2012 November

Demographics (Revisiting the Brown Skin Series*, After the Election)

November 27, 2012 By Deidra

A few days ago, at Starbucks, the barista who served H and me was sweet and beautiful and kind, and she took our orders (tea for me, coffee for H) and then said, without blinking, “It’s on me.” At first, it didn’t register. H and I kept talking about snowman cookies and cake pops and I held out my gold card, waiting for the barista to ring us up.

“It’s on me,” she said again. H and I looked at each other, and then we looked at her. “Are you serious?” I asked. She was. She was serious. And I thought to myself, “Do white people get treated like this all the time?”

Yes. That’s exactly what I thought.

Ever since President Obama won re-election earlier this month, I’ve been having the most interesting and confusing thoughts. The fact that the President won re-election seems bigger to me than when he was first elected four years ago. I was talking about this to a guy I met today. It was the first time I’d told this story to anyone. I told the guy how the election this year feels more significant than the one four years ago, and he said, “Yeah. It feels like it wasn’t a fluke.”

This guy had been telling me about his uncle, who’s afraid of what it will be like when the demographics in this country switch and the majority race isn’t white anymore, and how his uncle is afraid of what that will mean for him. What will it be like not to be part of the majority anymore?

So, I told this guy about my experience at Starbucks and how it kind of shook me to my core because I realized that all I’ve ever known is what it’s like to be in the minority. When the demographics switch, the whole thing will be new for everyone and, while I know white people don’t get free Starbucks everyday while the rest of us foot the bill (right?), I do know there’s a difference in America between living as part of the majority and living as part of the group that’s not.

I really don’t want to get into a discussion about whether President Obama should have won or not. I don’t want to dredge up all the ugly that has been this election year. I’m just noticing that things are changing and if there is one thing I’ve learned over the past seven years about change, I’ve learned it means everyone has to give up something, and I’m wondering how we all feel about that?

*I was a little bit sad when the 31 Days In My Brown Skin Series ended. I’m not trying to recreate it, but now I feel as if I can share these thoughts with you; they’re part of me, and not isolated to 31 days in October. So, from time to time, I’ll write about it. This is one of those times.

68 Comments Filed Under: 31 Days: Going There, Uncategorized Tagged With: President Obama, race

Sunday

November 24, 2012 By Deidra

“Give thanks to God — he is good, and his love never quits.”

