The Art of Waiting

I had a lovely breakfast date with a friend this morning, and as my mind lingered over our shared words about times of transition and being 20-somethings, I started to think about waiting.

Everyone I know is waiting for something.

Waiting to meet the right person.

Waiting to get engaged.

Waiting to have a baby.

Waiting to adopt a baby.

Waiting for a promotion, a raise, or the right job to begin with.

Waiting for clarity, direction, purpose, or fulfillment.

Our 20s, especially, are chock full of waiting and transition. But I also think there's something about waiting that is common to man.

A couple of months ago, as I was preparing to teach at our Sunday night service, I met with my friend and "coach" Mike for a pre-service pep talk. (You know, the kind of coach's talk that makes you more nervous, in the best way possible.) As we chatted about the passage at hand--Exodus 32 on the Golden Calf--Mike made a suggestion: Maybe the word for our people is about waiting. "It was while they were waiting for Moses to come back down the mountain that the people sinned," Mike pointed out.

Yes. 

It was a powerful word. Not the one God had given me to share that night, but a word from my pastor and friend, and one that was not only for me, I think. I've been chewing on it ever since.

Moses had hardly been gone a month when the people went the way of their pagan neighbors and erected the golden calf. Just like the Israelites, it is in these moments of waiting when we can become fretful and disheartened. In our impatience we go our own way, devise our own schemes, make idols for ourselves. We forget God's goodness and His words to us. We neglect the covenant. We compromise.

But there is one who perfectly trusted in the Father's timing.

In our John Manuscript study tonight, we dissected Chapter Seven, in which Jesus observes the Festival of Booths. One of the remarkable things that rose to the top of our rather clumsy interpretation was Jesus' repeated words about his time having "not yet come" (John 7:6, 8). Just as God sent His Son at just-the-right, appointed time, so would He send him to the cross at the exact moment He ordained. Jesus knew this, so there was no need for him to rush into things. The Father who sent him from heaven would cause His plans to unfold in perfect timing.

Interestingly, the Festival of Booths, or Sukkot, looks back to a season of waiting. The Israelites were nomads, wandering the desert, looking for the Promised Land. I don't think it's any coincidence that in this passage with so much to say about God's perfect timing, Jesus observes this feast of waiting outside in tents.

How much more joyful our experience of life would be if we learned the art of waiting! If we settled into uncertainty, refusing to compromise in the in-between times. If we asked God to still our hearts and willingly walked with Him into the unknown.

After all, the Apostle Peter reminds us that our waiting is not just for a new job or a baby. Ultimately, we are waiting for the return of our King:

But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace (2 Peter 3:13-14).

Your waiting will not end a moment later than God intends. He has designed it to bring you closer to Him, and also to bless you with a thousand graces that remain yet unseen. Will you trust Him?

How Christmas Myth Prepares Us for Advent Truth

We're already more than a week into Advent and I've barely begun the daily Scriptures, much less posted them for friends to download. {they're included at the bottom of this post!} I have to confess that I'm a little sad my Christmas decorations are all neatly packed away in storage. I think their absence this year has made me feel less Christmasy, so I've finally decided that I must get at least a tabletop tree to adorn "the Shire" (my room at the Dorsch Casa, affectionately named because it has a short, hobbit-hole door that opens into a large, high-ceilinged space with lots of glorious light--it reminds us all of a hobbit hole!).

Tonight I'm shamelessly re-blogging a post I wrote for my Church since the Reformation class in response to a forum question about whether or not Christians should observe the secular traditions associated with Christmas.  I hope it inspires you to read not only the Advent Scriptures this month, but also some fancy that will help you to believe in the seemingly too-wonderful story of God in the manger.

My family has always celebrated Christmas with a lot of intensity and sparkle. In an almost Narnian way, the fanciful traditions of Santa Claus were mingled with the nativity, which I understood from an early age to be the true meaning of Christmas. While I have heard many of my gospel-minded friends express concern about confusing their kids with notions of the jolly old elf sliding down their chimney, these two aspects of my family's Christmases never seemed to me to conflict.

I remember one special Christmas Eve when Santa Claus made a visit to my grandparents' living room.  I was about five and desperately enthralled with the magic of it all, although my older cousins recognized the man in the red suit as a man from their church. Being the youngest, I anxiously awaited my turn as Santa addressed the cousins one by one, giving us each a gift and whispering a secret in our ears. Finally, Santa presented me with my gift, and then, pulling me close whispered, "You know that Jesus is the real reason for Christmas."  In a strange way, it was one if the holiest moments of my life, when I sensed that all I had heard about Jesus was true.  Thus began an even deeper faith in Santa {{he was a Christian! Somehow I had sensed it all along!}} and in the Jesus we both shared.  Believing in Santa helped me to believe in Jesus. And when I stopped believing in Santa, I kept right on believing in his God.

