most of the time, it has not been hard for me to give to Him in monetary ways. I trust that He will provide for all my needs and time and again He even blesses me way beyond my needs.

Trusting Him with my time and a sabbath . . . tithing to Him a day of my schedule . . . that's definitely a harder sacrifice for me to lay down. Every ounce of my being wants to keep working to get ahead, and yet, He commands me to rest, to take a Sabbath. I know that I talked about this once before, (see "Super Leah"), but obviously I still have a lot to learn as I still really struggle with it.

So, as I was thinking about this again today, God brought a picture to mind that helped me think of the concept in an even simpler way. I thought of one of the classic playground games of old, Red Light/Green Light. Remember where one person is the "stoplight" and they shout out, "Green light!" when their back is turned and all the other players try and run to them. The "stoplight" turns around at some point, however, and yells, "Red light!" and if anyone keeps moving, they have to go back to the beginning. In order to win and move forward, you have to stop along the way. I guess God knows how to explain the concept to a person who works with children for a living, huh? :-) I want 2007 to be a year when I learn how to play the game better. I hate going back to the beginning.

Things that Make You Go, Hmmmmmm . . .

I've always had a tendency to be somewhat inquisitive. In 7th grade, my teacher actually had to limit my questions to 3 per day because she couldn't handle all the questions. I realized quickly that a lot of my questions were only answerable by God, so I began to write them down so that I could ask Him some day when I was in Heaven. I was so determined about this, that I actually created a plan and asked God to follow it in case of the rapture. I asked Him to take my letter of questions, all my stuffed animals, and my blankies with me when He took me to Heaven so that we could sit in my Care Bear bedroom that He was creating for me and discuss the answers to these deeper things of life. I later decided that my arms would probably be too full to carry all my stuffed animals so we were just going to compromise at my blankies and the letter and I added new stuffed animals to my list for my Heavenly mansion bedroom. Hey, I was 6.

I have to say that although I've matured a bit over the past twenty years, my inquisitiveness really has not changed much (and I'm still negotiating with God about my blankies). As I've been reading through Genesis once again, I've generated more questions that I thought I would post here, not so much as to receive answers, but more to have a backup copy to take to Heaven in case my hard copy is lost. :-) Plus, if any of you have any further insights or ponderings, I'd love to hear about them. Here are a few . . .

• (This one was courtesy of my dad.) God created light on Day 1 and the plants and vegetation on Day 3. Evening and morning was clearly occurring, but the sun and moon and stars were not created until Day 4. Recalling what I've learned in biology in regard to photosynthesis and botany, how did plant life work before the sun was created? How did evening and morning work w/out a sun?
• God commanded man in Gen. 1:28 to, "Be fruitful and multiply." This was pre-original sin. If man had not sinned and death had not resulted, how would we have sustained the space and resources for multiplication on the Earth? Would we have been like Enoch and Elijah perhaps?
• I calculated some of the math that is presented in Gen. 5. If I did my math correctly, I saw that Adam was still living all the way up until Noah's father was living. How do you think people viewed him? With love? With anger? Do you think they talked to him and asked him, "What was it like to actually walk with God?" or "What were you thinking?" Do you think Adam ever wanted to tell them a different story so as to put himself in a better light? Would anyone have known the difference? :-)
• Again, assuming my math is correct, it seems like Methusalah (the famed oldest man) died the same year as the flood. I wonder if he died in the flood? I wonder what Noah's dad and grandfather thought about his whole ark experience?
• The average age of these first 9 generations (excluding Enoch who had some extraordinary circumstances) was about 722 years old. Did that mean that all life's phases became proportionate as well? For example, instead of a teenager being recognized as 13, are they recognized to be a teen at 130 (figuring that a life span today is around 70 years)? Did bodies develop at a different rate? Assuming that the sons listed for each is their first son, why did so many of them wait so long before having kids? This is considerably different after the flood. (Gen. 11)

I'm going to stop now. My head hurts and yours probably does too. Maybe we can make it a big Q & A party in Heaven together someday. I'll even let you hold one of my new stuffed animals. :-)

2007!

So, I just finished catching up on several different blogs that I like to read on a fairly regular basis. Most everyone has created very inspiring and encouraging posts on all they are planning to do and expecting God to do over this next year. It was great reading them, but I must confess that after reading the goals and resolutions of others, I was feeling a little inferior.

