How long have you been at UPC?
Off and on for 3 years

Where are you originally from? 
I was born in Ohio, raised in Michigan, and have lived in New York, Connecticut, California, and Florida.

What are some of your hobbies and/or interests?
I love to read, swim, bike, travel, fly in small planes with my husband who is a pilot, and scuba dive.
 
What’s your favorite dessert?
Costco has this really fabulous chocolate cake that is over the top.  I wouldn’t mind some of their buttercream cakes, either.
 
Favorite TV show?
House
 
What are you involved with at UPC?
I teach Sunday School at the 10:45 service with the 4’s.
I helped out with VBS this past summer.
My family is involved with a Life Group.
My husband Darren and I sometimes do announcements.
 
How have you seen God work in your life recently?
I am an educational consultant.  One of the preschools I work with, my main source of income, cut their budget and didn’t have money for me this school year.  I have really felt God leading me to go back to school to get my Masters, which I might not have done had I been working more.
 
How can we be praying for you?
I would appreciate prayers for the application process and testing to get into grad school.
 

This past weekend was the UPC Women’s Retreat in Daytona Beach. It was a great weekend. I learned new things, was reminded of old truth and enjoyed spending time with other women at the beach. One of the things that the speaker Angel Richard spoke about briefly was meditation. Meditation is something that has always seemed so nebulous to me. I have heard it explained in the past as thinking about scripture or mulling it over in your mind. This type of definition kind of made sense to me, but I wasn’t ever sure how to do it. Angel explained meditation as simply “asking questions” while reading scripture. When she said this, the “light bulb” went on in my head. “Oh,” I thought “well I can do that.” During our Saturday morning devotion time, she gave us a passage of scripture and four questions (written by Martin Luther) to use to meditate on the passage. These questions really helped me think about and absorb the truth that was presented in the psalm that I had just read. I plan to write these questions out on a note card and put them in my bible so I can remember them and use them as a guide to come up with my own.

1. What is this psalm (or passage) saying?

2. How does this truth lead me to praise God?

3. What sins do I need to confess?

4. What do I need to ask God for in light of this text?

No, this is not a poem, nothing rhythms.
I have nothing random to post this Friday.
The Women’s Retreat starts tonight.
Have a good weekend to all and to all a great…..?

I was captivated by What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers, which is based on the real life story of a Sudanese refugee forced to flee his village in the Second Sudanese Civil War. It’s the story of how Valentino escapes, meets up with groups of other fleeing boys, and treks across Sudan to refugee camps in Ethiopia and then Kenya. Eventually, Valentino moves to the States as part of the Lost Boys of Sudan program, which seeks to relocate some of the more than 27,000 boys that were displaced during the war.

You may have heard the term “Lost Boys” before. The reason there were so many boy survivors is that when villages were attacked and destroyed, many boys were out tending sheep or otherwise able to flee quickly and unseen. The older men were usually immediately killed, and the women and girls were raped and killed or taken as slaves. Groups of boys would join up with other small groups of boys, and together they would journey for years before they crossed the border in relief. Those who survived the trip fought off hunger, thirst, wild animals, insects, disease, and extreme fatigue to do so. Many of Valentino’s friends died along the way.

The book is a novel, which means it’s not a true autobiography. Valentino Achak Deng is a real person who told his story to the author, Dave Eggers, who says that while some things were changed, the essential truthfulness of the storytelling was maintained. Historical fiction is tricky because it leaves me unsure of what really happened, but I’m grateful for it because it still leaves me much more informed than I was before reading it.

I love reading books like this and The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns. Not only do they clue me in on the history of regions I have no clue about, but they give me a global perspective that is at the same time so personal. Reading about the characters and feeling what they feel reminds me that while these unseen people have grown up in vastly different circumstances and think in vastly different ways, they are still so much like me. The human experience is universal, it turns out! And this gives me compassion, which leads me to contemplation, which leads to action, to figure out what it looks like for me and my family to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Of course, that would be a whole ‘nother post.

I really enjoyed Sunday sermon on Colossians 1:1-14 and I thought that having the quiz was a great way for us to see if we are living lives driven by the Gospel. Mike asked, “Whats are the center of your thinking in our day to day life? What drives you? What makes us who we are?”

I thought to myself, “paying the bills is what I think about most these days, hope in God is what drives me or keeps me going really, and I don’t know what makes me who I am”. Maybe I got the second question right? I don’t know.

Those were some pretty hefty questions - ones that I believe we need to really think about and being honest with ourselves about. The point of these questions is that most of us are driven by things other than the Gospel. And this means that the Gospel has not penetrated our hearts.

Below is the quiz from the sermon. They are True/False questions. If you haven’t taken it, do so now.

Quiz:
1 - I tend to compare myself with other people.
2 - Most of the time I’m anxious about friends money school, family, etc.
3 - I rarely say I’m sorry.
4 - I need to be in control.
5 - Prayer is usually my last resort.
6 - I often feel discourage and defeated.
7 - I tend to get defensive when told I’ve made a mistake
8 - Most of the time I feel guilty and condemned.
9 - It’s all up to me.
10 - I often focus on the weaknesses and failings of other people.

As Mike said, these are all symptoms of life not driven by the Gospel. If you answered True to 1 or 2 statements then you’re doing pretty well. If you answered True to 3-5 then you’re doing okay but need help. If you answered True to 6 or more then you need to listen to the sermon.

I was in the 3-5 category: doing okay but need help. I need to be reminded constantly to keep Christ at the center of my being. It’s so easy not to do so.

What about you? Are you living the Gospel Driving Life?