Hope & Question

the last of april

The Saturday before Easter is always a tricky day for me. I'm in such spiritual turmoil thinking about how the disciples must have felt...hopeless, confused, mad, sad, shocked, lost. I'm so thankful that Saturday isn't the end of the story. And, as well, I'm so glad that this time on earth isn't the end of the story, either. It's hard for me to imagine what eternity is going to be/look like. I know there are some hints in scripture, but still, there's so much we don't know. And, I imagine that's how the disciples felt. What's next? I would've thought. But, I don't have to live in the Good Friday world. I can live in the Easter world. Choose to see the living God at work now, as eternity begins now. But it gets hard when life isn't easy. But God is good and has good for me. I need to remember that.
My life is not at all what I thought it would be at 32. But it's rich and full and good. I just need to keep that perspective. I'm trying to live fully where I am and with whom I've been entrusted to live this life with, for such a time as this.

Update on Jack: he's getting so big. He had his 9 month check-up on Tuesday, April 19. And he's in the 90th percentile in height (29 1/2 inches...48% of my height already!) and 94th percentile in weight (24.3 pounds). He's gotten the green light to transition to our foods (sans fish, peanut-based anything, citrus, strawberries and one another thing...I have it written down). That's going to be interesting...and by interesting, I mean messy. Not looking forward to that part, but I am looking forward to him being able to eat what we eat and not having to buy special separate stuff. I'm anxious to see how he'll handle textures. He also crawled for the first time (for real, not anything pseudo) on Tuesday, April 19, as well. That was so exciting! He's been pulling up and walking with our assistance, but until this week, wasn't showing much interest in crawling. So thus began phase 1 of baby-proofing. We've covered all the sockets, bought cabinet locks, and removed things from the lower shelves. Phase two will include getting cords off the floor and buying gates for the stairs. Fun fun!

Nothing's really new with work.

Church is still in transition. The month of May will be just us and two others. The guy who's been with us for two years is moving to Thailand at the end of May. We're going through Waking the Dead together for this last few weeks. After May, the one girl left besides us will be here for two weeks and then she's out of the country until the end of July. So we're not quite sure what church for us will look like this summer.

This past year I've been mentoring two seminary women. One as her Field Mentor and the other as her Spiritual Mentor. I'm just realizing it's going to come to an end by May 13. Don't know what I'll do without those relationships. Will need to try and be intentional and ask God to bring other women into my life who need a mentor. I really thrive on mentoring other women. I realize that's definitely a role God has created me for and I want to be obedient to live that out and to make myself available for women who may not have someone safe to talk with, process with and seek wisdom together.

Well, guess I just wanted to post the daily goings on so I can look back and remember with more clarity what the end of April 2011 looked like for me.

Happy Easter. He is Risen! He is Risen, indeed!

posted by Loren @ 9:29 PM