~I Chronicles 16:34 (MSG)

~~~

Welcome to The Sunday Community. Link up with a photo and just a few, brief words of inspiration – a favorite quote, a favorite line of words from the bible, a short poem, a small thought.

Not many words at all.

Then, extend a bit of hospitality to the others here. Take some time to visit with one another and share a bit of grace. Please grab the Sunday button from the link at the top of the page to post at your place, so others know where to find us.

1,099 Comments Filed Under: The Sunday Community Tagged With: I Chronicles 16:34

Best Games Ever!

November 23, 2012 By Deidra

On our last night in Texas (after the relief of realizing Jennifer hadn’t been raptured), the editorial team from The High Calling got together for a fun night of games, snacks, and music. I wish you could have been there. Really, I do. We had so. much. fun!

There was a disco ball. Need I say more? Exactly.

Today, on the day after Thanksgiving, while some of you were braving the malls and others were eating pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (oh, was that just me?), I was remembering that night in Texas among friends. The last thing we did that night was to play two rounds of Who, What, Where? Have you ever played that game? It’s like Pictionary, on steroids. I think. I’ve only played Pictionary a few times.

In my family, we don’t play games too often. We are WAY too competitive for it to be beneficial. But, when I get together with a group of friends (who may or may not be competitive, too), game playing is a fabulous way to let my hair down and laugh until I can’t catch my breath and tears roll off my chin. It was that kind of night. And Who, What, Where? is that kind of game.

There is something special about playing games together. I think it probably has something to do with the whole idea of play itself. I think God means for us to kick up our heels from time to time and work together on a strategy that will get us across the finish line together. I don’t think God’s too concerned with who gets across that line first. I think God is probably more interested in the together part.

Playing Who, What, Where? together gave me the best memories of the editors at The High Calling. These people are smart, compassionate, and talented. But they’ve all got a funny side, and I don’t know if I’d have seen that if we hadn’t played together.

Today, I asked my Facebook friends to share their favorite games. I was thinking of you, oh great shoppers. The ones in the malls, and the ones who choose to shop online. Because I don’t think you can go wrong when you end up with a game beneath the tree. So, here, in no particular order, is a list of the top five Best Games Ever – for your holiday shopping.

Apples to Apples :
There are a bunch of different versions of this game. There’s a party box, a Junior Version, and even a Sour Apples to Apples version. This is a game of comparisons, and sometimes the results are fabulously hilarious.
Left Center Right:
A friend introduced us to this game last year. We were instantly hooked! The object of the game is to get rid of all of your game pieces, and it goes quick! You can carry this game in your purse. It’s perfect for waiting at the table in a restaurant for your food to arrive.
Scrabble Crossword Game:
I grew up playing Scrabble with my mom. I love this game. But when I slip up and invite H to play with me, he runs for cover. He is not a fan. We probably play this game once a year. I always win. Which is probably why H doesn’t like it.
Bananagrams:
This was, by far, the most recommended game among my friends on Facebook. It’s like Scrabble in a bag. Another good one to stash in your purse.
Taboo:
This has been my favorite game for a very long time. It’s a little bit like Password. Remember that game? Only, this is better. Trust me.
Who What Where ?:
I know. I know. I said top five games, and here I am, throwing in a sixth. But how could I leave this one out? It’s the game that inspired this post! Who, What, Where is described as “the party drawing game.” See? The word “party” is right there in the description. On the box. How can you resist?

Do you see your favorite game on this list? What games would make your list of top five?

Thanks to Ann Kroeker for the first two images.

32 Comments Filed Under: Family, The High Calling Tagged With: games

Eating From the Center of the Pie

November 22, 2012 By Deidra

No matter what they tell you, Thanksgiving is the holiday of pie. Just ask my friend, Tina.

I make a mean apple pie. It’s sort of my signature dish. But not all the parts of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner have come easy to me. Even so, I’m thankful for all of it.

Join me for a taste of gratitude today, over at The High Calling.

