Nehemiah- Simple Lessons

(Very simplistic...to save me from having to write a whole commentary. If you are interested in knowing all the circumstances, go read it. If you read it, start with Genesis, otherwise it isn't going to make as much sense as it could make.)

I hadn't read this book in a long time. When I've read it, I can assure you I didn't take much from it. Maybe I've never read it. I don't know. (This is the part of the story where I must confess I might have cheated in my required reading and perhaps just made up some stuff for my required writing at that Baptist University I attended. In hindsight, I doubt that went undetected.)

I hadn't planned to read Nehemiah this week. But, "hop-scotch Bible reading" led me smack in the middle and I was so consumed with needing to know what that was all about, I ended up going back and reading its entirety.

The part that sucked me in? The realization Nehemiah didn't just sit around after he prayed for Jerusalem. He put some action along with it. He went and helped rebuild the walls. He didn't do this without God, he sought guidance. But, the part that strikes me is he didn't lay around on his OT era couch waiting for those walls to rebuild themselves.

I'm an action kind of person. If I'm going to be involved with something, I just want to make a plan and get it done. Maybe a year ago (definitely a year ago), this is how I ran my whole life: See it. Think about it. Make a plan. Do it. Be done with it. (Note the absence of God.)

And then I decided I was going to follow Jesus. For real. Not just go through the motions of it-like I've done in the past. But, for real. The problem with following (always) is it is impossible to follow if one is going to refuse to obey.

Obedience has been a lifelong issue for me. Obedience is hard. Somewhere in there, I went to the other end of the spectrum (in the name of obedience and too much awareness my plans were MY PLANS) and just said "God will take care of it." while I laid on my post NT era couch and put forth no action. Hmmm...

After everything gets restored, what do they do next? They take out the law of Moses and read it. It seems the people may not have been all that up on what was in the law. But what happened? The people did what the law said. There was revival. The people promised to separate themselves from anything unclean and/or against God. Is this not easily applicable to what is required today?

I'm really loving that I read this book. Of course, the timing is perfect. (My "New Year" starts in August/September instead of January.) I've spent the last week listening to God speak to me so softly about what I'm supposed to do in this (seemingly) impossible place He as put me; a place I love and a place I know I'm supposed to be, but a difficult place nonetheless.

This is not just some nice story about some guy and his commitment to build up some walls. It's a story that provides a model for being a servant led by God. It's also a story (even though I didn't talk about it) about attacks from our enemies (Satan, the world, our old natures) and promises of truth, peace, righteousness, faith and salvation.

Yeah...you should read it. It's just that good.

The Son Spot-Part 2

Sand Sculpture Building
At the beginning of the week, we made repairs.

At the end of the week, the sculptor decided he would make a new one to replace an existing one damaged by time/weather/etc...

(I was off getting tattoo'd with henna and missed the first steps. So, the beginning is all hearsay.)

Step 1-Take of the crust of the old sculpture and use it to form the foundation for the new sculpture.

You are going to need some water.

Step 2: Dig a lot of sand for a long time.

Step 3: Spray it all with a constant mist of water while the diggers arrange and shape the mound to get it ready for sculpting.

Step 4: Sit back and watch.

The Son Spot-Part 1

All truth:

1. I did not want to go. I was loud about it. I stalled us. I whined and complained and at the last minute made us waste some time at Wal-Mart to avoid having to be there. I really did not want to go.

2. I was not really all that open to getting anything from the experience. God had already done amazing things in my life this summer (at FUSE Camp which I never blogged about, because I'm still processing all of that) and I didn't think I needed anything else.

3. I'm a little immature and presumptuous?

4. I don't like the beach and that includes sand, water, heat, noise, chaos, etc... Yeah, I'm really not a beach person.

5. I spent about 30 hours of not wanting to be there. And then God changed me.

6. Incredible stuff happened. Unlike FUSE Camp, where God was speaking to me very loudly (figuratively) and plainly, He was very quiet with me in (loud and chaotic) Ocean City. At FUSE Camp I was given gifts I could identify and describe. At Son Spot, I was given much, but can't find words to be able to tell you anything about it. How awesome is it that I can't qualify what I was given and yet I know those gifts are no fewer or less valuable than what I was given at FUSE Camp? How ridiculous was I to think I had already been given what I needed at FUSE Camp and therefore didn't need anything more? Sometimes I wonder about me.

7. I'm home now. I'm thinking about what I'd be doing at this exact moment in time if I was still there. We'd be out on the boardwalk, talking to people, praying for people and watching God move. For all the complaining I did about having to go there, that is where I want to be now.

Fresh

Fresh from the oven: Pumpkin Muffins

Fresh from my neighbor's garden (The deer have eaten my garden.):

Because we are getting ready to go on a mission trip and all those vegetables won't keep: I made an Italian vegetable soup.

(I did not make the parmesan/black olive bread. Our thrift shop gives out free bread when it's open. I used to not take it, thinking it was only for the poor, but then my friend who works there told me I should and it is for whoever can use it. So...free bread.)

Yesterday's Random-ness

1. I just realized I didn't get dressed yesterday. I don't want to say it, but this is usually the big, red flag that tells me I need to go back to work where people force structure upon me.

2. I had pulled a semi-all-nighter on Monday night. Went to bed at dawn yesterday and got up a couple hours later. All in the name of cleaning; which I did do. But, I'm not done. I did clean out my spice cabinet. I found some crazy stuff in there.

3. While cleaning and organizing, I realized we should eat up the food we already have. I was trying to be like my Mormon friends and stockpile a ton of food. Which is all good...unless you never eat any of it. We need to eat some of it. So...I decreed "No more trips to the grocery store except for once a week to buy milk and fresh produce." There was a resounding sigh of discontent shadowed by the hope this will be yet another one of those times I decree something and then don't follow through. I'm following through.

One thing you should know in order to get a full understanding of the magnitude of this: I have an intimate relationship with Safeway and visit her daily. There's a lot I could describe of this relationship, but I don't want to lest y'all think I'm weird.

But, I digress...the day turned into a lazy day after that initial cleaning spark. I have no idea what I did to pass the afternoon, but I did cook dinner; lentils with carrots and tiny corn muffins. (There was a resounding cry of distress from the masses..."Lentils! Why are you always cooking lentils?") Truthfully, I don't even know when I last cooked lentils. But, tonight reminded me I should make them more often. My apologies to the masses comes with the statement "There's peanut butter in the Apocolypse Closet".

Have you any idea how hard it is to cook with a big, fat cat underfoot?

Green Beans

I don't think I ever ate green beans cooked this way until I was an adult. It is probable I wasn't even aware there was another way to cook them other than the "boil forever with ham/bacon and red potatoes" (which is delicious). That recipe was a staple of my childhood.

We like them like this.

Making them is non-scientific:

Take the ends off the beans and saute them in sesame oil. Toss with fresh pressed garlic (I use several cloves), sea salt and red pepper flakes. For these, I added a dash of soy sauce and a little sweet chili sauce and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.

I was hoping there would be some left for lunch today. There wasn't.

Obsessed?

I am not obsessed, but I will admit I probably make cupcakes more than most people. It seems like I'm taking them to almost every event where I'm supposed to bring something.

While I don't understand the current phenomenon of cupcake shops and the seemingly new idea of these individual cakes (The idea is not new folks...no need to to make a day of it running down to Georgetown Cupcakes to fork out more money for one than it costs to make a whole batch.), I do understand how quick and easy/peasy they are to make.

And I'll continue making them until someone tells me to bring something else.