I recently read a Wall Street Journal article from 2008 in which a Christian father explains why he encourages his kids to believe in Santa. He writes: "This sheds light on a seeming paradox in St. Paul's letter to Roman Christians: "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. . . ." How does one see "invisible attributes"? Only people raised on fairy tales can make sense of that. It belongs in a terrain where magic glasses can illumine what was heretofore hidden, where rabbit holes open into wonderlands."  

I dearly love this idea that myth prepares our hearts for Truth, and never sense it so profoundly as at Christmastime.

I must say that I am disturbed by moralistic interpretations of Santa Claus, such as the Elf on the Shelf tradition (although the lighted-hearted Facebook pictures of his mischievous escapades are hilarious) that conflict with a gospel of grace. But that was not the Santa I knew growing up--thanks, I suppose, to the fact that my parents didn't rely on his pending visit as a way to make me behave.  I agree with others who have commented that we need to resist the secularization of Christmas, including the accompanying, all-too-prevalent materialism. However I think there is a way to hold the mystery of the Incarnation in tension with the fairy tails--and traditions--that help us to believe it.   

 As Sally Lloyd-Jones retells the meeting of Mary and the angel Gabriel in her beloved Jesus Storybook Bible, "So Mary trusted God more than what her eyes could see. And she believed." 

Advent Scriptures 2013: Daily Readings to Anticipate Christmas

standing on his shoulders

One summer night at Greenwoods a former youth intern, now a good friend, envisioned leadership for me using John Maxwell's image of a leader allowing others to stand on her shoulders.  A leader, my friend shared, is someone who recognizes the gifts and abilities of others and empowers those people to go further than he could.

{{I'm not much for books about leadership--save the one course I took in Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies--so I love when other people read this stuff and give me the CliffsNotes recap.}}

As I thought about how desperately I want to be that kind of leader, I recalled hearing Sandra McCracken relate the heart-wrenching story on which her chilling song "Age After Age" is based.  It was the night of the Live Under Lights and Wires release party in Nashville, a magical night at a hip East Nashville venue where Sandra and Derek played the songs and shared the stories of her then-current album.  I wept right there at the party when she told the tale of two young brothers who were swept up in quicksand in the Mississippi River.  When they pulled the younger one out of the sand alive, they found that he was standing on the shoulders of his older brother.

On the edge of the river, the mighty Mississippi
Two boys spent their summers on the banks of the levy
When the waters burst and broke the dam
they were swallowed in a wave of sand
they pulled the younger one out by the hand
from standing on his brother's shoulders.

One nation under God, young and proud she stumbled
With a trail of tears left by those who were outnumbered
She said, "This land is your land, this land is mine, unless you are an Indian"
But a higher ground we have tried to find"
standing on their shoulders.

Age after age
of heroes and soldiers
it gives me sight and makes me brave,
standing on their shoulders

  One man in the shadow of the white-washed cathedrals
He tried to pull the system through the eye of the needle
To his conscience bound he would not recant for the freedom of the Saints
And truth is truth is truth
and we are standing on his shoulders

To the ones left behind who are picking up the pieces
of planes, bombs, and buildings of innocence and evil
'Cause when the news and noise and flowers die,
and you still wake up alone
There is a God who knows every tear you cry
and this world is on his shoulders

In the last year and a half as my role at Walnut Hill has evolved, I have reflected on this image often.  I am not naturally good at delegation.  I struggle to prioritize.  Like generations of Kingstons before me, I hold tightly to my responsibilities, thinking it's easier to do them myself than to give them away.  I have been begging God to help me let go, to delegate, to empower those around me.

I am a young church leader with a lot to learn.  But there is one thing I know, and it's that the church will not grow until we shepherds of the flock follow Jesus into this work of empowering others.  We are after all, standing on his shoulders.

...And the government will be upon his shoulders {Isaiah 9:6}

 ...And the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him {Isaiah 53:5}

My Last Night on Greenwood Ave

It's hard to believe the time has come to leave this sweet little nest that has been my home for nearly four years!  How I've loved decorating and entertaining and trying new recipes and writing and resting and ministering here.

I'm remembering my first official night in my first grown-up home.  I had only lived in Connecticut for six weeks, but a houseful of single girls gathered to raise a glass of wine and some prayers as we sat in a circle in my bare living room.  {Many of those women have moved away since, but still remain my close friends.}   We christened this little home, asking God to bless and use it.

When I think of all the late nights with good friends, the college girls' dinners, and the high school Bible studies that have happened here since, I'm blown away.  What a good gift.

