Hi, blogreaders! I hope this entry finds you well.

Yesterday, I picked up my copy of the New Testament in The Message. Very good stuff. I was so inspired by Galatians 5 that I wanted to put part of it up here. Read at your leisure.

Galatians 5:16-26

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

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.

As for an update on me, I am doing okay. Life was pretty hectic in August and September, and now (hopefully) things are returning to a regulated rhythm. My weeks are pretty full. I am trying to keep focused on applying for grad school, but it's hard to stay motivated when I have a few other personal goals that are taking my time. I am co-leading a potentially very cool small group (at a church I don't attend! ha!), more involved at the church I do attend (for instance, I am on a Financial Stewardship Education Committee, which is hilarious), attempting to prepare myself for a 10K(waaaay off my training schedule), very slowly figuring out how to record songs on my computer (praying for a sudden gift of technology knowledge to enter my brain), amongst normal work stuff.

I am certainly glad I have my health, my friends, and all the fabulous gifts God brings into my life - aren't you? Here are a couple shots from the last couple months:

Me and Eva at Traci's wedding, August 30

Brandon came with me on a hike by Gold Creek Pond- part of the path was paved! Talk about easy!

Baby Olivia, Amy and me in Princeville, HI

Eva enjoying her first ever (totally vegan) ice cream cone! In Kaua'i! Good times.

So... what up, blog readers? I am so very inconsistent in blogging, occasionally I decide to forego xanga altogether. We have Facebook now, so what's the point, right? But I just read something about discipline and writing as a form of spiritual discipline. Sure, I am not going to write out my heart and soul everytime I blog, but I think it's a good outlet for thoughts. I tend to better express myself in writing anyway... at least I used to! I hardly even journal anymore. Eh...It's hard to believe that I used to blog AND journal everyday. Gone are those days.

Anyway! The main reason I decided to "blog now" was to quickly type out something I read this morning. It is from a daily devotional I picked up at church. The editor, Stephen Bryant, wrote the following:

I like Tilden Edward's simple description of prayer: "Authentic prayer is opening to God's gracious presence with all that we are, with what Scripture summarizes as our whole heart, soul, and mind" (Matt. 22:37). The quality of our prayer, then, depends on the qualtiy - the honesty and constancy - of our presence to God. After all, the problem that prayer addresses is not God's absence from us but our absence from God. The good news of God's grace is Emmanuel: "God with us"! And yet, we are elsewhere. We fall asleep, spiritually speaking; we forget our connectedness to God; we bcome lost in our sense of separateness and self-sufficiency.

I identified with this, especially since the topic/concept of "honesty" has been resounding my brain and life lately. I am learning more and more about being honest - with myself and with God, especially. The biggest struggle for me (and maybe many of us humans) is being honest with others. I pray OFTEN that I will have the strength to respond in honesty AND tenderness. For me, there is a point in a friendship where I can be honest (bluntly so), but to the detriment of the relationship. I need to learn how to lovingly be honest. SIGH! Yeah. May it be so!

(This photo was taken on a walk in Capitol Hill in Seattle with my cell phone.)