A New Year’s Challenge

Well, here we are again. A new year, full of promise, hope, and dreams. At least for this week. If all goes as normal, by this time next week everyone will have gone back to thinking and feeling just like they did last year, and the year before that. My guess is that this happens because we get all excited at the chance to “start over”, only to discover that this year is pretty much like last, failing to realize that it is our decisions that shape how the year goes. One of my favorite bloggers, Randy Bohlender, founder of The Zoe Foundation, has an awesome idea of how to make this year better than last year. He published a challenge which, if you are brave enough to try, will not only change your year, but your life and the lives of others for years to come. Read about it here, and then give it a try. You’ll be glad you did!

Justice for Emma

There is a little girl who has stolen my heart. She was born half a world away to a mother that drank while she was pregnant. When this little one was born she was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which led to her being abandoned to a state-run orphanage where she received minimal care or attention, and no specialized care to help with the issues of FAS. It was not this little girl who sinned; she did nothing to bring this on herself, and yet she is the one who is suffering. That’s not how things are supposed to work in the economy of God; it is injustice.

God’s plan to bring justice into this little one’s life began earlier this year when a loving couple from the US traveled halfway around the world to adopt her into their family, and raise her in love and the knowledge of God. Just this week doctors in the US confirmed the diagnosis of FAS. We had prayed the original diagnosis would be wrong, but that was not to be. She has suffered much in her short three years of life, but God has a plan.

I can’t say I know exactly what God has in store for this little one, but I know that it is good. Before taking the trip to adopt the little girl, God whispered to her momma what to name the child. As she bowed at the altar before God, she heard, “Emma,” which means “total and complete restoration”.  I believe there is a miracle of total and complete restoration for Emma. The One who named her will not abandon her now. She needs advocates before the throne, to approach the Ancient of Days in confidence and request justice on her behalf. Please join me in praying for Emma, that God would fulfill what He says about Himself in Deuteronomy 10:17-18–

• “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow….”

And also Psalms 37:28–

• For the LORD loves justice, And does not forsake His saints;

Adoption is Greater than the Universe…

While I’ve been silent on this blog for quite some time, it hasn’t been because I haven’t had much to say. Quite the opposite, really. I have so much in my heart it’s hard to weed it out and put it in any form that makes sense outside my own head.

The last few months have been a time of focused attention to the plight of orphans and to the topic of adoption. The reasons these topics matter so much to me is rather involved and really too personal for such a public forum, so suffice it to say it fills my mind and heart, day and night. While adoption isn’t an option for us at this point in our lives, that doesn’t keep it from burning in my heart.

I recently finished a photography project to help raise funds for an organization that is about bringing together birth mothers and adoptive families called The Zoe Foundation.  You can see the project here (then click on “buy a calendar”. While you’re at it, why not pick up a copy? One hundred percent of the money goes to The Zoe Foundation, and you’ll be blessed with a whole year of photos of beautiful children and their adopted families.

The title of this post comes from a teaching by John Piper on the subject of adoption. It’s a beautiful teaching, and only takes five minutes to watch. You won’t be sorry!

Quote of the Day

“In order for the church to say it’s pro-life it has to be pro-child.”–Randy Bohlender

There’s not much else to say, is there? He made this comment in a promo video for The Zoe Foundation. You can see the whole video (it’s just a couple minutes) here.

Humble Pie

I love the Lord’s faithfulness. I asked him years ago to keep me humble, and He has yet to let me down. Case in point, my photography blog. (If you haven’t seen it, you can check it out here.) I experiement a lot, with equipment, odd lighting, new or bizarre subjects, etc. I’m always pushing myself to do something I haven’t done before. Once I’m satisfied with the results I publish a few of my favorite shots on my photoblog. It’s my version of a victory lap.  So, imagine my chagrin when I was notified that someone found my blog by Googling “bad nature photography“. Guess I have more work to do…

The Funeral

I generally try to mix things up on  here a bit, not getting too into one subject or another. However, I felt I needed to share just one more random photo with you. For better or worse, here it is:

And just what is that, you ask? If you look closely you’ll see that it is my hair dryer. In the waste paper basket. And just what is my hair dryer doing in the waste paper basket, you ask? Well, it seemed like the best place for it after I dropped it in the toilet. Yes, in. Yes, the toilet. As in, electrical appliance, still actually plugged into the wall, into the water. I feel smart…

And in case anyone was wondering, the lovely background for this photo is the ugly floor of Ugly Bathroom #2, which you can see here.

(And before you ask, yes, I did let the hair dryer dry out for a day before I tried it. Dead as a doornail.)

Beattie Randomocity

I’ve decided I need to quit trying to be profound and just write something. Anything. There’s no good reason not too, right? Since I can’t think of anything specific, I decided to share random things I’ve seen or noticed just hanging around my life lately. It seems like random is like, totaly everywhere, you know? So here we go:

Here is the first piece of random. These are mystery implements I found yesterday. I was searching through my sewing supplies looking for the instruction manual for the serger. I lifted a handful of fabric scraps and found this:

They look brand new, and there’s a bunch of them, so you’d think they’d be important to something around here…  Anybody have an idea what these could be?

