Eclectic Echoes--January 8th (my) Anniversary Edition

Hope everyone is enjoying this weather. Personally, I'm hoping for the roads to be clear so Craig and I can run away for the evening to Chattanooga! In the meantime, we are trying to stay warm and I've been whittling away at my to do list! I haven't shared in a while and there has been lots of good stuff to read on the "world wide interweb"

THOUGHTS ON FAITH AND LIFE
Coming of Age -- I am adding this book to my "to read" list!
How NT Wright Stole Christmas
To One of the Lucky Ones "Because sometimes, just normal is good enough."
Roger Ebert reflects on not being able to eat, drink or talk in Nil by Mouth. Warning--don't read if you are hungry or thirsty--but DO read, you will find yourself grateful for the small pleasures!
Southern schools mark two majorities: more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are minorities
New Year's Joy and Penitence
Do we really love THEM?
Justice in Real Life

REFLECTIONS ON CHURCH
Churches Say "Be Our Guest" -- lesson for the nation at large
More Thoughts on the Ordination of Women and Christian Unity
Pastors' Work Hours -- How do yours compare?
Let's Talk About Sex
Checkup
A Martyr's Death

FROM NORTH ALABAMA
Ambiguous Good News at Christmas
Scriptures for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany -- Thanks Steve!
Mr Not-Nice

OTHER INTERESTING STUFF
Relevant's Best Films of 2009
The Customer is Always Right -- in honor of the Kindle I received for Christmas.
Is Your Child a Dandelion or an Orchid?
Top Ten Books on the New Testament you should have read in 2009
Star Trek Vs Star Wars: Liberal vs Conservative?

JUST FOR FUN
The Last Decade According to 9 year olds
Manliest Item in the Store
Roger Ebert's Best Films of the Decade
Andrew Jones' Best Books of 2009
10 Of Our Favorite Pop-Culture Humans Of 2009

LAUGH OF THE WEEK
I couldn't get the embedding to work on this but be sure and check out this wonderful video of Jimmy Kimmel and the Muppets singing "One"

A New Year

If anyone is still reading this blog, I suspect you think I have given up on it. Not so! Everyday I intend to update it, but it just hasn't happened. But it is a new year and I am going for a new fresh start and we'll see where it takes me.

I thought I would join in and answer the questions asked by the REVGALPAL blog. Par for the course lately, I am a bit late getting around to it! But here it goes . . .

1. What will you gladly leave behind in 2009?
At the end of every year, I wonder "Where did the year go?" The older I get the faster they seem to fly by. However, I really don’t know where 2009 went!!! It was a big year for us and the annual Christmas Epiphany . . . okay Valentine's Letter will be full. Yet I feel like I somehow missed an entire year of my life as I rushed through everything on the way to something else. So I would like to leave that since of preoccupation and hurry in 2009.

2. What is the biggest challenge of 2010 for you?
So I can't just name one!

Laura will graduate in May and leave for college in the fall. So the empty nest is looming. We've been raising kids for over 23 years now --and quite honestly were preparing for it long before Steven was born--so I think it will be challenging to negotiate life without kids in the house as well as negotiating treating the three of them as the fine young adults they have grown to be.

At New Life, we spent 2009 discerning God's vision for us as a church and so the challenge for 2010 is to develop a two year plan to implement that vision. But the greater challenge will be to communicate and live into the vision in such a way that it really becomes part of our DNA. We've come a long way during this long challenging year and I'm excited about the possibilities of the new year!

And because three is a magic number . . . Perhaps my greatest challenge remains learning to live in the moment without losing the gifts (and I do think they are gifts) of being able to analyze the past and look toward the future.

3. Is there anything that you simply need to hand to God and say "all will be well, for you are with me"?
Yes--and we'll just leave it at that!

4. If you could only achieve one thing in 2010 what would it be?
Be faithful--faithful to God, faithful to my husband, faithful to my family and faithful to my friends.

5. Post a picture, poem or song that sums up your prayer for the year ahead....

I'll continue to pray Thomas Merton's prayer
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

- Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude"