To My Niece

Eighteen years ago next month I was baptized in a tiny country church. The same church where my brothers were baptized. The same church where my parents were baptized. (Well, technically my dad was baptized in a creek by the same name as the church, so close enough.) The walls of that country church have probably borne witness to several generations of my family getting baptized, even beyond my brothers and my parents.

 
And now I’m watching my oldest niece, Grace, make that same decision to get baptized. Different church, different city, same end result: our public declaration of our “yes” to Jesus.

A lot has happened in the 18 years since I took that plunge. I started out those 18 years convinced that following Jesus was going to be nothing but mountaintop experiences. That expectation got me into a lot of trouble and I’ve had to learn some lessons the hard way. Don’t get me wrong – the life spent following Christ is full of mountaintops. But my faith was dependent on those “spiritual highs", which left me disillusioned and angry more often than not.

But I have also encountered a God I am convinced is real. A God who is bigger than I ever dared imagine, a God who is scandalously gracious and long-suffering, especially with this girl who has got a seriously thick head.

So, my dearest Grace, I’m sad I can’t be there to witness your baptism in the next couple of weeks. In lieu of being there physically, can I share with you here what I want for you in your next 18 years (and beyond) based on some of my own lessons learned along the way?

I want you to want Jesus more than you want the approval and love of young men, more than the desire to fit in among your peers, more than the desire to get good grades, more than the desire to somehow measure up to the girls around who you think are more beautiful than you. Because when you want Jesus more than you want any of those things, you’ll soon find that all of those things don’t really matter anyway.

I want you to run as hard and as fast as you can to him, and just when you think you’ve reached him, I want you to run even harder and lean in even closer.

I want you to fall in love with his Word, to need it like you need air. Let the pages of Scriptures be the lifeline you need when you feel like you’re sinking, the balm you need when you feel like your wounds are too deep to ever heal again, the oxygen you need when you feel like your lungs are gasping for air. 

I want you love others lavishly and fully, neither putting them on a pedestal where they don’t belong nor condemning them for their brokenness. I have done both and I have paid a price for both. Don’t be like me and be stingy with your grace and mercy. 

I want you to explore the world around you, to travel at every opportunity that comes your way. (I realize your parents may not appreciate this piece of advice so much, especially if that means you’re frequently on the other side of the world.) Run headlong into the hurts of this world, and allow yourself to ache just a little in light of those hurts. Those hurts will keep you grounded in reality. When you encounter people and cultures and places that are altogether different from you, you will find your heart a bit fuller and your eyes opened a bit wider.

I want you to seek sexual purity and fight for it with everything you’ve got. This world is jacked up, and it has got some views on sexual and emotional purity that just leave me slack-jawed. Don’t buy what the world is selling when it comes to promiscuity. I promise you, I promise you, I promise you – God’s ways are always better than the world’s ways when it comes to dating, relationships and marriage. And if some boy comes along and tries to tell you it’s any different, feel free to leave his sorry rear in the dust and you run for your dear life. You are worth more.

I want you to hold loosely to your perception of who you think God is. Because you’ll find out that he’s nothing like what you think. He said in Isaiah 55, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” He’s not love like you think of love, and he’s not kind like you think of kind, and he’s not just like you think of just. There will be days when you will want to shake your fist at him, curse him for allowing certain things to occur in your life. He will do things that make absolutely no sense at the time, and you’ll wonder if he’s really still on the throne. But fight so very hard and resist the urge to become bitter and resentful. Let your view of him get bigger with each passing year, not smaller. May your faith be based on who he is, not what he does. Who is he is unchanging, but he may choose in his sovereignty to allow certain things to come about that he may not have allowed in the lives of others. Trust his heart.

But do you know what I want for you more than anything? 

I want you to want Jesus more than anything. 

I want him to be your one magnificent obsession.

