God gives but doesn't share

I am currently reading, Mountains beyond Mountains, a biography about Dr. Farmer, a man with a quest to care for the world's poor, this excerpt pertains to the poignant topic of sharing our resources and discoveries:
~~~~~~~
How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: "Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe," in literal translation, "God gives but doesn't share." This meant, as Farmer would later explain, "God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us."
~~~~~~~
Wow, this is powerful. God, may I not take my life and resources forgranted. Give me courage to reach out and share.

I guess we didn't need to throw out the eggplant...

So, Matt and I celebrated "our Christmas," i.e., a simple, thoughtful gift exchange on Monday night, the 22nd of December because we were planning on leaving the next day for Mexico! well, that didn't work out as all the flights were full (we fly standby). So we ended up staying in Denver for two more days. But it was borderline depressingly anti-climactic because we had already opened our gifts for each other and we had even thrown away parishable produce such as the lovely eggplant we had purchased at Sunflower Market the week before... oh well, we made do with other leftover foods and tried to make the most of it. Ten points for Matt for remaining positive and trying to boost the "family morale" during our first Christmas together. I'm so thankful for my husband. And I guess relationships are more important than holiday fanfare.

I always wanted to be on a fridge

You know those families that send out photo-Christmas-cards (often color coordinated) to  adorn friends' refrigerators across the country.  Well, I always kind of wanted to be in one of those families ~ punctual, thoughtful, color coordinated, organized, in front of lovely natural backdrops, you know, happy, pretty, on-people's-fridges-kind-of-people.  

And now that I'm married, I have my own, new family and we can start new traditions.  But I guess when it comes down to it, I have reservations like:  getting dressed-up in matching clothes just for a photo (it seems fake, too planned) So I like real moments, and I value living simply - so it seems silly to pay so much for these photo-cards...  So until we figure something out...  here's a sample photo Christmas card:

He blessed me first

Tonight our House Church prepared and passed out packages of gloves, hats, and scarves to homeless people near "Jesus Saves" in Denver.   I asked  coworker and friend, who used to be homeless, for tips and he just said, "tell them 'God bless you.' "  I thought that was simple enough, but when we got there to the line of people waiting for cots and gave out our first present the man we handed the package to said "God bless you" and I was immediately struck by his kindness and his faith.  I love that!  I love when I go out thinking I have something to offer I often find that the poor themselves have so much to offer me.  His name was Victor.  He had long, dark hair, a humble gaze and a short but sweet smile.  Thank you God for using Victor to bless me.  Be near Victor tonight and remind him of your love for him, Lord.

Even my blog's Namesake

The other day my friend Kate mentioned that if she starts a book she has to finish it.  I have another friend, Alison, who i believe feels the same way (no matter how long it takes =)).

And I'm realizing that I never really feel compelled to finish much.  I had never really thought about the breadth of unfinished books in my repertoire until the other day.  Here are some of the books that I have thoroughly enjoyed but yet to have finish:

- The Cost of Discipleship  by Bonhoeffer

- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek  by Annie Dillard

* The Twilight Labyrinth  by George Otis

- Chasing the Dragon  by Jackie Pullinger

- Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger  by Ronald J. Sider

- One Nation Over God: the Americanization of Christianity  by DA Fletcher

- Prophetic Imagination  by Walter Bruegemann

* The Good News About Injustice  by Gary Haugen

- The End of Poverty  by Jeffery Sachs 

- The Sex God  by Rob Bell

- Theirs is the Kingdom  by Robert Lupton

* Simple Spirituality by  Chris Heuertz

- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time  by Mark Haddon

- Suite Francaise  by Irène Némirovsky

- The Shack by  William P. Young

- Money, Sex & Power by Richard Foster

- and even the Namesake of my blog, No Man is an Island, by Thomas Merton

* indicates books I am currently (as of this week) partaking of

** it's pretty long, it makes me laugh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~