coffee randoms

"Coffee Randoms" was the title of a poem my roommate Sara wrote when we were in college. (It is now also the title of her blog.) I don't remember all of the poem; to my memory it was mostly about scenes in which people were drinking coffee (I could be wrong about that - at any rate, we were in it and likely drinking coffee - both in the poem and while reading it) - but anyway, she used this phrase in her poem in reference to coffee that I think of almost daily. She called it "lifeblood." I am identifying deeply with that concept this morning.

how not to be tired

I think right now the fundamental shift I need to make is from sheer exhaustion to Sabbath rest. Recently I took a trip to Alaska with my family, and over the first couple of days I did pretty much nothing. I read Bonhoeffer's Reflections on the Psalms. I slept - a lot. I worked out. I listened to music. I just...was.

It was nice.

Lately there has been very little just existing and very much running around like crazy. Even today, Sunday, is less than restful. Okay, I suppose sitting here and writing is restful - but I should be writing papers, or planning the set for Emerge this week, or .... "should." Maybe that's the word that really troubles me.

I "should" do this, that or the other thing....

"The expectations upon me are...."

But what does God expect? If I were following that a little more closely, I think perhaps I would not be quite so tired.

what's in a name?

It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from. - C.S. Lewis

August 13, 2010

Once upon a time, this blog was called A Fundamental Shift (hence the url) and who knows, maybe someday it might be again. The Shift was so entitled because of something my friend Chris said once that stuck with me in the middle of a sermon (about which I remember nothing else): "...and there's this fundamental shift that happens..."

He was talking about the shift that happens when you become a follower of Christ - and there is one (quite a massive one, actually!) - and then there are all these other shifts that continue to happen as He sanctifies you and makes you more and more like Himself. There are times when it feels to me like the spiritual version of plate tectonics - bits of me scraping off and wreaking havoc on the world around me, as the very landscape of my soul changes, and things pile up and fall off and get flattened... There is one continual groaning and shifting within the core of who I am that results in periodic lulls between metaphorical earth...er, soul-quakes... and sometimes it feels more like continual quake than lull...

Then, a couple of years ago, I changed my blog title to ...the most curious thing... because of something my pastor said about me being a curious thing (the story is here, should you be so inclined to wonder about the details) - but now it just feels like time for a new name and a new look. It's a new season, and new seasons always bring change. So welcome - to simple felicity.

happy-ness

the 411:

Nope, Happy is not my real name.
Yes, I do actually go by it in real life. well, that, or Hapicheep.

C.S. Lewis is amazing.

So is Madeleine L'Engle.

I believe in miracles.
I love to read.
I prefer European football to American football.
I've been to Albania. (and I don't know a lot of people who can say that.)

I have a day job that I love but I'm also an associate pastor for a church plant called Torch. It is one of the best and most fun and occasionally crazy things I've ever done, and I learn and grow daily in that role.

Finding, creating, and teaching others how to find and create Sacred Space in their own lives is my passion. What does that mean? I'm still figuring that out, but enter "Sacred Space" in the "search blog" box over there and you'll find some posts that sort of explain it. Sort of.

Chocolate, coffee, and ice cream are their own food group.

Lost is one of the best t.v. shows ever. Tho I will always have a fondness for older shows like The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and Green Acres, and Star Trek (Next Generation).

I have extremely eclectic taste.

and then there's all this:


Questions? :)