I'm sooo excited to move in with my friends the Dorsches for a fun summer with their three girls!   But as I was flying home from Seattle a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly felt a sense of fretfulness and panic about leaving this place that I have loved so much.  I opened my Bible and started reading some Psalms, when my eyes settled on Psalm 23:6:

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

The house of the LORD.  Bethel!  (To be specific, it's not the exact Hebrew word used here...but it's hard to miss the similarity.) When I first set foot in Connecticut to interview for my job at Walnut Hill, I knew that I wanted to live in this quaint New England town because of its Hebrew name.

But my truest, most perfect Home is not here on Greenwood Avenue; it is hidden in Christ--Beth'el,  the house of God.  My home here is just a shadow, and the town of Bethel a reminder that goodness and love will follow me no matter where I go. 

Just a few minutes later, on that same Seattle flight, I read this in a book for my pastoral counseling class:

In wilderness, there can be no illusion of a permanent home...When we see through God's eyes, we will not pretend that the tent we live in today can approximate the mansion in which we are destined to live.

Michael Mangis, from Care for the Soul 

Once again, it seems, God is asking me to follow the Cloud of His presence, to pick up and move without knowing what is to come next.  It's kind of scary to pack up all your belongings and put them in storage, not knowing where your next home will be.  But this is life as we trust in God's timing and plan.  Wherever the Cloud settled, the Israelites encamped (Numbers 9:17). 

What Advent Means

In my family, a greater-than-average love for Christmas is mandatory.  Cue my baby sister, who once said, pertaining to a boy she was seeing and why she liked him, "well, he really loves Christmas!"  It's true--we Kingston (Russell) women are nuts about the holiday.

My preparations for Advent have been frenzied.  But I am determined that Advent itself, the discipline of preparing oneself for Jesus to come, should be just the opposite.

My mom reminded me this weekend while I was home for Thanksgiving that as a little girl, I badgered her for months about the coming of Christmas, counting down the days many months in advance.  Once December rolled around, I couldn't sleep at night for the excitement!  That is just the spirit that Advent recaptures each year for me.  I may not be that enthusiastic seven-year-old anymore, but sitting in my cozy Connecticut apartment with the tree lit and my Bible open, I feel as though she and I have been reacquainted.  Only now it's not Malibu Barbie or American Girl Dolls that get me excited.  It's that this Jesus whom I love has come...and He will come again!

Christmas on Greenwood Ave.

Tonight, on the first night of Advent, the Scriptures speak of Jesus' second coming as much as his first.  2 Peter 3:1-10 reminds us that He is "not slow in keeping His promises," but He is waiting for just the right time to return for His bride.  And in Matthew 25, we're reminded to be prepared for that any-day-now arrival.  This is the hope of Advent: That Jesus would come through a birth canal (as Alistair Begg has pointed out in an essay "Wrapped in Humility"), and what's more that He promises to return for us, fully, finally, once and for all.

For those of us who love Jesus, this hope also means that we will live differently.  I'm increasingly challenged by that thought recently, especially as it pertains to my materialism.  {Ouch...this being vulnerable stuff is painful at times.}

I was really excited to see that my favorite non-profit/parachurch ministry/human rights organization is to be the recipient of this year's Advent Conspiracy campaign.  Advent Conspiracy is an organization that challenges Christians to remember what Christmas really means by giving more and spending less.  Check out the  video and support the work of IJM here!

If you want to follow along with the Scripture reading plan I use each year (it's adjusted from the Book of Common Prayer), you can find it below.  

Much love to you this Advent!
chelsea

It will be said on that Day "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him."

Isaiah 25:9

Advent Readings 2011

Summer Trips in Review

I figured it was about time I shared a little recap of our Walnut Hill Youth Ministries 2011 Summer Trips!  Coordinating the five trips is a labor of love for me, as the minute details consume a huge portion of my time at work from Christmas until the start of the new school year.

Summer Trips are also one of my FAVORITE things we do here at WHY Ministries.  It's so exciting to see students' hearts enlivened to what God is doing through His Church around the world!

This year, our team and more than 80 students served 


locally in downtown Danbury, CT for our middle school trip to the Jericho Partnership

regionally in Portland, ME for our entry-level high school trip serving with African and Asian refugees through a ministry called the Root Cellar

and at the Joni and Friends Family Camp in New Hampshire for our high school trip serving kids with special needs and their families

internationally in Nassau, Bahamas, where our older high school students served with Haitian refugees at Carmichael Evangelical Church and with hospice residents at a local AIDS camp.

We also offered a leadership expedition in New York's Adirondack Mountains through the La Vida Center for Outdoor Education at Gordon College.

