State Farmony

Ok, I saw this ad on Yahoo's home page today. Hilarious.

Flexible Faith

In light of my previous post, I have come across a very insightful observation by Rob Bell in his book Velvet Elvis. He talks about the need for Christian faith to be flexible - that is the only way it will last. If you build your faith with firm, unbending brick-like tenants that can never change, then if one brick crumbles, so too does your entire faith. Here is his example...

"Somebody recently gave me a videotape of a lecture given by a man who travels around speaking about the creation of the world. At one point in his lecture, he said if you deny that God created the world in six literal twenty-four-hour days, then you are denying that Jesus ever died on the cross. It's a bizarre leap of logic to make, I would say.

But he was serious.

It hit me while I was watching that for him faith isn't a trampoline [flexible]; it's a wall of bricks. Each of the core doctrines for him is like an individual brick that stacks on top of the others. If you pull one out, the whole wall starts to crumble It appears quite strong and rigid, but if you begin to rethink or discuss even one brick, the whole thing is in danger. Like he said, no six-day creation equals no cross. Remove one, and the whole wall wobbles ...

...if the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring, then it wasn't that strong in the first place, was it?"

Christians should not be threatened by the idea that evolution might be true. If faith is built on rigid, inflexible beliefs like that, all it is, is fragile.

The Language of God

I love reading. I read a LOT. I read all kinds of books. Fiction and nonfiction. Lighthearted and heavy. Adventure books, self-help, memoirs, novels and biographies. I like to switch it up a lot just to stay interested. So with the latest book I chose, I seem to have caused myself quite a conundrum.

I just finished reading a book that caused me to question some basic things I have always believed. The Language of God is a fascinating look at evolution through the eyes of Francis Collins, one of this country's most well-respected scientists. He also happens to be a Christian. He basically lays out his belief, which he calls "Theistic Evolution" or "BioLogos," that God used evolution to create the universe. Darwinian evolution. As in, we share a common ancestor with monkeys. He believes the Big Bang actually happened. He believes the earth is billions of years old. And frankly, even though this might sound to some like liberal garbage, given his professional credentials and scientific track record and the evidence offered in this book, I'm inclined to believe him.

Having been raised in a Christian home, attended a Christian college, and been surrounded by Christians for the majority of my life, I know full well the reaction that ideas like Dr. Collins' usually get. In fact, the few times that I've mentioned this book to some friends, the responses I've gotten include a large amount of skepticism and quite vehement explanations about how evolution is directly opposed to what the Bible says. After reading this book, though, I have to respectfully disagree.

I've always had trouble understanding why the creation account in the Bible and science seemed to be on two completely different pages. No, not even different pages ... more like reading out of two different books. How is it that God would give us the brains and ability to make all kinds of amazing scientific discoveries, and then allow us to get so far off track in our quest to discover where things all began? I'm talking billions of years off track, if you take the Bible literally. This problem has always bothered me. But I never knew what to do about the apparent conflict. Enter Dr. Collins.

Though I still have a lot of unanswered questions, this book has helped me to understand how it is possible to believe what the Bible says AND what science tells us. If you are at all inclined to think about this type of thing, I'd highly recommend you read The Language of God. And when you do, let's chat. I'd be very interested to know what you think.

Oh and one last thing. While some might disagree, I think reading books like this that challenge me to really reason through what I believe and why is a good thing. But ultimately, when it comes down to it, how God created the world doesn't matter to me much. I believe he created the world. I believe he created us. I believe he loves us more than anything else he created. And one day soon I'll be with him forever and be able to ask him all the questions I want. THAT is what is important.

Torino, Italy

Europe always brings out the romance in me.
Every single building in Torino is the Baroque style. It was beautiful.
The Po River
We stumbled upon an outdoor market selling meats and cheeses. It doesn't get any more Italian than that!
Justin eats his crepe. Mmmm ...
When your car is 2.5 feet long, you can park it however you want. My friend Ruth, who works in Compassion's Italy office.
These last two photos are from Frankfurt, Germany. If you look closely at the menu, you can see a wide variety of Rump and Loin dishes. Who's hungry?
The Opera House downtown.

Beer, baby!