It won’t come easy, and it won’t come without pain. Following Jesus is never easy and it’s never convenient. Just because we make a decision to follow him doesn’t mean that life suddenly becomes full of sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. I have found that following Jesus is less about the mountaintops and a little bit more about the valleys. Because it’s in the valleys you find exactly how much grit and determination you have, and just how far you really are willing to follow him. If I could grant you a spiritual inheritance, I would want to hand you a very large helping of tenacity, because it will be tenacity that keeps you holding on to him, even in the moments when you’re convinced you want to let go.

I’ll leave you with this, a quote I have taped to my kitchen cabinet, a daily reminder that Jesus is all I’ll ever need. And he’s all you’ll ever need. Love you and so proud of you.

“You were created in the image of the Almighty God and you have a very brief window of time on Planet Earth, a very short opportunity, and in that window you have a chance to use your life to bring glory to God and to fall in love with Jesus. And here’s the deal: if you get what you want when you want it, most often neither one of those things is going to happen. But in the waiting, that’s where God gets the glory and in the waiting we learn that Jesus is really all we have and all we need.” - Louie Giglio

I Can Now Sleep at Night

It took five years, but my friend Ben finally got my memo.  

Our daily countdown, including Lyrics of the Week

I first saw Ben Rector in concert in May 2011. I hadn't heard of the guy prior to that, and then my friend Jill and I went to see Matt Wertz in concert in Nashville. Ben was opening up for Matt, and I left that show as Ben's newest fan. Just a stellar singer and songwriter.

We saw Ben a second time back in 2013 at a show down in Cincinnati.  Best concert I have ever been to.  I was sicker than a dog, but he was worth overcoming the slight delirium I was experiencing at the time.  He had just released his Walking in Between album, which was chocked full of excellent tunes, one of which is the song "Sailboat".  Probably one of my all-time favorite songs of his. (And his sidekick, Cody Fry, is amazing in his own right.)

And then.

And then the stars aligned, God heard our prayers, and Ben decided to come to Columbus this past week to kick off his "The Biggest Tour I Have Done So Far Tour".

Bless you, Ben.

Jill and I pounced on the tickets as soon as we could.

And then we decided to mark the occasion by counting down to the concert.  We started a couple of months ago, and every day, we updated the days, watching the calendar tick closer and closer to the big day.

And then he announced his VIP package deal.  We didn't take long to think about that one before we bought the upgrade.  I mean, who can turn down a VIP package that includes chocolate chip cookies? We got early admission to the show, a private pre-show acoustic performance, photo with Ben, signed tour poster, and a snazzy VIP lanyard.

And then he had a Q&A.

This was my chance.

For years now I've been listening Ben play his song "The Beat."  Great song.

The man of the hour, Ben Rector

But the opening lines drive me bonkers because they make no sense. 

"Stand there lady / won't you just stand still / she's got a white Mercedes / and I know she will / And then the beat comes"

BEN.  I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS.

You know she will what?  And what does a white Mercedes have to do with anything?

I now had the chance to ask him what the heck he was thinking when he wrote those lines.

There was a small group of VIPs, maybe 60 or so people, so when he said the floor was open for questions, my hand shot up in the air.  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  Ben,  I love your song "The Beat."  But the opening lines make zero sense.  Please explain.

Ben: There's not much to explain.  I wrote that song as a junior in college, so my writing skills kinda sucked.  It doesn't really mean anything.  So, don't read into it or look for some deeper meaning.

Me: I can now sleep at night.  Thank you.
 
The night could have stopped there and I would have been satisfied.  And, of course, he played "Sailboat" during the pre-show, which also made things all that more amazing.

It was standing room only for the show, but we made it to the second row. Ben then put on one heck of a show.  My cup runneth over.

But Ben, do you think maybe you could come to Columbus a little more frequently?  I don't like this thing of only seeing you once every 2-3 years.  

Me and Jill with Ben during the pre-show meet and greet

The Mystery of the Utility Pole "Sweaters"

I kind of love my city.

