Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns
If you think Jesus would have come into your home that day and not issued a strong rebuke to the head of household, you are mistaken. These words of condemnation have been haunting me for days now. They aren’t all that different than the soundtrack I play in my head on an almost-daily basis. It’s…
I am nesting. On Saturday I emptied the refrigerator. Last summer’s homemade pickles in their jars. The bread ends that seem to multiply on every shelf. The eggs. The milk. The fruit and veggies. All of it sat on the floor or the counter as I carefully removed the shelves and wiped them down with…
I’ve heard that life is like a highway. And it definitely seems like that sometimes. The pace of life swirls around me at dizzying speeds. We’re all so busy. In such a hurry. Always somewhere to be, something else to do. I’m a get-to-the-point, get-there-quick kind of girl. I don’t like to waste time on…
It’s time for a change.
I’ve been stuck in a rut for a couple of months now, weight-loss wise, and this weekend I found myself back to square one. Any weight I’ve lost in the last year is back on my body, and I’m supremely frustrated and ticked off at myself.
Sometimes, it’s a matter of not getting to the gym often enough and being too sedentary. Summer, after all, is not my ideal time to be outside in the heat and humidity. But that shouldn’t stop me.
© Jay Crihfield | Dreamstime.com
The bigger issue than exercise — because I actually like to exercise — is food, which I also like. Too much.
I have little to no control over how much I eat. Or, more accurately, I don’t exercise control over how much I eat.
Late-night snack craving? How ’bout some ice cream followed by some chips?
Kids making me crazy? I’ll just pop some chocolate in my mouth and everything will be fine.
I’m not extremely disciplined for my own sake, so while wondering how I might change this set of circumstances, I was presented with a reality that I cannot ignore.
Photo taken by Lalrosiem Songate, general director of the EC Church of India, on a visit to Liberia
It is this: Every 30 minutes, 1,000 people die from starvation. Probably that number is higher. I think the statistic might be outdated. Even so, while we sat in our Sunday School class yesterday, eating cheese puffs, cookies and bagels with cream cheese, people somewhere else in the world died because they don’t have enough food to eat. It was enough to make me want to vomit.
These two events have led me to a personal challenge, and I’m asking you to join me in some way over the next 6 months.
Here is the challenge:
Photos by Lalrosiem Songate. These are children in Liberia. I don't know if they are orphans, but they stir my heart.
For the next six months, I will pledge $5 for every pound I lose to help care for widows and orphans in Liberia through the EC Church’s micro-enterprise program. (Click here for more information. It’s No. 8 in the Giving Catalog.)
I will weigh in on Tuesday, July 5 to determine my official starting weight, and I will aim to post weekly about my journey, including what I learn about hunger and poverty in the process. You can follow the posts under the category “my loss their gain challenge.”
I’m making this public because I need accountability. I need your emotional support, and I need to hear your experiences with weight loss and overeating and, let’s face it, food addiction.
Beyond that, I’m asking you to take the journey with me. Do you have weight you want to lose but just can’t seem to take it off? Pick a cause close to your heart and make the same pledge. Or, if you want to live vicariously through me, make a pledge for my weight loss, too. At the end of the year, I’ll be making my donation based on the number of pounds I’ve lost. You can do the same at that time.
Excited. Nervous. Scared. Intimidated. Hopeful. I am these things and more.
And ready for a great adventure.
I finished reading “Beneath the Night Tree” by Nicole Baart around midnight, knowing the kids would be up early because they’d gone to bed early. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but I had to know how Julia DeSmit’s story ended.
Julia’s story begins in “After the Leaves Fall” and continues in “Summer Snow,” two books I couldn’t get enough of. And because I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, this review will be less about “Beneath the Night Tree” and more about Baart’s writing style and the stories as a whole.
Honestly, there’s too much to say, so I’ll start with a word: Love! Baart’s writing is refreshing, colorful and imaginative. I could read and reread these stories just to enjoy the word pictures she artfully paints. I connected with Julia even though we have little in common. By the end of the series, I wanted to Facebook friend her, at the very least, or meet her for coffee.
The same holds true for the author. If her personality is reflected on the pages of her novels, then I’d love to have coffee with Baart as well and talk about writing, life and ministry. Reading her bio notes, I felt like her words about herself could have described parts of my life.
The journey readers take with Julia from book 1 to book 3 is heartbreaking yet hopeful. It’s also honest and believable. I’ve never been to the part of Iowa where her story is set, but growing up in Illinois, I felt like I knew the places after reading her descriptions of farmland and changing seasons and rural living. It made me long for home.
Do I have to say more? READ THESE BOOKS! They’re a literary treat that will whet your appetite for more from Baart.
“Beneath the Night Tree” is one of the books on the list for Tyndale’s Summer Reading Program. To join, click here. This is the fifth book I’ve read for the program, so I’ll have a free one coming my way soon. If you like to read and like to get free stuff, I recommend joining the program. It’s introducing me to new authors and new stories and giving me lots of good reading material for the summer.