Yoga and Jesus

Ahhh... I love yoga. Not just because it helps me relax, or stretch, or strengthen my already amazing muscles (haha), but because it helps me connect with Jesus.

There are quite a few people I know who are wary of yoga because of it's "spiritual-ness"; a spirituality connected with your inner self, not with God. However, it's quite easy, and amazing, to see what happens when you take those spiritual connection ideas in yoga and simply change it to being connected with God.

"The word yoga means to unite or draw together all aspects of the person into harmony. Yoga is a tool used to reconnect the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual aspects with an inner wisdom in which there is no doubt as to the connection of all things." I know, as a Christian, that the "inner wisdom" is the fear of God (Proverbs 9:10) and that the "connection of all things" is that everything is created by God, and He designed our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects to be connected to Him.

I am told "Be still and know that I am God".... my problem is, I can't sit and just be "still". If my body isn't moving, my mind is, and more than likely, it's not being moved by God, it's just wandering throughout the worries of my daily life. However, since I have become very comfortable with many poses in yoga, I have been able to "be still" in my mind, and just let my body move. It's amazing how still and calm my mind and spirit can become when I have to do absolutely no thinking at all -- the instructor tells me when to move, how to move, and even (sometimes) when to breathe. My body moves.... my mind is still and able to listen to God speak.

And breath.... breath is a huge focus of yoga. That's the first thing you learn: how to breathe. And instructors are constantly reminding us: where's your breath? Are you breathing? We are also instructed to "bring the breath throughout your body"... or "focus on bringing breath to ____ part of your body". The interesting thing is -- the Holy Spirit is the Breath of Life (Genesis 2:7, John 6:63). Making that connection, when I breath, I am focusing on the Breath of Life in me, feeling the presence of Jesus in me, and inviting Him to become even more a part of my life.

And that is why I love yoga.

Any Day

Yes, don't we all love Valentine's Day? Hahaha.... or not...? I know for some people it is one of their favorite holidays. Get dressed up, go out for a fancy meal, get all kissy-kissy... Bah, I say, Bah humbug. Ok, so I'm not really that against romantic things, but I just feel like Valentine's Day is kind of a fraud. Who is Hallmark to dictate when someone is obligated to show another person that they love them? Should that be something that is done "any day"? Yes, I say, yes it should. Thus the induction of "Any Day".

Actually, Any Day was the brainchild of my creative, thoughtful, and romantic husband. While we were engaged, I gave him my whole Valentine's Day shpiel and told him I really didn't think we needed to celebrate this day or do anything special. So, a couple of days before Valentine's Day, my then-fiance showed up with flowers and gift. I said, "I thought we weren't celebrating Valentine's Day" to which he cleverly replied, "It's not Valentine's Day, it's just any day." Thus, Any Day was born.

It has been celebrated every year since, usually sometime during the week preceeding Valentine's Day. This year I got incredibly comfortable, yet still cute, shoes and a box of Aba-Zabas (oh so delicious!!). I am very proud of our tradition and hope it carries on for a long, long time. Isn't it great to be loved any day? :)

New Year

So it's been a while since my last post... True confession: I forgot I had a blog for a while.... oops!
Anyways, since it's the new year, I thought I should write a post about my new year's resolutions. Except I don't really make resolutions. So, instead, I've decided to write about my new year's goals (sounds much better than resolution, right?). In a nutshell, my goal for this year is to get healthy: physcially, financially, and spiritually. Not to say that any of these areas are in the ICU, but they all could use some more healthy-ness. Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm going to get there, and what the mark of "healthy" or even "robust" is for each of these areas. Any ideas?

Speaking of resolutions, want to hear something funny? One of my coworkers said that her husband's new year's resolution was to give up sugar. Forever. What?!? That's just crankiness waiting to happen, folks. Not a good thing. Sugar (in moderation, of course) is a necessity! Blain even gave me not one, but two, kinds of amazingly delicious dark chocolate in my Christmas stocking -- what a champ!

Well, it's about time for me to jump on my bike... here comes healthy!

Accomplished!

I love the feeling when I accomplish something. Whether big or small, it's a great feeling to get something done, and to do it well. Today was one of those "we did it" days.

Blain and I have been talking about wanting a ceiling fan in our bedroom ever since we've moved into our house over a year ago. We had no light in the ceiling at all; just a lamp plugged into an outlet that was hooked up to the light switch. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Blain bought a ceiling fan (with a light) for super cheap at a local hardware store. To be honest, I was a little upset because we really didn't have anywhere to put it. Every night after he bought the thing we layed in bed and brainstormed ways we could wire it so that it could work in our bedroom. Then one night, Blain figured it out: just add another wire to the switch, run the wire up through the wall and into the attic, run it across the attic to the center of our ceiling, drill a hole in the ceiling, and mount the fan/light. Pretty simple, right?? Well, that's what we thought.

