I’m linking up again this year with one of my favorite ideas: Modern Mrs. Darcy’s What’s Saving My Life Post. The idea is we can usually articulate what is “killing us,” but it is a mindful practice to take note of what’s saving our life. Since winter can be a hard season for many, it’s a wonderful time to share our strategies.

Number one for me is Sunshine. I’ve been working at our boys’ school and when the forecast allows for outdoor recess? Bliss. Plus, swinging.

Also loving Online Printables. It’s an easy way to freshen up our space or give a simple but polished gift to a friend.

Micron Pens and Bible Journaling. Two things about this: 1. Good pens that don’t bleed through thin pages are worth their weight in chocolate. 2. If you are visual you might want to join this party. I love jotting down significant phrases or doodling pretty notes as I soak in His Word

Dance parties. These are especially fun with kiddos at school when we all need a Brain Break to get the oxygen flowing.

Our Vitamix. Specifically, smoothies. I plan to make it a practice to take Vitamin D during shorter daylight days. But you can’t beat the natural vitamins in mixed greens disguised with bananas or dates or scrumptious berries.

Home Workouts. A friend introduced me to this little jewel (killer). I don’t want to talk about how long I last in that. Plus, DVDs I can modify when I have a 25 minute window before work or bed. Endorphins = happiness.

Surprisingly: Basketball. When I want to hole up, the boys’ practices can get me out and (possibly) on an elliptical. And games are always a good time. Watching your kids learn a new skills and character lessons is a win.

Also surprisingly: Football on TV. It is rare that I sit and watch a whole game, but I like to snuggle with my guys and listen to them rant. Plus, there’s something comforting about the sounds of a Sunday afternoon game filling our space. Even if I’m napping.

Essential Oils. From diffusing in the morning for energy to rolling on kiddos at school for focus, I’m becoming a genuine groupie.

My people. I will forever be grateful for the souls who have strengthened mine.

So…what’s saving your life right now? I’d love to hear!

Are you an artist? The Workroom wants you for their Anniversary Artisan Market coming up in April. The goal is diversity of local talent showcased amidst live music & food trucks. Apply here.

Come this weekend to Watermark for Book Club Sunday. Enjoy snacks and conversations with leading professionals from the book industry.

This Saturday the 4th from 2-4, enjoy Wichita Art Museum’s Winter Opening Party: “The Poetry of Nature.” Get your $10 tickets and enjoy light hor d’oeuvres, live music, and the Hudson Rives School Landscapes from the New-York Historical Society.

Also this Saturday from 10-1 come to the Family Fun Fair at Botanica. Enjoy free admission to the gardens along with crafts, activities and games throughout. Great way to get out and enjoy some fresh air.

Green Acres Bradley Fair is hosting Breakfast with Matt this Saturday the 4th at 8:00 am. Join Dr. Rebecca Kirby for information on ways to keeps our hearts naturally healthy. Breakfast is free, but call 316.634.1088 to reserve your spot.

Interested in learning a new creative skill? Adult Classes at City Arts are forming now.

Library:

Coming up this Wednesday, February 8th, hear from Friends University history professor Dr. Gretchen Eick on Wichita’s role in the Civil Rights Movement. Come to Central from 1:30-2:30 to learn about this important time in our city’s history.

Also check out Mystery Masterpieces at Alford this Tuesday the 7th at 6:30 and Chisholm Trail: Laura Ingalls Wilder at Westlink.

See all Storytimes and Upcoming Events here

 

Have a great weekend!

They’re getting into it

The river never disappoints

Globe love at Home Goods

Loves

Glory

Your 7 Days?

We had just walked through some of the hardest few months of our marriage together. An unexpected c-section, postpartum anxiety, multiple moves, and a delay to get back to our overseas home. When the visa issue for our newborn got settled, we were ready. Ready for a new change of clothes, seeing our apartment, introducing our newest family member to our national friends and American teammates.

Unfortunately, the road back was longer still. We waited in a Turkish airport for hours, nursing a baby in a bathroom and trying unsuccessfully to get a four-month-old to nap with flight announcements and suitcase shuffling and multiple languages filling the air. Finally after 32 hours we got the news the flight back to our overseas home had been cancelled. We needed a place to rest and try to get our little one to settle. A questionable gentlemen who seemed to work for bribes helped us get set up for the night at a shady nearby hotel. We made the best of it and showed back up to the airport the next day, multiple suitcases in tow.

