In the words of Martha Stewart, that’s a good thing!

(Side note: Martha is one of my personal heroes when it comes to domestic goddess-ness. Is the woman even real?!)

Something that is always running through my head that I don’t vocalize nearly enough is that my church is awesome. Divine Life is unlike any other church I have been to- it practices Christianity in so many real ways that you are constantly aware of how your life should, can and does affect the world around you (which can actually be pretty annoying when you want to have a selfish fit ). We are Pentecostal in tradition, but probably have the most “un-Pentecostal” order of service that most are used to. We meet on Sunday nights and our service is very… well, I supposed “organic” is a good word to describe it. There is an atmosphere of reverence but the freedom to worship how you want. We have stations that you can visit during service to give of your offerings, take communion, journal, do artwork and submit prayer requests. This encourages me to be an active participant in worship, not just standing there and letting the worship team be the only active participants. The sermons delivered are very intellectual and really make you think. There is usually time at the end for questions and clarification.

Like I said, it is unlike any other church I have attended. I say all of that to give you an idea of what to expect if you ever want to check it out. With so many great options in Oklahoma City, I know you have your pick of which church to visit, so I for one would be super pumped if you showed up

Okay, I said all of that because I want to encourage you all to begin to live out what I dub “Practical Christianity”. We go to church on Sundays and hear about how much God loves us, how we should respond to Him; we get instruction on how to go about this life and how to get through another day. But another thing that should be taking away from Sundays is how to live Christianly. I am no expert on this, to be sure, but hopefully the conscious effort is a good start. As Christians we are to show Christ to everyone. We are to behave in a way that humanizes people, and that takes an effort to get your focus off of yourself.

An example of this from my personal life is a little story from my banking days. I was in college working as a teller and my grandma in Chile had just died over the weekend. I wasn’t going to get to go to the funeral and was dealing with the fact that she wouldn’t be at my wedding which was 2 months away. An older lady came in and did a deposit. Being distracted, I gave her the wrong amount of change (I felt tears coming on and honestly just wanted her to leave so I could go cry in the bathroom). Man, that old lady just laid into me on what an idiot I was, how I was trying to steal her money, blah blah blah. I just burst out crying right here and the whole story poured out of my mouth- “I’m sorry but my grandma just died and I am getting married and she won’t be there and I can’t go to the funeral and I won’t have any closure and let me just count it again, please give me a break I’M HAVING A REALLY BAD DAY!!!”

The look on homegirl’s face was enough to make me feel like a jerk, but I am sure her level of jerkitude was much much higher. She mumbled an apology and sent me flowers the next day. I wasn’t trying to make her feel bad, I just wanted her to understand why I was having a “human moment” and to treat me as such. I’m sure we all try our hardest to think that there is always a reason people act the way they do when they mess up our order, miscount our change or cut us off right before the light turns red. But making a conscious effort to live Christianly, to humanize people by our interaction with them- well, that is rewarding in itself.

I kind of got off on a tangent there but that is one of the greatest things I have learned at DLC. And now I just want to thank my church so much. Ryan and I recently learned of a family in need. They are a family just like any of us- nice house, two cars, two kids, good family. However, due to choices and outside influences and people who DON’T make it a priority to put people above money, they are in a tough spot. Looking for a well-paying job these days isn’t easy and with two small children, simple things like diapers and food can cause major anxiety when it comes time to purchase them.

At our small group, Ryan and I asked for the group to pray for them. We asked them to pray practically, that they find jobs. We asked them to pray spiritually, that God would heal the wounds that the bad turns of luck had inflicted on them. We asked them to pray for the couple’s marriage and for their family. Our small group pastor took the needs, anonymously, to our congregation. The response was amazing- not only because of the amount of diapers and supplies that came in, but that it was for people they didn’t even know. They just know that we care for and love this couple and that they needed some help.

Last night we took the stuff to the family and they were surprised that our church would do that for people they didn’t even know. But to me, and many other Christians in this world, I am sure it would be only natural. There is the mindset of “there is a need that I can help meet, so I do it”. Who cares if they don’t go to my church or don’t belong to my political party… who cares if they live here or North Dakota, who cares what the circumstances are? I am proud to be a part of Divine Life, because it is made up of people who will drop what they are doing, re-prioritize and practice their Christianity. It was more than we asked for, but the impact reached further beyond the phrase “We’ll be praying for you”.