I think I spent years trying to stay away from it, terrified of coming home and somehow winding up stuck. But after years of trekking around the country and the globe, I have become more and more partial to my town with each passing year.  Sometimes it works that the more you travel, the less appealing your hometown feels.  It can start to feel small and suffocating.  Or the reverse can be true, which is what happened in my case.  The more I traveled and the more I saw the world, the more I came to appreciate what was right in front me.  Years ago I was so resistant to come home to this place, but now I'm usually eager to get back.  My city isn't a giant city like Atlanta, LA or New York, all of which I don't mind visiting, but I have zero interest in ever living in such places.  Too many people, too many cars, too much traffic, and just generally too much.   My town is a nice mid-sized city, with plenty to do, but not so big you feel overwhelmed by it all.  You can reach the opposite side of the city within 25-30 minutes with minimal effort, and not want to commit an act of road rage in the process (generally speaking).  

And I love my neighborhood.  It's quiet, but still conveniently located to everything I need - library, work, grocery store, church, family, etc.  It's just a bus ride away from the downtown area, but maybe only a 30 minute drive to the wide open spaces of the country.  

But like every city, it has its quirks and its touch of character.

Take for instance these utility poles.


You're probably thinking, Why the heck are there bands of yarn wrapped around these things?

Good question.

I wondered the same thing.

I walk by them every time I go to the gym.  I noticed earlier this summer there was a string of 3-4 utility poles slowly being wrapped up in these "sweaters" of sorts.  The adjacent chain link fence was also acquiring little knitted flowers and potholders.  With each passing week, there would be more and more accessories added to the poles and fence.

I found it so perplexing, and for the life of me, I could not figure out why anyone would ever crochet these things just to wrap them around a utility pole.

I inquired with co-workers and friends, Any ideas why someone is stitching all this yarn for the utility poles?  The theories abounded.  It's an alien yarn cartel one co-worker said.  I myself wondered if it was some sort of secret code?  Some sort of sign to neighboring crocheting gangs - Back off! This is our turf!  We'll knit you into a knot if you get close!  Was it a signal for some sort of top secret ops?  I mean, I really had no idea why someone would go to these lengths to create this stuff and then just wrap it around a random post.

So I decided to leave a note for this mythical knitter.

To the person who is knitting "sweaters" for the utility poles,

I walk by here often and noticed the growing collection of colorful items making their way around the poles and chain link fences.  Just out of curiosity  - why? 

Sincerely, 
Puzzled observer

I slipped my note into a Ziploc bag so it wouldn't get wet should it rain, tacked it to a utility pole a couple of weeks ago and awaited an answer.

No response.

Few more days.

No response.

And then!  

To my surprise, a note in return!  I nearly started jumping up and down right there on the sidewalk, abnormally and oddly giddy that this little exchange of letters between strangers was occurring.  

Puzzled observer,

Loved your question! There isn't just one answer to explain the motivation behind the yarn bombing.  That's what it's called - it's a real thing! So I'll run down the list:

• I'm for all for anything that causes a driver to lift their foot from the pedal - even if slightly - to take pause and slow down.  Especially here where the curbs are non-existent.  
• I always felt this stretch of sidewalk with the chain link fence could use a little fun.
• My grandmother grew up and was a 1920s flapper in this same neighborhood I now call home.  She taught me how to knit and crochet as a small girl. I like to think a little of her is in every stitch.  
• I like to knit and crochet, but I'm not skilled enough to make sweaters.  These are easier!  
• It keeps me out of the bars.  
• It makes me happy to think someone smiles because they like it or think it's silly.

Enjoy your walks!

Sincerely,

Knitting and crocheting 

Mystery solved!  I haven't decided if I'll write another note in return - not sure what I would say other than Thanks for adding a curious little mystery to my life!  

Who knew yarn-bombing was such a thing.  Makes my city that much more entertaining.  And we all need a little mystery in our lives now and then.