Flying Corks

GLORIOUS!

Are you making any New Year's resolutions?

I am dedicating myself to reworking my Marketing Plan for the illustration. Most people make serious physical New Year's resolutions, but I want to make some serious Spiritual and visible resolutions. Each year seems like a new challenge; I wonder what God has in store for us this go around!

Like A Bean Sprout

I have been changing my mind about my job since I could speak. Why “big adult people” like to ask the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” makes me laugh.

I wonder sometimes how much we get ourselves into trouble with excessive planning. In first grade, I wanted to be a scientist. I was so excited that I asked for a microscope for Christmas, and I would look at specimen on slides all day long. By the second grade, I wanted to BE Murphy Brown. Journalism was my calling. I was in.

That lasted for a short amount of time. Then I decided that I wanted to become a teacher. I am still trying to shake that one. As indebted as I am to all of the teachers in my life, I have learned that I can do more harm than good when I teach sometimes, so I do not teach all of the time.

For a while, I wanted to be a musician or an athlete. I did not care which one. That Christmas I received four electronic keyboards – all in the same day.

The year that Mom and Dad allowed me to burn candles was the year that I announced that, I was going to become an Aroma therapist/Holistic Medicine Practitioner. That one still tugs at my strings to this day. I did many reports in high school on the hypothalamus and how scents trigger the brain.

As I geared up for college, I had taken many language courses and many science courses. However, I had just come back from Japan and that changed my perspective on many things. Would I work in the Japanese embassy? Would I teach Japanese classes?

Then I found that my ultimate goal was to grow into being a missionary in Japan. I would teach English, write bilingual children’s books, and tell everyone about God’s love and truth.

I am still on track… minus the Japan, and minus the bilingual parts. (This is another story all together, entitled Disillusioned.)


I am working toward illustrating Children’s books and I am excited about all of the possibilities. I have been designing some things here at work (mostly graphic design), and I have been able to do some illustration here and there.

I am most excited about all of the possibilities for life wherever God takes us. Who knows what I will be when I grow up. As long as God keeps growing me - up.

Entertaining Angels?

Peace to you in the Grace and Love of our precious Jesus Christ, and thanks be to the Father of all Love and Life, the creator of heaven and earth and heart and mind.


Timpy and I went to Girls’ Lunch downtown together today. (A bunch of girlfriends get together once a week to eat lunch together. It's always something interesting. NO MALES ALLOWED!) After we finished, we headed to the Java, to buy a cup of coffee for the afternoon. As we were staring at the menu, this tall, older man walked in front of us in the line. He apologized, and told us to go ahead (like he didn’t see us originally or something), and then he came up closer to us and started talking.


“Wish me a Merry Christmas, would ya?” he asked.
In unison, we said, “Merry Christmas!”
He grabbed Timpy’s hand, stared at her ring, and asked, “You’re married? Looks like someone LIKES you a lot! What is his name?”
“Jacob,” Timpy replied.
“Oh, Jacob. I know him. He’s a tall guy.”
With a smile, Timpy replied, “Yeah, he’s got a bunch of sons.”
Then he turned to me and said, “You married?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s his name?”
“Mark.”
“Ah, Mark. God Bless you two.”

Then he turned to pay for his milk and cookie, and we continued to stare at the menu. As we approached the counter and ordered, he announced that he would be paying for our coffee this afternoon.

So, he dug into his pocket and pulled out a little plastic bag, filled with coins.
At first, I was a little concerned that he did not have enough to pay for the purchase.

However, he did pay for it. It took him ten minutes, but he finally counted out ten dollars in coins, right at the cash register. The line forming behind him was quite impatient with his slow way of payment, but he insisted on paying, and he only brought coins along.

He never said his name. He did mumble something about being a minister, but I have never seen him before today, so I wonder about him.

I also saw a new friend who ended up in our house this last weekend (because he had no money and had run out of gas in front of our house... and then we saw him at the HOPE building the next night for other reasons...) I saw that he was standing on Pine as we were leaving lunch, so we greeted each other again.

God continues to amaze me when he connects people together. The craziest combinations and reactions work together in God.

Talk about Divine Appointments.