When our flight finally boarded, then finally took off quite a bit later, we were so grateful. It was after 9:00 at night when we landed in our overseas city home. The process of gaining entry to the city is a long one, but we were ready. Fortunately, little one was asleep on me in a sling and settled. When it was our family’s turn, Dan ushered me before him through the metal detector. We were searched, our visas looked over, and greeted by our friend with balloons and smiles and coos at our little one.

It took me a minute to realize Dan hadn’t made it through customs quickly. When I finally looked his way, multiple officials were surrounding him. Then they took him to a small office. I looked at our friend and she was reassuring. Until a lady in uniform asked if I would come with her. Our friend smiled at me and nodded, so baby and I followed her into the airport office building. She led us into a back room with chairs and nothing else. In broken English, and my limited knowledge of the local language, it was communicated there was a problem with my husband’s visa and he might not be able to enter our city. We could stay the night in this room until we knew if our family could stay together.

The sobs that rose in me were different than others I had cried before. I knew we would go back to Turkey together before we would be separated as a family. But I grieved. I grieved the relationships we had built in the city we might not get to return to. I wept because I wanted to show Caden to our language tutor and see how her new baby had grown while we were gone. And I wept for the personal items back in our apartment home we might never see again. Sure, it was just stuff, but it was ours. Reminders of our years together and journals of memories.

But you know what the thing is? This whole situation lasted less than 2 hours. The officers simply had wanted to separate Dan from his wife and child and see if they could get a bribe from him to speed the process along. And truly, if push came to shove, we had American passports and the means to return.

But the refugees who have suffered greatly over the past months? They do not have the luxuries we did. We do. Some have made it all the way here, selling everything for safety, only to be denied access. One quote that’s been spinning in my mind is:

“you have to understand,

no one puts their children in a boat

unless the water is safer than the land.”

There is such nuance to this situation. I am learning some details to keep in mind we might not get in news footage and sound bites. And I truly realize one of a government’s purposes is to keep its citizens safe.

But still we have ourselves a situation in our tenure here.

The good news is, this does not have to go back to the election. We have already cast our votes. Now we simply get to be informed citizens who come together and do what is right. In fact, some of my deepest respect right now is going out to those who voted – with very clear reasoning – for our current administration, but who are now speaking out against specific decisions by it.

No matter your political ideology, can we agree innocent people are being affected right now? And more often than not by political expediency? That, in a desire for a scapegoat, has a history of being animated by evil? This does not require panic. It requires a settled heart disposition of allegiance.

While I long for all American citizens to come and reason together, the truest hope will come from the Citizens of Heaven. History shows our longing for a heavenly home is what can fuel us to seek justice on this earthly tenure. I think the decision in front of American Believers is: “Whom will you serve?”

Who will receive our highest allegiance? Will it be politics? Or will it be the God of Angel Armies? Hopefully, the two will not always force us to choose. But in the situations that do, let’s remember it’s a good thing.

And, friends, let’s choose well.

*Jennie Allen has compiled an ever-expanding list of ways we can immediately love refugees.

“In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; so the king asked me, ‘Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.'”

Nehemiah 2:1-2a

Last time our leader asked God for mercy, deep compassion, before the face of the king. He did this in the month of Kislev, November/December in our calendar. About 5 months later, in the Jewish month of Nisan (March/April), we get to spy on the conversation in which God answers Nehemiah’s prayer.

“The following Spring, when wine was brought before the face of King Artaxeres, I took the wine and gave it to him. I had not been unhappy before his face; so the king asked me, ‘Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.’”

I’ve been touched reading different blog posts this week about depression and suicide prevention. Particularly in regards to how believers handle each other’s struggles. I think this can be tricky territory. For one thing, the word for sadness of heart (roa) can also mean evil. And we know from Jeremiah that our hearts on their own are deceitful. As in, we cannot trust all our feelings and intentions if those feelings and intentions are not surrendered to God. The One Who is greater than our hearts and knows everything – even those things we can’t see or refuse to see.