So, with our TV satellite not working, and pretty yucky weather predicted for the day, it was off to Lowes we went for our "little" home improvement project. The guy at Lowes who sold us the wire and mounting box gave us a brief low-down of what we needed to do and assured us our idea would work; we were giddy and excited as we left the store. A half-hour later, with Blain sweating in the attic and me still not being able to see the wire he was feeding down, we weren't quite as excited, nor giddy. However, another half-hour later, the wire was pulled through, the hole cut in the ceiling, and the mounting box in place. Woo hoo! The rest we thought would be pretty easy, but also turned out needing a lot of patience, and more time that we thought. We've already installed two ceiling fans in our home, so we thought it would be a simple routine. But, whoever wrote the instructions for this one was...well... missing a few screws, and it took some brainpower to figure it all out. We finally got all the parts together, the fan hung, and the light bulbs screwed in. Whew!

Then it was time for the big test. Did it work??? I was so nervous -- would the house blow up? Would nothing turn on? Would we overload the switch? What did we know about electricity anyway? On went the circuit breaker, and on went the light/fan!! Yeah!!! But wait... when I flipped the switch on the wall, nothing happened; the light/fan just stayed on. Ooops. I took the walkie-talkie downstairs to the circuit box, and Blain stayed upstairs to figure out the switch. About ten walkie-talkie calls and circuit breaker on/offs later, the switch was up and working. Another triumph!

Now we have a working ceiling fan and light in our bedroom. And I can guarantee you that every time we look at that, we will both feel a little twinge of pride, a little sense of accomplishment, and have a little smile on our face knowing that is the product of our work (well, mostly Blain's work, but I like to take a little credit). It will be something we get to brag about for at least a little while, and something more for us to add to our "home improvement resume". The only question now is: what's next? :)

Voting

So, I voted today. I did my part, went to the polls, and voiced my opinion. Not so much because I believe that my one little vote really makes a huge difference, but because I can. There are so many people in our world who don't have this privilege to the extent that we do. We are so fortunate to have a voting system where we are safe, unpressured, and completely entitled to our own personal vote, whatever that may be. When I went to the polls today, there was not one armed guard or military personnel there -- not one. The only people I saw running the polling place were ordinary citizens just like me. The gal who checked me in was a recent Grand Valley graduate who was working a couple of part-time jobs. The gentleman in charge of the ballot scanner box was the father of 3 children who proudly showed me each of their pictures (I'm not sure why... but he did). This made me feel safer than any military presence ever would. There are so many countries in the world where the citizens of that country have the right to vote, yet their system is dangerous; men and women risk their lives to fill in the ballot. Yes, there are flaws in our country, but our right to vote and our protection when voting is not one of them. My one little vote may not count for much, but it would be wrong not to take advantage of the opportunity I have to walk into my polling place unhindered, mark my vote without fear, and participate in one system in America that I am proud of. So... why do YOU vote?

Fall

First, a vent, then on to the happy stuff:

I want to ban state standardized testing. Forever. Period.
My whole heart cries out, IT'S NOT FAIR!!! when I watch my students painfully struggling through the test, and all I can tell them, through a forced smile, is "I can't help you with this part; just keep doing your best". All I want to do is take the thing, rip it up, and throw it out as invalid. I just read a research article today talking about the "unnecessary linguistic complexity" used in standardized tests. Duh.

Ok, now for the happy stuff: I LOVE fall! Especially this fall. Here's what I l-o-v-e"
~ fresh hot cider from the apple orchard
~ crisp apples that you know really are fresh
~ hayrides, corn mazes, pumpkins
~ actually being grateful for a sunny day "what a beautiful day"
~ fall decorations -- not the cheesy ones in stores, but the spontaneous, let's-use-fallen-leaves decorations in people's homes
~ the sound of the breeze in the trees
~ the COLOR in the trees -- wow!
~ leaves floating to the ground
~ a tree with a neat circle of fallen leaves around its base
~ long sleeves, but no need for a coat yet
~ bike rides where you can hear the crunch of leaves under your tires
~ the clean-up rituals that happen in anticipation of winter
~ the sound of neighborhood leaf blowers
~ checking the weather every night, because there's just no telling what tomorrow will be like
~ taking full advantage of those few beautiful days left before winter

Do you have anything else to add to the list??

Serve Trip?

So for the past month or so, Blain and I, along with some other leaders at KeyStone, have been immersed in planning for our next high school serve trip to Chicago. That's where the thoughts for this blog started. And then last week, we had dinner with Joel, the director of Sunshine Gospel Ministries, and talked about what Sunshine is doing and what role he sees in short-term serve trips from the perspective of an established ministry. To top it off, we drove to Chicago last weekend to attend Sunshine's annual benefit dinner and got caught up on all that the ministry is doing. All of this "ministry" activity has kept the wheels in my head turning, thinking about why we do short-term serve trips and what the purpose of them really is.