Here's a video our staff audio-visual guru, Pete, made to showcase how God worked through the trips!

p.s. The song in the background is a favorite of this year's Nassau team--"Give Me Faith" by Elevation Worship.  Check it out!

Hunkering Down for Irene

It seems crazy to be bracing for a hurricane in Western Connecticut, but that's exactly what I'm doing here in Bethel. The experts are saying that even though Irene is only a Category 1 storm, she's about 300 miles wide and could really wreck havoc on parts of New York and New England. They've even evacuated parts of New York City, which is just 70 miles west of where I live.

Something about this experience is conjuring up memories of my sophomore year in college, when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Even though we were states away, things were tense at the University of Richmond. My good friend Megan's dad was missing for days on end after he went back in to New Orleans to search for friends, and we received several displaced Tulane students for the semester. I know that I'm in about as much danger now as I was that fall in Richmond (i.e. none), but there's still something about these experiences that makes me realize how powerful are the forces of God's creation.

I don't typically get worked up about the weather (other than to turn my nose up at the winter months, that is), but I have to admit, it's a little eerie here! The streets are crowded, and grocery stores, gas stations, CVS, Ace Hardware--everywhere in Bethel--are all overrun with people rushing out to get last minute essentials to weather the storm.

I brought everything in off my porches:



And I'm even bracing my windows here on Greenwood Ave. (does my renter's insurance cover hurricane damage?!):


There's something about the whole experience that is just a little spooky. I find myself humming the Laura Hackett song I've been kind of obsessed with this summer:

when I am afraid I will trust in You
when I'm overcome I will cling on to the Rock
that is higher, He's higher
the Rock that is higher
...oh for there is no peace of mind
outside of truth in Christ

I'm headed to our Saturday evening service, which is replacing all our weekend services because of Irene, to proclaim that truth in community on behalf of New England. Good stuff! Then I'm "evacuating" to my friends the Whites' house for camaraderie and most certainly some good food.

More updates later, provided power and internet hold out.

Hello From Nassau, Bahamas!

Our Walnut Hill Youth team of 17 students and four adult leaders arrived here safely on Sunday morning. I know it sounds like we're really suffering for the Kingdom here in the Bahamas, but I promise--this is NOT an easy trip! In fact, out of our five WHY Summer Trips, this is the one we reserve for the most mature students because of the conditions and the emotional content.

The team has been amazing. The students are meshing so well, serving the kids at Carmichael Evangelical Church with big-hearted enthusiasm, and grabbing hold of some deep spiritual truth in the process. I'm so proud of our students and so humbled to be their leader!

Here are some pictures and a video from the week so far!

Over the next couple of days, please pray for:

-the team as we process our time here. We've had some amazing time together as a team worshiping, talking about Scripture, and asking tough questions about God's justice in the world. Please pray that each student would be open to what God wants to show him or her this week, and that each one would walk in greater boldness with the Lord.

-the safe return of Pastor Joseph, who has been in Haiti this week. We were hoping to make it to church at Carmichael for the Wednesday evening service tonight, and can only go if the pastor returns this morning on schedule!

-our students as they have the opportunity to go to All Saints Camp and visit with residents living with AIDS. It's looking like everyone from our team will have a chance to go! But visiting with the residents is heavy--so pray that our students will be able to process this well.

-our last two days of VBS. Wednesday is typically the toughest day of this trip--will you pray that every team member would have an extra measure of energy and physical strength as kids tug on their hair and ride on their backs?

-our time as a team on Friday and Saturday. Please pray that it would be fruitful time spiritually and that we'd have fun together as a team!

-the church we're with whom we're serving. We value the partnership with a local church here in Nassau so much, and it was encouraging for me yesterday to speak with Madam Joseph at length about what God is doing here. Please pray that he would continue to raise up Haitian leaders and that He would give the church favor in meeting the needs of the community.

Grace and peace!

Chelsea

Let them give glory to the LORD and proclaim his praise in the islands.

Isaiah 42:12

The Ruth Chronicles

Oh, how I've loved spending some time in five Southern states (Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virgina) this past month!

I'm not sure I've ever been homesick a day in my life, at least not in the usual sense. But my travels made me as close to homesick as I've ever been. I just love Southern people and the Southern pace of things. I love the weather, the sweet tea, and the accents. There's something about being down south, that puts me at ease and makes me feel at home.

So you can imagine, as I traveled I found myself feeling a bit...well, conflicted! I love my life in Connecticut, and I continue to feel a sense of purpose and calling here. Mostly, I know that God is doing a work in me. But during my time in Richmond especially, I was feeling that old familiar pull. Richmond is just home to me in a foretaste-of-True-Home sort of way.

