Moving On
Posted on | April 19, 2010 | No Comments
So after 10 years and a good run, it’s time for something new.
Come check out These Prices.
(In 48 hours this site will redirect to theseprices.net.)
Finally Home
Posted on | April 12, 2010 | 7 Comments
Well, we’re all moved in. Sort of. As much as you can be moved in after a week.
It’s amazing to have room for things, and to be organized and CLEAN. In our old house, we didn’t have a pantry. We shoved all our cans/pantry items into a lower cabinet where we also had to keep mouse traps (gross, but true), and what we couldn’t fit in there when on what was an old microwave cart. (And now we have THIS!)
Aaron purchased the living room furniture for his loft in Atlanta, so it’s BIG (and masculine) and it was shoved into a very small little living area before. And because we used to let the dogs on the furniture, I never got to have my pillows out. But new house means new rules, and the newest rule is no more dogs in our bedroom, and no dogs on the furniture. They’re adjusting. A dog park just a 10 minute walk away takes their minds off not being able to sleep on the couch.
It’s funny, too, how different the spaces can feel with furniture in them, versus how they did when they were empty or in progress. Both Aaron and I were afraid that our bedroom would feel tight once we put in our king-sized bed. Ha!
I never thought of myself as a “new house” person, but this experience has definitely changed my mind! When I think back to all of the properties we looked at and considered, I can’t think of one that we would’ve been as happy with as we are with this one. And that includes the red brick 1920s two story that made my eyes fill with tears as soon as I walked through its door.
Of course, new construction has it’s downsides. Like landscaping. Our yard still isn’t graded, and because of the timing of our closing and the climate, we still don’t have a driveway, sidewalk or grass. But those are temporary annoyances. (Though when you have dogs, it is pretty annoying!)
We’re all so glad to finally be home!
Monday Morning
Posted on | April 5, 2010 | 4 Comments
Our office is closed today, so I get to spend the day with my mom unpacking and organizing. It’s such a blessing to have her help! Even with movers, it still took us all day long on Saturday (and a few trips Friday night and Sunday morning) to get everything over to the new place. We had a lot more than I thought crammed into that little rental house.
I’ve never lived anywhere this nice, and I still sort of can’t believe it. I feel like we snuck into this neighborhood, and they’re going to discover that we’re frauds and boot us out! The first night, when we walked all four dogs, I was glad it was dark so none of our neighbors could see us, the Bumpuses.
Sometimes we get good and perfect gifts from our Father. Things we don’t deserve, but he gives them anyway. And that’s what this house is. A good and perfect gift that we don’t deserve. When it was being built, I wandered around the frames and prayed that He would allow us to use it to bless others. Send us children God, however you choose to send them, to fill these rooms.
It was kind of a wonky Easter weekend, with the moving, but we made it to the 6 pm service yesterday, and Pastor Bob said that because of Easter, because of Jesus, we have a trusted guide. Someone who will direct our paths, if we acknowledge Him with our lives. That sometimes we get impatient, because things don’t happen as we’d like them to, when we’d like them. He referenced jobs and relationships, but of course I sat there and thought of children. There is nothing else in the world that is as out of hands as getting pregnant or having children. We can prevent it, yes, but we can’t make it happen: not with all the science in the world. We can help, for sure, but just ask the women whose stories I’ve read of three, four, five failed IVF cycles. It is what it is, as we say around here.
But because of Easter, because my Redeemer lives, I have a God who is for me. Who promises me hope. So I will cling to that hope and trust in the knowledge that He is FOR me.
“In all things, we know that, we are more than conquerers. You keep us by your love.” — Christy Nockels, “Healing is In Your Hands”
It’s Ours! — Foto Friday
Posted on | April 2, 2010 | 11 Comments
We closed on Wednesday! It’s ours!
A moving van arrives today from Ohio with stuff from my mom’s house—wedding gifts she’s had since my Ohio shower; furniture from my grandmother; a few other odd and ends. Tomorrow we move from our current house to the new one. I can’t wait!
Thanks for coming along for the ride. It was a great experience, and I would recommend building to anyone who’s in the market for a new house.