Have you got a signature dish?

Image by The Bitten Word. Used with permission.

20 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

Raindrops on Roses and All That Jazz

November 21, 2012 By Deidra

Lately, I’ve been a bit nostalgic for the way things were when I first started blogging. That was back in 2008 and let me tell you, it’s no small thing that I’ve stuck with this thing all these years. I usually try something new, get the hang of it, and them I’m done and off to the next thing. Maybe I keep plugging away at this because I haven’t quite gotten the hang of it yet…

Anyway, back in the day, people would write posts in which they answered five or six questions about themselves. They’d tag a few people and invite them to participate, too. It was cute, and it was quirky, and it got people talking. It was a way to get to know one another better. Do people still do that?

I thought I’d do a spin-off of that meme from back in the day, by sharing a few of my favorite things, because sometimes it’s nice to be reminded:

Favorite movie of all time: This is one of my favorite questions to ask people. Rarely is anyone able to name just one. “Can I pick one in each genre?” they’ll ask. Or, “Can I just tell you my favorite director?” I’m the same way — I can’t name just one, but here are the ones that always top my list: “The Sound of Music“, “The Shawshank Redemption“, and “Rent“. I could watch these three movies on a continuous loop and never get tired. You’d get tired of hearing me sing along with Julie Andrews and Taye Diggs. (But eventually, I’d wear you down and you’d cave in and join me.)
Favorite childhood vacation: When I was ten years old, my mother closed her eyes, opened the Atlas (remember those?), and pointed her finger onto the page. Colorado. So, we packed our things, my dad filled an ice chest with cheese crackers and vienna sausages, and we drove from our home just outside of Detroit, all the way to Denver. We stopped along the way to spend the night in different places (Nebraska was surely one of our stops), and we ate cereal out of metal bowls in a different hotel room each morning. We hiked to the bottom of Bryce Canyon, and then up again. We stood in four states at once, and we picnicked at rest stops along the way. It wasn’t fancy, but it was an adventure, and I’ve been hooked on adventures ever since.
Favorite book: That may not be the right way to categorize this book. I don’t know if “Blue Like Jazz” is my absolute favorite book. Books are like movies in that there are so many good ones out there. But what “Blue Like Jazz” did for me was to show me that I am not crazy. My view of church and faith and all of that never seemed to fit just right. I often wondered if my faith was real, because I never heard anyone asking any of the questions I was asking about God and church and humanity. When I opened “Blue Like Jazz” and Donald Miller shared his faith journey with me, I cannot tell you what a relief that was! Like a giant boulder being lifted off my heart!
Favorite hymn: Again, this is like movies. So many good ones. But, when I was nine or ten years old, I remember singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” in church one Sunday. I remember it just as if it happened yesterday. I was standing there in the pew, holding the hymnal all by myself, and reading the words as I sang them. We had a pipe organ, and an organist who knew how to play it. All around me, people were singing. If there’s one thing church people do well, it’s harmonize on the hymns. Well, these church people had the harmonies tight, and the organ was filling up every bit of space in that sanctuary, and I sang the words “casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea” and I couldn’t think of anything more beautiful in that moment. To this day, whenever I hear that hymn, I’m back in that sanctuary, holding that hymnal, and singing the alto line with everything I’ve got.
Favorite color: I’ve always liked the colors orange, green, and yellow. “Carrots, peas, and corn,” is what I called them when I was little. Trouble is, I don’t like carrots, peas, and corn. Succotash, my grandmother called it. So, I tried to make pink my favorite color. And then purple. I held onto purple for a long time — well into my adult years. And then one day I realized that orange is really my most favorite color of all and I painted my dining room orange. When we downsized and moved into this fabulous rental house, our landlord had just one rule: “If you paint, please keep the colors neutral.” Honestly, that one rule had me paralyzed for a bit. But just last week I decided to paint the walls grey and use orange accessories with wild abandon.

