Hot Tang! 15 Takeaways from 30Cent's New Hampshire Adventure

This past weekend, all nine of us trekked up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. I believe I'll be posting several entries on some deeper discussions and spiritual metaphors from the experience, but I wanted to recount as much as I could for you readers as soon as possible. So I've rounded up a list of funny lessons, themes, quotes, and takeways from the weekend, listed in no particular order. Hope you enjoy. And roommates, thanks for your input. (Photo credits go to Alli.)

1. Spiders will terrorize both well-seasoned (Magen) and novice (moi) campers. The veteran campers are much more adept at doing crazy ninja moves out of the tent to escape the scary spiders, though. And guy roommates (Luke) are great to have around to squash the eight-legged intruders.
2. Todd says too many funny and weird things to even keep count of. And he has an uncanny ability to come up with quarky, oddball nicknames for his beautiful wife. An example? Pernis, which sounds like a disease. It all made us laugh, though.
3. Alli has a knack for locating the best music in New Hampshire's White Mountains, available on 94.9FM. It provided a lovely soundtrack of Bon Jovi and Journey mixed with late 90's bubble gum pop.
4. Jasmine didn't pack gum, because apparently it attracts bears. Luckily, the all-beef patties, sausage, hot dogs, and various snacks and breakfast treats we brought don't. Phew.
5. Bears do in fact like mystery flavor gum, Tara informed us in a delightful and uncharacteristic cartoon bear voice. She should moonlight for Nickelodeon.
6. Dan does not like most vegetables, but is fine mixing lemonade and coffee grounds, for a pre-hiking energy surge. He also consumes roughly three egg-and-cheese sandwiches before noon---one of them came immediately after a sandwich from Lincoln, NH's best roast beef joint. But hold the bacon, it's bad for you.
7. Oranges do not taste good if left in the heat for hours, Magen says. Dan disagrees. He loves HOT TANG, i.e. the children's orange drink heated up.
8. Speaking of funny words and phrases, roommates are excellent at helping you study GRE words. Ask Jasmine. We also managed to learn along the way. For example, bonhomie [bon-uh-mee] means a good-natured, cheerful manner. Everyone exhibited such bon-HOMIE during the trip (we preferred this pronunciation of the word.)
9. Campfires are easy to start, but hard to maintain. It all depends on the wood, kindling, and skill of the fire-starter.
10. It gets very cold at night, even in August. There are, however, several strategies for staying warm while sleeping. Craig suggests sleeping in as little clothing as possible, to allow your body heat to do all the work. Luke prefers to get up in the middle of the night to sleep in the back seat of a Jeep. Others resort to spooning.
11. McDonald's tastes better after hours of hiking, driving, or sleeping in the cold. And Todd is obsessed with $1 McChickens.
12. If you can't find Luke, don't fret. He's probably running 15 miles, or recovering with an icy river soak or a cute jug of chocolate milk. That is, when he's not going headfirst down rocky waterfalls.
13. Our ziplining tour guides have pretty cool jobs, especially when they get to make fun of scairdy cat customers like me. Also, ziplining gear will make a lanky, shortwaisted person look far more disproportionate than I could have ever thought was possible. I won't name that person, though.
14. Camping is fun, and you get used to the dirt.
15. My housemates are good for the soul.

A Friend Loves at All Times

The title of this blog post somewhat sounds like something you’d see scrawled across an inspirational poster with two friends of different backgrounds holding hands. My middle school had tons of these types of posters plastered throughout the halls, with catchy sayings about dreaming, striving, and achieving.

I haven’t written much lately because I’ve been away. Also, you’ve heard about the construction, which has stayed relatively stable. Sure, the toilet’s exploded and we’ve finally decided to move the couches out of the kitchen, but other than that, things seem to be following the status quo.

God is keeping me still right now in so many ways. I think it’s because he wants me to really dig deep. So, I’ve been waiting for inspiration on really profound and catchy ideas, expressed with some hip metaphors and quips. No such luck. For some reason I just can’t move past the theme expressed in the title of this blog, which comes from Proverbs 17:17

It’s simple and obvious on the surface, but I think it’s profound when you look at its application on an everyday level. You can say someone is your friend, which is easy to do when you’re having fun and going out and agreeing on everything. But what happens the rest of the time?

I first thought of this when I went home earlier this month, and had the blessing of spending time with old friends who I hadn’t seen in a while. (I hope you know who you are.) I think of how I wasn’t a good friend to them so many times in the past. I remember how I let stress, my own ambitions, high school temperaments, distance, and so many other insignificant things get in the way of truly meaningful relationships. But I’ve seen God’s grace in the way that these amazing people haven’t held this against me and have loved me at all times. It was overwhelming to realize that in so many ways, these relationships haven’t changed in years, despite the weak person that I have been.

In realizing the ways that I have messed things in the past, I am determined to be a friend who loves at all times. This means loving the people I live with. And I think this is going to be incredibly challenging. (No offense to you guys. You are all amazing.) But we have intentionally put ourselves in challenging circumstances. As you can probably tell from my introductory post, we all have very different backgrounds, opinions, passions, and everyday routines. We’re cramming all of those things into one roof on a sliver of a city block. And that roof is currently under physical disarray and probably will be for several more months. Brace yourselves.

