Today has been a great family day for us! Aaron got in super late and so we let him sleep in and we did breakfast just the three of us. We knew we weren't going to church today since Deacon threw up yesterday and still had nasty stomach stuff last night. So instead we all headed to the park. Cayden rode his bike and Deacon rode on his daddy's shoulders. It was so much fun and the kids loved it.

As we walked to the park we saw many families dressed in their best headed to church. This reminded me of my freshman year in college. I wasn't exactly the church-going kind of girl during that time in my life. I was attending a private baptist college and unfortunately didn't fit the norm of the kids there. I was more interested in boys and partying. I remember waking up on Sunday mornings not feeling too good, if you know what I mean, and heading down to the cafeteria to be met by all the “good kids” coming back from church. I was for sure an outcast and everyone knew my type! I get a laugh out of it now, but at the time I didn't care and didn't feel as though I belonged where I was. Anyhow, I could write lots about this but that is for another day!

The kids are in bed for nap time and Aaron and I are snuggled on the couch with TLC on and our books for some reading time. Why is it that we can both read our books and watch tv at the same time.

Anhow … the real reason for this post is to tell you about my new book. I got this book about a week ago and am loving it. It is called JUSTICE IN THE BURBS – Being the Hands of Jesus wherever you live and it is written by Will & Lisa Samson. Here are a few quotes so far from the book that I'm loving:

Life is full of so many pursuits, many of them worthwhile. We get a job, we buy a house, we have kids. This is normal life in the West. Yet frequently the stuff of this normal life so dominates our time and attention that we fail to see issues greater than ourselves. If we are never interrupted, and if we do not intentionally strive to raise people to value the stranger and the needy in the ways God does, everyday activities will crowd out God's call on our lives.

Wow! I sometimes feel as though my life is interrupted by the needy and when in fact that is exactly how I need to feel. I need my “normal” life to be interrupted by others.

Justice is a conscious act. Injustice is unconscious. It grows when we sleep comofortably.

Fr. Richard Rohr once said, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is fear.”

Wow that hits me right in between the eyes. Sometimes I am so fearful that I lack faith.

The burbs are safe but they are safe at the price of keeping out questions of need, questions of poverty, questions of insufficiency. In fact, they are designed to maintain an illusion of a particular life, the American dream, where no one is needy, where there is a chicken in every pot and a care in every garage (and a boat, and those tools we never use, and a riding mower …).

One of my favorite verses these days is found in Micah and it states “he has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

The authors then ask us, How did our beliefs and our actions become two separate expressions of our commitment to God?

Okay so now that I've quoted you half of the book I highly recommend that you go out and get one for yourselves. You will be challenged. I am challenged each time I pick it up. I am also encouraged each time I pick it up. Sometimes I feel as though not everyone understands or agrees with everything we do with our lives and this makes me feel not so alone when I read this book.

Justice in the Burbs blog

Here's a little bit from the authors ……

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma98wzazFlQ]

I hope that your Sunday is lazy and wonderful like ours is!