10 recent blog posts
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Cultivating Joy Through Gratitude
Posted 13 hours ago
I have to be honest. This is really difficult for me to do right now, which I think is all the more reason that I need to focus on gratitude and being thankful.
34. God's crazy love for me; a broken, doubting, fallible, weak human.
35. Brisk winter weather but with blue skies and sunshine.
36. Veggie subs with friends.
37. A clean house.
38. Time to journal and prayer.
39. Juicy Avenue.
40. A full service again and the need for more chairs.
41. Seeing people connect and form new friendships.
42. Praying for Madrid and a heart of love for this city.
43. Rend Collective Experiment.
44. Sharing my life with friends.
45. Videos of my dance performances in high school and having a better perspective now. 
Crazy Love - Profile of the Obsessed
Posted 3 days ago
I am in the process of reading Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love". I just read chapter 8, Profile of the Obsessed. He starts the chapter by say, "The idea of holding back certainly didn't come from Scripture. The Bible teaches us to be consumed with Christ and to faithfully live out His words. The Holy Spirit stirs in us a joy and peace when we are fixated on Jesus, living by faith, and focused on the life to come." Through out the rest of the chapter he addresses what it looks like for us to live lives that are centered on (obsessed with) Jesus. Here are some of his points. I really resonate with these, that's why I felt it important to re write them here on my blog. I want to remind myself of these things and I want my life to be defined this way:
-People who are obsessed with Jesus give freely and openly without censure. Obsessed people love those who hate them and who can never love them back.
-People who are obsessed with jesus aren't consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else. Obsessed people care more about God's kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress.
-People who are obsessed with Jesus live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another. Obsessed people believe that Jesus talked about money and the poor so often because it was really important to Him.
-Obsessed people are more ...
an interesting date night with my honey
Posted 5 days ago
Heather and I had a date the other night that featured an interesting bit of dialogue.
I read a book fairly recently by the rabbi/psychologist Edwin Friedman that introduced me to some concepts related to healthy “family systems.” In the book Friedman describes the concept of differentiation.
So, the other night when Heather and I were on a date she went into a store called Tuesday Mornings and I went into Half-Priced Books next door. As we were going in, I said to her: “This is quite a date we’re having. You go one place and I go another.”
She replied: “That’s just because we’re well-differentiated, hon.”
I said: “I am so attracted to you for saying that right now.” 
so ends a life
Posted 7 days ago
Today, for the first time in a long time, I read the Sunday paper from beginning to end.
I knew Joe Paterno had died this past week but was reminded today as I read his obituary on page 29:
"Joe Paterno, 85, former Penn State football coach, known as 'Joe Pa,' who won 409 Division 1 games and was fired in November amid a child sex abuse scandal; Jan. 22, in State College, Pa., of lung cancer."
His life was summed up in little more than one square inch of newsprint tucked in the middle of section two.
His major achievement: a prime number of victories. Whether one thinks him innocent or guilty, wise or foolish, he will forever be remembered as the coach with knowledge of sex abuse in his ranks.
It struck me: the sum of a life most often amounts to how it ends.
By contrast, Moses was a man who murdered another in the early years of his life. He fled and spent forty years as a shepherd, then was called by God to deliver his people from the hand of a cruel despot. His life, summed up in the following words:
"Now Moses was a very humble man...And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab...but to this day no one knows where his grave is. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days...Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face..."
So ends a life. So begins a ...
a voice of civility
Posted 9 days ago
I have great respect for author Philip Yancey. His book What's So Amazing About Grace? was a game-changer for me, personally. So, when I saw the title of a post he put on his blog today, I clicked on the link immediately: "Election-Year Musings".
I strongly encourage you to read part one and visit his blog to follow up on part two when he posts it. He has some great, great thoughts and challenges for Christians this election year.
A couple of excerpts...
"Democracy requires us to recognize others’ rights even when we fundamentally disagree with them. It requires a civility in which I respect a person’s ultimate worth, and seek to persuade but not to coerce. For this reason modern democracy grew out of Christian soil. We must exercise the skill of ethical surgeons in deciding which moral principles apply to society at large."
"The more we focus on tangential issues, the less effective we will be in addressing matters of true moral significance. I hear very little from evangelicals about the impact of gun proliferation on violent crime, much less an issue like nuclear disarmament. I hear almost nothing about health care for the poor and protecting widows and orphans, both biblical mandates, and scant mention of the thirteen million children who die worldwide from malnutrition in a year. I hear talk about family values, but when an administration proposed legislation to allow mothers to take unpaid leave after childbirth, conservative religious groups opposed it."
View the entire post here. It is well-researched! ...
When dish-pan hands become grace
Posted 13 days ago
When we first got married, Troy and I made a deal that I would do the cooking and he would do the dishes. Although he was better at doing the dishes, he definitely got the raw end of the deal. I am a very messy cook.