Feel free to chime in, but don’t feel obligated. Surely, you’re basting the turkey, or putting up holiday lights, or travelling over the river and through the woods. Tomorrow, if you have a minute or two, I hope you’ll join me at The High Calling, for a taste from the center of the pie, because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of all.

27 Comments Filed Under: The High Calling Tagged With: books, movies, Thanksgiving, vacation

Mystery, Theology, and Eschatological Confessions

November 19, 2012 By Deidra

On our last night in Texas, David, Glynn, Jennifer, Laura, and I walked the dirt road from the Great Hall to Lodestar (in Texas, houses have names). It was pitch dark, and if we hadn’t been together — if I’d been walking the road by myself — I would have been terrified. I know this because I had walked that road alone in the pitch dark the night before, and it had taken everything in me to keep from bolting away from the darkness, and from the sounds in the grass at the edge of the road. On the night I walked the road with these friends of mine from The High Calling, David had a flashlight.

Thank God.

The flashlight and the group of friends made things better, but Laura and I still wrapped our arms around each other’s waists as we made our way down the road. Texas is a big, dark place when the sun goes down. The sky above is beyond beautiful — like black velvet, with diamonds strewn about. But, let’s face it, it’s a lot of sky, and a girl feels awfully small in so much dark.

Somewhere along that dark, dirt road, Jennifer disappeared. She was there one minute, and the next minute she was gone. It was as if she vaporized into the darkness. Now, anyone else in this situation might think aliens, or zombies. Me? I thought RAPTURE!

“Jennifer?” I said into the darkness. I waved my arms around, groping for her in the darkness.”Jennifer!” I shouted, this time a bit louder. I don’t really know what I believe about the rapture, but I do know this: if there is such a thing, and if anyone gets to go when the rapture happens, it will be Jennifer Lee (or, for that matter, any of the other people on the road with me that night). “JENNIFER!” I shouted, and even though I wanted to sound cool, I am sure I didn’t.

By now, the rest of the crew had stopped walking, and we all stood looking into the darkness from which we had come. We heard a tiny voice from waaaaaay behind us on the road. “I’m coming.” It was Jennifer! “I had a rock in my shoe,” she said. I was relieved on multiple levels. First of all, Jennifer wasn’t gone. Secondly, I hadn’t been left behind. Thirdly, when I shouted, “I THOUGHT THE RAPTURE CAME!” we all laughed out loud. We laughed so hard, it was almost dangerous.

David turned the flashlight in the direction of Jennifer’s voice, and I could see her, on the edge of the road, balanced on one foot, shaking the stone out of her shoe. “A man and wife asleep in bed…” David started.

“You know that song, too?” I asked.

“Oh yeah,” he answered. And we started singing it together, only I couldn’t really sing it because I was still shaken by Jennifer’s disappearance, so I just recited the words in a low, trembly voice: “A man and wife asleep in bed, she’s hears a sound and turns her head — he’s gone. I wish we’d all been ready.”

“What? What is that?” someone asked.

“It’s a song I learned at church camp,” David said.

“You too?” I asked him. “Did you have to watch the movie, too? The one about the rapture?”

“Oh yeah,” he answered. And then we sang another verse of the song that twisted up the same way many nursery rhymes do: “Two men walking up a hill, one disappears and the other’s left standing still. I wish we’d all been ready.” Needless to say, that song had done a number on me, back in the day. Walking on the road, toward the lights of Lodestar, with Jennifer safely here on planet earth, I realized just how much that song had impacted me. Those four friends and that vast Texas sky became a type of confessional for me, and I left some of that fear out there in the big, dark Texas night.

It was decades before I’d learn “eschatology” is the technical word for studies about the end times. I didn’t grow up learning about theology. I learned about God, and Jesus, and the bible. Later in life, I learned about the Holy Spirit. In fact, I thought the word “theology” simply meant the study of God. When H went to seminary, he learned about Black Liberation Theology, and that’s the first time I knew there were different kinds (branches? schools? categories?) of theology.

These days, I hear a lot of talk about having “the right” theology. I probably don’t need to tell you just how much that freaks me out. Because if there is “right” theology, then there’s also “wrong” theology. And I guess that makes me wonder what I’m supposed to do with the mystery of God.

Did you learn about theology when you were young? Was any of it scary?

