Live With Passion

I love my Tuesday morning ladies Bible study. Westview's own Susan is a wonderful teacher, we've done videos by Beth Moore. Whoever is teaching, I come away blessed and learn so much. I know there are so many problems in our world today, but I do believe we live in a time with more resources, music, etc. to help us grow in our life with Christ.

Our study right now is with Beth Moore - John, the Beloved Disciple. Yesterday she talked about having passion, which is a topic Dena and I talk about quite often. We talk about wanting more -- not more money or more stuff, but to have this amazing abundant life. That's the life God wants us to have, a life of passion. a life of adventure. Beth Moore said we have a desire to be passionate. So much so, that there are times when passion can be misguided. But sift through the feelings and make the priority Christ. Beth Moore has a passion for God, oh my but she has a passion for God. Dena has a passion for God. I desire that. But here's the problem. It's not something that comes easily.

Dena is married to Greg, a nice Dutch man from a nice Dutch family from the nice Dutch town of Pella, Iowa. I'm a nice Dutch girl from a nice Dutch family from a not-so-Dutch town in Wisconsin. Dena will be the first to say that she neeeded someone like Greg, but it's also true that Greg's family needed someone like Dena. They needed Dena because when she went to see them, she said it was like visiting the wax museum. I think that coming to see us might be like a visit to the wax museum. I don't want to be like that. I want to live out loud. I want to have passion in my life. I want to feel strongly about issues and do something about things that aren't right. I want God to make my thunder from His lightening.

I just learned today that Katie ran for the student senate at her college. She won, which I'm so thrilled for her, but that's not the point for me. What I love about this is that Katie willingly put herself in a vulnerable position and took a risk.

God likes to put us beyond where we want to be, He likes to make things a little bit uncomfortable. So maybe it's time for a little discomfort. I want to be more willing to follow God than follow my fears. It's never to late to start taking a few risks, to live the life of adventure that a passion-filled, God-filled life can bring.

Thanksgiving
1. Talking with Carissa on the phone last night.
2. Being with Macee at the ICA VB game and meeting the daughter of friends from NWC.
3. Beth Moore and Susan and the gift of teaching they have been given.
4. Carson's job and his way of writing.
5. Elizabeth -- her Birthday is Today :).
6. A successful procedure for Mark's dad.

With Lifted Hands:
1. Healing for Tate and his decisions regarding college.
2. Good study habits and success in school for Carissa, Tyler, Garrett and Katie.
3. Healing and pain control for Ken C.
4. Mark, Cody, Elizabeth and Carson.
5. Complete healing for Mark's dad.
6. To live the adventure God has planned for me.

Update

Wow, it's been a while since I've been here. I'm not really sure where August went and now September is half over. I brought Carissa back to Chicago with a buzz up to Wisconsin and then we moved Carson to Fairfield, Iowa where, glory hallelujah, he got a job as the sports editor of the Fairfield newspaper.

My visit to Wisconsin was wonderful. I saw so many people and being there for a couple days, got to spend some quality time with those folks. Brenda and I did some things together, I saw all my aunts and uncles who are so dear to me and just spending time with the 'rents, brothers and their families is always a blessing in itself. I had lots of highlights, lunch with Shari, Nicki joining us at Firehouse Pizza where it is my opinion they have theeee very best pizza anywhere. Then there's Johnson's Bakery. **sigh** Lands sake, I can never get enough of their mudpies. I loved our tirimasu night in Sheboygan. I would mention the name of that restaurant, but I don't remember how to spell it. Trust me, it was good. As you can see we had a wonderful little group of us.

So, yes, it was marvelous time there.

Since I've been home, I have had numerous projects going on. I cleaned up Carissa's room and I am not joking when I saw that was a waaaaaaay bigger job than I thought at first. I believe the child makes lists about everything and never throws a single thing away. There are still boxes waiting for her visit home to decide if they contain anything she will ever look at again.

The project in my office continues. It's been painted for a while, now I'm working on the details. I have pictures so will put up before and after pictures. I'm going to love it and since I work in there, it's going to be a nice place to spend my time.

Finally, we continue working on the hillside that was weeds, weeds, weeds. It's been a long project; we killed the weeds, mowed them, raked them, removed them, tilled, raked again and last night we finally got the seed down. Now we have to water and watch it bloom. They say these things take several years before they are firmly established, but it will be fun to watch it take off. We should get some plants up this year. I've learned a lot and can't wait to see how it all ends up.

Now, I hope that I don't wait another month to come back here.