ROCK the nation

post·modern·ism: 1. a blurring of distinguished boundaries found in modern ideas 2. an emphasis on fragmentation 3. a movement defined in literature, art, and the humanities characterizing stylistic features from 1970's onward 4. moral relativism 5. live life eclectically 5.tolerance is king (even if it's a lie) 6. believe everything (aka believe nothing)

The moral contours of the nation remain postmodern in nature.
The west values the individual over the group, and America remains the best example of this, from the Corporate Life to the House Wife.

With businesses like Best Buy converting their corporate buildings into a network of home-based working executives, with large churches from Hurricane devastation choosing not to rebuild, but to meet in homes, with University life becoming completely available online, we enter the zone of the individual.

With the internet and email available around the clock, men try to trump God's natural boundaries of time. We create artificial light to stay awake, just a few more hours. Wendy's stays open past midnight; Denny's stays open around the clock, just to feed the need to feed.

Health problems are rampant. The individual sinks deeper and deeper into the darkness and privacy of their bedroom, to only find it lit by a computer monitor or a TV screen.

One makes a powerful statement when they choose to unite with a group of diverse individuals, face to face, in the flesh. Not to tolerate them, but to know them fully, to love them as themselves. The sheer concept of faithful community continues to fight up stream against the current of the individual self.

Sometimes I wonder if the Church is the group who taught everyone else to be soooo tolerant in the first place.

Find precious Jesus and He'll make sure that you're secure - when everything seems to be built on sand... He will ROCK the nation. A cord of many is not easily broken, and the Gates of Hell will not overcome it!

Confessions of a Long Lost Artist

I had almost forgotten how my blood cycles a little faster when I work with the Scratchboard technique. Lately, I have been working in paint, but today I am working in Clayboard again… and I love it! Honestly, I have been sitting here in front of a big computer monitor for many of the hours of my life these days, and I am starting to wiggle a little more than normal for something fresh – something worthwhile.

The Clayboard is a piece of wood, coated in white clay and covered with a dark ink layer. (Mine are black ink.) One removes the black ink with a stylus to reveal the white surface below. I find great satisfaction in the process of creating a Clayboard piece. I think it has been approximately six months since I created a clayboard picture, and for this, I have much regret. I am excited and enthusiastic about today’s product.

99 Bottles of Blog on the screen...

I thought it would be a worthy experiment to flip through blogs using the next blog button 100 times. My findings are here:

100. Teacher posts questions for his students to comment.
99. A team blog, by two girls, written about high school drama.
98. Purely posting pictures. This girl looks like a political activist. She may work for Google.
97. A raunchy blog, half French, half English.
96. A poetry blog by a girl named Shayna aka “Lost Soul.” No punctuation.
95. “The Old Rugged Cross” blog. The top of his site has a news ticker. Get out of his way! He’s rearing to tell you about any Christian persecution.
94. Spanish blog. Aslan the lion is the picture adorning today’s post.
93. Portugese blog. He started blogging last week.
92. A yoga blog.
91. Whew! Talk about international. An Italian blog. Animated Teddy bears here.
90. Podcast NYC blog.
89. Hungarian blog. He writes about Hungarian rights.
88. A Spanish blog.
87. A Norwegian blog with a Christmas greeting. Looks like she’s a believer.
86. A pink blog by a girl who works on a ranch.
85. An anti-Bush blog from Canada.
84. A Brazilian blogger. Can’t understand a thing.
83. A Japanese blog that has a very cartoony style.
82. Open Source Culture blog. She’s written about Linux today.
81. “Here I Am” an Alaskan college girl’s blog. “It’s finals week.”
80. A guy into physics from Chicago. Looks like a University guy.
79. A Chinese-American girl writing about personality.
78. A French Lady’s ramblings and pictures.
77. High school girl from Mexico.
76. A pornographic blog
75. Another Mexican blog
74. An American band’s self promotion blog
73. Pictures of Vancouver
72. A mom showing pictures of her high school’s son’s eye injury.
71. A blog from Turkey.
70. A rescue the animals blog.
69. Another South American blog.
68. Random one liners with pictures blog.
--- getting tired ---
67. College student from Germany blog.
66. A blog dedicated to the worlds largest hamburger.
65. A girl from the United Kingdom. She likes the Matrix.
64. A NYC blog highlighting a city council speaker.
63. A middle-aged guy from Ohio who posts comics clippings.
62. A 23-year-old guy from Portland’s journal.
61. A pediatrics guy from Queens
60. A high school student from Nebraska. She’s doing an analysis on eyebrow shape with pictures to boot!
59. A Chinese blog – from Hong Kong. All about the iPod Nano.
58. An American remedial school teacher posts all of the assignments here.
57. German guy likes Sci-Fi
56. Another college student happy about finals
55. A cranky middle-school girl from Virginia
54. A maintenance/tech support blog for a small company.
53. Graphic design guy from Boston. He’s funny.
52. Over the hill birthday joke blog.
51. A guy mourning over a lost girlfriend.