Just in case you were wondering, this photo was not staged.

"Havana Overload'

At risk of everybody going into puppy overload . . . here are some more pics of 'Harvy' when we were puppy-sitting last Saturday.


Oh how cute! Their collars match! [And their eyes, strangely enough]







She sure is cute. Darn cute!

The new love of my life.

New camera + new puppy = lots of pictures.




Havana was just as into The Amazing Race as I was.

A Week to Remember

I just spent one of the most amazing weeks of my life in Honduras. It was my five year anniverary trip with Compassion. Here are a few photos...




My new friend Jamie and me waiting for our kiddos!

Getting a little loopy on the plane ride home.


And now the real reason I went to Honduras ...

This is Karina, the girl I sponsor. I recognized her as soon as I saw her radiant smile. It's a moment I'll never forget.

We spent the day at a water park. We are taking a break from swimming for lunch.

Karina will be 13 this month and she is the most beautiful girl. I'm blown away that God chose me to be her sponsor!


We had to say goodbye waaay too soon. But I'll be back. For sure.


I'm telling you ... you guys HAVE to sponsor a child. I've never done anything more rewarding in my life.

Sponsor your child!

Mmmmhmm Colorado . . .

I love Colorado. Them wicked-cool mountains to the west . . . The bright pink sun rising in the east . . . Makes for a very cool sight on a clear March morning. Like today. Pikes Peak was looking mighty fine. Or as I like to call it, Pikes Pink.




It's too bad that these pictures [while cool] don't do it justice. Come over any time, you can check it out from our balcony.

Say hello to Havanah!

I met my new little friend on Sunday. She's five weeks old here, so I won't get her for a few weeks, but she sure was cute!

Ahh ... family.

We're getting pretty darn good at these annual Christmas photos.

South Carolina Trip

This Bald Eagle was hanging out in the tree right outside my room one morning. We saw 5 or 6 of them while we were down there. They are simply magnificent . . . enormous and graceful.
One day we went on a gator hunt. We went tromping through this wildlife refuge, just walking on the trails. These gigantic alligators were just hanging out next to the trails, by the water. I was too scared to get any closer than like 30 feet but we could have walked right up and petted them (although it wasn't recommended). It was awesome.
This spider was on the floor next to my bed one night. I was laying there very close to being asleep and then I saw it and was all of a sudden very much not even close to being asleep. That is a AA battery. This sucker was a monster - probably half tarantula. And that was South Carolina!

Snow Shoes

Here is a picture of us going up Hadley Mt. using our snow shoes! It was pretty flippin' sweet to get out in the woods in the middle of winter. We had an ice storm on Friday so the trees were coated with ice. Saturday was a really warm day and as we were hiking up the mt. long pieces of ice started coming off the branches overhead every time a gust of wind came up. Zach got hit buy one so hard that it knocked his feet out from under him(he was okay). Fun stuff.

Moose!

Here are two pictures of one of the moose we saw while we were driving in Maine. Which means that we didn't really lose the pictures, these are the real deal. Pretty sweet.

I'm Engaged!

On March 1, 2006 I got my first boyfriend.

On March 1, 2007 he turned into my fiancé!

Moosen Are Cool.

As requested, here is the picture of the moose we saw while we were driving through Maine. Obviously this is not the original photograph but rather an attempt to recreate what we lost due to technical difficulties. We hope that this representation will allow you to fully appreciate the splender of the gentle giant that is the moose.

My Big Fat Greek Meal

So my report on the latest episode of Wendy and Becky's Cooking Night is a couple weeks overdue, but here it is, nonetheless. We decided this time to go Greek. Many Greek dishes use lamb as the meat. Since both Wendy and I like vegetables, we decided to make it a vegetarian night.

Between all the chopping of the vegetables and the various stages of cooking them, this meal took over an hour to prepare. However, candles, wine and Andrea Bocelli made for the perfect ambiance. And the meal was even more enjoyable because of the extra time it took to prepare it.

So here is the final product ...

Ikarian Vegetable Medley
Egg Noodles with Brown Butter and Feta
Touboule

When everything was ready, we had enough food for 12 people. My roommate arrived in time to eat with us, and we still were eating leftovers for days!