Many of my fellow bloggers talked about reading more books, writing new books, praying more, exercising more, learning more, being more disciplined about work, family, and personal holiness, and at the end of it all I looked at my journal and thought, "Is that it?!?"

See, I've been spending a significant amount of time over these last few days in a lot of prayer, reading, journaling, and seeking after God about His plans for 2007. What great new things does He want to do in me and through me and what are all the different ways I need to grow spiritually, professionally, academically, physically, and personally? I was really expecting something big, great, a huge challenge and profound revelation of His plans for this next year. And quite honestly, after about a week of this, I'm left with an impression of one word. Imagine.

If you said, "Huh?" your reaction was very similar to mine. "Maybe you misunderstood me, God. I want clear, definable goals, plans, verses, resolutions, visions for this new year, dreams that are planted by You that I can continually go back to, and see. You've given me one word. What do you want me to do with that?!?"

And that's just it. He told me. Imagine. While I definitely see the value and merit to setting personal goals (and I have set some for this next year), my goals are defined and limited by me. Either I create ones that are so extreme and magnanimous that I end up falling short after 2 weeks of pursuing them, or I create ones that are ridiculously easy that I know that I can achieve.

Besides goals, the new year is also when I reflect and remember various dreams that God has placed on my heart, some that have been there for months and years on end. I confess that remembering the dreams can be somewhat of a bittersweet experience, as I deal with the disappointment of another year passing with them unfulfilled. There's a hesitation to dream that this new year may be the fulfillment, as I know the pain of hopes deferred. Maybe it's just better to lay aside the hope and expect nothing.

But God has clearly spoken to me the Truth of my circumstances and this new year. Imagine. He directed me to Eph. 3:20, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us . . ." The answer is not to give up, not to allow discouragement to have its way. Forget "Expect nothing and never be disappointed." I must imagine. What's more, I need to allow Him to imagine for me, and create dreams, goals, visions that are MORE than I could imagine. And for this girl who has been blessed with an extremely active imagination, that's something that gets me excited.

Imagine. May you, too, experience a year that exceeds the limits of your imagination and that is defined by the ONE who's thoughts are limitless.

Venting

It's the new year and a great time to reflect, vision, look ahead, and blog about all those profound revelations that occur as a result. I'm sure I will try to do that at some point soon, but before I venture forth in such a post, I feel I must get some less profound, yet still important thoughts out on the table. Ok, so maybe important is a bit of an overstatement.

In honor of Bowl Week and the end of the NFL regular season, I thought it would be good to offer a few observations. It'll make me feel better, anyway.

The NFL . . . I'm not even going to get into the lopsided match up of the AFC vs. the NFC. It's not even worth arguing. And I'm trying not to think about the fact that if the Steelers had won just one more game, we would be the rightful wild card once again. (It is very noble of them, however to step back and let some other teams get a chance to try to play football.)

I would like to give some major props to the teams that played with heart yesterday even when the playoffs weren't on the line for them any more. Yay to the Lions, 49ers, Steelers (of course), and the legendary Brett Favre and Green Bay. How much do you love that guy?!?

And finally, I would like to step out and make an admittedly wild prediction for the Super Bowl this year: San Diego Chargers vs. NY Giants. Yep, I know it's crazy, but I've liked the Giants since preseason. If not the Giants, I'm going w/ Chicago. Chargers are going to win.

And for those of you who like football because of the football parties that result, I wanted to include a link to a great recipe perfect for football parties throughout this next week and month. Taco Cornbread Pizza. It's really easy, very tasty, and able to be eaten w/ just your hands while you watch the games. I highly recommend it.

Thanks for letting me vent. Now to some of those 2007 goals, plans, life vision and mission . . .

Generations

We had a really neat time over Christmas dinner when my grandma (Yia Yia, my dad's mom) brought over an envelope of a myriad of family photographs collected over the past 20-80 years. Looking at old photographs is one of my most favorite pastimes when we visit my mom's mom's house, too. Seeing pictures of my mom and dad looking like they came straight out of Bye Bye Birdie is certainly priceless. Seeing pictures of my great grandmother and grandfather on their wedding day, however, was certainly something that struck me as remarkable.