*Shot with a Canon 20mm 2.8 that I rented. I like it!
Here I Am to Worship
Posted on | March 28, 2010 | 2 Comments
“I live to worship You. Here I am, worshiping You. With all I am, worshiping You.” Deluge, “Worshiping You”
I recently took a spiritual growth assessment called Monvee that aims to help you learn what kind of learner you are, how you connect with God, as well as your personality type.
There are many ways people connect with God—being in his creation, Bible study, intellect, prayer, serving others. And worship. It came as no surprise to me that my pathway is worship, as many of the most memorable, defining moments in my relationship with God have occurred when I am worshiping him.
“Our God is greater. Our God is stronger. God, you are higher than any other.” Chris Tomlin, “Our God”
When I was still on my road back to Him, I would occasionally attend service at a Vineyard church in Columbus, Ohio. One Sunday they sang what I know now is a Third Day song (and I can’t even remember the song, so that should tell you that it’s not about the lyrics or the melody, it’s about the connection), and I was so overcome that I had to sit down sobbing in my chair. I was embarrassed and, honestly, scared. I wasn’t ready to give up my life—the parties, friends, relationships, habits that I knew I’d have to walk away from if I went back to Him.
“No mountain, no valley, no gain or loss we know, could keep us from Your love. No sickness, no secret, no chain is strong enough to keep us from your love. How high, how wide, no matter where I am, healing is in Your hands.” — Christy Nockels, “Healing is in Your Hands”
And I will never forget Passion ‘07, what that was like to worship with almost 20,000 other believers. An itty bitty glimpse of what Heaven will be like. During a break on one of those days, I mentioned to Lauren that when I closed my eyes, I saw all of us standing on a beach underneath a huge blue sky singing up to Him. (Probably because the ocean is the place where I feel God’s might the most. I have stood in the waves on many beaches and sang songs to him.) And then she said that she saw us before the throne, but it was so massive and mighty that even 20,000 strong, we were like a teeny, tiny finger touching the smallest, minute bit of His throne. And I see that behind my eyes now too, sometimes, millions of us on bended knee singing songs of love to our maker.
But there are drawbacks to the worship pathway that I have to be on guard against. Monvee mentioned that often worshipers can be judgmental of others who aren’t on this pathway as being less spiritual, and I have certainly been guilty of that. Minnesotans are not an exuberant bunch. They’re nice and friendly, oh yeah, but you want me to put my hands up? Uh, no. So often, I am one of only a handful of people in a 1,000+ congregation with arms raised. It used to bother me, like, don’t they know Who we’re worshiping? But as I’ve matured in my faith, I’ve learned that not everyone connects with God in the same way. (Duh, right?) So I just do what I do!
Another drawback that I have to guard against is seeking the experience and of making it about me. If you listen enough, you’ll find that there are a lot of “worship” songs that are really just boastful tunes about one’s self. So I guard against that— against making it about me. It’s about Him. Worship, at its core definition, is about making much of Him.
One of my coworker’s pathways is intellect, which I find incredibly interesting, as it was my intellect that kept me separated from Him for so long. I couldn’t get past my questions, my disbelief. But mostly, I couldn’t get past my pride. When you have the gift of knowledge, it’s easy to think you know it all and therefore don’t need anyone to tell you anything. I stumbled over that backwards knowledge for too many years, I regret to say. Because what I wasn’t getting was that. . . He gave it to me! The things that I know just because I know them? From Him. My drive to know more, learn more, understand more? A gift from Him. He gave it to me to do Kingdom work. And I wasted it for many years, thinking it was because of my own brain, my own self, my OWN smartypantsness that I knew things. Pride, pride, pride. Ugly pride.
“My God’s not dead, He’s surely alive, He’s living on the inside roaring like a lion,” David Crowder Band, “Like a Lion”
(If you think you’re on the worship pathway as well, and you’re in search of new worship music or vehicles to worship Him, I recommend going to YouTube and searching for Hillsong London, Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin or Passion: Awakening.)
keep looking »-
Compassion
