Come People of the Risen King

This song has been stuck in my head all day. We sang it at church a couple of weeks ago, and then again today. Let me be the first to say we have one mad saxophonist in our congregation! Though a wee bit of me wishes it had been a melodica...

Money, moo-lah, dough, dinero, cash, greenbacks

I haven't written in a while, and now I have a bunch of things to post. So, one at a time! The following is a weekly letter from Rev. John Yates, pastor of my church (The Falls Church).

How can I learn to think like Jesus about my money?

I will see all I have and all I get as ultimately belonging to God. I see myself as responsible to use my money only as God would have me do. Before any purchase or expenditure I will ask, “Is this something that is pleasing to God?”

I will cultivate the habit of giving. I will organize my life and my finances so that I am giving to the church and to others in need, regularly and consistently and generously. I will aim to give away a tithe (10%) of all I get, and pray to give more.

I will think carefully and clearly about these things and make prayerful commitments that push me to give regularly, generously, proportionately, and sacrificially.

If my heart isn’t cheerful in this giving, if there is any begrudging in my spirit, I will ask God to show me the idolatry that is present in my life so that I can repent.

Wilderness Survival, Leather Working, or Coin Collecting?

My Sunday school class always makes me laugh. Favorite quote from this week? "Remember last week when you weren't here we talked about..." "Um no." However aside from being funny, it also never fails to challenge me.

We are currently plodding (this week we zoomed at warp speed through 3 verses) through James. In discussing faith vs. works, the passage compares faith with no works and faith only by works. Faith with no works and works alone are both lacking. They both have the same end result.

I generally put myself in the "faith with no works" category. I have PLENTY of head knowledge and can spew out more theology than many. However when confronted with works, I find myself not doing as much as I could. What I do do is not always driven by faith.

In the same way those actions and habits can make me feel good about myself. I start thinking about what I can do and how it makes me look rather than pointing to Christ. I start earning merit badges to become a legal scout.

James was written to Jews coming from a Pharisaical tradition. In an effort to separate themselves from their old life of checklists, they went to the other extreme and simply had faith alone.

Neither position is ideal, so where does the balance lie between the two?

Aren't big sisters great?

Help me!!!

Drew, 4 mos. Kate, 16 mos.

I know I love words and grammar more than the average American. In fact, I wish I had thought to write this book, http://greattypohunt.com/. However, bestseller or not, I despise the presence of unwelcome typos in my own life.

In the last two weeks I have received THREE pieces of mail from my health insurance with the wrong house number. Each time my neighbor graciously circles the number and puts a big question mark next to it before shuffling it back through the mail.

Thus far I have tried to change the typo online. Twice. No go. So today I finally called HR. (I always think of these things at 11 at night when there are no humans to be found.) I explained the situation. Got transferred to another department. Sat on hold. Got transferred again. Finally, got a real person in the correct department. The lady on the other end is "new at this and I'm not really sure what to do" as the person she is filling in for is "fixin' to have a baby." Fixin'? Seriously? One can be fixing to do a lot of things, but a baby is not usually one of them. So she bummed around on the system for a while before declaring she didn't know how to fix it. Then she suggests I call the insurance people directly.

So I called United Healthcare. Sat on hold waiting for a real person. Gotta love that electronic voice system and 80's power ballads. Went through my ID number, full name, birthday, SSN, mother's maiden name, favorite ice cream, blood type, and color of my toenail polish. Explained the problem. "Oh. We can't edit your address. That has to come from your employer for security issues. [pause] [half-hearted] Sorry."

Cool. Neighbor at 4717, please don't hate me. I'm trying, really. I promise...