They came over from Greece and my great grandmother married her husband in an arranged marriage where he was 10 years her senior. Can't you see the excitement on their faces? It made me think of all the choices and details and circumstances that had to come together to bring them to that place. They may or may not have given much thought to them, and yet, if even one of those details would have changed, there's a very good chance that I would not even exist today. Pretty sobering, huh? It put several things in perspective.

1) The choices that I make in my life have the potential to impact generations to come. It's important for me to continually stay in touch with my Heavenly Father and the guidance of His Spirit to direct my path each and every day. I have to confess, however, that the more that I thought about this, the more I became overwhelmed with the weight of it all. That's when God helped remind me of my second thought.

2) While it is my responsibility to be actively seeking God, it's His responsibility to lead me. Sometimes I get so anxious thinking that life is this big "Choose Your Own Adventure" book and that if I pick incorrectly, my one wrong choice will ruin the rest of the story to come. I don't want to begin to analyze the theological implications and discussions of free will and God's sovereignty, but I will say, that He has given me a peace to trust in Him, resting in the fact that He is powerful enough and Good beyond what I understand, to lead me along His path more than I want to go there.

Deep thoughts, huh? You can see where all my provocative thoughts led me after a hearty Christmas dinner.

Deepest Apologies

I first must apologize for not clarifying my Christmas hiatus over this past week. I now realize that good bloggers tell the blogging community that they are not going to blog for a bit when they know they are not going to blog for a bit. Forgive me for my blunder. Thank you for your patience.

Christmas was very good. It was definitely a different Christmas than year's past with Ashley and Nate not here on Christmas morning, but it was still a delightful time with family. I actually spent a lot of time studying Samantha's gift to me, which, you'll be happy to know, is a new alarm clock! As you can see, it takes a lot of technical expertise, and I'm pretty sure if MacGyver could get his hands on it along with a piece of gum and duct tape, he'd have some sort of explosive created in no time. In the meantime, I continue to try and figure it out, as I've been roused at 7 AM these past few mornings with what was supposed to be a soothing ocean sound, but in all reality had me awaken with the certainty that I was being chased by a tsunami (the volume was a bit louder than I realized). I'll get it soon, however, and I'm sure my snoozing days will be behind me. Thank you, Samantha! :-)

I Can See Clearly Now . . .

I had my yearly eye appointment a few days ago. I had been noticing over these past few months that my contacts weren't working as well as they had been, getting pretty blurry after a few days wearing them. So, I wasn't really surprised when my eye doctor told me that my prescription had dramatically changed, even though it's been the same for the past six years. I was surprised, however, when he told me that it had dramatically changed for the better. I was seeing better than 20/20 by decreasing my prescription by nearly 40%. He said that by wearing the stronger contacts, my eyes were actually having to work harder to focus, making it just as bad as if my prescription wasn't strong enough. When I left with my sample contacts in with my new prescription, I felt like I was looking at a new world. Leaves on the trees, blades on the grass, details that had previously been just one colored blur. I didn't realize how poor my eye sight had become until I had the opportunity to look through a pair of corrected lenses.

"How often does that happen?!?" I wondered as I left. What actually gets better as time goes by? And I realized that it doesn't, at least not outside of the hand of our Father who is constantly in the business of restoring and redeeming the broken and rundown. The moment we choose to allow Him to lead our lives, we have a new nature, a new way to learn how to think, speak, see (2 Cor. 5:17). And yet, sometimes, I choose to revert back to the old ways, back to the glasses that make me work harder to focus, to really see things the way they are. Praise God that He continually extends the grace, and new lenses, to see things as we were meant to see.

Nice Try

So I was reading Sports Illustrated the other day and I saw these pictures next to a small article explaining what these people are doing. They're playing a game called Feetball. From the best that I can tell, it's a similar theme as volleyball with the exception that you cannot use your hands.

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought, too.

I really think they need to quit trying to make these feeble attempts to create new sports and just accept the fact that everyone knows is true: football is the best sport there is. Let's just say it, embrace it, and move on. Poor people . . . thought they might be able to make a better sport by taking the greatest sport ever and making the named appendage plural. It's a nice try, sports fans, but I have to tell you that it's just not going to work. Football is still the winner. :-)

9 More Minutes

It's pretty much the same thing every morning. Although I've always had a tendency towards this sickness, I have to say that the disease has gotten progressively worse over the last year. Acknowledgement is the first step towards healing though, right?