I’m taking a break. That’s a lot of blog flipping.


Here is the first conclusion that I am drawing from my first half:
Most bloggers are not within the United States.
I have a hard time understanding most of the blogs (even the English ones...)

To be continued.

Whether the weather is good
Whether the weather is bad
Whether the weather is changing
You remain constant.

The Community of the Blog

Have you ever noticed the community of the blog? The "Next Blog" option on these sites lives in the upper right hand corner of your screen, and I have found myself clicking that button on occasion. The coolest blog I've seen was someone’s writings from Israel. They wrote the entire blog in Hebrew. I cannot understand a single Hebrew character, but it was a nice change of pace from the typical roman-letter blogs.

Then I've seen everything from "spam blogs" to life story blogs to the most postmodern of them all – the everything goes, randomness prevails, whatever-I-want-to-write-here blog. Who can forget those clever news commentary blogs? These are not where I spend my time reading.

I love reading the blogs of people I know in REAL LIFE. It’s a backdoor peek into someone’s inner thoughts. Sometimes, I only know the people loosely, and I enjoy reading their work, purely for the sake of relationship. I love reading other people’s blogs when they do not know that I am reading their work. It’s neat to be able to relate to them in different ways. It is as if I have been gifted with a secret power to see the inner workings of their lives.

Humility is a Frozen Waffle

It's true that to cook for two is much more wonderful than to cook for one. I think Suzuki Sensei sums it up when he quotes God in Genesis saying, "It is not good for man to live alone."

Tonight, I brought Mark home early from HOPE to send him off for Dallas for the majority of the week. (Insert sad exposed lower lip here.) Honestly, I've been looking forward to the quiet and the space, but I'm not sold on the eating alone thing. Usually we eat nicely together. Sometimes it's fun, fancy and highly enjoyable; other times it's simple and sweet, but at least we're eating together. It's the time of sharing and bonding in the day. And I always get to make some sort of creation with food. It's like an art project. How colorful can I get? What funny texture can a throw in here? What new culture will we create with ethnic experimentation? Meals for us can be adventure to the extreme!

Tonight, I'm involved with a frozen waffle. Let's all pause for a moment of silence.

Oh to Sing

I was flipping through the pages of the iTunes Music Store, and I ran across Tracy Chapman's latest: "Where You Live." The current single from this album is Change. It's worth a listen.


Here are the lyrics:

CHANGE

If you knew that you would die today
If you saw the face of God and Love
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that love can break your heart
When you're down so low you cannot fall
Would you change?
Would you change?

How bad how good does it need to get?
How many losses how much regret?
What chain reaction
What cause and effect
Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change

If you knew that you would be alone
Knowing right being wrong
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that you would find a truth
That brings a pain that can't be soothed
Would you change?
Would you change?

How bad how good does it need to get?
How many losses how much regret?
What chain reaction
What cause and effect
Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change

Are you so upright you can't be bent
if it comes to blows
Are you so sure you won't be crawling
If not for the good why risk falling
Why risk falling

If everything you think you know
Makes your life unbearable
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you'd broken every rule and vow
And hard times come to bring you down
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you knew that you would die today
If you saw the face of God and Love
Would you change?
Would you change?

© 2003 Tracy Chapman

You get 7...

Last night, Mark chivalrously drove me home from work. As I slid into the passenger seat, I noticed he was peeking in a little Christmas Card. (Thanks to Trey!)