Prayer is essential. Everyday Christianity benefits from prayer and spirituality. But it is most seen and felt when it comes to those practical, everyday actions. I challenge you to implement the goal of humanizing those you come into contact with, and to live it out for all to see. How can that be anything but a good thing?

3 years+30 year mortgage+kid= Grown-Up

3 years ago today was the hottest day of the year that far, I was sweating and getting really nervous. I wasn’t nervous about getting married, I was nervous about the wedding not going as planned. It turned out to be a bigger affair than I had envisioned, but my wedding was wonderful (albeit long- 1 hr and 20 minutes) and meaningful and one of the best days of my life.

I have been so blessed to have a man like Ryan in my life. He was my friend for years before anything else came about, and he saw me through some really hard times, even hard times with exes. He saw me for who I was, raw and broken and hopeless, but he still loved me. He lived out the love and forgiveness that God offers to us in a real way that opened my eyes more than any sermon or book could have. He knew the real me and still loved me, still saw the woman I could become and without him I am sure I would be a million steps behind in that journey.

Our first year of marriage consisted of working at the same place, lots of BBQs and eating at Chili’s, finding a new church and living in a 700 square foot house. We had fun, but there were also those hard times that just come along with learning to live with someone else (and for me, living with a boy was a HUGE adjustment).

 The second year, we bought our first home in Yukon and had fun getting into debt and making it our own. I also got pregnant and we got rid of the 2 door Saturn and bought a sensible family car. I changed jobs and Ryan made his catering business official. It was kind of a stressful year just because of all the financial stuff, and planning for a baby. I knew I didn’t want to work after she was born, so we tried to plan for that.

The third year of marriage, we were blessed with a little baby girl and she changed our world forever. I quit my job, Ryan worked more and we stressed about money all the time. But she was worth it, every last generic piece of food we ate Aubrey has made us grow up, become better people and brough us closer together. I realized this year that Ryan and I are a team, and we make a good one! He is a wonderful daddy and Aubrey loves him. I went back to work after 7 months and this anniversary leaves us working our way out of debt, juggling family time with life in general, and trying to remember to cherish every minute of it.

Marriage is never easy, but its a wonderful thing and you can see why God saw it as the best option for families to function. Its hard work, its fun, its exhausting and frustrating, and very rewarding. And I can’t think of a person I would rather go through it with than my best friend.

I love you Ryan! Love, Kitty

My stations of the Cross

At church we have been talking about the Stations of the Cross. It is something I have not ever been exposed to since I didn’t grow up in a liturgical denomination. But they really help you focus on what Jesus did for us at Easter and make you ponder why. Chris asked us to take these and make them our own, to ponder them, to interpret them, and then to share.

 

Ever since I found out I was pregnant with Aubrey, I became somewhat fascinated with Mary, the mother of Jesus. Knowing that she surely went through everything I was, the backaches, the swollen feet, the nausea, the cravings… it humanized her. She wasn’t just an icon I see in a church, her holy face calm and serene. She wasn’t the expressionless pictures we see in early art, holding her perfectly still child.

 

Yes, she was holy. Yes she was favored of the Lord. Her experience as a young, pure virgin girl becoming pregnant is something that I want to give more thought to. Imagine the embarrassment of people in your village talking about you, calling you a whore, questioning your betrothed as to why he would even think about linking himself to you.

 

Imagine being 8 months pregnant, riding on a donkey miles away to have your baby, whom you know is begotten of God, in a stable. I look back on the birth of Aubrey and cannot imagine it any different… the checking in, the needles, the pain, the rest, the suddenness, and then there she was. Mary didn’t have it so easy. She had some blankets instead of that nifty birthing bed, she had cousins or servants instead of an obstetrician and 3 different nurses, she had someone’s hand to hold in the pain instead of an epidural… and then, after all the labor and giving birth, instead of seeing the nurses clean her baby and put him under a warmer while she rested from the ordeal, she wrapped him in clothes and laid him in a donkey’s feeding trough. Then, I am sure she cried at wondering why, if she was bearing the Son of God, did she have to beg for a STABLE to give birth in, why, if she was bearing the Son of God, did she have to lay Him in a manger?

