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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I must admit that from time to time I become quite discouraged by the vast student debt that Matt and I carry. In many ways it has been a blessing because if we had no debt, Matt and I would have a ridiculous income and probably waste a good part of it and develop selfish financial habits etc. Instead, we have spent the last two years of our marriage figuring out how to budget, how to compromise, how to live simply and frugally without giving up on having fun, and we have been challenged to figure out how to fit generosity in there too. It's still a work in progress.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I mentioned that I had exchanged emails with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, the author of New Monasticism. Here's the story:
Last year I finally got around to reading Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. I recommend this book to everybody! I should get around to re-reading it, but I think someone is borrowing it right now. Matt read it too, and we were both challenged/inspired by so many of the ideas of how Christians can live out the gospel. Shane quotes Mother Teresa who said, "We cannot do great things, only simple things with great love," and this mentality is behind the formation of a community where he lives in Philadelphia called The Simple Way. I loved his book because it was radical and had big ideas, but it is also based on the simple concept of taking Jesus at his word.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
Fall has arrived. It is cold and gusty and sunny today, the wind sucking any heat or moisture out of my hands and face, but the colours seem more vibrant, as if Autumn were proud to be neither Summer nor Winter but a season fiercely its own, appealing and torturous in its own ways.
I finally used up a gift card for a bookstore downtown that I have been sitting on for years. I have had that gift card longer than I've had an engagement ring; I was lucky the store didn't expire it on me! I bought three books, which totalled about $4 less than the value of the gift card, which is close enough for me :) Cash intact, I left with New Monasticism by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, with whom I have been exchanging emails this week - more on that later! - A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer compiled by someone who has never emailed me, and a blank notebook to stay under my gift card limit, to reward myself for all the beautiful notebooks I haven't bought for the last several months, and to motivate myself to journal more so I fill up my current journal before starting in a new one!
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I finished reading Luke today.
I am overwhelmed with tons of ideas and convictions and hopes and fears and will try to skip over all of them for now to just say one point that stuck out for me in Luke:
We should take God at his word.
The first person to have an angelic vision in Luke was Zachariah, the high priest, and he questioned it, so he was struck dumb until what had been promised came to pass.
The next person was Mary, a righteous young woman, and she was frightened and confused by her vision as well. She asked how the angel's words could be true, but she accepted them in faith.
The next vision in Luke is an appearance of angels to some shepherds outside Bethlehem. These uneducated, low-in-status men were terrified, but when they were told that the promised Saviour and Christ had been born and was in a nearby town they went to see it. They took God at his word! And it was as they had been told, as nobody would have ever expected.
Sometimes people who think they know what to expect from God completely miss the point.
Including me.
But God's word says that it's never too late to make things right, and I am believing it.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I heard a clip from an interview with Rob Bell and he was asked whether God is all-powerful, or whether he is good, because he obviously isn't both given the state of the world (the tsunami in Japan was the example in the interview; there are countless examples). Rob Bell answered that it was a paradox.
So I was thinking about that tension that we face as Christians in reconciling beliefs that God is both all-powerful and completely good. But I don't think necessarily that it is a paradox when you account for God's gift of free will and for the reality of sin in the world. We know that God will restore all of creation after judgment day (which ISN'T marked on my calendar, by the way), but until then the world is not as it should be. There are times when God intervenes, and times when he doesn't, and in his sovereignty and goodness, that is allowed.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
So, my resolution to keep living in Summer until October hasn't panned out very well. In general, I have gone from work to home to errands etc. even on nice days when I could have feasibly done something outside. This is why I never get tanned, because given the choice between being outside and sitting on my couch, I usually choose my couch. Or chores. Outside is boring when I'm by myself. (More boring than chores. Oi.)