When I picked up my rental car at the airport in Richmond after a weekend away with my pledge sisters, Chris Tomlin's newish song came on the radio. The lyrics are borrowed from the Book of Ruth--"Where you go, I'll go; where you stay, I'll stay; when you move, I'll move. I will follow You. Whom you love, I'll love; how you serve, I'll serve. If this life I lose, I will follow You." I had been prepared to wrestle a bit with the "Why am I not in Richmond?" question during my day and a half there. And those Tomlin lyrics echo so poignantly my heart's desire to always be "where the Cloud settles." It was an interesting start to the visit.

Then, just before I returned to the airport the following evening, I made one final visit to my beautiful Alma mater. As I sat in one of my favorite spots, a little academic quad where the bulk of my English and journalism courses took place, I was expectant for God to speak to me, as He had done so many sweet times before on this campus.

As I sat in that lovely familiar spot, I was looking for God to speak a practical, human answer, as in "Stay in New England for the next five years," or "Move back to Richmond next month." Instead, He spoke to my heart in a much more profound way.

I opened my Bible to Ruth chapters 1 and 2, the One-Year Bible's Old Testament passage for the day. I immediately laughed, realizing that I was going to be reading the passage from the Chris Tomlin song that had been stuck in my head since the day before:

But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.

Then, I read on and these words jumped off the page at me:

Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

I can't totally explain it, but I just felt the Father's pleasure in those words. It's not informed Bible study or careful exegesis, but sometimes He just speaks through His Word like that. Call me a mystic if you like. I think it would be taking too much liberty if I tried to apply that to a specific course of action. But I don't know--somehow Boaz's words flooded my heart with peace there on that stone bench in the middle of the Jepson quad. For the first time since the start of winter, the questions about whether to go or stay ceased for a moment and I basked in God's pleasure.

It's funny, because my friend B paraphrased that same verse for me earlier this year when I was so OVER the snowy Connecticut winter. I love it when God repeats things in our lives--usually means He's up to something.

I know I'm rambling. But I guess my point is just to say, here I am. Living right here in Connecticut, where the Cloud has settled. It's tempting to try to map out all of life, to want the particulars about the whens and whos and wheres. But I think, once again, God is just calling me to rest under this Cloud--to settle in enough to enjoy His presence, but not to get so comfy that I can't pick up and move when it's time to set out again.

What a Savior!

Happy Palm Sunday!

I got to be part of something historic last night, as Walnut Hill led our second worship night in the Connecticut Valley, which is also the site of our third campus (launching November 2011). What I've loved about these nights of celebration and preparation is that we have been looking back to how God has worked in New England in the past, even as we seek to be His vessels in what He's up to now. In that spirit, the Walnut Hill worship and arts community has arranged ten hymns originating from New England, setting them to modern music. The hymn resurgence has come to Walnut Hill--needless to say, I am over the moon!

Last night, the team played "Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners," aptly timed for Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week. This hymn was only slightly familiar to me when I re-discovered it on Matthew Smith's (from Indelible Grace) EP several years ago. Love it!!

As I think about this hymn and humanity's (my own) need for a Savior, I'm reminded of the Jewish celebration of Simchat Torah, in which Jews celebrate God's giving them His Word. Messianic Jews understand this gift in a really beautiful way, linking it to the coming of Jesus, the Word who has come to dwell within us (i.e. to be written on our hearts as in Jeremiah 31:33). You can read more about this understanding here.

Even non-Messianic Jews say something interesting on Simchat Torah, though. As the Torah scrolls are danced through the aisles, Jewish worshipers cry out "Ana Adonai, hoshia na!" which means, "Oh Lord, save us!" The volative verb hoshia stems from the root yeshua (meaning "salvation."), the Jewish name for Jesus. Wow!

And this is obviously the same Hebrew word from which we derive the Greek Hosanna!

In effect, the people who welcomed Jesus on that first Palm Sunday were enacting a Simchat Torah celebration, declaring Jesus the very Word of God, the hope and salvation of all humanity.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

O LORD, save us...Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
Psalm 118:25-26

Resources for Praying Against Sex Trafficking

In just two days, the madness of our Wild Winter Weekend at Walnut Hill will begin! I'm feeling the heat, as I've been pushing for an in-house, Disciple Now-style retreat for over a year--if something goes wrong, I will feel sooo responsible! Not to mention the volume it takes to pull off an event of this magnitude on our own turf. It's like taking a typical retreat (where everything's taken care of by the venue) and multiplying it by 20. The good news is, we have 130 students signed up. ONE HUNDRED THIRTY!! That's a record in my time at WH. And we're saving our families $65 or more per student! Our youth team is pumped!

