Sunday Inspiration

"A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away."- George Eliot

Review: In the Grip of Grace by Max Lucado

I recently completed Max Ludacdo's In the Grip of Grace (Word Publishing, 1996), in which Lucado examines the Biblical concept of grace.

Lucado uses metaphors, examples from real life, and his easy-going narrative style to show his readers their need for grace, the firm reality of God's grace, and the implications of God's grace in a believer's life.

Lucado's book is a great reminder and an approachable read. The concrete explanations, clear analysis, and terse writing style create a work that is comforting, convicting, and memorable.

I found the last section to be the most powerful. After discussion each person's need for grace and the concrete reality of God's offer of grace, Lucado turns to the practical implications of grace upon a Christian's life. He poingnantly demonstrates what it means to live a grace-filled, grace-giving life in perhap the most convicting section of the book.

As an aside, I occasionally found the writing to be a bit repetitive. Sometimes I also found it hard to connect to the style, which often seemed to lapse into Lucado's speaking style. Overall, though, this book is a wonderful reminder of the importance, power, and beauty of God's grace.

Favorite quotes from In the Grip of Grace:

"The problem is not that God hasn't spoken but that we haven't listened."

"All of life is a gift of grace...and the call of grace is to live a gracious life."

"Where the grace of God is missed, bitterness is born. But where the grace of God is embraced, forgiveness flourishes."

"You will never be called upon to give anyone more grace than God has already given you."

Friday Linkage

I am ready for Friday. Need I say more? I am ready to sleep in, cook something that requires an attention span of longer than 12 minutes, read, lie in the sun, and do all of those other wonderful things that a weekend offers.

While you are relaxing this weekend, check out these links!

David Masciotra's "Living with a Literary Sensibility" in Relevant Magazine provocatively looks at life as literature...and literature as life. His thoughtful article addresses old questions and raises new ones.

Also on Relevant, David Condolora provides insight on the background of a familiar hymn in "A New Lesson from an Old Hymn."

I have enjoyed following "Thirty Days of Summer Entertaining" by Reluctant Entertainer recently.

Booking Through Thursday is a simple blog with a minimalistic theme. Every Thursday, a new question related to books is published. That's it. Reading through the old questions is inspiring and fun!

I can be highly critical of elaborate wedding cakes. However, the cakes in this post at Let Her Bake Cake were just lovely.

What did you read this week?

Of Goals and Dreams, Part II

There's a delicate balance, then, between the pursuit of long-term dreams and the daily plod of short-term goals. Tangible short-term goals are a vital part of the successful pursuit of long-term dreams. But there is always a danger that the flurry of today's goals will obscure tomorrow's vision.

Here are a few tangible steps one can take to maintain a balance.


1. Vision Board - I have seen this used successfully in a number of different ways. Ultimately, a vision board's purpose is to provide a visual reminder of one's long-term vision. Some people use vision boards for individual projects.Others create vision boards that reflect their vision for their entire life or for a specific period of time. Right now, my vision board consists only of a cork-bulletin-board covered simply with a few quotes and my book list. Expanding it is one of my summer projects!

2. Purpose Statement - Donald Miller and Michael Hyatt both swear by this method. I have never tried it, partially because I suspect that for a verbally-oriented person (like me), writing goals down may simply be repetitious, since I find it easier to write lists than to act. Part of me is just too lazy.

3. Mini- "Bucket Lists" - Creating lists of tangible, large steps that cover a year or a couple of years can be useful. I have a few different kinds of mini "Bucket lists" (for cooking and reading, for instance) and have found working that using these lists is quite motivating and effective. To be useful, these lists should encompass enough time and acitivity to actually force you to exert a substantial amount of time and effort, but they should also be small enough for you to track tangible progress.

4. Assessments - Where do you want to be in 1 year? Where do you want to be in 5 years? Where do you want to be in 30 years? Are you taking steps today to get yourself to those goals? Constantly assessing your specific long-term desires and then analyzing your present situation, actions, and priorities forces you to keep yourself accountable. This is an area in which trusted friends can be helpful. Share your goals with them and see if they think you are progressing towards those points.

Have you tried any of these methods? How did they work for you? What other methods do you use to maintain a balance between pursuing your long-term dreams and short-term goals?

Read Part I of this series.

Bookish Tuesday

What were your five favorite childhood books? 

1. A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett

2.Betsy, Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace

3.Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

4.Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

4.Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

 Your turn! Include your list in the comments below or in a post on your blog, linking back here.

A Summer Feast

When I stepped out of the airport late the other evening, a blast of muggy warm air hit me. Warmer weather is upon us to stay, it seems, and the change in the weather demands a different kind of food, a lighter food, meant to be eaten as the golden summer air fills the evening sky.

