Author: kmmccaleb

A month or two in review

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The last couple of months have flown by. Here’s a short, but not exhaustive recap:

  • Ended one job and started a new one. It’s a big change and I’m a total beginner again and essentially getting paid to go to school. I’m soaking this up for as long as it lasts!
  • My life has been revolutionized from squeezing lime juice into a glass of ice water. It not only tastes amazing, and is good for your health, but it also makes nalgene water bottles smell nice. Yes, it’s the little things.
  • My heart melts when nephew #1 calls my name through the house when he doesn’t know where I am – he yells: “Anky-Tae!” Gets me every time.
  • My heart melts when nephew #2 comes prancing toward me in a quick crawl, while throwing me a big cheeky smile.
  • I still have a crush on Paul Ryan. He makes economics the most exciting thing in the world for me.
  • I’m training Caspian to ride and I’m happy to report that my feet don’t drag the ground! Prayers answered! He’s a fabulous horse, smart and willing to learn, laid back with a spark, and the nosiest horse I’ve ever known. 
  • Mr. Darcy is looking very scruffy. 
  • Wilbur Mac has taken to sounding off gentle knickers at feeding time and other random times. I think it’s because he knows how to manipulate females.
  • I have eaten way too much tex mex this summer. 
  • I’ve decided to get fitted for real running shoes and train for a 5k. Yeah, ask me how that’s going in about 8 months. 
  • I’m looking very forward to meeting nephew #3 in a few weeks!

Little Things

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(inspired by Eryn and Tiffany)
Not in any particular order…
Furry hugs from Mr. Darcy when he’s a little sleepy
Good music in the background as I work
Long conversations with my twin
Short but funny facebook messages from my lil sis
A truck that is paid off and still runs well
Wrapping my arms around Wilbur’s HUGE neck
An organized closet (a rarity for me)
Chik-fil-A waffle fries
Kissing Caspian at the base of his ear – it’s so warm and soft
A freshly dusted room (a rarity for me)
Looking a photos from the past years
Knowing that Mom and Dad are always just a phone call away
Sunday mornings at Grace
Starbucks being dangerously close to where I live, that allows for
Frequent coffee/tea dates with girlfriends
The last hour before sunset
My Ireland calendar from Kimberly
Good conversations over good food
My two small plants from IKEA that are now small-medium sized plants
Earl Grey tea in the morning

I love…

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… Flagstaff AZ, particularly the mountain
… the Irish countryside
… the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon
… ML
… DW
… Mr. D, PB, and F
… chilly mornings after a long hot summer
… a frothy chai latte
… NYC
… Breckenridge in the summer; someday I’d like to go up there in the winter and ski!
… the changing light in late summer / early fall

Let’s define some basics

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Let’s define some basics.

The below is discrimination (not an exhaustive list): 

  • Women in the middle east (predominantly there, but elsewhere in the world as well): no voting rights, can’t drive, have to walk behind their husbands, can’t show their skin, can’t determine who they can marry. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
  • Unborn children: may or may not make it out of the womb with their life. This is 1 in 4 babies in the US, more like 1 in 2.5 in other parts of the world. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
  • Africans during the 18th and 19th century: rounded up like cattle and hauled across the ocean and treated worse than any animal.  Praise God that this is a thing of the past. 
  • Human trafficking: right in our very city, children (for the most part) are being kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
  • Homosexuals in middle eastern countries with predominantly Islamic influence: killed, imprisoned, tortured for their sexual choices. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians. 
  • Christians in non-Christian parts of the world: dying for beliefs they live by.  This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
  • “Grieve this”: take action in whatever manner you can to fight it – give money to causes fighting these grievances, join those causes vocationally,  pray for rescue and justice.

The below is not:

  •  Me and my Neighbor (heterosexual and homosexual): stand for any belief we want to. Eat, drive, and shop wherever we want to, wear whatever we want to, own our own business or work any job we want to (within reason), get health insurance (but not for our boyfriend or girlfriend) (assuming this is part of your compensation package or you can afford to buy your own), shack up with whoever we want to, drink and smoke whatever we want to (for the most part), follow whatever religion or lack thereof that we want to, have however many kids we want to (for the most part), boycott and protest who/whatever we want to. And none of this will get us thrown in jail or killed.

