Mama's Gotta Brand New Bag!

Isaiah 43:16-19

Heck if I know what I was "supposed" to do with my life. There have been so many plans and changes, detours and failures, really anyone's guess is as good as mine. I have a bachelor's degree in women's studies, a year of law school, several nursing classes (which I often forget I even took!), and am nearly finished with a teaching license. Mostly, I write in notebooks whenever I'm not teaching my daughter how to be a person. I have a specific book idea, a collection of essays, the first three chapters of a really horrific mystery novel, and this blog. So, am I a writer? I feel called to be one, so I guess I'll just myself a writer. God gave this to me. He never said I was a GREAT writer, because that takes practice, which is mainly what I do: I practice. He is also calling me to speak about certain topics that may be helpful to people. How to convince anyone that I know anything about anything is an obstacle he hasn't revealed a way around yet. :)

Mostly, God is doing a brand new thing in my life. Ultimately, I didn't become an attorney because every cell in body knew that was the wrong path for me. I may become a teacher, but I'll teach my daughter first. Writing is sort of the thing I fell into because it's what I've found myself doing more than anything else, besides molding the personhood of this little muffin I live with. As a friend said once, "I don't do anything fancy with words. I just write them."

What does God call you to do today? Are you doing it? Maybe you are in your day job, maybe your calling is outside your day job. What fills you up like a good meal that ISN'T a meal? It's taken me a good decade to figure out what that is for me: it's pages and pages of my sprawling handwriting. It's piles of 30-cent notebooks in the built-in cabinet in my bedroom. It's a blog where I write about praising, questioning, and worshipping God and Jesus Christ, and also where I write about my beliefs on issues of equality and justice. I don't make much money doing it, but it makes me a much better parent than if I were doing something else. For that, praise and thanks to you, God.

Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Haiti today and in the coming days. The Haitians are beautiful people, and need our help.

You can instantly donate $10 to the American Red Cross by texting HAITI to 90999. They will text you back for confirmation.

Here are many other sites you can go to to help. Thanks to Molly Joy Matheson Gruen for this information.

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Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief Efforts:

AMURT (The group Eric and I worked with. We have seen personally how respectfully and effectively AMURT uses donated funds): www.amurt.net

Another way to support AMURT: Proceeds from all Haiti photos sold on Eric’s website
(Peacephotography.org) will support the work of AMURT in Haiti.

Quick and Easy: Text "Yele" to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund, started by Wyclef Jean. The charge will automatically show up on your phone bill.

Quick and Easy (2!): Text 'HAITI' to '90999' to donate $10 to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts. The charge will automatically show up on your phone bill.

Partners in Health:
http://www.pih.org/home.html

Covenant Word Relief:
http://www.covchurch.org/cwr

Lutheran World Relief:
http://lwr.org/

Catholic Relief Services:
www.crs.org

Doctors without Borders:
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

World Vision:
www.worldvision.org

Also, NPR put together a list of disaster relief websites, donation lists and support ideas:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/01/haiti_earthquake_how_to_help_a.html?sc=fb&cc=fp

{{ Thank you, friends. }}