~~~

P.S. Today, I’m over at (in)courage, talking about Help One Now, Haiti, Pure Charity, and the Legacy Project. We’re on Phase Five – out of seven! If you don’t mind, I’d love it if you’d click over and share that post on your Facebook page, or talk about it on Twitter. And, if you’ve backed the project, or made a donation, I am beyond humbled —we all are — by your generosity. Thank you.

101 Comments Filed Under: Faith, The High Calling, Uncategorized Tagged With: eschatology, Laity Lodge, The High Calling, theology

Sunday

November 17, 2012 By Deidra

“My life is God’s prayer.”

~Psalm 42:6 (MSG)

~~~

Welcome to The Sunday Community. Link up with a photo and just a few, brief words of inspiration – a favorite quote, a favorite line of words from the bible, a short poem, a small thought.

Not many words at all.

690 Comments Filed Under: The Sunday Community Tagged With: Psalm 42:6

Sunday

November 10, 2012 By Deidra

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.

~Isaiah 43:1-2 (NIV)

~~~

Welcome to The Sunday Community. Link up with a photo and just a few, brief words of inspiration – a favorite quote, a favorite line of words from the bible, a short poem, a small thought.

Not many words at all.

Thanks to Tim Miller for this image, taken in the Frio River, at Laity Lodge Family Camp. #youshouldgothere

41 Comments Filed Under: The Sunday Community Tagged With: Isaiah 43:1-2, Laity Lodge Family Camp

The Legacy Project

November 6, 2012 By Deidra

Watch this, please? It’s good. I promise.

The one thing I knew for sure when I went to Haiti as part of the blogging team with Help One Now, was that I didn’t want to come back and tell you stories about how hopeless the whole thing is. I didn’t want to wear you out with sad stories of tragedy and sadness. We all know the situation in Haiti is bad, especially since the earthquake.

But bad isn’t the same as hopeless.

On the fourth morning of our trip to Haiti, God intervened and flipped the script on us. Right in front of our eyes, He unfolded His purpose for our adventure, and we were blown away. One way to know a dream is from God is when you look at it and realize there’s no way it’s getting done without Him.

And we all know He uses us. He’s counting on us to make His dreams come true.

So, we’re building a school for the 150 children who attend classes at the Yaveh Shemah Home for Children in Haiti. Yep. Just like that. God’s got this dream, and He’s inviting us to be the people who make His dream come true.

The goal? A whopping $100,000. By Christmas. We want to break ground in January, and open the school for the start of classes in 2013. I told you…it’s God’s idea. He does things big. And won’t it be spectacular to know you got to play a part?

So, here’s what I’m asking you to do:

Please go here, and back the current phase of The Legacy Project with a donation – large or small, every bit counts.
If you haven’t already, please create a Pure Charity account. That way, you can extend your giving whenever you shop online. (Not sure what this means? Go here for a recap.)
Invite your friends to join the movement (after all, how will you be able to face them if they find out you built a school in Haiti and didn’t invite them to the party?).
Pray.
Watch God do something amazing.

We’ve got the power and the resources to make a difference. God’s dreams are bigger than what we think. It’s only hopeless if we let it be.

544 Comments Filed Under: Haiti, Help One Now Tagged With: Legacy Project

We’ve Got This

November 5, 2012 By Deidra

I suppose it’s possible to go to Haiti and then get on a plane for the two-hour flight back to the U.S. and not be phased. I mean, I guess it could happen.

I guess it’s possible to look at poverty and hear it and smell it, and then take a shower and let the whole thing wash down the drain without a second thought.

It’s possible I could go to Haiti and see Jesus walking right through the bowels of Tent City, and then decide that we’ll always have the poor among us, because — after all — Jesus said so, right?* I guess I could tell myself God meant it to be this way and then close my bible, turn off my light, say my prayers, and go to sleep under a roof, in a bed, with a pillow under my head and a choice of eggs or oatmeal for breakfast when I wake up.

There is a chance I could completely miss the fact that there are people who live in poverty. Living, breathing, real people. And I could choose to ignore the fact that a life of poverty makes a child more vulnerable to the perverted and twisted thoughts of those who would exploit them. I could decide it’s not my calling, presuming that protecting children is a calling.

Honestly? I was afraid I’d miss it. I was afraid I’d go to Haiti and then fly back home and find that nothing at all had changed. And then, at the same time, I was afraid I’d come home devastated and absent of hope. But, you were praying for me. And you probably knew that, in praying for me, you were praying for you. You probably already knew that no one really needs a calling to help a child with the odds stacked against them. We simply need to see it. Even if it’s only through someone else’s blog post.

These children were meant to change the world. God’s got His eye on them, and He’s inviting us to help Him make this dream come true. The Legacy Project launches tomorrow — please pray for the last-minute detail work behind the scenes. (Do you have your PC account ready?)

The Legacy Project is big. The challenge is great. But God is WAY bigger. And greater.

We’ve got this.

~~~

*Thank you to Sarah Tummey, who pointed me to this video. Please watch it if you wonder what to do with that part in the bible where Jesus said, “…the poor you will always have with you…” (Matthew 26:11)

Images by Scott Wade and Mollie Donovan Burpo.