The gift card was for $15 smackers in iTunes loot. 15 divided by 2?! What a bind for a married couple! Each song is 99 cents.

First I said, "You get seven. I get eight. *Insert Smile*"
THEN Mark chimed in: "I've got a better idea. You get 15, I get none."
Katrina's innermost thoughts: "Now we're talking! WOooOOOoooOOOo HOOOooooOOOOO! ... and I didn't even have to spend hours haggling him to that point!"

Mark, thank you for the awesome expression of freely giving (and receiving.) That was tough. But you genuinely wanted me to have it, despite my joking and cajoling. Cool.

Know that you're a great expression of love and great at the verb itself.

To Be Human

There are three things that amaze me—
no, four things I do not understand:

how an eagle glides through the sky,
how a snake slithers on a rock,
how a ship navigates the ocean,
how a man loves a woman.

Some people blog to journal.
This is good - if you have another outlet for your most intimate thoughts.

There are some dangerously flippant blogs around. People will pour out their soul for all to read. - Is the hope that someone will listen?

Put the pearls where they belong - around the neck of the Queen. That's who you wanted to see afterall, right?

Fill Me Up

When I hear the word "prophet," I think of a news anchor explaining the DOW/JONES trends. I think of a doctor cautioning good ol' George W. Bush to consider an upcoming, pandemic of the bird flu. I think of storm chasers.
I think of Jeremiah. I think of Isaiah. I think of graduate class work.
I think of environmentalists, nutritionists, fitness instructors and artists. :)

So, who are the prophets, anyway?

One will naturally feel great discomfort around a PROPHET.

A prophet’s perspective is radically different from that of the pastor. He hears from God and quite mercilessly questions everything, including the pastor, from God’s perspective. That, however, is his healthy and God-given duty. For that reason, there is also a historical tension between the pastor and the prophet: one is the defender of the status quo who wants to maintain the community; the other questions everything and is seen (rightly) by many others as a threat, because he disrupts things and wants ‘movement now’ (Wolfgang Simson - Houses That Change the World, p.114).

Prophets feel frustration near excessive organization.

The prophets were not leaders of men. They carried no responsibility for the Temple, for worship, for the institutional side of religion. They had no political power, no party following, no organization, no priestly or pastoral function. They were not involved in the commercial life of the nation, neither were they rulers of men. They were simply servants of the living god whose task was to declare what he was saying to the people (Clifford Hill - Prophecy, Past and Present p.60)

Prophets bring God’s challenges to the forefront.

Prophecy always calls for a faith response. God never gives opinions; he gives orders (Tom Marshall- The Coming of the Prophets).

Prophets bring words from God.

We need to get a prophetic vision of the Church; to see the Church as God sees it (John Brook.).

Prophets appear when people abandon God, and God wants the people's attention.

True prophets appear in times of apostasy. Prophets of quality move in when the people are moving away from the ideal laid down once and for all in the Book. The prophetic mind develops into its finest and most rare expressions during times of apostasy. A Jeremiah is born for and prepared for the Babylonic confrontation. A man who is prepared to watch and to cry will appear. The burden-bearer will be made ready. A man who won’t give in will always be found in times of apostasy. Such a man is made able to see - see reality. He sees God’s intervention coming. His burden is something very real, indeed tangible. He relates to reality, speaks reality, speaks quality. (Lars Widerberg - The Unwelcome Necessity - The Burden).

James 4

Drawing Close to God

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you?
Isn't it the whole army of evil desires at war within you?
You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it.
You are jealous for what others have, and you can't possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don't have what you want is that you don't ask God for it. And even when you do ask, you don't get it because your whole motive is wrong--you want only what will give you pleasure.

You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can't be a friend of God. What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, jealously longs for us to be faithful? He gives us more and more strength to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,

"God sets himself against the proud,
but he shows favor to the humble."

So humble yourselves before God.
Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you hypocrites.
Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done.
Let there be sorrow and deep grief.
Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.
When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.


Warning against Judging Others

Don't speak evil against each other, my dear brothers and sisters.
If you criticize each other and condemn each other, then you are criticizing and condemning God's law.
But you are not a judge who can decide whether the law is right or wrong.
Your job is to obey it.
God alone, who made the law, can rightly judge among us. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to condemn your neighbor?

