Laugh Attack, By Laura Watkins

This was written by my dear friend Laura Watkins.  I just had to put it on my blog, as it captures the randomness of my daily thought life so well…

“Do you ever just start laughing about the dumbest stuff? I just got an abdominal workout laughing about the US Postal Service with Kristina (a NWC student I disciple).

It all started with an offhand comment that the USPS is suspending Saturday service and progressed from there. Here’s the topics we covered that were hilarious to us at the time.
- Post Offices are always ghetto
- Postal workers usually are old and slow
- Fed/Ex Kinkos is always clean and efficient
- What if mail was like our garbage and everyone had their own company?
- And then there would be the really bad post offices in poorer areas and these plush ones in the suburbs but they’re all essentially doing the same thing.
- And for the financially strapped you would chose the cheapest, and by extension slowest and least reliable company, but hey at least you even have mail service!
- What if mail became like health care and some people were so poor they they were like “I don’t really have a mailing address because I don’t have postal service”
- And then what if politicians ran on agendas of mail service as a right for all Americans and passed bills requiring mail service?

Then there was a pause in our laughter because we needed to breathe and cough. But wait, we kept going:

- Big stamps are funny – like the last time I went to buy stamps for supporter newsletters and thank yous I thought – “I don’t want those boring freedom bell stamps; sure I’ll be all creative and take the modern art stamps” which then resulted in stamps that were so big they were covering up the addresses on my little thank you cards
- who buys collectors stamps anyway?

I’m well aware that none of these thoughts is especially humorous… or even remotely humorous. But just trust me, 11pm, in the McDonalds parking lot, attempting to eat dollar cones… they just are funny.” LW

The Problem of Evil and Suffering

I am currently taking a class called The Problem of Evil and Suffering.  Although the content is extremely intimidating and at times very hard to wrap my mind around, I have seen that the harder I pursue challenging issues, the more clear the cross becomes.

Christ’s blood was shed for any type of suffering a person could endure.  In Hebrews, it talks about how we have a high priest who has been tempted in every way, yet without sin, and because of that, we can boldly approach the throne of grace.  We can boldly stare suffering in the face and know Christ has experienced ultimate suffering, in that God turned his face from him.  Therefore he can sympathize with our pain, and not only that, but because of the cross, that pain is either redeemed or it is crucified.

Today my professor shared that the only way to not be afraid of death is to die.  This shed new light on what it means to die to self.  I want to develop habits of the mind and in life that keep me ill attuned to the world.  I want to be so dead to things of the flesh that when sufferings come about, I clearly see the cross; which therefore promises that the pain of what I am going through is nothing compared to the Spirit of God which is alive in me.

Here is a piece of work from Jonathan Edwards reflecting God’s end in creation.  This has been helpful to see the broader picture of creation, and be reminded of God’s complete love and power over all things.

448. END OF THE CREATION.

“ God is glorified within himself these two ways: (1) by appearing or being manifested to himself in his own perfect idea, or, in his Son, who is the brightness of his glory; (2) by enjoying and delighting in himself, by flowing forth in infinite love and delight towards himself, or, in his Holy Spirit.

So God glorifies himself towards the creatures also two ways: (1) by appearing to them, being manifested to their understandings; (2) in communicating himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying the manifestations which he makes of himself. They both of them may be called his glory in the more extensive sense of the word, viz. his shining forth, or the going forth of his excellency, beauty and essential glory ad extra. By one way it goes forth towards their understandings; by the other it goes forth towards their wills or hearts. God is glorified not only by his glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in, when those that see it delight in it: God is more glorified than if they only see it; his glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that he might communicate, and the creature receive, his glory, but that it might [be] received both by the mind and heart.”

The Gospel is not…Prosperity.

John Piper discusses the heresy involved in the health and wealth or prosperity gospel… which is no gospel at all (Gal 1)

I’ve seen this probably over 10 times, but it never gets old.  I hope this is encouraging as it is to me.

If we are faithless, He remains faithful.

Welcome to anyone who is supporting me on this journey of following God’s call to India!

My hope is to update this periodically throughout the process of preparing and also while I am there.    As I am getting further along in this process, I am seeing just how sanctifying every aspect of this trip is going to be.