The other thing that's exciting about this weekend is the justice theme. We're bringing in Love146, a New Haven, CT-based ministry that raises awareness about child sex trafficking and slavery. (I tried for IJM, but they were only avaialble for one of the three days. sadface.) I'm so excited for our students to catch a vision for God's heart for justice! I'm sitting at Molten Java (a Bethel hot spot for coffee and all things granola) working on the small group curriculum now--another thing that has added to my workload the past couple of months, but such a JOY at the same time.

As we've been preparing for this weekend, I've had some freelance work come up that has been justice-themed. One article, a piece on prayer resources, just went live on the site a week or two ago. You can read it here.

Prayers appreciated for our team's sanity this weekend!! Trusting that God will reveal more of Himself and His gospel!

love,
Chelsea

The God Who Gives Examples

Aiden was completely defiant yesterday. I think these winter months are getting to him a little. One of the barn employees told me that he was pacing the pasture gate all morning...meaning he is seriously over the cold.

When I put him on a lunge line, he was perfect to the left. Walk, trot, canter, and a few bucks for good measure. But when I asked him to go to the right, he made a fuss, as he often does. It's his harder direction, and he tries to get out of it whenever possible. Thing is, once he gets going, it's also his best direction. Go figure. Anyway, usually I just stand my ground and he obeys. But not yesterday.

I wish I had a picture of him, neck braced, feet firmly planted. Would. not. move. And when I tried to get behind him (like you're supposed to do when you lunge a horse), he completely outsmarted me by moving to stay face to face with me. For a moment, I panicked, thinking I might not win this battle. Finally, I went to get his bridle. (Aiden's usually so good on the lunge line that I can just lunge him in a halter.) As I was changing tack, I gave him a little pep talk (read: gave myself a little pep talk) about how he was not going to win and how I am the boss. Once that bit was in his mouth, I actually was the boss again. He obeyed and gave me a good walk, trot, and canter, complete with an impromptu flying lead change, to the right.

Throughout our annoying little battle of wills, I kept thinking that somewhere there was some spiritual significance. Then when I woke up this morning, I read this in today's Psalm (I'm a couple of days behind this week, for those of you who are reading, too):

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.
Psalm 32:8-9

Isn't it cool to serve a God who puts things in terms we can understand? I mean, most of the time we might need to study Jewish culture and historical context a little to get at what God is saying...but still we find Him as the God who has always given relevant examples to His people.

This was one of those modern-day examples. Hate to admit it, but I'm soooo like my stubborn horse. Sometimes I have no understanding and yet I defiantly persist in my own ways.

Yesterday I found myself a bit bewildered by Mageester's disobedience. Doesn't he know I have a whole bag of apples I'm just waiting to spoil him with? Doesn't he know that he's just a horse? And that I have a whole, wide understanding of his life? Doesn't he know that I'm his momma, who just wants him to be healthy and happy?! God must ask similar questions when I'm being a brat.

So I'm taking some time today to realign my life and my will with the counsel of a God who's understanding surpasses my own. His wisdom and instruction are so infinite!

Thanks to AM for being a vessel in the sweet spiritual lesson!

Home Again

After my last post, I'm afraid some of you New Englanders think my hand's on the door. It's not--you're stuck with me for a while! In spite of my winter frustration with the climate and sometimes even the culture here, I really do LOVE the work God's given me to do, and I LOVE the sweet friends He's blessed me with. Thanks for the extra encouragement last week--it was needed!

After a few days in the sun soaking up Vitamin D, I'm feeling more like my sans-Seasonal Affects Disorder self. In a couple weeks I might be SAD Chelsea again, but I promise to try to choose a happy heart :)

I figure I might as well practice now--so here are a few of my favorite things about winter in New England:

I heart patterned tights! I always say, there are only two things I love about winter: Christmas and patterned tights. Polka dots, plaid, diamonds, you name it! I love black ones with a short skirt and ballet flats.

Cozy nights with good friends are the only way to make it through the winter months. Whether it's dinner out or vino in, it'll do the trick!
Snow days! I've had more of them (from work!) this year alone than I had in grades K-12 back in Illinois combined. Even though I've gone a little stir crazy this winter, it is sooo nice to be able to work from home in my PJs on cold, snowy days. Hey thanks, Walnut Hill, for not making me drive to work in hazardous conditions! Here are a couple of pictures of my house covered in snow and ice on.
And my number one favorite thing: AIDEN MAGEE!! Seriously, this guy is so fun. Even when it's 20 degrees outside. I love him to bits for giving me a reason to don my Cuddl Duds (yes, that's for real how you spell it) and snow boots. He's the best! As you can see from these photos, my aloof man gets extra pensive in the winter months. So cute!



So in this long wait for spring, I'm committing Hosea 6:3 to daily consideration:

Let us acknowledge the LORD,
Let us press on to know Him.
As surely as the sun rises, He will appear;
He will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth.

