Tragedy from Above

Manhattan as seen from the ISS 8 years ago. Chilling. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/iss003e5387_feature.html

Take some time to pray for those families today.

You Are Who You Follow

OK...at the risk of sounding nerdy, I have a confession. I love library school. Love it. Mostly because it just gets my wheels turning about so many cool things. Allow me to elaborate. Tonight I had my second Issues class, where basically the 15 or so of us who are graduating in December sit around and talk about important and controversial issues in the library world. Tonight's topics: how to use video games, facebook, Twitter, blogs, and wikis in libraries! We had quite the lively discussion about Web 2.0, which is the overarching term for sites that allow interaction between the user and site; all of them have some sort of self-generated information as well. I won't bore you with a lengthy definition, but in essence it's a big umbrella term for facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, YouTube...all those things. It's incredible to hear how libraries are using these new technologies to make information available in fresh, creative ways. One of my favorite things - book trailers. These are like movie trailers but for books! There are TONS of them on YouTube these days, and they're great for promoting books visually. Check out this book trailer for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters...it's hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jZVE5uF24Q.

I've recently become a twitterer (tweeter?), and I must admit I was skeptical at first, but now I adore it. I can get celebrity, sports, world, national, political, and library news all in one place! The best part currently is that I get job postings when library jobs open up across the country! And I have them texted to me, so I know immediately! Pretty sweet! I'm currently following *gasp* 165 accounts, and the funny thing is that you can tell a lot about who I am from who I follow. You can see the budding librarian, the Christ follower, the LSU alumna, the college sports freak, the Harry Potter geek, the celebrity gossip fan, the intellectual, the film lover, and more, and it made me realize that (pun intended) to a certain extent, you are who you follow.

Of course, they drill this into your head in middle school with all the talks of peer pressure and such, but that's not really what I'm talking about. I'm talking about those things we fill our lives with...the things we pay attention to...the things we can't live without. What is most important to me? What am I letting rule my life? What is taking up all my time?

One of the negative consequences of the digital world we live in is the plethora of distractions created by these Web 2.0 technologies. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE them, but I've wasted my share of hours (or afternoons or evenings) on facebook enough to know that it's easy to get caught up in little things that will monopolize your life if you let them. It becomes so second-nature that we hardly notice the time slipping away. I'm guilty of letting the busyness of life take me away from what's really important in life...what's lasting...what's eternal, and that's loving God and loving people. We're indeed living in an online world, but don't forget to take time for real people and time for God. As human beings, we're wired for friendships and to help each other through life, looking to each other for guidance and doing life together, following step by step.

A relationship with Christ is the ultimate example of that friendship. We follow him through an abundant, joyful life (relying on him through life's hardships) and onto an eternal life with Him. Life is really all about who or what you're following...that is to say who or what you're focusing on. And with that, I leave you to ponder as I go practice what I'm preaching and pry myself away from facebook quizzes to spend some QT with my Jesus. :)

Parting words from The Word:

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
---John 8:12 (emphasis mine)

By Now I Thought...

Today I've been contemplating timelines, checklists...probably partially because my best friend turned twenty-five and mentioned to me that she's halfway through her twenties...a place I will follow her to early next year. We both laughed and lightheartedly proclaimed ourselves as "old."

I've also recently begun Marian Jordan's The List, a potent little book about the list we make for ourselves. You know the list she means. It's that list you make when you're a kid around lunch tables or at slumber parties - the checklist of life. That list that states unabashedly what you proclaim you'll have done by the time you're twenty, or twenty-five, or thirty. I thankfully have no written evidence of my own list, but I remember countless conversations with my young friends dreaming about our perfect lives that would follow a strict schedule and in which all our deepest desires were met by the time we were...gasp...twenty-five.

So here I am on the brink of that magical age when everything is supposed to snap neatly into place, and my list is not exactly checking itself off. I'm not where I thought I'd be by now. Haven't done half the things I thought I would. Could it be that I have the wrong things on my list?