So this weekend, I tackled Crusted Parmesan Chicken, halving the ingredients. Then I modified this recipe to create a delicious vegetable dish. I sprinkled Parmesan cheese on bread and toasted it briefly in the oven. Finally, I added some fresh fruits to the plates and my roommate and I sat down to a colorful, delicious summer meal.

Crusted Parmesan Chicken

1 package of chicken breasts (I used chicken tenderloins)

3/4 cup Progresso Italian seasoned bread crumbs

3/8 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

2 eggs

1 cup milk

Olive oil ( add additional oil if needed when sauteing the chicken)

Whip the eggs, milk, garlic, and pepper until thoroughly combined. Mix the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese together on a large plate.  Heat the oil on medium in a skillet.

Dip each chicken breast in the egg-milk mixture and then dredge the breast in the bread crumb-cheese combination. The original recipe says to do this step twice. I only did it once to save time, but a second coating would have been beneficial, although not necessary.

Place the breaded chicken breast in the heated olive oil and saute until both sides of the breast are light golden brown.  Repeat with all of the breasts. 

After each breast is sauteed, place it on a foil-lined baking sheet. Once all of the chicken is sauteed, place the baking sheet in the oven on 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

Brussels Sprouts with Carmelized Onions

1 lb. Brussels sprouts

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

2 tbls. butter

2 tsp. sugar

Garlic

Olive oil

Pepper

Place the onions in a pan with the butter. Sprinkle the sugar over them and saute on low heat until they become transparent, soft, and begin to delicately brown. Meanwhile, trip the stems from the Brussels Sprouts and steam until tender.

Thinly slice the Brussels Sprouts. Add garlic and Brussels Sprouts to onions and continue to saute for 5-7 minutes.

*Photos taken by Cassandra McCray

A Summer Adventure, Part II

As I mentioned before, I’m not one of those people who thrives on heights. I wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect of dangling 180 feet in the air. And I expected to come out on the other side of my adventures a stronger, braver, less-terrified-of-heights person than before.

But the thing about adventures is that they aren’t always what one expects.

Early in the morning, we set out with our guides, a lot of water, and climbing gear. We spent the morning on
this:

 Two things surprised me about climbing.

1) It is a lot harder to hold on to a sheer rock wall than I had expected.

2) I barely had the mental capacity to be distracted by the height, because I was busy exhausting every ounce of energy I had on my search for hand- and foot-holds as I dragged myself upwards.

After a quick break for lunch, we set out once again. This time, we were going down.

As I waited for those ahead of me to descend the rope, I peered over the edge of the cliff. It was......a long way down.

The most psychologically daunting part about rappelling came, for me, when I discovered that, in order to begin my descent, I had to slowly lean out – backwards- over the cliff while hanging onto the rope.

Everything in me that was practical and rational defied this. Forward motion? Fine. Upwards motion? Ok. But why, I wondered, as I struggled to place my feet on the edge of the cliff, would any sane intelligent person voluntarily walk backwards into the air?

But somehow I managed, with the prodding of our guides, to get over the cliff. And then, it was all downhill, figuratively as well as literally. Halfway down, dangling 90 feet in the air, I paused for a minute to take in the stunning view. Red cliffs, dotted with green growth spread out in every direction. A creek trickled through the canyon below me.

It was then that the realization struck me that I had entrusted my life to a piece of fiber only half-an-inch thick. Panic struck me for just a brief second as I realized the hugeness of the empty space around me. But there was no turning back now. I certainly couldn’t climb back up the rope. And so I took a deep breath and continued my descent.

Sometimes I feel as if I wade through life waiting for epic moments, flashes of insight, clarifying epiphanies. I secretly envy those people who talk about the single unifying moments that come into their lives in which they conquer their greatest fear, or realize their deepest dream, or have some equally defining experience.

I think maybe I was expecting that to happen in Utah last week. But, if I’m honest with myself, I certainly can’t claim anything I ventured came close to one of those experiences. The surprising thing about my recent trek wasn’t that I had some moment of insight or felt more invincible or stronger or braver than I ever have before.

In fact, as I hugged towering red cliffs and dangled off the rock face, I was overwhelmed by the sheer size and strength everywhere around me. I was overpowered by how tiny and insignificant I and my world and problems and victories seemed next to the vastness of the cliffs and sky and desert around me.


In our world of ease and comfort and cell-phones and microwaves, it’s easy to forget how very tiny we are and how very vast the universe is. It’s easy to forget how great God is when our world is small and safe and soft.

Our souls need space and height and air and adventures and challenge. But maybe we need those things not to give ourselves an additional ego-boost or to remind ourselves of how great or invincible or cool or strong we are, but to keep us humble. Maybe we need those "Bucket List" moments not to feel big, but to feel small.

And so perhaps our souls desperately need to leave our places of comfort and security and cling to something bigger and vaster and stronger than ourselves not to remind us of our strength, but to remind us of our need.