Even this dreaded winter rain and snow speaks of God's faithfulness--how about that!

Get Me Outta Here

My midwinter escape to see Grandma Cherry and Grandpa Corwin in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida came not a day too soon. One more day in the frozen tundra of Connecticut, and I might have lost my mind. Or my religion.

Of course, I didn’t get out of town today without a fight. More white stuff this morning. Fed up with the snow and ice, I cautiously tip-toed down my slippery front porch steps and avoiding the mounting pile of snow next to my car, flung my bags in the front seat. Noticing my well-used snow scrapper perched below the passenger seat, I positioned myself to grab for it while trying to keep from sticking my suede boots in a snow drift. It can not have been a pretty picture. I’m sure I looked decidedly ungraceful with my toes as close to the drift as possible, rear end angled outward for balance, and one hand on the side of the car to steady myself.

That’s when it happened.

First one cowgirl-boot-clad foot lost traction, and then the other started to slip. And before I could catch myself, I was face down in the snow, legs splayed in either direction, still clutching the exterior of the car. A not-so-fancy word followed.

Can you really blame a girl for letting a curse word slip in a moment like that?

I continued to yell—albeit no more expletives—as I completed the task of removing the snow from my car and myself. Hopefully my neighbors didn’t hear as I hollered at the heavens, “Get me outta here!!!”

I confess, I have grown weary of Connecticut. I’ve grown weary of doing good, even. It seems the Words of Affirmation tank is perpetually on empty and my patience with the culture has all but expired. I’m tired of feeling like the outsider. Tired of waiting for spring. Tired of getting flipped off and cursed out behind the wheel. Tired of spending myself on behalf of others only to struggle financially in one of the most expensive counties in the nation.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up,” (Galatians 6:9).

I have to guard my heart, lest I start to question the Lord’s wisdom in bringing me here. Spring will come again, after all. And God's Word promises there WILL be a harvest—at the proper time.

So for now I'm just waiting for spring where the Cloud has settled.

When Kids Hurt: Parenting Class for Moms at WHCC

One of the "assignments" I'm most excited about this semester at Walnut Hill is a parenting class our team is helping to teach for the morning women's ministry, AM/FM.

Maybe it seems a little presumptuous for a 25-year-old single girl with no kids to teach a class on parenting teenagers, but I've always felt that my family's story lent itself to interacting with students AND parents. So I'm super-excited that I get to teach the week on families! And since I'm the resident "party girl" on our staff youth team, I get to teach on teen partying one week, too.
The class facilitators collaborated with our crew to choose the book: When Kids Hurt: Help for Adults Navigating the Adolescent Maze. It's a paired-down version of an earlier, more textbookish title by Chap Clark that addresses the issue of teenage abandonment and how it affects every area of a student's life. The idea is that we adults who care about adolescents (parents, youth workers, teachers, etc.) need to boldly step into a teenager's world and reverse the systemic abandonment he or she feels. It's a tall order, but one our team wholeheartedly believes in.

I commend the book--and the class (if you're a mom here in CT)--to you. We've given a copy to each one of our Walnut Hill Youth (WHY) Ministries leaders to read in the coming months, so I'm excited to see how this line of thinking will impact our ministry!

Just One Resolution

I love the idea of New Years resolutions, but I hate my follow-through. There's something about determining that your life will change on January first that sort of sets you up for failure. As if the start of a new month in a new year in a new decade meant a magical solution to the fact that I eat ice cream and skip the gym and say ugly things about people. As if the new year will mean a whole new me.

And anyway, I made my New Years resolutions back in August this year. (I'm still almost-daily asking God for the grace to accomplish them, by the way!)

So there's just one thing I really want to resolve to do in 2011, and that's read the Bible all the way through in a year. It's been years since I did it, and I just want to be really intentional about being in the Word this year.

At certain times in my life, I've felt so...addicted to Scripture--during the summer I worked at Poplar Springs Baptist outside of Richmond, in particular. I had shared with my students that I felt like a different person when I wasn't in the Word. One morning at a youth event, I was a little out of sorts. One of my high schoolers, a really special kid named Buddy, asked me, "Chelsea, did you read your Bible this morning?" I confessed that I had not. "I didn't think so," he replied, shaking his head. "You'd better go read it."

Since moving to Connecticut, I've lost some momentum. (It happens in full-time ministry, I'm afraid. Sad, but true.) Anyway, I don't want Bible reading to be a legalistic thing, but something that I depend on to be who I am. During Advent, I always feel like that--like I just can't get by without the Word morning and night. It's the sweetest time, and I guess I'm inspired to build on that.