But on the other hand, there is more Hebrew evidence that the sadness, this heavy heart of Nehemiah’s, was sorrow. Ra can mean adversity. And the particular use of leb – the inner man/will/heart in Nehemiah 2:2 is rendered “the seat of emotions is sorrow.” Furthermore, as we will see coming up in verse 3, the sadness is referred to affliction.

Nehemiah was brokenhearted. This makes sense as he found out his brothers/fellow Judah-ites were living in a city with broken walls.

So what does this have to do with us? How can we determine when our (very real) sorrow is affliction and broken-heartedness or when we are being led astray by our own will?

It seems to me the answer is most likely: it’s both. We cannot escape our brokenness or our broken hearts in this world. There will be times when genuine sorrow over things we cannot control will afflict us. And, in such times, there is almost always something God is refining in us, asking us to deal with Him on. Not because He’s mean but because whatever He’s refining is holding us back from His best for us. And what we learn from our time in the valley can be used to serve others.

He really is a God of deep compassion. He knows the why behind our actions. And He stands by us until we are free.

And those of us – or those times when – we are confessed up, in the Word, walking in community, and still the seat of our emotions is sorrow? Oh, may our response toward ourselves and others be one of tenderness. Nothing hurts like a broken heart and feeling depressed or troubled or afflicted is no joke. That we would be quick to listen and slow to speak when others are in such a space. May the Church be known as a place where lament is common and welcomed, and our God One Who sympathizes with every weakness.

And honestly? I think there might be a third category in all this. I think the Spirit of Christ in His followers can be righteously agitated and our sorrow godly on behalf of justice. I see it everywhere in our time and I believe it is the first step in joining Him in the work of reconciliation. As we will see in the book of Nehemiah, God was moving in his heart to lead a work of restructuring. Rebuilding of walls and forming a community of His people.

He is still doing this now. And we are called to join Him. So don’t let that holy sorrow, that afflicted soul be pushed down. In wisdom, with godly counsel, let’s join the work of our generation.

Because sometimes our sadness of heart yields restoration.

 

Tomorrow is Final Friday! Some festivities of note:

Monica’s Bundt Cake will be featuring artwork by S. Garcia, Adan Lopez, and Aylin Lopez. (Plus, bundt cake!)

Reuben Saunders Gallery will be featuring Tim Stone’s show Sensitive Search.

Reverie will be featuring a group show by Young Life Capernaum students. All proceeds from artwork sales go directly toward Capernaum ministry to fund youth camps. (Plus, coffee!)

The Workroom will feature artists Emily Miler Yamanaka and live music Anibal Rivas & Jeff Stidham.

City Arts will be opening four new gallery exhibitions. See Richard Davies, Kody Ramsey, Matthew Miller, & Erin Raux.

Come to Wichita Art Museum this Saturday the 28th from 11-3 for Family ArtVenture: Ice, Ice Baby. Enjoy fun movies like Frozen, an ice carving contest, and ice-y art projects.

Plus, from 10-2 check out WAM’s Mini Used Book Sale.

Do you have a bunch of metal lids around your home? Botanica will take them off your hands for an upcoming project. (Plus, de-cluttering!)

We took part of the amazing Grand Opening Sale at Sprout’s yesterday. Check out our city’s latest health food store and the great deals.

 

Library:

Just a head’s up: The Library will be tackling the topic of race in Wichita throughout 2017. Check out their upcoming schedule here.

And did you know Kansas Day is this Sunday, January 29th? Enjoy listening to Kansas’ current Poet Laureate, Professor Eric McHenry as he reads his poetry and discusses his experiences. Also hear from Frank and Jayni Carey, authors of The New Kansas Cookbook: Rural Roots, Modern Table on Kansas’ rich tradition of cooking from farmer’s markets and gardens across the state.

 

Have a great weekend!

It’s basketball time

Currently on my desk (via Ann Voskamp)

Sunshine Glory

 

Your 7 Days?

In a time when few of us agree on much, it’s nice to focus on what cannot be ignored. We didn’t create all this. We didn’t create ourselves. And there are certain things we have no control over.

Fortunately, the God Who made it all is both powerful and kind. Let’s rest in that today.