For twenty years, Troy did the dishes 99.9% of the time. He washed dishes in Minnesota, in Illinois, and he washed more in Colorado. He washed them in Barcelona; where we had no dishwasher and often had 17 people for small group on Thursday nights. Then, we made it a financial priority to buy a dishwasher. (In Spain, rental apartments rarely come with appliances.) That was a happy day.
Even with the dishwasher, Troy still took charge of the dishes, and washed everything that couldn’t go in the dishwasher. The kids pitched in as well, but Troy bore the brunt of it.
At the end of June, we moved into a new apartment with beautiful light, gorgeous original 1920 wood floors, huge living room, and a dining room big enough to hold more than our behemoth of table. The kitchen was smaller than our last, and it had no dishwasher.
For 20 years, I had been using our “agreement” as law. While I did other things, my husband stood in the kitchen and did dishes. For 20 years.
When we moved, we decided that wasn’t fair. To be honest, Troy still does more dishes than anyone else. The kids often do them, but ...
a band of contradictions
Posted 15 days ago
Here they come. Let me see if I can describe to you what I see from where I sit.
That man there has two kids. He’s white, slender and tall, with dark hair. His kids are both boys. One is thirteen; the other, eight. He is going through a divorce. The kids wonder if Mom needs a break from them.
That woman is in her fifties, single, never married. She feels she’s the only one of her kind here. She might be right.
Here’s a young refugee boy. He knows English but his Mom and Dad do not. A young married couple pick him up every week and love on him for some hours.
A man in a wheelchair now. Four people lift him up the steps. In about 90 minutes, they’ll be lifting him down again and he’ll bless them profusely, after having snored through the sermon.
That man killed someone and spent time in prison for it. Vehicular homicide, hit-and-run.
She was a drug addict. She hit rock bottom at age 34, enrolled in a program for two years and has been clean for the past three. She lives just down the street and walks here. She especially likes the snow.
She works at Wells Fargo, human resources. She's also started a church that gives her zero pay while giving the down-and-out almost everything from the church coffers.
Here’s a shop owner. He knows a lot about the neighborhood. His store used to be a jazz club. Dizzy Gillespie played there once.
Here’s a man who just ...
Encourage and Community
Posted 15 days ago
Around the holidays every year, I try to listen to what God is whispering to my soul about the upcoming year. Some years I pay more attention to it than others. Some years I let the words make more of a difference in my life.
We have been back in the US for a year and a half now, after living in Spain for 12 years. Although it has often been a difficult transition, we are confident and peaceful that we made the right decision. Our kids are happy and thriving in every way, and that is a true blessing. They are doing really well in school and have made some great friends.
Community has been quite a bit harder to come by for Troy and I. In our life together we have experienced deep and real community, and once you have tasted that, it's really difficult to not have it. But it's a challenge, because when you move into a new place, people already have their lives pretty well full. They have routines, schedules and commitments, which are all good things. Basically their lives are working pretty well for them.
Since we moved here to Chicago, I have joked that we need to create a "friendship resume" so that people can see what we have to offer. It's a silly thing, but it got me thinking on a deeper level. Community is a two-way street, and Jesus has been speaking to me about encouraging others, and about building community ...
the storm yesterday
Posted 16 days ago
The cars on the old city street move more slowly and run more quietly tonight. The rubber on their tires do not hit the pavement as snow fills the traction. One after the other they try to cut a track in the storm but make little headway.
Here on the sidewalk the dog romps through the fresh powder in the parkway. The traffic is so quiet, silenced by the snow, I can hear the dog’s sniffing for clues of friends fresh-past. The lights of the street lamps reveal no let-up to the storm any time soon. It has been snowing since morning and looks to continue till night’s turning.
Prints of boots and shoes leave a path; I add my own mark to it, at times shuffling, at times stomping. I am alone on this path now but not without predecessors.
Then, I see another soul. One lone woman shovels a path with her dog tethered to a leash. An exercise in futility. The point where she started is already covered in another inch but she continues to labor with her pet tugging at the handle all the same.
The metal gate makes no sound as it opens. The white snow tries to bury its blackness but finds sticking difficult. Still, clumps of snow pile on its edges. It does not want to close, stopped by the pile on the ground next to it. I grant its wish and leave the gate open.
The back courtyard is a miniature Yukon. The snow sparkles. God is ...
late resolutions
Posted 17 days ago
I am late in coming to resolve this year
to callous these cutless hands—
let me dig the deepest grave for these kicking fears,
I will bury dead despair alive.
I am late, but never mind,
there is yet time—
for there is now to resolve,
now to revolve
as the earth on its axis
awakens the capacity for new praxis.
See! There she stands, Lady Now.
She is that first smiling look that seized these weary eyes.
Her breath, sweet as a beaten child’s prayer;
her skin, thin as high mountain air
under which lies God’s womb
and just above—
closer than dreams in sleep—
the heavens and déjà vu.
I have but to reach.
Listen, heart, to the yearning cry in your throat
like a yearling clinging to his mother.
Reach, hands, for the star’s bosom.
Reach.
Now.
These late resolutions are eternally just in time.
late resolutions
a poem by troy cady 