Hello. My name is Leah Edwards, and I'm a chronic snoozer.

Every night before I go to bed, I create a plan for my morning. I think about when my first meeting starts and then work backwards. Sometimes my pre-meeting schedule is a full 3-4 hours full of really beneficial activities: exercise, Bible study, prayer, shower, breakfast, homework. It's really a great vision with even better intentions. I set my alarm and then it happens. I awaken and think of my plan in my head, acknowledge that it is a good plan, and determine to begin it in just 9 more minutes, when the snooze alarm goes off again. This delusion goes on for about 2 more snoozes when I then determine to actually begin my plan . . . from the comfort of my bed. The funny part is that I actually believe that it might work this time. "Surely, if I read/pray/write with my head on my pillow, I won't fall asleep and I can keep enjoying these delightful covers . . ." After a few more snoozes, I realize that the pillow plan isn't working and although I really want to get up, every inch of my body fights me. It's like I can feel myself becoming Exhibit A for a physics lecture describing the Law of Inertia.

After anywhere from 30-120 minutes of sleep in 9 minute increments, I realize that I am now really far behind schedule and I find myself running around, having long since abandoned my grandiose plan, and now simply trying to figure out how I can get to my meeting on time. And then it all starts again the next morning.

The dumb thing about snoozing is that it's a lose/lose situation on all ends. I surely don't enjoy quality sleep when I awake every 9 minutes. I don't accomplish any of my well-intentioned goals, and I am usually late to wherever I am going next. So why do I do it?

How well I identify with Paul in Romans 7:19. "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing." Sadly, I've realized that too often, I'm not only "snoozing" to my alarm, but to life in general. "I'll read that book soon. I'll start that Bible study soon. I'll call that friend soon. I'll spend time with that person soon." One after another after another set of "9 more minutes" adds up and the time keeps flying while I'm left with a datebook that stands for me as a messy anthology of missed opportunities.

I guess I'm writing this as an accountability of sorts. Maybe by telling all of you some of my greatest shortcomings, it will actually serve as a stimulus tomorrow morning to "do the good I want to do." I'm going to head to bed now and set my alarm. Let's hope I'm on the road to recovery.

Shopping Redemption

My mom and I enjoyed such a lovely day of Christmas shopping in the South Side Works, one of Pittsburgh's most newly renovated areas. You can see a picture of what the area looks like now (left) with a Joseph Beth Bookstore, Cheesecake Factory, movie theatre, and all kinds of fun stores like White Black, H & M, Sur La Table, and Sharper Image which has more gadgets than I ever thought possible. It was like an Air Mall catalogue come to life. We also briefly went to the Waterfront (right), another great area that was renovated a few years before the South Side area that includes more shopping and some of Pittsburgh's most wonderful array of restaurants.

What I found to be truly remarkable about the areas, though, was thinking about what the land used to be. Here are two pictures of both shopping areas before the lovely renovations of recent years. You can see that they were the quintessential images that most people pictured when they thought of Pittsburgh, the days when men would go to work in the morning wearing a white shirt and come home wearing a black one, the days when "Steel City" didn't have any connection to a football team, but rather to the industry that represented the city's livelihood.

As the steel industry lost its power and presence in the national and international economy, so did these previously "booming areas" in the city's geography. Many of these areas became extremely depressed and even dangerous, with the now run-down and graffitied homes serving as empty shells of the luxurious residences they once were. If someone had said twenty years ago that these areas would become some of Pittsburgh's most high-end shopping and recreation areas, I'm pretty sure the response would have simply been a blank stare followed by blatant laughter in their face. The person who could first imagine and cast the vision for these areas was a true visionary and risk-taker.

It made me appreciate all the more the even greater risk and vision our Heavenly Father had when He chose to redeem me and my brothers and sisters in Christ. How He can see us as a redeemed, changed, and complete child in the midst of our sinful and broken state is nothing short of miraculous, nothing short of seeing a multi-million dollar metroplex in the middle of a long-forgotten steel mill. Praise God for both redemptions, one that I enjoyed today and the other in which I will continue to delight for all of eternity!