It's so good to be home! I have a stack of mail on my desk, a laundry list of things to catch up on (including laundry) and two needy cats who are so cuddly because they think I'm probably going to walk right back out that door. Not to mention, we've got quite a bit of work ahead of us at Dot&Cross as we're prepping to launch the "Blessed Earth" series this April and film 4 new Francis Chan films in February. Busy, Busy.
I was trying to review my calendar, but I don't think I've spent more than about 10 days at home since about October. But it looks like I'll be here for a while so I'm finally starting to settle in. I still can't quite get over the jet lag which is causing strange things to happen right now - I get tired about 8 pm. Then I wake up around midnight... wide awake. Then I quietly whisper to ask if Amy's awake (she usually is) and lay in bed coming up with crazy new business ideas or trying to figure out what time it actually is in New Zealand. Considering I am slowly returning back to Eastern Standard Time, I must be slowly flipping backwards through the time zones as my body tries to find a time-home. But right now I'm pretty sure my body thinks I'm in Romania.
I'm a huge New Year's Fan. I love goals. I love to mark out what I want to accomplish, form new habits, etc... But this year is a little bit different. I'm not going to to get too worked up over what I want to accomplish. If anything, I discovered that our human plans are nice and all, but honestly, each day is a gift and I have to quit thinking 2-3 months down the road like I usually do. I just need to, in the words of Ray LaMontagne, 'Be here now'.
I've missed writing. It's so good to be here right now, listening to Josh Ritter and thinking about the past few months of thoughts that have slipped through the cracks. I'll have plenty of time to catch you up with photos and stories but here are few things I wanted to throw out there.
On returning to Grand Rapids from NZ, I got off the plane at 9:30 am on Thursday, had enough time for a doctor appointment and a haircut before jumping back on another plane headed to Ohio. Cedarville University (where I went to school) had invited me to come and share my story in their Friday Student Chapel. It was great to be back even though I was met with the same weather that made me hate those long walks across campus.
I called Amy as I sat in the hotel the night before I spoke. For whatever reason I just felt unsettled. I felt that an opportunity to talk to a group of college students, each sitting in the same seats I sat in for 4 years, each having these massive bright hopes of what the future held, who deserved the guts of my story. Unfortunately, my personal flaw is to let the moment get the best of me and to paint the pictures that I prefer to paint, but it became clear to me that this was a special opportunity. I just wanted to get out of the way and let God's story come through. My friend asked me afterwards how I did and after thinking for a second I commented that I barely remember what I said. So it's my hope that, as I prayed beforehand, these are the Holy Spirits' words and not my own.
If you are interested, click here to listen. After clicking, it should just start playing. If that doesn't work, call 1-800-CEDARVILLE and ask for Carl Ruby. He'd be glad to help you out with all of your technical difficulties.
So, now that I'm home I want to get back into the swing of things. Considering the amount of meat, sugar, wine and salt I consumed for 2 straight weeks, I am due for a detox. A few people have asked for details so I thought I'd share a few different cleanses. The first is a classic detox called the Master Cleanse. Honestly, it's more of a weight loss diet, but the thing I'm interested is shocking my system and setting my body back to default. You're supposed to do it for about 10 days in order to reset and purge your system. But in the process it will also cause you to lose some weight. I surely don't need to lose any more weight (as my mother-in-law reminds me each time she sees me) but if you ever want to start a diet, this is a good way to start, Cold turkey. When you're finished, all your cravings should be gone and you can retrain yourself on how and what to eat.
Another purge which I actually recommend more is an alkalizing punch / fasting combo.
- Create an alkalizing punch by juicing 6 fresh lemons, 12 oranges & 6 grapefruits.
- Put it all in a gallon jug and top off of reverse osmosis water. Shake well, settling is natural.
- Start drinking. About a glass per hour for 3 days. If you can't hack it, you get to eat an orange or a grapefruit in the evening.
- Then after those 3 days, fast for 3 more days. Yes... as in don't eat anything.
- While fasting, you can drink one quart of carrot juice and one pint of celery juice (mixed with equal parts of water) per day.
- After this fasting, I highly recommend you don't call Pizza Hut to celebrate with an cardiac arrest-lovers pizza, but begin a new diet that would be much healthier for you. Here's a quick tip to make you healthier than 99% of Americans and avoid pretty much all chronic disease. Eat 80% alkaline foods and 20% acidic foods. Details here: Download Alkaline_Food_Chart
FYI, following these steps will pretty much make you miserable. When you detox, you pass through headaches, cramps, dizziness and a little nausea (all healing crisises) as your body goes through a digestive reboot. It's tough... but I know that after a couple days, I will be rid of my cravings for creme brulee, medium-rare Canterbury lamb, saffron risotto, green-lipped mussels, the best sauvignon blancs in the world and a variety of curry dishes that I'm having trouble forgetting.
Arg! As I'm typing this, my detox headache is setting in after only one day of juicing. Here we go...
Lastly, after being recommended this book so many times, I am finally starting to read Randy Alcorn's, If God is Good. If you are able to get navigate past the cheesy rose on the front cover, you should pick this up and read along with me. Within the first chapter I'm just blown away at the topics he's discussing. This will probably be the source of many future blogs for me.
It's been proven over and over that the number one reason people don't believe in God is because all of the "evil and suffering" in the world. I am becoming quite interested in the theology and the social understanding we as humans > Followers of Christ > modern-Americans have towards the idea of suffering. I know I have a lot to learn about so maybe we can all do that together. Cool? So, who's with me?
And since I've been asked a few times to share them, here are my two new years' resolutions. I know, publicly sharing resolutions is dangerous, but I am all about the accountability these days, so here we go. Jump.
- I resolve to honor the Sabbath one day per week. Since Sabbath means 'stop-day', I will choose one day and stop. I haven't quite figured out all the details yet (driving? facebooking? tweeting? eating at restaurants?), but since working with Matthew Sleeth and Blessed Earth, I have become more and more convicted about this commandment. Commandment, you say?! Yep, #4 out of the big 10, just after taking the Lord's name in vain and before all that talk about murder, stealing stuff and committing adultery. If I say that I trust God to provide for me (let alone allow my next breath) and He invites / commands me to chill out... who am I to say 'No'?
- I resolve to fast one day per week. I've already chosen Monday as that day. Once again, we (humans > Followers of Christ > modern-Americans) don't really like to talk about this because it's rather inconvenient in our culture. But in Matthew 6 Jesus says, "And when you fast..." Hmm, apparently He was already assuming I was doing this. I don't know why I never gave this idea much thought, but considering this talk of fasting comes in between the 'Lord's Prayer' and 'Laying up treasures in heaven', I don't think this is a good passage to quarrel over relevancy or convenience. So let's just see what happens!