Is It Okay To Be Rich?

I recently posted about how two of Randy Alcorn’s books significantly shaped my life. I also recommend his blog, Eternal Perspectives. Alcorn mostly writes about his passions: generous living, heaven, and the pro-life movement. His latest book—which he has been posting about recently—is called If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.

He also recently began a weekly series where he answers readers’ questions. I thought today’s post, Choosing A God-Honoring Lifestyle, was very helpful. Alcorn answers the question:

"Do you believe that everyone should live modestly? How do you measure this? Should everyone have the same amount, or are some called to wealth and others not?"

In essence he answered the question, “Is it okay to be rich?”

Because I’m very rich* and I follow Jesus, I thought the answer was quite pertinent. To read Alcorn’s response, click here.

*As a middle-class American, I am easily within the top 5% of the world’s wealthiest people.

Disney Vacation

I just returned from a wonderful vacation: my husband's parents treated us to a trip to Disney World! I've been trying to learn new online slideshow software...and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to test it out. :) Hope you enjoy these pics of my precious kids...thanks for indulging me!


Disney

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Queso Quote: If My Life is Broken

"If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad."

–Ruth Stull, missionary

Dangerous Women Creed

Last week I posted about the “Dangerous Women” group I’m a part of. Since then I learned that Lynne Hybels wrote a “Dangerous Women Creed” in her book Nice Girls Don’t Change the World. Maybe you’ve read the book or at least seen the Creed before. But in case you haven’t I wanted to post it here.

I like it. A lot.

Dangerous Women Creed:

Dear God, please make us dangerous women.

May we be women who acknowledge our power to change, and grow, and be radically alive for God.

May we be healers of wounds and righters of wrongs.

May we weep with those who weep and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

May we cherish children, embrace the elderly, and empower the poor.

May we pray deeply and teach wisely.

May we be strong and gentle leaders.

May we sing songs of joy and talk down fear.

May we never hesitate to let passion push us, conviction compel us, and righteous anger energize us.

May we strike fear into all that is unjust and evil in the world.

May we dismantle abusive systems and silence lies with truth.

May we shine like stars in a darkened generation.

May we overflow with goodness in the name of God and by the power of Jesus.

And in that name and by that power, may we change the world.

Dear God, please make us dangerous women. Amen.

Thanks to Jeedoo for the tip!

Nancy, our leader, had already named our group when she came across this creed. She was going to share it with us at our first meeting last week but ran out of time. (I think the rest of us were probably talking too much!)

Why I Like the Idea of Atheist Chaplains

Like most college campuses, the 26 official chaplains at Rutgers University represent a broad spectrum of beliefs and practices. But last spring Rutgers threw the net even wider by approving psychology instructor Gary Brill—an avowed atheist—as the university’s first humanist chaplain. Rutgers is only the fourth campus in the U.S. to do so.

(To read a recent New Jersey Newsroom article on Brill, click here.)

I predict this new trend will spread across the nation over the next few years. And I think that’s actually a good thing.

Why? Because some people falsely assume that because humanism/atheism denies the existence of God, its adherents base their decision to subscribe to this view solely on fact and reason. But atheism/humanism is a belief system, as clearly as any organized religion is a belief system. I think having humanist chaplaincy posts at universities will help students realize this.

What do you think?

Dangerous Women Tackle The Subject Of Life Change

My friend Nancy has a passion to help people identify their unique gifting and purpose in life. She invited me to join a new group she was forming called “Dangerous Women”*. She’ll be mentoring five of us—we’re all mothers of young children—by creating an atmosphere which encourages personal growth. I’m excited about how much I’m going to learn from all of the women in the group!

Our first assignment is to read Erwin McManus’s book Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul. Our group engaged in some lively discussion about the first two chapters tonight. We spent some time wrestling with the question, “What factors are needed to produce lasting change or transformation in our character?”

I couldn’t help but be reminded of this video:



(Click here if the video doesn’t show up in your browser.)

*My husband would say any gathering of half a dozen women has the potential to be dangerous!

My Life In Books, Vol.3

Welcome to the third and final installment of “Top Ten Most Influential Books” in my life. If you’re just joining me, you can catch up by reading Volume 1 and Volume 2 first. The list continues with…

• #7 In The Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen
  
  Highly-educated Catholic priest Nouwen shares “Reflections on Christian Leadership”: Lessons learned as he left his Ivy League post to live and serve among a community for mentally handicapped people. Based on the three-part temptation of Jesus, he cautions us to guard against the temptation to be relevant, spectacular, and powerful. His blueprint for “success”, featuring humility and authenticity, completely shaped my own definition of true spiritual leadership. Also the first time I read it I remember thinking, “This would be a great book for mothers to read.”
  
  Takeaway: As a leader I must constantly fight the desire to base my self-worth on how many people like me, what title I hold, or the apparent breadth of my influence. The real, the only, relevant question is: “Do I love Jesus?”


• #8 Intimacy With The Almighty by Charles Swindoll
  
  Workaholism in a missionary can look really spiritual: “Oh, they’re so devoted to the Lord!” But as I learned, when I am too busy serving God to spend time with Him, something is horribly wrong. After a decade in full-time ministry, this tiny book brought me back to Square One: Be still and know that I am God. My favorite quote in the book, from 20th century Quaker Thomas Kelly, which is plastered in front of my desk: “[God] never guides us into an intolerable scramble of panting feverishness.”
  
  Takeaway: “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3)
  
  
• #9 Heaven by Randy Alcorn
  
  I love thinking about heaven. And I thought I knew a good bit about what the Bible says about it. But Alcorn’s systematic theology of heaven, based on over 20 years of research, totally blew me away. His writing style is very basic. But the concepts he writes about really hurt my brain, in a good way. One of my favorite precepts: the continuity between earth and heaven being much stronger than I previously thought. I also love that a good portion of the book simply answers common questions like, “Will our pets be in heaven?”
  
