Utter Silliness

Last weekend some friends came over and we watched "Grosse Point Blank." I started thinking how fabulous it would be if John Cusack were to become a Jesus-follower, not just so that he would be fulfilled and at peace but so that we would be spiritually compatible when we got together. I googled him today and read an interview by a female reporter who was ga-ga over him. I then realized -- after four days, mind you! -- that I was not the only woman to find him intriguing.

I did the same thing with the lottery in December 2003. In the summer of 2004 I was to start a three-year scholarship payback, practicing family medicine with the underserved. I loved working with the underserved, but was not so wild about family medicine with the attendant paperwork, running late between patients, multiple insurance carriers, etc. I realized that if I won the lottery, I would then be able to pay off the federal government and do whatever I wanted. I could do missions work without having to raise support, provide osteopathic manipulative treatments to homeless people in various inner cities, all while having my very own indoor lap pool and personal chef. I actually bought a ticket for the lottery and believed that I would win, simply because the idea had occurred to me.

I suppose there are several morals to this tale, but I'm not up for waxing philosophical right now -- I'm off to rent "Say Anything."

I got the above photo from http://search.creativecommons.org/ It is by someone named Erica and is entitled: John Cusack's Disembodied Head Stops to Smell the Hydrangeas.

Heavens and Earth

Today, as usual, I had 30,000 things to do when I got home from work to get ready for my next "career" in Argentina. I have been telling people that I want to learn (again) how to live in the moment and enjoy this process, but I've not been doing so well. I love to brag about how many things I have to do, hoping that people will feel sorry for me and also think I'm a hard worker. Well, two things have happened. One, people have been offering to help me, which means that I need to start taking them up on their offers. Two, I was taking a walk today (trying to trust God that the 20 minutes away from "doing" wouldn't lead to a catastrophe), and I saw the beautiful sky. As I started praising God for being the creator of the heavens and earth, I realized in a new way how utterly ridiculous it is for me to worry about my to-do lists and piles. I mean, the creator of the heavens and the earth is in charge of my life and is guiding and directing this process. It was that same all-powerful being's idea in the first place for me to go to Argentina, after all.

I started thinking about the way that God has brought all of this about in my life: a desire to be a physician as a child, then coming to peace in God, learning to love and serve God and other people, working with emotional and spiritual healing, learning about development through programs at a homeless shelter, a call to medical school, contacts with missionaries , work with immigrants to keep my desire for international work alive. And now an opportunity to work in a holistic ministry, helping people become whole physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially and vocationally. Wow. And I focus on my to-do list?

P.S. The picture above was taken by my friend Mike. It's one of the many gorgeous photos he took of the sunset while we were deployed on a humanitarian mission in the Philippines last June.

Promises are Yes

This first post will be titled the same as the blog, for in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians he proclaims that, "all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus]." For me today that means that after 14+ years of waiting I am moving overseas full-time to work in holistic health care and community development. Yes!