It's Day 11, and I'm happy to report that I'm on schedule. And what I love about disciplined Bible-reading is that it always yields such fruit in my life. Like on Day 2, when I uncovered a little nugget of truth in Genesis that fit oh-so-perfectly into a two-part Bible study I'm writing for myMISSIONfulfilled on forced labor in Exodus and Matthew. Or on Day 10, when I read something in Proverbs that jumped off the page and hollered "apply me!!!!" I'm always amazed at the connections in Scripture, and how the Word shapes us to be who we're becoming in Christ. It's a beautiful thing.

I encourage you to read along with me this year! It's only January 11, after all, and if you start today, it will only take you an hour or so to catch up! If you don't want to purchase the One Year Bible (because really, you have 16 Bibles at your house already, and couldn't you use the $10 to buy a Bible for someone else?) you can use the reading guide I found at bibleonline.com:

One Year Bible

One last thought: Even though I'm not naive enough to believe that I'll become a whole new person in 2011, I do believe that we Christians are being transformed and made new every day. My favorite Advent passage this year--and just one of my favorite Scriptures in general--was Revelation 21:1-5 (I had my dad read this aloud to us on Christmas Eve, and we wept, thinking about Grandma and Grandpa Russell who are now living in the fullness of this reality!):

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

To Him who is making EVERYTHING new!
Chelsea

A Puritan Prayer for 2011

Year's End
O Love beyond compare,
Thou art good when thou givest,
when thou takest away,
when the sun shines upon me,
when night gathers over me.

Thou hast loved me before the foundations of the world,
and in love didst redeem my soul;
Thou dost love me still,
in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.

Thy goodness has been with me during another year,
leading me through twisting wilderness,
in retreat helping me to advance,
when beaten back making sure headway.

Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead
I hoist sail and draw up anchor,
with thee as the blessed Pilot of my future as of my past.
I bless thee that thou has blinded my eyes to the waters ahead.

If thou has appointed storms of tribulation,
thou wilt be with me in them;
if I have to pass through the tempests of persecution and temptation,
I shall not drown;
if I am to die,
I shall see thy face sooner;
if a painful end is to be my lot,
grant me grace that my faith fail not;
if I am to be cast aside from the service I love,
I can make no stipulation.

Only glorify thyself in me whether in comfort or trial,
as a chosen vessel meet always for thy use.

from The Valley of Vision

Advent Card

Swirling Ornaments Christmas Card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I couldn't resist sending Christmas cards to a few faraway friends who I don't often get to see! If I see you all the time, I'm still praying that "the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him" (Romans 15:13).

Joy and peace to you!
chelsea

Advent Anticipation

Here in New England, I often tell people there there are only two things I love about winter: Christmas and patterned tights. I should include Advent as well.

After several mishaps with my Stew Leonard's Christmas tree--and a rather chaotic evening trying to put it up and get ready to go out with friends all at once--my house is finally decorated. This Advent season will be even more chaotic than most, between all the WHCC craziness plus two weddings, one of them in Indianapolis. So, I need to make the most of the time I have to enjoy cozy evenings by my tree.

One of the things I've loved most about "nesting" and making my own home here in Connecticut is forming my own traditions and little daily rhythms, which are the most pronounced at Advent. I know it sounds unlike me to crave solitude, but I so SO look forward to coming home on chilly December nights, grabbing my Bible and an Advent book, and curling up on my couch next to the tree. Amidst the madness of full-time ministry at Christmastime, that place of rest and reflection is the sweetest blessing. For me, that's the real Christmas--drawing near to Christ and taking time to quietly anticipate His coming again.

If you'd like to do this year's Advent readings along with me, you can find them via my Scribd account below. I'm digging into the riches of Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus again this year, too--such a wonderful read! If anyone has any other suggested Advent readings, please let me know!

With joy because our King has come--and will come again!
Chelsea
Advent Readings 2010

What I Love About New England Autumn

As the trees shed their leaves and temperatures drop, I'm starting to recall that it's COLD here in the winter! Thinking about that--and remembering that we serve a God who "never slumbers nor sleeps" (Psalm 121:4), a God who's heart never grows cold toward us--I'm reminded that despite the long, cold winter ahead, this is a wonderful place to live and serve.

Here's a quickie recap of why I have LOVED fall this year:

Greenwich Polo: a favorite late summer/early fall sport (and a great excuse to wear lots of Lilly!)

Apple picking: classic New England fall.


Gorgeous fall days at Shallow Brook with my boy, Aiden Magee.


Planting (and enjoying) fall flowers on my front porch.

Fall Boston getaway: visiting Naomi, exploring the city, and catching up with Tri Delt sisters!

As usual, I'm relishing words from Caedmon's Call and finding them poignant in my life:

As my heart draws close to the close of autumn, Your love abounds.