  (I must add here that Alcorn's book The Treasure Principle was also very influential in my life. I highly recommend it...consider it #9.5 on my list!)
  
  Takeaway: I never thought a book about the next life could make me even more passionate about this one. But it did.

This whole list began with a recent discovery of Richard Stearn’s wonderful book The Hole In Our Gospel, which takes its place at #10 on my list. Click here to read my thoughts on it.

Which books most influenced your life?

I Twit

I’m a social media girl
Living in a social media world;
But the truth of the matter
Has slowly unfurled:

Facebook I love
And blogging is fine;
But Twitter, I’m afraid,
Was a pain in the behind.

I gave it a shot. I thought
It might be fun; yet
Twitter turned out to be
Mostly redundant.

So don’t look for me
In the Twittersphere;
To find me online
You’ll have to click here

At InfiniteQueso.com,
Where I aim to please
By serving my readers
Endless helpings of cheese.

From now on when I want
To share humor and wit,
I won’t have to worry
About how I can fit

My ideas into one-forty
Characters or less.
(On Twitter there’s no place
To simply digress.)

To my small group of followers:
I appreciate you.
But as of today
I’m officially through

With tweets and the blue bird
Who does like to flit.
I’m finished. It’s over.
Sayonara. I twit.

InfinteQueso Mixtapes Now Available As iMixes

Several of you asked if there’s a way to download InfiniteQueso mixtapes so you can listen to them on your own. The answer has always been “no”…until now!

I uploaded each of my mixtapes onto iTunes as “iMixes”. If you would like to take your InfiniteQueso mixtapes with you, all you have to do is:

• Click on any of the links below. (It will prompt you to open your iTunes software.)
• If you don’t own any of the songs, you can just click “Buy all songs”. Or you can click the “Buy now” button next to any of the songs you don’t already own.
• Create a playlist with the appropriate name.
• Drag and drop the appropriate songs into the playlist.
• Listen and enjoy!

A couple of further tips:

• Once you have opened up any one of my mixes, you can then just click on “See all iMixes by this user” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to access my other mixes.
• iTunes omitted at least one song from each mixtape when they imported them—sometimes because those songs are not available on iTunes; sometimes because they were just being contrary. I’ve identified any songs not imported into the iMix under “iMix Notes”, on the top right-hand corner. You’ll have to take an extra step in order to download those songs. Sorry!

InfiniteQueso iMixes:
Hymns To Her (From Him)
There Must Be Some Misunderstanding
“S” My Life
Got No Destination: A Road Trip with U2
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
All Responses Must Be Phrased In The Form Of A Question
8-Track Days: A Tribute To My Dad
It’s About Time
Watching The Sun Go Down: Chilling With U2*

*For some reason there's a bit of a glitch with this one: to see the "Notes", you have to first click on the "Watching" title.

MIXTAPE: Watching The Sun Go Down

Theme: Chilling with U2

My friend Rich put in a request for a mixtape: Songs by U2 to help him chill out while on long international flights. And since he’s headed overseas next week, while I’m headed to Dallas to see U2 live (woo hoo!), I thought it was the perfect time to share my latest mixtape….

Watching The Sun Go Down:

1. Sweetest Thing
2. Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
3. Grace
4. Promenade
5. Cedars of Lebanon
6. Love Comes Tumbling
7. Miss Sarajevo
8. With Or Without You
9. The First Time
10. October
11. White As Snow
12. The Hands That Built America
13. One Step Closer
14. Running To Stand Still
15. North And South Of The River
16. Moment Of Surrender
17. So Cruel
18. Stay (Faraway, So Close)
19. Scarlet
20. Bass Trap
21. MLK

Selected Commentary:
Sweetest Thing – I’m actually partial to the original B-side version of this song. But I couldn’t resist this LEGO tribute video to the single version!
Grace – "When she goes to work/You can hear the strings..."
Promenade – It would be impossible to pick my favorite U2 song. But if you pressed me, this might be it.
The First Time – Love this picture of the Trinity. “I spend my whole time running/He spends his running after me…”
Stay – I always liked this Wim Wenders video

PS: My version of this mixtape contains “40”…but since Rich gives me such grief about the song, I’ve left it off of “his” version. ;)

Do you have a request for a mixtape theme? Just let me know…

To check out my other mixtapes, click here.

Keep Out!

There comes a time in every boy’s life when he reaches his limit with his little sister nosing into his business. That day came today for both of my sons.

Both boys are heavily involved in intricate, on-going projects on their desks: one is constructing a giant starship out of LEGOs; the other is crafting a makeshift robot from the spare parts of the remote-control car and portable DVD player he recently disassembled.

At first I just heard the usual, “Mo-ommmm, she’s in our room again! Tell her to stop playing with our stuff!”

But then I heard some whispering and giggles, followed by a downstairs dash for construction paper and markers and a request to borrow scotch tape.

When I made my way upstairs I found this on the boys’ bedroom door:



I thought this sign in particular deserved a close-up:

New Barna Book: What It Takes To Be A Master Leader

Researcher George Barna released his latest book on leadership, Master Leaders: Revealing Conversations with 30 Leadership Greats, last month.

I haven’t read the book. But I was intrigued by what Barna described as three key insights he gleaned from his conversations with the 30 leaders he interviewed for the book:

1. Leaders move people forward by telling stories.


2. Leaders see themselves as servants and genuinely respect others.


3. Leaders listen.

Click here to read more about Barna’s thoughts and the book.

Queso Quote: Grace Always Trumps

“When in doubt, grace always trumps.”

—Wendy Kohman, my friend and hero

October

October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care?

October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But You go on and on…


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