Game Rules

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Calling my friends, both those who share my values and those who do not, to discuss and argue with equity and amiability:

  1. no name calling. zero. 
  2. no tit for tat. “you do this? well, I’m going to do this”.
  3. don’t be arrogant in your response – check and recheck yourself on this.
  4. separate people from the problem / issue. 
  5. focus on the issues, not the people. 
  6. love MUST be the message or we sound like clanging gongs.
  7. always take the high road and if you can’t say something with respect, don’t say it. 
  8. be reasonable and articulate in your responses, and don’t be afraid to use humor. 
  9. be grateful for events such as “Chik-fil-a”, that raise awareness and bring “street view” clarity to the life-changing and end-game battles going on in our culture today. 
  10. use this time to hone in on your own view and crystallize your articulate, loving and pointed response to the issue at hand.

Never Once.

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Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we’ve come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You’ve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You’ve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Never once did we ever walk alone
Carried by Your constant grace
Held within Your perfect peace
Never once, no, we never walk alone

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Every step we are breathing in Your grace
Evermore we’ll be breathing out Your praise
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Matt Redman

He giveth

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He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Anne Flint

Read this; it’s good

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“On the flip side, I imagine that He intended us to be engaging fully and embracing our roles, circumstances, struggles and the blessings that He’s given us – all which are intended to reveal more of Him to us – and are instead able to sit back and enjoy the surprises that He has for us with the giddiness of young children on Christmas morning.” (Read more here.)

I like to think of it is as we are all on parallel paths (assuming we are indeed going the same direction (narrow road v wide road)), but we wear different outfits. Along the way we may change up the outfits, but in the end we end up at the same Gate.

Poem

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When I’m in heaven

Tell me there’ll be kites to fly,

The kind they say you can control

Although I never did for long,

The kind that spin and spin and spin and spin

Then sulk and dive and die,

And rise again and spin again,

And dive and die and rise up yet again,

I love those kites.

When I’m in heaven

Tell me there’ll be seasons when the colours fly,

Poppies splashing flame

Through dying yellow, living green,

And autumn’s burning sadness that has always made me cry

The things that have to end.

For winter fires that blaze like captive suns

But look so cold when the morning comes.

I do love the way the seasons change.

When I’m in heaven
 Tell me there will be peace at last, 
That in some meadow filled with sunshine 
Filled with buttercups and filled with friends
 You will chew a straw and fill us in on how things really are, 
And if there is some harm in laying earthly hope at heaven’s door, 
Or in this saying so, 
Well, have mercy on my foolishness, dear Lord, 
I love this world you made – it’s all I know.
by Adrian Plass

Weeds

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Weeds grow, well, like weeds. They grow tall and thick and quickly. They don’t need much water and they can grow in terrible soil.

At church, Pastor Matt recently did a sermon on the need to pull the weeds out of our souls. The context was a sermon series on the fruit of the Spirit and how the fruit won’t / can’t grow if our souls are full of weeds.

The weeds will always win, Pastor Matt said, unless we get rid of them. They will continuously take over unless pulled out by the roots.

I was mulling over this sermon as I was riding my horse through a particularly thick patch of weeds in an remote pasture the other night. The weeds were over my head even as I was sitting on my horse. In other words, they were about 8-9 feet tall. This forest of unwelcome foliage had grown and flourished in spite of a particularly bad drought and in mostly terribly rocky soil and with zero effort on part of the land owner.

I then thought about the correlation of the weeds in this field and the weeds in my soul:

  • weeds = sins, roots of sins, sickness of soul
  • soil choked in drought = a soul with no nourishment from Scripture
  • remote pasture = no community, no fellowship, no soul care-taking

As my horse and I navigated this ugly patch of tall, strong, smelly weeds, I received renewed encouragement to weed in the pasture of my soul and bring to it the water of Scripture and the care-taking of community and fellowship