 

Imagine, right after giving birth, having a bunch of strangers burst into your room. and then suddenly, they gave her the sign, the answer to her question. “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
 ”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

They worshipped the Messiah, a little baby laying there, probably with a dirty diaper, or crying or eating from his mother…

 

Imagine 3 great men, dressed in their wealth, bringing your infant son gold, frankincense and myrrh.

 

When I think of what Mary must have felt then, it is overwhelming. Yet, she knew that this was no ordinary child, no ordinary birth, from no ordinary baby-making activity. I am sure she remembered the angel coming to her as clearly every day as it was on that day.

 

I look back to my first months with Aubrey, being in awe of her, falling in love with her and getting used to being a mother. I wanted to protect her from everything bad, I wailed right there along with her when she got her shots, I did everything I could to make her happy. I am sure Mary did the same thing for baby Jesus.

 

Imagine, though, her confusion when her husband wakes her up in the middle of the night and says, we have to go. NOW. Fleeing to a foreign land, and finding out later that every other mother like herself was not spared the evil and the horror of having their sons ripped from their arms and murdered. If I was in Mary’s place, I would have felt such guilt and responsibility. I would have been haunted by it. But I am sure she knew… her day of suffering would come.

 

I think what it must be like to see your child grow up, knowing they are destined to save the world. I probably would have tried to keep Him a child as long as I could… to teach and love Him, to hold Him and kiss Him, to always be his mother. I would have been proud as He grew into a great carpenter like His dad, I would have been proud as He learned and studied and taught others. I wonder how she handled the questions that He must have had when He started to figure out who He truly was.

 

Jesus in His adult life became quite the phenomenon. As his mother, I would have been amazed at His popularity, His miracles, His teachings. I would have always been His mother. I probably would have worried about where He would sleep and what He would eat when he was on the road. She must have known He was holy, but she had to have also seen him as a man. A human. She must have known that He would save us all, but that it would come at a price. What an difficult thing to wrap my mind around!

 

And what must it have been like for Mary… to see her only, holy, beloved son begin the path to his death. To be helpless, to know that it must happen. He can’t escape the wrath of someone who fears him twice.

 

These are the stations of the cross from Mary, mother of Jesus’ view:

1. Jesus is condemned to death. Mary His mother sees the frenzied crowd, the anger, the desire for blood. Her son’s blood.
2. Jesus carries his cross. Mary His mother knows He is strong from His work and travels, but after lashes with a whip and hunger and thirst… how will my son be able to carry His own tool of execution?
3. Jesus falls the First time. Mary his mother gasps as she sees Him fall to the ground. She fights every motherly instinct in her to go to Him, pick Him up, kiss His face and make it right. This is what must be.
4. Jesus meets His Mother. Mary His mother looks into His face. She cries and says “I love you” and prays for His suffering to be over. He keeps going, thought I am sure he wanted to do what He could to stop her crying.
5. Simon the Cyrenian Helps Jesus carry His Cross. Mary His mother is grateful for some relief for Her boy… but the journey to the hill still continues.
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. Mary His mother is again grateful for someone who can reach Him to comfort Him in any small way.
7. Jesus falls the second time. Mary His mother knows His strength is weakening and wishes for it all to be over.
8. Jesus speaks to the women. Mary His mother is amazed that even in this time of His great pain, He thinks of them instead of accepting their grief for Himself.
9. Jesus Falls the third time. Mary His mother wonders how much more her son can take… my son, please… get up! I want to make it better…
10. Jesus is stripped of His Garments. Mary His mother feels His shame and realizes that He is the sacrificial lamb… stripped of any impurity and sin.
11. Jesus is Nailed to the Cross. Mary His mother cries, can barely look at her baby boy, for Her will always be that to her, up on a cross like a criminal. Even in this time she hears Him forgiving and loving others.
12. Jesus dies on the cross. What else can Mary His mother do but wail and faint with grief? Her Son is dead.
13. Jesus is taken down from the Cross. Mary His mother feels some relief in being able to hold Him, dress Him, and bury Him.
14. Jesus is laid in the Tomb. Mary His mother prays for rest for Her son, and awaits what she must surely know is coming… the end of the story. Because her putting her Son in that tomb was NOT THE END!