A Heart for the City

For those of you who live in a city--an urban epicenter--you might understand me when I talk about falling in love with a city. Maybe you were a tourist who found a home in your favorite vacation spot. Perhaps you were a suburban or rural kid who'd always dreamed of living in the "big city". Whatever it was, there was something that lured you into the city life. For me, I think the fascination was of being a part of something bigger than myself. Cities are where life happens. There's diversity. There's change. There's growth. There's trend-setting. In short, there's life...life to the fullest, if you will.

For Christians, or even for the casual church-goer, there might be a connection of the idea, "life to the fullest," to the teachings of Jesus Christ. If you trust the account of his followers, we are told that Jesus said he would bring us life as it was meant to be. Life to it's fullest. Complete life. He promised--and delivered--this to the people who encountered him here on earth. And if you are a follower of His, maybe He's delivered on this promise to you as well.

Somewhere along the line, these two pieces, the city and Christ, have been completely disconnected. Today's Christians have missed the point. We have believed God's promises insofar as they apply to us. We have forgotten about living to the fullest. Half the Christians I know spend their lives trying to hide from the world instead of living boldly within it. The city scares them because it's where most of the sin lives (go figure...most of the people live there too).

The Jesus I know is not afraid of the city. He loves the city. One of the most poignant pictures I have seen in the Gospel is that of Jesus, standing above the city of Jerusalem, weeping and mourning for the people because they were so lost. So hurting. So confused by the world around them. So entirely like me...and like you.

If only we could develop the compassion of Christ. If only we could stand on a hill overlooking our nearest cities and see the needs instead of the depravity. Are we capable of seeing what Christ sees? Can we look through the facades to see the hurting? Can we catch a glimpse of the hearts God has created so that we can help reconcile those hearts with their Maker?

Instead of running. Instead of judging. Instead of ignoring.

I, for one, am interested in giving this a try. My blog has taken many shapes over the last year...mostly to keep me on track with whatever goal I need motivation to reach. This segment will be a bit different because I will be responding to a book in essay form. The book? A Heart for the City. The authors? Those who've given their lives to serving a city. Edited by John Fuder. Read along if you want. I look forward to your comments to challenge me along this journey.

Thanks for reading.

A toast to my friend...reception teaser. :o)

When I first met Tara in high school, never did I dream that I would be standing in the wedding of such a loud, gaseous, and slightly obnoxious teenage girl from Northern Harford County. Yet, here we are, 13(ish) years later and I have the honor of toasting my beautiful friend and her new husband.

When Tara first told me about this guy she'd met while she was at home visiting, I knew there was something special about him. He understood Tara in a way that no other person could, and he barely even knew her yet. I knew he was going to be one to watch out for.

Jonathan, you are, without a doubt, the man God has created for Tara. And Tara, your heart has always belonged to Jonathan. He is your match.

And now we raise our glasses in celebration and blessing to the new Mr and Mrs Jonathan Rasmussen. May the light of friendship guide your paths together. May the laughter of children grace the halls of your home. May the joy of living for one another bring a smile to your lips and a twinkle from your eye. May the Spirit of Love find a dwelling place in your hearts always. And may our God be your constant joy and strength. We love you. To Jonathan and Tara!

Looking for comments

Okay, so the grocery game isn't really my thing. But I've thought about making it my thing a couple of times. Then last Thursday, I went to a church workshop that talked about utilizing the Grocery Game to save money in order to give away more of what we have.

A lot of people know that health is important to me. I fail at it many times, but it is, nonetheless, an important part of my life and in the forefront of my mind (even when I'm eating a half gallon of ice cream).

I've also had numerous conversations with various individuals prior to and since this particular workshop regarding the benefits of going organic. There is a ton of information out there about the things that are put into our food, the way our food (in animal form) is treated and why we should avoid things with refined sugars, hormones, etc. and eat as many raw and unprocessed foods as possible.

So here's my question. If you are a Christian, or Spiritual at the least, what do you think: Should your family eat the cheapest food you can find so you can give money away, or should you spend a little more on the products that are known to be better for them and, quite frankly, take into consideration the treatment of God's creation (whether it's your body or that of the cow that produced the milk you're putting into it)?

This is a tough question and I have a feeling there will be all kinds of opinions. But I'm honestly interested in your opinion, so let 'er rip!

My house is a mess and so am I

My current Facebook status says, "Leanne isn't sure if it's good or bad." That's one of those ambiguous jr. high kind of things to say, but that's how I'm feeling about my life right now. The last couple weeks have been like a roller coaster for me and I honestly can't tell you if it's a good thing or a bad thing. My house is a mess, my brain is even more of a mess, my body's in terrible condition, my self-control is nil, my purpose is unclear and I can't find anything that brings me fulfillment.

I sat outside staring up at the sky crying for a while tonight. It's the first time in a very long time that I've felt that free. Like I was the only person in the world and the space was full of God-like substance instead of smog and noise. It was nice. I mean, I didn't get any answers, but it was good to just be broken for a little while with nothing that I had to try to hold together.

And maybe that's a good place to be. Maybe I need to be able to cry and to know that there's space for God to let me cry. It's one thing to cry. It's another thing to cry out. Crying out takes an admittance of failure, or at the very least, weakness. Crying can be a response to anything from fear to self-pity to anger to hurt feelings...and it can easily turn into bitterness. And those tears can last a while before coming to the point of crying out. They may never make it to that point for some people. But crying out...that's when something starts to happen. When Job started crying out, God started talking back. When David cried out, God considered him a man after His own heart. When Jesus cried out, his final breath was expelled. And then 3 days later, he rose up from the dead.

