My Next Book

If you're one of my friends on Goodreads, then you know that I've been binge reading for at least 2 months now, and that the majority of that reading has been Christian books. Specifically, Christian books that take a more "radical" perspective, if you will, about truly living the counter-cultural lifestyle of Christ. Think Francis Chan and Shane Claiborne. Well, I'm super pumped to be starting yet another one of these books, David Platt's Follow Me: A Call to Die, A Call to Live. This is the same guy that wrote Radical, which I highly recommend. I've only made it through the introduction, written by the afore-mentioned Francis Chan (who I also highly recommend to any and all Christians), and I am, as Justin likes to say, jazzed. He writes things like, "we need to figure out how to make each day count for his purpose," "We miss out on seeing the Spirit's power when we refuse to live by faith. We miss out on experiencing Christ when we don't speak up for him," and "True followers are rising up who refuse to be spectators or consumers. Jesus told us to go and make disciples, so we refuse to sit and make excuses." Ugh...yes please!!

I'm looking at my list of life-changes, (You know, the one that I've mentioned in previous posts? I'm gonna just start referring to it as "The List.") and I'm already feeling motivated to shoot for more. I love the joy and peace I've been growing into the past few months. There's really nothing like it. It's so cool to be continually excited about living for Jesus while simultaneously breaking away from the constraints of worldly expectations. I've been seeing this verse a lot lately in different places and I think I'm really starting to get it: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" John 10:10 (ESV). I'm starting to understand what it's like to live abundantly in Christ.

This is simultaneous with a realization Justin and I had this morning that we're kind of weird. It hit us on our way back from a trip to Houston to visit some fam (what up Jeremy and Laura!). I told Justin that I wondered if some of the people sitting around us at church thought we were some sort of weirdo hippies or something. Let me paint a picture for you: There's me, eyebrow ring and tattoos showing in my typical, slightly abnormal, garb, holding a baby wearing a t-shirt and a cloth diaper. Before church started I changed his diaper on the pew (so much easier than finding a changing table and carrying all of my stuff around...don't hate), and later I fed him during the service like it ain't no thing but a chicken wing. Justin thought for a second and was like, "Ya...we're kind of weird aren't we? We use handkerchiefs." Haha! Yes we do. And it's awesome. This is a lot of superficial stuff, but it's kind of like a mini version of what I mean when I say that it feels good to break away from the constraints, aka man-made expectations, of society. It's freeing to just be you all the time, knowing that worldly expectations don't matter, and to feel confident that every day is forward motion towards Christ and eternal life with him.

Speaking of hanging out in Houston, we all went to the Houston Zoo and Levi rode a carousel for the first time. He LOVED it! My favorite part was when he passed me and I heard him exclaim, "Whoa!" with all the awe a little 2-year-old can muster. (And don't worry, he got the full experience. After we took this picture, they ended up relocating to a wolf that went up and down. And no, much to Justin's chagrin, I did not take a video...my bad.)