Next there is the Tale of the Magic Coat. You may remember our fun at the SnowShow back in December (read about it here), and the fun we had afterwards finding random snow falling from his clothing. Well, now I find out some of the fun may not of  had as much to do with the show as it did with a magical coat. It occurred to me the other day that each time we had random snow Brian was wearing the same brown suede coat. Well, like, duh! It’s the coat he wore at the show, so that’s where the snow falls out, right? Well, a couple weeks ago he was driving, reached up to rub his neck, and this fell out of the sleeve:

More than a month after seeing the show!!! To get the depth of how amazing this is, you need to realize he wears this coat almost every day. For over a month. And still…

I decided the coat was magic after one night when Brian pulled his glasses out of the coat pocket and discovered one of the lenses had fallen out. The screw was also missing. After I tried to repair the glasses with an eyeglass repair kit I had in my purse and found that the screws I had were all too big, Brian reached back into the pocket. He felt around a second or two, and pulled out the world’s tiniest brass screw. Honestly, I could hardly see it. Yet, in the pocket of the Magic Coat, it was easily found. Has to be a Magic Coat…

One more piece of random. This is a pile of Tacky, Old, and Bad that we’re removing from our house. Notice especially the giant 1970’s burgundy colored pom-pom fringe on the curtains:

These are assorted curtains left by the old homeowners. This is not the first, and I’m sure not the last, pile of Tacky, Old, and Bad we’re be removing. (Some of it has even been stuff we moved with us!)

There’s a lot more random that’s been hanging around, but I don’t think I should bore you with it all. I’d hate to scare away all my readers! If you’d like more, you can check out my flickr page. This set of photos includes pictures of Ugly Bathroom #1, Ugly Bathroom #2 (in which you can see the Ugly Mirror and Light Fixture that was in both bathrooms when we moved in), my newly hung livingroom curtains, and the amazing view out my windshield when I had to go to the store yesterday. You can find it here. I hope for your sake you’re not really so bored that you find this interesting…

Heavenly Light

Before I get started, let me assure you that I realize the issue I’m about to bring up is not exactly earth shattering. No one will go to heaven or hell based on this, and most people will probably think I am beyond eccentric, but, well, there’s a reason my blog is called “Life Inside My Head”!

While reading the other night, Revelation 21:23 intrigued me: “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” The light geek in my stopped short on this one. It’s not that I’d never read this before, and not even that I didn’t know this was in there. This time, though, it just jumped up and grabbed my brain and wouldn’t let go.  “…the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” In our current world, our light comes from the sun. (Well, if we’re outside, and it’s day, but, you know…) Because of the physics of light, namely that it always moves in a straight line until interupted and manipulated, things have shadows. Light comes from the sun, hits an object, that object blocks the light from reaching surfaces behind it, causing a shadow. Easy peasy rice and cheesy, right?

In the New Jerusalem, the sun isn’t needed because it is so lit up by the glory of God. We know God is omnipresent, meaning everywhere. There is no place, position, or particle in which God is not always present. Therefore I wonder: will there be shadows in the New Jerusalem? The first reaction is “Of course!”, but stop and think. If there were a shadow, wouldn’t that mean that God’s glory (i.e., light) is being blocked from somewhere, thus interfering with God being omnipresent? That there would be some place in the New Jerusalem, no matter how tiny, from which the Presence of God would be prevented from filling? That doesn’t seem right…

I guess there could be a new kind of shadow that doesn’t require lack of light to be formed (sort of like how time as we know it won’t exist in eternity, even though there is obviously some form of time, or else it would be impossible to do anything, since doing something requires one thing to happen before another, and thus the presence of time. But I guess that is another story). What the properties of that kind of shadow would be is hard to guess, especially since we don’t really know what the properties of the Light in the New Jerusalem will be.

I realize this is all rambly and twisty, but it’s what I’ve been thinking about. Can you have shadows when the light is coming from every particle in the atmosphere? I don’t know, but it’s fascinating to ponder a God who exists either in a shadowless place, or in a place where there are shadows without an absence of light. Pretty cool…

A Roar in Space

If you love to tremble at the thought of God, you’ll want to read this article. It talks about scientists discovering what they call a “roar” in space. It comes from somewhere far away, at the edge of the universe, and science has no explanation or even educated guess on what could make such a noise. I have just one thing to say in response to it: Mufasa! Ooo… Say it again!

New Group for IHOP Supporters

Last week I participated in the onething 08 conference via the internet. It was awesome, but along with the spiritual high of being immersed in IHOP for a few days was a little sadness that I can only participate from afar. When I mentioned this to my lovely daughter Amanda, she suggested I start an email list for other people in my same situation. Not being one to ignore wisdom when it hits me in the face, I decided to give it a try. So, as of about 10:30 this morning, I’m moderating a group on Yahoo! called “EHOP-KC”. (The name was Amanda’s idea. Is she brilliant, or what?)

If you would be interested in an online community of like-minded people, feel free to stop by and join. You can join at the group’s homepage at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ehop-kc/ or by sending an email to: ehop-kc-subscribe@yahoogroups.com    If you hurry, you could be the first member (except for me, of course)!

Although it may be obvious, I want to make it clear that this group is NOT related to IHOP. It’s just a gathering place for people who love IHOP-KC sponsored by me, as a mom of two IHOPpers, and as a person who hopes one day to actually become an IHOPper. Actual IHOPpers are, of course, always welcome!