Here's hoping for new life.

Hello, Old Friend

This morning, I decided to check out all the "new" comments to my blog...you know...all the ones from the last 3 months. I honestly didn't think that I would pick this up again. I'm a seasonal doer of anything. I do it for a while and then I stop. But I've had some people ask me when I would be blogging again, so for today, I'm back.

We celebrated Isabella's 2nd birthday yesterday. She's growing into a beautiful, fun and sweet little girl. We spent most of the afternoon at the beach. This is, of course, after we spent 2 hours looking for parking. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I've never spent more than 5 minutes looking for parking at Seal Beach. We spent what felt like hours driving past full parking spots and No Parking on Monday signs only to end up in the pay parking lot with a pay machine that would not accept my credit card. An old surfer told me that apparently that part of the contraption wasn't working yet and I could go to the ATM at the liquor store. After leaving the parking lot and almost coming to blows with the ATM at said liquor store because it didn't want to read my card the first 5 times I swiped it, I got my $20, quietly returned to the passenger seat of the car and we returned to the parking lot.

Returning to the payment machine with my $20 in hand, I thought I'd have my parking ticket in no time. Wrong. I put the bill in the machine. Twice. Fail. Fail. Then some nice people came up behind me, and I switched bills with them. Fail. Again. And again. And again. So I asked if they would like to go ahead of me so that I can find the man patrolling with the ticket book, explain to him my sob story and pay him the whole flipping $20 (it's only $6 to park all day) just so he won't give me what's probably a $100 ticket for parking illegally...which, by the way, we were about to do.

Because God knew that I was about to hurt someone, he sent a nice man in a red truck to the ladies at the payment machine. The man offered them his all day parking ticket. They had already gotten their ticket, so they yelled over to me that he was giving up his ticket. I walked over to the lady with the ticket in her hand, thanked her profusely, threw the ticket on the dash of my car and went about my day incident-free.

And not only was it homicide-free, it was actually enjoyable. Bella loved playing in the water. She was soaked and so was I after the myriad of "Come on, Mommy"'s I got from her at water's edge. We took some breaks from the waves to dig in the sand and fly her kite (which Daddy put together and held most of the time). After a couple hours of that, we got some lunch at the NY pizza shop on Main Street. I call it a shop because it feels like a real pizza shop. It's super good. Bella enjoyed her pesto pizza and lemonade, as well as the fruit snacks she was given by the pizza man.

Last night, a couple of friends came over unexpectedly for Bella's birthday cake which was fun for the girls (and boy) as well as the parents. This was a good impromptu party considering I must have been delusional planning Bella's party for a Saturday. But more on that later.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. I'm off to prepare Bella for a different kind of birthday treat...her 2 year Doctor's visit. Woot.

2009

Happy New Year!

I promise there will be more to come from my blog soon. It's been a very busy Holiday Season which is now quickly turning into a season of moving into a new home. We are very busy, and quite honestly, I've not done a great job of staying on track since Christmas hit. Fortunately, a new year begins now, and I will continue on my journey to being a whole, healthy and happy person in this new year! And you are still invited to join me. :o)

Love and best wishes on this New Year's Dawning,

Leanne

P.S. Please give a warm welcome to my Little Seester. She's brand new to the blogging world and would appreciate a little love and encouragement. Welcome, Seester. I look forward to sharing the blogosphere with you!

2009, Here we come!

I apologize to all my readers. I have been so busy since Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, the first thing to go is my blogging and facebook time. Here's a quick update since I doubt I will be on much in the next week!

Master Cleanse Days 3-5 were amazing. The first 2 days sucked. I had the worst headache in the world. But once I got over that, it was great. It was nice to get a break from food for a while and be reminded that there are other things that can bring joy and ecstasy besides chocolate. I would encourage anyone to do a cleanse like this, even if it's only for a couple of days.

I'm eagerly awaiting Christmas. I've been enjoying this Holiday Season more than I can remember any in recent past (well, since 2004 anyway). We've had out-of-town guests, many parties and lots of preparation for said parties. We have enjoyed being with our friends, and I've enjoyed having my sister-in-law in town this last month. Bella gets to play with her cousins ("Con-Con" and "Baby") and I get to have someone in the family who I can talk to and share interests with. Bella and I will both be sad when they head back to Washington this week.

I still have a bit more shopping to do and another (expensive) package to ship out tomorrow. If it were any other time of year, I could name hundreds of things I'd rather spend money on than shipping. But for Christmas, it's always worth the expense.

Christopher and I turned in our security deposit today for a house we will be renting beginning in a little less than a month. We are very excited since it's much closer to his office, our friends and the beach. Oh, and it's a HOUSE. As our friend, Lori, says, "no shared walls". Even though we'll still be renters, we're moving up in the world with our own 4 walls, garage, yard and washer/dryer hook-ups. I can't begin to express how much I am looking forward to 2009.

I feel like I haven't felt in years. I see God moving in ways I've been blinded to as of late. I am finally excited about the possibilities that could be waiting just around the bend. And I think I can say that I actually like my life. That feels very good.

So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get my book out of the car and read more about its Aspergian author before resting my weary eyes on this cold California evening. Oh, and here's a little something for the Christmas season.