Clearly, going to Chicago for a weekend and serving with several different ministries/organizations does not have any long-term impact on the people we are working with. So why go if we really don't make that much of a difference (if we really make a difference at all)? Well, here are my thoughts:

1. Group Bonding: There is a reason I put this at the top of the list -- it really happens! We have seen students come together like we never expected them to; students from different schools, different backgrounds, different levels of faith (and general maturity). The bonding happens through shared experiences, whether they be serious or hilarious, important or flippant, deep or surface-level. I cannot count the number of times when, even months after a serve trip, a student would say "Remember when..." and the "remember whens" would continue for minutes on end. In fact, our core group of students this past school year were the very students who came on our fall Chicago serve trip. Hmmmm....

2. Spiritual Growth: There is a theory in education which states that in order for real learning to happen, there has to be a struggle between what you already know and believe to be true and a new encounter which does not fit in. This struggle is basically re-arranging your schema (stuff you already know and have organized in your head); as you process the new information, you have to re-arrange, re-organize, and re-understand that schema in order to "make room" for the new information. This is what we see happening on serve trips. Students have already formed ideas of what they think about God, what they think "real life" looks like, and what they expect from the city (ie: Chicago). But when they get there, things are different from their original expectations -- they see a homeless woman who isn't high and isn't drunk... what now? Where's God? What's my response? They meet a man who is passionate about serving Christ through serving his community. Where's my passion? Where's Christ in me? They have to buy dinner with a measly $2. How do real people do this? How does my faith play into this? Real spiritual growth happens when we are confronted with experiences outside our "box"... when we are allowed to question, chew, and seek Jesus in a setting that is not part of our usual routine.

3. A change in students' perspectives: A weekend serve trip opens the students' eyes to a part of the city, both the challenges and the beauty, that they have never seen before. It plants seeds in their hearts and gets them thinking about longer-term possibilities where they live, as well as future possibilities. I know that both of these things were true for me; my first serve trip was to Chicago when I was a sophomore in high school. My eyes were opened to something I had never experienced before and I felt a new, deep pull to somehow serve in an urban setting. I followed this all through high school and college-- tutoring in an urban school here in Grand Rapids, taking more short-term serve trips, volunteering for an after-school program, and working summers at Sunshine's camp. Now that I'm "grown up", all of my teaching experiences have been in urban, at-risk schools, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. A student may or may not feel that pull (some call it a "calling") to serve in an urban, low-income setting, but the seeds have been planted for current and future service, donations, support and most importantly, understanding.

4. Supporting people who are "in the trenches": Ministries like Sunshine have been around a long time, and have built substantial relationships with the people who live in their communities. They are the ones making the long-term difference in these communities and bringing positive change through their consistent relationship-building. That's really what brings change in any ministry: consistent relationships (ah, we won't go there now... maybe another post...). So when we come in, our goal really is to support existing ministries without "getting in the way" or doing our own thing. The example Joel gave us was of a group that comes to Sunshine every summer. The high school students from this church group help run Sunshine's "Summer Blast" program by being the manpower behind the program, but Sunshine's staff is still leading the program and is the up-front "face" for the neighborhood kids that attend. Another goal for us along these lines is to develop a long-term relationship with a specific ministry in Chicago. It would be so cool to have a ministry say, "Oh yeah, we have that KeyStone group coming again this year. That means we'll be able to do ______________". That gives me goosebumps!

5. Learning about the community we serve in: This is more than just "learning" numbers and statistics. It is learning the name and story of the homeless woman you gave a granola bar to. It is learning the history, needs, and triumphs of a local ministry. It is learning how others worship the same Jesus in a style different than our own ("Amen! Hallelujah!"). It is learning about yourself through these experiences. It is learning that each statistical number has a name, a face, and a story. It is learning that there are huge needs... and huge hopes. It is learning something new about the God you thought you already knew through your experiences in the community. "I never really thought about homeless people"... "I didn't know there were so many runaway kids in Chicago"... "I didn't know Lou Malnati's Pizza gives their profit to Lawndale Church" "Wow, that guy had a lot of passion for Jesus; I've never seen anything like it!" These were comments we heard from students on our first trip... I'm looking forward to more in November!

And there you have it folks -- why we take these little trips across the pond. Now that it's down on paper, maybe it won't be rattling around inside my head anymore! :)

PS: Just in case you read my 1st post and wonder how that RAFT thing works... Here it is for this post:
Reason: to inform
Audience: interested church staff, parents of high-school students, and youth leaders
Format: blog
Topic: Why we take serve trips