Advent Conspiracy

This is important!

**Update: This year, our church has raised over $21,000 for well building projects in Gondar, Ethopia. I believe that will be combined with money raised from a couple of other churches. So awesome! Plus, we got to see pictures of completed wells that we donated money toward over the last two years. Praise God.

Thought for the evening

We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.

GK Chesterton

Galatians 5:22-25 (The Message)

But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.



love. joy. peace. patience. kindness. goodness. faithfulness. gentleness. self-control.

A poem for a Tuesday night

A Psalm of Life

What the heart of the young man said to the psalmist

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! --
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, -- act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Adventures in Reading: "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton

I received this book as a very thoughtful gift, and was excited to start reading it right away. And I was not disappointed!

Edith Wharton has crafted a story of love and longing that keeps the reader engaged on every page. The story never drags, the characters are well developed and believable, the tension is well-crafted and the end is satisfying. And on top of all that, it was a fairly quick read! Honestly, I think this is a great example of what a novel should be.

So, if you're looking for a good book, "The Age of Innocence" might be just the thing.


Oh, and PS: I wrote 2,034 words today. My most successful day so far! I'm still a bit behind pace, but if I can keep this momentum going this week, I might just be able to catch up!

NaNoWriMo Day 3

...was my first "succesful" day!

If you aren't familiar with the whole NaNoWriMo deal, check out the website (which I believe I linked to in my last post). One of the features is a chart that tracks your progress. This is helpful because it tells me how many words I need to write per day to real the goal of 50,000 in 30 days(which is about 1,670, if you're wondering). Then, if you miss a day, or have an off day where you can only think of ten words to write, it lets you know how many you're going to need to crank out the next day to make up for it.

My first day was not good as far word count goes (about 500 words). I counted it as a success for myself, though, because a) I started, and b) I came up with an actual idea for a story that I felt I could work with. So...word count schmerd count.

Day 2 was better in terms of the number of words I managed to bang out. It was about half of what I "need" to write each day, but that felt better than the day before. And then yesterday...

I did it! I wrote about 1,700 words, and it felt great. I ended the day with over 3,000 words total, and as of right now (around 2pm on day 4) I'm just about to hit 4,000. Yay.

So, there's an update about that. My plan is NOT to do an update every day on my progress, but instead to post something every few days. I can only write so much in one day, people!

PS: "Conversation 16" by the National has turned out to be my song of choice for this project. It's got the right tone and the right allusions to dark fantastic characters.