I Thessalonians 4:3 says ” For this is the will of God, your sanctification”

The truth of this passage has already really been coming to fruition in my life. Here are 3 things that the Lord has been gracious enough to reveal to me thus far:

1. I have seen how much I don’t trust God’s sovereignty in my life.  I am wanting so bad to have some part in making this trip happen, to control any piece of it, and to take credit for the work that HE is doing.

2. I am finally starting to grasp  the importance of having a support team behind me lifting me up with prayer. Prayer is powerful, and I want to claim that promise!

3. My faith is not my own, but it is the faith of Christ.  In my being redeemed by the blood of the cross, every aspect of my life died, and was replaced with the righteousness of Christ, including faith.  To have faith is to rest in the cross.

Tomorrow we will be having our second retreat in Nerstrand, MN!!

Please pray for unity and growth on our team through Christ, as we continue to get to know each other and learn about each other.

Sally Hanson Beauty Supplies

So yesterday I ventured down Snelling to get some perm rods.  Sounds stupid, because it is.  I know the last time perms were in was when  Seinfeld was still on prime-time, but in my defense, Elaine always had great curly hair.  (Random fact: Seinfeld was voted the number 1 TV show of all time right behind I love Lucy by TV GUIDE, and I know we’re all thinking the same thing, “how did Full House not make number 1?”  May I remind you that we live in a fallen world, and things are not always the way they should be ) 

Anyway, all of that is completely besides the point.  I get to Sally Hanson Beauty Supplies on Snelling and University.  Walk in, get the rods, and head to the register.  As I’m getting my wallet out, ( and may I add am being completely judged by the woman checking me out for buying perm rods) I realize that my keys aren’t in my bag.  Pretty instantaneously, I know that I left them in my ignition, and the my only hope is that I was stupid enough to leave my car unlocked.  I walk out to my car, attempt to open every door, but unfortunately realize that they are all indeed locked.  My mind starts to think of how I can break this to my parents who have my spare key. Suddenly, that thought gets broken up by four guys driving by and whistling at me.  Did I mention I’m in the ghetto? I mean, as ghetto as Minnesota could potentially get I suppose. 

So I get kind of nervous and book it into Walgreens.  Okay, so this is what this post is actually deticated to: My Mother’s response to the situation.  I walk into the store, which by the way is playing Lil Wayne, and call my mom.  I explain what happened, admitting that I messed up and I wasn’t being responsible, and basically on and on of the best sucking up I can do.  After about a minute of this, there is silence on her end of the line. Never good.  Finally she speaks…

” Why the heck are you perming your hair?  Perms haven’t been in since Top Gun came out”

No joke, and she continued to make fun of me for perming my hair for about the next five minutes.  Finally I was able to get her to focus on the actual situation at hand, and here is her protective, motherly advice…

“Kristina, this honestly happens to me all the time, and I’ve learned that you just have to use your resources.  Last week I was at the Mall of America and when I locked my keys in the car,  do you know what I did? I waited in the parking garage until I saw someone who looked like he knew how to break into cars.  I called him over, and told him I would pay $5 if he could get my keys out. And he did!”

I laughed, but then was wondering if she was seriously suggesting that I go back out, wait by my car, and then ask someone who ” looked like they knew how to break into cars” if they could help me.  Turns out, she was completely serious.  She threw some lines out like, ” I’m sure some of those guys walking around carry hangers with them for this sole purpose, so ask! ” and ” It’s daylight! Just have 911 ready to go on your phone so you just have to push the talk button if something actually happens to you” and my personal favorite, ” there are so many advantages of being stuck in the ghetto right now.” 

For anyone who doesn’t know my mom, which is probably anyone who would ever read this, she is crazy.  She’s not actually a nut case, but she just lives life on the edge of her seat.  The best part is that I couldn’t convince her that that was a stupid idea.  The only reason she backed down was because I told her I didn’t have $5 cash on me to pay someone.  She responded with ” That’s why you always carry $5 Kristina, for situations like this.” She was serious too.

So luckily Breckan came and picked me up, and Pete Gess hooked me up with AAA later that night.  My car is back now, but my mom is coming up today and is going to teach me how to open my car door with a hanger. Honestly, crazy.

There is a Fountain

My first blog… I have no idea how I even stumbled upon this, but here I am, apparently becoming a blogger. Weird. I woke up with this song in my head today.  Specifically the very last line.   I did not choose for redeeming love to be the theme of my life, but through the blood of Christ this IS the theme of my life…

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die