True Love

"The tendency in our spiritual life but also in our more general attitude toward love is that our feelings are all that is going on," Kolodiejchuk says. "And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn't 'feeling' Christ's love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to him, 'Your happiness is all I want.' That's a powerful example even if you are not talking in exclusively religious terms."

From
Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith in Time magazine

101 Poodles?

While walking my parent's dog the other day, a guy yelled out his car, "Nice poodle!". Humm?? She looks like a dalmatian to me.

Time with Friends

I can't seem to upload pictures to flickr or facebook so I decided to post them here.

Derk in the capitol.

Wiger, Marten, and Derk enjoying the capitol rotunda.

Can't be in Wisconsin without getting a picture of our dairy.

Newly converted cheeseheads.

Enjoying the view from Monona Terrace.

Trail at Devil's Lake.

Riding on the Wisconsin Dells Ducks.

Marten looking at the river.

Dad showing his skills at mini golf.

Marten in the capitol rotunda.

Marten and Sam

A very happy dog!

Choice

The first quote below was used to church this morning and is part of a great article by Tony Snow. If you have the time, I highly recommend reading the whole article.

Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place—in the hollow of God's hand.

Summer Visitors

My great friends have been traveling all around the US and spent a few days with me this week. We saw all kinds of sites in the area. For some reason I can't get my pictures to post to flickr, but I'll let you know when they're up.

To Become...

"Try not to become a man of success but rather a man of value."
~ Albert Einstein

"You know the person God wants you to be; you also know how to be that person of integrity in every situation. Sometimes making an ethical choice is hard, but in the end, you'll discover it's always the right one.
~Daily Grace for Women pg. 117

Port Washington

We had a great day yesterday, salmon fishing in Port Washington. I have pictures posted on flickr.

4th of July

This weekend I got to hang out with my family at my grandparent's cottage. Cool air temperature combined with warm water to create an incredible foggy sunrise. It was a great weekend for pictures! I've posted them on my flickr account.

Come Follow Me....

I found Daniel J. Clark's blog as a link from C. Thomas Davis (a favorite author of mine). Both men are passionate about helping orphans and I've found in them hearts similar to mine.

The following is part of a post by Daniel Clark.

In early April, Tom Davis and I had the privilege of meeting with a Senator – a peacemaker – and his Director of African Affairs. His Director of African Affairs, who had been a missionary in East and Southern Africa for over a decade before joining the political scene in Washington said something profound to us: 'If you follow Jesus very far… he will lead you to the poor.'

If you follow Jesus very far, he will lead you to care for orphaned children in oppressive institutions and rural scorched-earth regions.


Photo by Emmsy322 @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmsy322/2172593124/sizes/o/

If you follow Jesus very far, he will lead you to poverty. I know that for many of us poverty can be a dirty word! But remember that Jesus himself was poor. He was a homeless, wandering teacher and miracle worker. The King of the Universe with only one change of clothes. But if we look at the Beatitudes and ask the question, 'who are the happy ones? who are the blessed ones?' The answer is obvious: the poor.

Blessed are the widow, orphan, and stranger.

But that is not all… The beauty of the Trinity that we worship, is that Jesus will also lead us to prosperity. I know. Prosperity can also be a dirty word! Remember that it is not us, but God in heaven owns the cattle on a thousand hills and gives good and perfect gifts. God is prosperous.

If you look at the second half of each line in the Beatitudes, you see that God offers the prosperity of the kingdom, comfort, an inheritance, mercy, seeing God, and being called children of God to the poorest of the poor.

So we are invited, in the Holy Trinity, to participate in the life of God, the love between Father and Son, the power between Son and Spirit. We are invited to participate in the poverty and the prosperity of God and our world! Not to spectate, but to participate. This participation in poverty and prosperity adds texture and authenticity to our lives and our Christian experience.

When you turn with hope and help to the poor and orphaned of the world, you bring to them the prosperity of God – through your financial investment, through prayer and encouraging letters, through visits. But don't forget that they will bring to you something very beautiful as well. When you meet the compassion of Christ in their eyes, when you meet childlike faith in their smiles, when you meet total dependence on God in their need, they will fill the canyons of your poverty (and we all have it – we all have some scorched earth and boarded-up buildings in our own lives - in our experiences – in our pain – in our loved ones). They will fill these empty places with good and perfect gifts as well.

This is the beauty of our life here in response to the Triune God. A loving community loving the whole world! – That is a simple definition of the Trinity.

If you follow Jesus very far, he will lead you to the poor.

Jesus says, Come, follow me…

End of Ourselves

"God does His best work when we're at the end of ourselves."
~ Someday by Karen Kingsbury

"The end of ourselves" is such an uncomfortable place to be, especially in a culture that says you should "pull yourself up by your boot straps" and "where there's a will there's a way". In my experience, it's a place of brokenness and brutal honesty. And maybe that's the point. When our outer shell of self-reliance is painfully cracked and all is stripped away, we able to realize the insignificance of our own doings and we begin to rely on the vast power of the Lord.