But Thursday after work, Matt and I went on a gorgeous hike at Rouge Park, so I wanted to post some pictures.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
Some days I feel more like an old person than others. This past Friday was one of those days, spending time with girls from our youth group as we decorated for a surprise birthday party. They had the radio blaring, which was okay because... I don't need loud noises to feel energetic, but sometimes it's fun, and they loved it, so I kind of settled in a happy place in my mind and focused on the task I had at hand.
My complacency was shaken though, when TGIF by Katy Perry came on. Radio overwhelms me sometimes because so much new music is SO skanky. And it's awkward for me to listen in on artists bragging about how drunk they were when they slept with so many strangers and how they can't wait to do it again. "It's a blacked out blur, but I'm pretty sure it ruled." Thanks for that Katy, please, keep sharing your "artistry" with young people. If everyone keeps acting like that's what grown-ups do, then eventually it will become self-fulfilling prophecy, and anyone who gets burned can just feel like losers for having regrets.
I remember a girl I used to work with who frequently had bad reactions to alcohol and would black out if she drank too much. Did she drink less? No, because what is the fun in partying without drinking? One day she came to in a strange part of town with no underwear and her pants on backwards. Proof of a great party, I guess.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
The first two weeks of the month have been filled with fun though! We did a camping mini-retreat with the youth on the long weekend, and I loved my first real camping trip. We even had a huge storm Saturday night, but our tents mostly held up, and it was all a really cool experience. I was waiting to post anything about camping until I got pictures, but that still hasn't happened, soo... yeah.
The day after we got back from camping I turned 23 :) It was a quiet birthday spent lazing around at home, watching a movie with Matt and going out for dessert that night.
Since then we have sort of begun a big project to de-clutter and reorganize our apartment so that it can be even more enjoyable to live here and easier to share hospitality with others! After 5 years of storing my trumpet without ever playing it consistently, I finally decided to sell it, and it only took a week or so to post the ad online, find a buyer and trade my trumpet in for cash :) It wasn't the easiest decision to sell my trumpet, but I am glad I did. Other than that, Matt and I have started a bag of clothes to donate to Goodwill, and step-by-step, room-by-room we have begun to organize/clean/clear out the mess that has slowly accumulated over the last 8 months of being very busy. It feels great!
The emotional slump that I hit when we returned to Scarborough has lifted, and I have been doing my best to keep a good attitude about different circumstances as they come to keep my emotions on an even keel. Matt and I shared a sweet moment about a week ago when he had just come in from walking Nimoy. I told him that he has seemed a lot happier and more relaxed since our vacation and since his internship/second job wrapped up at the end of August. He said that on his walk he had just been thinking about how much happier I seemed to be lately and how great that was.
SO life is not perfect, but it is very good. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me/us, and please continue to do so as Matt and I plan and share dreams for this next year of our life/marriage/ministry :)
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I shampooed my hair the other night. And conditioned. (If you don't know why that's worth blogging about, read it here)
AND IT WAS FANTASTIC!
My hair was like silk. So I even though I am still happy to keep my hair clean without shampoo, I might shampoo/conditioner once a month or so and let my hair benefit from whatever all those chemicals do :) Everything in moderation!
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I managed to get some sleep on the flight home from Victoria last night/this morning. When I woke up, I was excited to see some cities out the plane window - city lights are so pretty from up in the sky. Then, when I looked over the plane wing (instead of behind it), I saw just a strand of intense red light in the middle of the darkness as we neared the edge of daylight (the pictures don't do ANY justice to the colours in the sky). It was special to me to get to see it because I just happened to be awake and 40 000 feet in the air. It is extra special because it is my and Matt's anniversary today! So, here are thoughts from my journal on the plane:
Every day starts like this somewhere - a slash of red on the horizon that slowly widens to make a rainbow of colour, testing if this day might need to appear in black and white. The purple of this new day sinks into inky blackness stretched over the plane, and for now the wings mark a boundary line between now and then, last night and tomorrow.
Behind us is night, and just now light is creeping even into that fading memory. We have slipped into today, and it is a new year.