“‘They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.’

I was the cupbearer to the king.”

Nehemiah 1:10-11

Last time Nehemiah asked God to remember the promise He made to His people: if they bodyguard and accomplish His commands, He would bring them Home to the place His Name dwells. Today we conclude Nehemiah’s prayer.

“God, we are your slaves ransomed by Your vast power and fierce ability alongside us. Adonai, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and of your servants who take pleasure in revering Your Name.

Give me success by granting me deep compassion before the face of the king – for I was a butler, one giving him drink.”

Such goodness in the wording. I particularly love how Nehemiah recounts the way God ransomed His people: by His chazaq yad – mighty hand. Chazaq can mean fierce, stubborn, stalwart. Yad (hand) translates to authority, care, ability, alongside. Entrust.

Oh yes, we can trust Him. Even (especially?) when things feel upside down. My Word this morning was Romans 8:18: “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.”

And we suffer here, don’t we? It is not all tiny, it’s simply tiny in comparison to what lies ahead. Glory, the masterpiece of a tapestry He’s weaving all over the world in people’s hearts. More than we could ever ask or imagine among those who take pleasure in revering His Name; who want to make Him famous. His stubborn, fierce authority and care and ability alongside of us is enough to make it. Oh yes, in the meantime we groan. But He makes it all worth something. And He really can be trusted.

We also finally see Nehemiah’s role in the king’s court: a cupbearer. The priority task in this role was to taste the wine before the king to ensure it wasn’t poisoned. While that might seem a menial job, as we will see later, it was one that held much trust and esteem with the king. Nehemiah saw him daily and clearly had his ear.

The Hebrew in Nehemiah’s prayer for mercy before this king is tender. “Grant me success by giving me deep compassion before the face of the king.” Surely that’s what mercy is, that mercy that is new every morning, giving us a fresh start.

When I pray for our family to have tender hearts toward God and people, I haven’t thought much about how that prayer is simply a request for our hearts to be more like His. Tender, deep compassion. So tender God can grant it to a pagan king on behalf of a people he likely never thinks about.

Fortunately, The One Who rules the universe is always thinking of us. And His compassions never fail.

Coming up at Watermark: Sheila Kohler with a reading of her book Once We Were Sisters tomorrow, January 20 at 6:00 pm. Then Elizabeth McKenzie will be here next Wednesday the 25th at 6 for a signing of her book The Portable Veblen.

The Extension Office is offering a court-approved bi-lingual class Great Beginnings for Families beginning today, January 19th. This class is held once a week for 3 weeks and there is still time to register.

Today at Wichita Art Museum enjoy the Presence Program: The Gift of Art. This is for adults with early to mid-stage memory loss and care partners beginning at 10:30.

Do you know about Wichita Restaurant Week? With a heads up from Wichita on the Cheap, I was reminded of the opportunity to try a participating restaurant or a new menu item with 10% going toward the Boys and Girls Club of South Central Kansas.

Green Acres West and Bradley Fair are hosting their Annual Health Fair this Saturday the 21st from 11-2. Enjoy visits with local practitioners, samples, in-store savings, and more.

Whole Foods is hosting Community Giving Day and Food Bag Building for Kids. First, this Monday the 23rd from 7:30-9:00, 5% of Whole Foods profits will be donated to the Kansas Food Bank’s program Food 4 Kids.

Then come back on Wednesday the 25th any time from 6-8 pm to help fill 250 empty bags with goodies for kids who can’t count on meals at home on the weekends. You can spend a few minutes or an hour helping, with sample stations throughout the store to stay energized.

Catch Dennis Ray Miller performing at Mead’s Corner tomorrow, January 20th, from 7-9 pm.

Then Saturday the 21st, come to Game Night at Reverie from 5:30-8:00.

Also saw at Wichita on the Cheap a Free Movie Night at The Orpheum Friday the 20th at 7:00 pm.

 

Library

Did you know the Library is hosting an online book club (#ICTBC)? You can log on to their Facebook page for live discussions.

And see all upcoming events here, including Lost Census Data: Bridging the Gap by the Wichita Genealogical Society, and Fracking and Earthquakes: Is There a Link?

 

Have a great weekend!