Wedding!

I met Amy during our first week at college, on a bus trip heading into Pittsburgh.  I got to know her better later because we had a lot of mutual friends.

I met Tyler during our junior year, I think; we were going on the same trip to Aliquippa.  He and Amy were maybe interested in each other and Amy asked me to keep an eye on him during the week and let her know what I thought of him.

I was impressed.

Today I went to their wedding.  It must have been nearly a year ago when Tyler sent me a message on facebook, asking if I expected to be back in America in October 2013.  Up until that point, I didn't think I had much committing me one way or another.  But I said yes.  I really wanted to be at their wedding.

When I think about either of them, my mind fills with memories -- evenings with Amy in Schoolhouse, talking about life; drives with Tyler around Aliquippa, too many quotes to record, having hot soup slosh all over me and wearing his spare rain pants for the evening.

There was a deep joy in seeing these friends who I love so much take vows to spend the rest of their lives loving and serving each other and God.

It's also a little crazy, and a bunch of us talked about that tonight.  Has it really been a year and a half since we graduated?  We sat at a table, chatting, eating, quiet; the reality all too close that when we left that room, we wouldn't be driving back to college, back to the life and place that we shared for four years.  We'd be scattering again, back to our separate lives that are happening in different states.

It was sweet to see everyone, to share stories and laughter.  It was bitter to say goodbyes and to feel distances that grow over time, to find that too many of our stories begin with remember when.  So, a lovely and bittersweet day.

The kind of day that makes me look forward to a day without goodbyes.

To the ultimate wedding feast.

Two perspectives

Today I got an email from friends who live in Changchun, asking that we remember the city (and the people who live there) because the air pollution levels are extremely high right now.  It's over 400 on a scale that goes up to 500... the current level is called "very hazardous," and they said it's the worst they've seen in the ten years they have lived in Changchun.

I can imagine to some degree.  There were a couple of days last year that it was just nasty, but nothing as bad as what they have right now.  It's gross to go outside and you think what am I breathing?  GAK!

Not too long later, I got a message from a dear friend who's a student at Huaqiao, telling me about how her birthday had been.  The last message she sent read:  "It's been foggy all day and it's beautiful."

Yes, the pollution needs to be cleaned up.  A lot of life is like that... filled with real problems that pose real dangers.  But often the solutions are not going to come immediately, and so I find myself wanting the perspective that she took.

It's been foggy all day.

And it's beautiful.

Some thoughts on contentment.

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content, wrote Paul.

I have not.

I was thinking about this last week because I was feeling really discontent.  I have a job, but I don't have enough hours yet to be making much money.  Also, let's face it: somehow making sandwiches at Panera is a little less glamorous than teaching at a university in China.  It doesn't exactly have the same ring of I'm doing awesome things when I tell people what my job is.

I like people thinking that I'm doing awesome things!  I enjoy feeling that my life is an adventure.  And while  a bus ride to find cheese in China seems like an undertaking worthy of epic theme music, a bus ride in Ohio usually seems like a nuisance.

See what I mean?  I haven't learned to be content very well.

But at some point last week, when all of this was sort of bubbling around in my head, it occurred to me that I was being ridiculous.

• I don't have to deal with the daily frustration of not being able to express very basic things.
• It hasn't snowed yet here.
• There are incredible libraries and you know what? I can read whatever I want to from them.
• I'm living with a good friend.
• Since I don't have a ton of hours of work yet, I have time to pursue other interests.  Like reading.  And writing.  And selling some posts to blogmutt.  And (thinking about) applying to grad schools.  And emailing friends.  And chatting with students.
• There are churches everywhere.
• I'm 2 hours away from my family, rather than 24+.

The list could go on and on.

So... maybe doing a hard things means learning to be content.

John Calvin was right on when he described the human heart as an idol factory.  It's something I keep learning about... and then seeing in myself... and then not thinking about for a while... and then getting smacked with again.  Here are a few resources that I love...

• The excellent book The Cry of the Soul: How Our Emotions Reveal Our Deepest Questions about God by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III has some really good content about how our emotions expose our idols.  (Unfortunately... I didn't copy the quotes down.  Maybe a project soon...)
• Tim Keller's Counterfeit Gods deals with some similar themes and is very accessible, solid and practical (as I've found everything of his that I've read/listened to!)
• Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin by Cornelius Plantinga Jr.  ...This maybe just happens to be my favorite book.  If you haven't read it, don't be put off by the long name.  It's lovely.
• Jeremiah Burroughs wrote a book called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, which I haven't read yet... but I need to.  Pastor William Kessler did an awesome series using this and speaking about contentment at a camp when I was in high school.  Sadly, his messages aren't on sermonaudio... the good news is that quite a few other ones are!  (Click here for the link, if you're interested.)
• And there is this line by Jars of Clay, from their song Call My Name which has haunted me for a few years.

Let our idols fail, vanity subsideAnd we will see the beauty in our lives.

It's a hard thing to pray, I think -- to ask God to bring idols down.  But until He does, we'll be missing out on so much... including the beauty in our lives that we're too busy being discontent to see.

Same same... but different. (Pumpkin edition)

So, last year in China, I really wanted pumpkin.  Pumpkin anything.  Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes.

The difficulty was that (as far as I could find) Changchun is not exactly full of cans of pumpkin waiting to be used.  Solution: I bought a small pumpkin, hacked it open with one of my multiple cleaver style knives, baked it like crazy and smashed it up into glorious pumpkin puree.

This was a fairly easy and relatively painless process (i.e. I did not drop the pumpkin on my toe or put my hand in the way of the large knife.)  So this year, I said, "Hey!  Let's get a pumpkin!  I want to make pumpkin things."

We got a pumpkin.

It sat on the counter for... um... three weeks?  Something like that.

Please understand, this is not because I lost interest in turning it into pumpkin puree.  I had just underestimated the importance of the tool that I used last year.  Somehow, the paring knife just... wasn't cutting it.  I tried stabbing it and the knife sort of wobbled but barely even left a mark on the rind.

Seriously.  This pumpkin was like a rock.  An orange, pumpkin shaped rock.

Today I decided that the time had come because I really wanted to cross "pumpkin" off my to-do list.  So I pulled out my sturdy pocket knife, thinking that surely its thicker blade, which locks into place, would be undaunted by this tough pumpkin.

Wrong.

Granted, the knife looked less like it was planning to crumple, but I also just couldn't get it into the pumpkin.  Sort of like all the knights other than Arthur in reverse -- only with a pumpkin and pocket knife rather than a sword and a stone.  At least both sets are alliterative!

So I muddled about the apartment for a while, thinking stabby thing, stabby thing, stabby thing... hmm!  Screwdriver!

I'm very pleased to report that the screwdriver worked like a charm as I punched it into the pumpkin.

The less pleasurable part of that report is that it took a set of pliers (I'm not joking) to get the screwdriver back out of the pumpkin, although that may be because my screwdriver is the interchangeable sort, and the pumpkin was much more dedicated to holding onto the head than the body of the screwdriver was.

Anyway, having been properly punctured for ventilation, the pumpkin is now in the oven, hopefully roasting.