LADDventure

Next in May

It's May already, and I can't believe 2014 is almost at the halfway point! My allergies think otherwise, but the desert is just beautiful this time of year, with everything blooming. While it may just now be starting to feel like spring in your neck of the woods, here in Arizona it's basically summer. The days are getting longer and warmer, and we're hanging on tight to every cool breeze or cloudy day.

My theme word for the year is Next, both a reminder to take one thing at a time, and an encouragement to be open to new opportunities and set some goals. Each month, I take time to look ahead at what's next, so here's a peek at May!

Next in travel... We'll be staying home this month, but some great friends are travelling here! We're honored to be hosting two of our favorite couples from Wisconsin for a couple's vacation/bachelor/bachellorette weekend mid-May. The plans are shaping up to include a Friday night out in Scottsdale, a pool party on Saturday and golf/whatever the girls decide to do on Sunday. Really looking forward to it!

Next in writing...The book is with the proofreaders!  Round One of edits and rewrites is complete, and we are in the very final stages of getting the book ready to go.  I truly can't believe it, and am so proud of this book. I'm nailing down an official release date and other details this month, and can't wait to share them with you. Head over to The Candid Teacher and join the email list to stay up to date on book news!

Next in adoption... This is document gathering month. As I talked about in this post, we are gathering up all our important papers and getting things in order to start our classes next month. We're getting more and more excited to meet our kids and be a family of four (well six if you count the dogs, which we totally do).

Next in food... Unfortunately our swimsuit season starts a little earlier here than other parts of the country, so food has consisted of lots of fruits and veggies to get these thighs ready for the light of day. Operation Hot Mom is in full swing. More on this soon, too.

Next in faith... Still thinking on a great many things I'd like to write about here. I've had lots of really interesting conversations lately which have my wheels turning about what I believe and why.  But in the meantime, we are just absolutely loving the friends we've met through our small group at church, and can't believe we've only known them a year and a half. All that matters is God and people. I couldn't agree more with this statement right now.

What big plans do you have for this new month?

WWJD? Not Wear That Bracelet.

I am dabbling in this faith business.  I'm not merely dabbling in my faith, but I'm dabbling in writing about it.  For a long time I haven't really written about faith and spirituality because it feels too vast, too complex and beautiful a thing to narrow down to a sound bite or bumper sticker.  In fact those very things make me cringe, and I don't ever want to come across like I've got it all figured out in a clever phrase that can be neatly printed on a Christian T-Shirt. I believe in Jesus and his life changing message, but I never wore a WWJD bracelet - because "What Would Jesus Do?" - not wear that tacky bracelet for starters.

I grew up in church and am so thankful for my introduction to Jesus there and in my family.  But, I didn't think the Jesus I had met and was getting to know in church would do a lot of the things "the church" would do.  I was always comfortable with the message of Jesus, but not always comfortable with the message of Christians around me who focused on how otherness was bad, and different was to be kept that way.  I'm not a Christian just to drive to church every Sunday in my car with a Jesus fish on it.  I'm not a Christian to protect my kids from the evils of public school or R-rated movies.  I'm not a Christian to vote Republican or protest abortion clinics, and I'm certainly not a Christian to lord my superior theology or worldview over anybody.  

The Jesus I know told me to love, and let him take care of the rest.  He told me in fact that the world would know us by our love.  The truth is, for a long time I haven't wanted to write about being a Christian because love is not what the world knows us for at all unfortunately.  I didn't want to be lumped in and stereotyped as the kind of Christian that was known for everything but love. 

The great work of defining what my faith means to me as an adult has actually been to separate culture from Christ.  I'm wanting to follow Jesus instead of just his followers; to listen to the actual message not just the messengers.  I'm working on me and my own relationship with God, and to separate that relationship from a religion that doesn't represent that relationship very well.  I'd like to talk about that a little bit in this space, because I think it's a conversation worth having, and a huge part of what it means to me to live life with adventurous intention.  I hope you'll explore that with me here, and I hope we can do it with love and respect and the understanding that no one, starting with me, has it all figured out.

I shared a video last week that you all seemed to love, so here's another one about the kind of faith I want to have.  I want to have a faith that drops keys and puts down stones.  I couldn't have said it better, so I'll let Glennon...

photo credit: DylanHartmann.com via photopin cc

Refusing to Dance

I am wanting to write more about faith here in this space.  I have all the thoughts and all the feelings about it, and it's a huge part of who I am, but sometimes I'm still looking for the words.  So today, I'm going to borrow the words of this lady, Glennon Doyle Melton from her video with The Work of the People.  I'm going to share this video and just say yes, exactly this!

Wordless Wednesday - The God Debate

Ok so not totally wordless, because I just want to write that if more of our debates about God had this kind of sense of humor and respect for each other, we might actually get somewhere.