large as this longing

You decide! Respond by posting a comment below and help determine what Darrin and Ali do for fun on vacation. The option with the most votes will be a part of their adventure, and be recorded digitally and shared later.

a. build a sand castle in the shape of wisconsin

b. stargaze on the roof of their rental car

c. try strange fruit

d. find a rain forest dwelling animal, pretend it has a human-like personality, form a relationship, and invite it back to minnesota

I just spent a weekend with my youth group at an event called Urban Immersion. It was a meaningful weekend to say the least. For now, all the written reflection I might be able to muster is to share the following with you:

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

“But the whole point of the fairy tale of the Gospel is, of course, that he is the king in spite of everything. The frog turns out to be the prince, the ugly duckling the swan, the little gray man who asks for bread the great magician with the power of life and death in his hands, and though the steadfast tin soldier falls into the flames, his love turns out to be fireproof. There is no less danger and darkness in the Gospel than there is in the Brothers Grimm, but beyond and above all there is the joy of it, this tale of a light breaking into the world that not even darkness can overcome.”

-Frederick Buechner

I don’t make it a habit to take pictures of unassuming strangers in public places.  But when the Great I Am is a few feet away, it isn’t a hard decision.  Is it weird that I felt an urge to go up and give him a hug?

60 degrees means youth group goes outside! I’ve been waiting all winter long (and I emphasize “long”) to be able to run around outside. We play games each week at youth group and in the cold months, we’re inside in our small cramped fellowship space. But tonight we busted out the orange field cones and ran around in the grass.

The change in seasons are a beautiful thing. The Midwest is awesome that way. The appreciation that awakened Minnesotan hibernators have for Spring’s eventual warmth is, I think, a bit like falling in love. It’s fresh and exciting and way better than you remember it being the last time. Seasons are a reminder to me that God uses change in our lives to teach us some important stuff. My life has seemed to be a swirling ball of transition over the past several years. And I somehow know that God is in the middle of it all.

May we embrace the unfolding Spring in our lives.