Warning about Self-Confidence

Look here, you people who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit."
How do you know what will happen tomorrow?
For your life is like the morning fog--it's here a little while, then it's gone.
What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that."
Otherwise you will be boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.

Remember, you separate yourselves from God to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

The Feast of Sharing

Last night, Mark, Steven, Rachael and I went to the Civic Center for Abilene's first annual Feast of Sharing. It is a free meal for anyone in Abilene who wants it. It could pass as the new once-a-year “community well.” We saw an interesting slice of all of Abilene eating around the tables and serving the people at the tables. The only thing remotely close to this sampling of people happens at Wal-Mart or maybe in a waiting room at the hospital. Even still, those people tend to be on the move.
This raises the question: Where is the community “well” (in Abilene, TX)?

Wait for it...

For lunch today, I went back to the residence to eat with Mark and Andrew... and the power in the place was completely OUT! So instead of eating the half prepared lunch Mark had started, we ate out at Cracker Barrel. It was enjoyable.

I am always amazed at Christmas time how many people will buy the craziest things in large quantities. I have been on the receiving end of a mass-mall-out before. The secret is out as soon as the youngest person opens that first gift. One year my grandma embroidered our initials on these terry-velvet bathrobes. Everyone - and I mean everyone - received an embroidered bathrobe. I think I must have accidentally exchanged it with someone else in the course of the day... someone else has the "T" robe (T is for "Trina.") One year they gave us road maps of Missouri with a small Maglight flashlight and a tire pressure gauge. Yippee! Safety in a box!

Today at Cracker Barrel, I was standing in line, and there were three different people in front of me waiting to check out. I was trying to pay for the food that we had eaten, but apparently, I was not very observant. I managed to get behind a group of people who probably had more than 50 items a piece (no exaggeration) per person to buy (they were small and hard to see). Nevertheless, it was the line I had chosen, and I thought, "To move would be a mistake."

Well, long story short and 15 minutes later, Mark finally wiggled into a line, and we managed to pay for our one-item food bill. Soon after, the people in front of us walked out with bags full of miscellaneous items, all in Country Home Store style.

Some little one will have a seriously full stocking this Christmas!

Waging War

I had a conversation
this morning in my head
I had a conversation
with me in the bed

It went a lot like
I, I, I ...
And a little like
Him, Him, Him...

I want to be
He wants to be
I want to be
He wants to be

A little closer
again

At first it was 3:04
and then 5:00
The shift and turn
was it war
the flesh was in lock-

down, down, down to bed
a place so warm
from the cold and the dead
remember the day when we said

Cold cold room
and warm warm bed

CLARITY, blue ink

This picture was taken at Phil and Jenna's wedding in the Highland Church building last fall. Needless to say, they're pregnant as can be, and I'll just pat them on the back for that. And then I'll take a few steps back, so God will not bless me in a similar sort of way. Speaking of pregnancy, this picture reminds me of morning sickness!

Speaking of morning sickness, my boss has made this stamp that says, "CLARITY" in big letters. The other day, I was in his office, and he took my notebook and stamped it with the CLARITY stamp. Sometimes he'll start talking and I just hear the noise from the stamp - "click-claw". I don't think I have had a conversation with him since then that didn't involve that word. Offices are funny places. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the movie Office Space. Nevertheless, he's onto something with the concept of clarity.

We could all use a little clarity... and we can all use a little uncertainty. Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and our steps will not be hampered: when we run, we will not trip.

Something to Say

Well, Mark and I have been incessantly circling a map of continental United States, in hopes of making some sense of God’s calling for life.

It sits on the desk, and I wonder what God will do next. God is funny, is he not? [I suppose one can interchange funny with all-powerful, wise, clever, and wonderfully mind-blowing.] Before our marriage, I was interested in Asia: first Japan, then China. People desperately need to know about the one true God in Japan, but like Pharaoh, their soil is hard. Now I am going to give up being like Saul and start listening to what God wants me to do.

When he made us wait a year ago, I thought evil resistance had stopped us from taking the trek, and it may have been some sort of hindrance, but God works for the good of those who love Him and live according to their commands.

In retrospect, I keep in perfect peace, for I trust in God. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.