Last year I probably read over a hundred books. But I stopped doing something important. I stopped blogging and reviewing them. In the process, I lost the opportunity to share the "voices" God used to shape me last year. So in the spirit of New Year's Resolutions, I'm promising more frequent book reviews! This Book, Dreaming with God by Bill Johnson, inspired me to get creating. Why? Here's the theme that hit me. Satan can't create anything. Only God and…
[caption id="attachment_1854" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Something Every Day Challenge 1/4/13[/caption] Yesterday's creative challenge was so simple and so fun. Walking through Restoration Hardware I saw a display similar to the one you see in the picture above. I came home and created my own in a matter of minutes. Using old books -- I used fairly cheap mass-market paperbacks that…
Creative Challenge for the day: create dinner out of my fridge for guests with no plan! Tonight I grabbed chicken breasts I had in the fridge, put them in a baking dish and covered them with salt, pepper, bbq sauce and cheese. These baked for 40 minutes. Then I boiled the last straggling potatoes in the pantry, then quartered them and roasted them alongside the chicken with olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper. I made sure we would all be…
[caption id="attachment_1792" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Inexplicable"][/caption] Inexplicable. One medium sized word that inspired the entire direction of the second half of our lives. It is a great word, if you think about it. Life is inexplicable. It is filled with inexplicable moments of beauty followed immediately by inexplicable moments of sorrow. There is inexplicable illness, inexplicabe death. We see inexplicable fame (especially on YouTube!) and inexplicable years spent in obscurity. Once in awhile we thrill to inexplicable healing, provision, or direction.…
A year or two ago I bought some amazing organic shampoo from my stylist. It was the same product she used in the salon, and I loved what it did for my hair! So optimistically, I shelled out the price for the lovely product and brought it home. You know this part of the story: I used the shampoo and loved the smells, the feel. I loved the shine in my hair, even though I couldn't quite make my hair…
Today I noticed the magazine rack, just over the top of my book. When I would pause my reading and look up, the headlines popped out at me and made my mind spin in a thousand different directions. It's this burst of stimulus-induced creativity that keeps me hanging around that cafe. This is what I saw, and subsequently what went through my mind today. Newsweek Magazine: with its headline "Finding the right college for you." This sent me off thinking…
I am in a post-Maxwellian overload. If you've been to any major thought-provoking conference, you know what I mean. Ideas are pouring past my poor brain faster than I have time or energy to write them down. Now some of that may be due to caffeine overload (probably is!), but not all. This Maxwell conference has impacted me more than others I've been to, perhaps because the emphasis was less on leadership and more on personal goals and -- quite…
Before time itself was measured, the Voice was speaking. The Voice was and is God. This celestial Voice remained ever present with the Creator, His speech shaped the entire cosmos. Immersed in the practice of creating, all things that exist were birthed in Him. His breath filled all things with a living, breathing light -- light that thrives in the depths of darkness, blazing through murky bottoms. It cannot, and will not, be quenched. -- John 1:1-5, the Voice translation…
Today I have been juggling all the plates in the air, plates that make up the world that spins through our home. I'm frantically praying over them, hoping I don't have a broken mess of pottery on the floor soon. Spinning plates are beautiful in the air, but messy on the ground. Do you ever feel like that? Like all the components that comprise your life are precariously perched, and if just one drops then there will be a massive…
There are certain situations that put me into a creative zone, ideas spinning and new connections made. As we all know, coffee shop are one of those places. The music, the scent of the coffee, the buzz of people, the buzz of caffeine! Oddly enough, working out on the elliptical is another creative spot for me. I guess it's the oxygen to the brain? In any case, my mind races with prayers and people, blog posts, party ideas, future plans.…