Or maybe it's that I'm too focused on the list itself instead of on the One who created the desires I so long for. Jordan's book pointed me to Psalm 33 and a few other psalms and reminded me that if God created my heart and my desires, of course He knows exactly how to best fulfill them in my life. The timing's not important...it's the trusting that's important. The journey. To quote Miley Cyrus (probably the only time I will ever do so)..."It's the climb." It's that step-by-step lifelong relationship of trust that really matters...not the temporary (albeit beautiful and wonderful) things our human hearts long for, the things we want so desperately to check off, the husband, the 2.5 kids, the dog, and the Colonial. Those things are indeed blessings from our Father because all good things do indeed come from above, but they will never, never, never compare to the greatness and beauty that is the Father himself.

This all clicked together for me when I stumbled across this video (entitled "By Now I Thought") for a new Bible study I've just started. I hope as you watch it that you too are encouraged as I was to stop falling victim to the trap of The List and of the demon of "by now I thought..." The song in the background sings "Jesus, save me," and will He ever. He'll save you and me from our dreams that seem out of reach, our futures that seem dim, and our whispers of "by now I thought..." I leave you to ponder this and thank God for His immense, unfailing, unmatched love and the hope we have in Him:

"Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you."
---Psalm 33:20-22 (emphasis mine)

"Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!"
---Psalm 31:24

The Word of the Lord Proves True

This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
"For who is God, but the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?
This God is my strong refuge
and has made my way blameless.
---2 Samuel 22:31-33, English Standard Version, emphasis mine

Goodbye, Summer. Hello, Autumn!

Well, another Louisiana summer has come and gone...not that you could tell by the weather. It's still plenty hot here, and I can't wait for the cool snap to come through and bring football with it! Things got pretty busy this summer, so let me give you a quick recap...

I finished two more graduate classes including one graphic novels class in which I read 60 graphic novels in 7 weeks. Yes, 60. And I LOVED it. I have a new-found appreciation for comics. Oh boy, add another nerd sticker to my collection. I can't believe it's flying by this fast. This time last year I was finishing my first semester, and now in a few weeks, I'll begin my final semester of school EVER! Yay for a master's degree! Let the job search begin...prayers very very very much appreciated. :) The plan is to look for a teen services position in a public library somewhere between Virginia and Georgia preferably in the Carolinas. We shall see. I'm trying to think positively despite the fact that this isn't the best time in the world to be looking for a job with the economy as bad as it is. I keep telling myself that there's a public library in nearly every city in America...surely one of them will hire me, right?

And speaking of libraries, ALA in Chicago was incredible! Shame on me for not blogging about it while I was there, but I was a little pre-occupied. ;) I learned so much from the conference, met some amazing librarians, got some free books, met some of my favorite authors (Laurie Halse Anderson, Neil Gaiman, Jennifer & Matt Holm), and generally confirmed that I am absolutely going into the right field. I am beyond excited about beginning my journey as a librarian very soon!

I had also never been to Chicago before, and I fell in love with it. The way it's surrounded by water gives this huge city a quaint, quiet feel. I can't really explain it, but you don't feel like you're in a big city at all, and the way the river winds right through downtown, I felt like I was in Italy or something (not that I've ever been there haha). I crammed in TONS of sightseeing (Sears Tower, Chicago River architecture tour, Navy Pier, Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, University of Chicago, Art Institute, Lake Michigan...and much, much more!), and I took way too many pictures to post here, but I'll include my favorite one. I had dinner one night on the river at this cute little cafe (It felt quite Parisian...never been there either) and snapped this right after dinner on the bridge:


Student ministry events went well this summer too. My girls are growing up so fast, and it's hard to believe they're starting 8th grade this next week. Wow. I saw many of them grow in their relationships with Christ this summer, and one even started her journey with the Lord. Yay, Anne Marie!!! She accepted Christ at Beach Week in Panama City, FL, which was just spectacular. Something about spending a week on the ocean just lets you hear the voice of God a little clearer...maybe it's the crashing waves or the blazing sun. He showed up in a big way, and it was a blessing to see how lives were changed.


And so the summer ends, and a new semester will begin soon...just one of hopefully a few new beginnings in store for me in the next year. New beginnings bring uncertainty and questions, but I'm embracing the change and am thrilled about trusting God to drop me right where He wants me. Here's to new chapters written by the Author and Perfecter of our faith!

Evening Song

"Faith can move mountains of that I am sure. Just get me through December...get me through December so I can start again."
---Alison Krauss' "Get Me Through December"

Get Your Geek On!

I geek Jane Austen novels, LSU sports, and ice cream. What do you geek? Find out at http://geekthelibrary.org/!