To top that off, I can be a selfish, impatient, and anti-social person at times. I try to hide it, but sometimes I don’t want to be around people. Not when I’ve had a long day. Not when they’ve had a long day. Not when the dishes are dirty and we can’t find anything and I don’t have time to run or work out like I used to. Not when I’ve offended someone and he or she has offended me. Like I said, I let stupid insignificant things mount into massive frustration.

REUNION is in the middle of a series about love, especially in the context of married relationships. I’m single, so I’m looking at how I can apply the messages at this point of my life. The series focuses on how love is fueled by action, and not feeling. A key takeaway: when you don’t feel love for someone anymore, you should fix it by loving him or her more. Hard to swallow, right? It’s a simple prescription that requires very intentional and direct action, which can be very tough.

I anticipate there will be times that I won’t feel lovey-dovey about my housing situation. And I think those are the times when I will have to love and serve the others the most. There are times when I will want to sit on the couch and watch Bravo TV (my addiction) and not talk to anyone and not help anyone with what they need. But that’s the time I should pick up a paint roller and join the others in transforming our sunny Californian roommate’s room into a bright yellow-and-orange dwelling that’s sure to cut through the grey New England winters.

Yes, this was a lesson I learned last night, and I am thankful for it. Following said painting adventure, I realized how blessed I am to be around this people. And how community is better than solitude, even when solitude is what you crave. And how tea makes everything better.

No, none of this will be easy. I will certainly have to ask for God’s grace and strength in all of this. I will have to look to Jesus as a model, because no one has ever served or loved like He has. I’m hopeful that in seeking His strength to love and serve and give, I will become closer to Him in the process.

Blog, I Haven't Forgotten About You

Yes, I know I haven't been writing much lately. In some ways, it feels like writer's block. (Don Miller has some great perspective on this.) In some ways it feels like I have so much to write about, I haven't had time to sift through and make sense of it all. And in some ways it feels like I just plain haven't had time.

We've had birthdays, family visits, dry-walling bashes, beautifully sanded and polished floors, communication mishaps, and challenging conversations. So, some pretty awesome things have been happening at 30cent, and there are even more to come. We're going ziplining and camping this weekend as a house outing. Have I ever mentioned that I don't do camping or hiking or anything involving mountains and dirt? So yes, this should be entertaining.

God has been keeping me still throughout all of this, and for some reason, when I sit down to type, I can't get much out. I think it's a metaphor for how still He's been keeping me in many other aspects of my life. I am actively reflecting on and wrestling with all of the aforementioned happenings, and hope to be back in the next few days with some thoughtful posts and even pictures.

A Fun Photo

I'm away from the house this week, which is why I haven't been posting much. I'll be back next week with stories to share, though. In the meantime, check out this picture of Dan below. This was his dinner last Friday night.

His defense for why the meal wasn't one a six-year-old would eat: "Six-year-olds can't boil their own eggs."

A Wolf in A Story About the Wolfpack

Yes, my story is overtly a reference to the uproariously funny speech in The Hangover.

But it's also a reference to a passage in Donald Miller's newest book, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years, a resemblance that might be a bit harder to detect.

In his chapter about handling personal heartbreak, Don says this:

"He said to me I was a tree in a story about a forest, and that it was arrogant of me to believe any differently. And he told me the story of the forest is better than the story of the tree.”

The "He" mentioned Victor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychologist who fought to prevent prisoner suicide while in a Nazi concentration camp, by telling them that their pain and suffering wasn’t everything, wasn’t the endpoint. Frankl said there was a much greater story at work: one of redemption, which pain lent meaning to. Don recalled invoking this idea while processing his own pain. He said it made him realize that his own suffering was part of something bigger and more beautiful, despite how massive an individual’s heartache can feel at times.

I didn't want to completely jack Don's terminology for my blog post title, so I tweaked the language that aims to express what it means to be a piece of a much bigger pie. But the theme is ultimately the same, and something I want to relate to the 30cent house.

Realizing that your story isn't THE story is humbling. On the surface, it might seem insulting, and it might make you feel unimportant. But I think it also brings this huge sense of peace and greater purpose. Thinking about this idea made me realize that when things have gone astray in my life, that it isn’t everything. My story is part of something greater at work, where a Father sent His perfect son to die for the things the other kids had done, all to show how them how much He loves them and how far He is willing to go to right the wrongs. So, my pain, my heartache and my missed dreams somehow all form a piece of this bigger, magnificent, even unimaginable story.

I don’t think this means that things in my life aren't going to go well and beautifully at times. I believe that they have and that they will continue to do so in many ways. But I also believe the beauty will direct my attention upwards, to a much more beautiful, vast, and meaningful story that is God’s kingdom of peace and story of redemption and love.

After reading the tree-in-the-forest excerpt, I thought of what it means for my position in the house. In many ways, the house is the forest, and I am the tree. Everything that happens with me as an individual should point up to the mission we are trying to accomplish as a house. This means not everything will go my way. This is also means that when I experience joy, it will overflow into my greater community, or forest.

But ultimately, our house is also a tree in a story about a forest, a small part of a much greater whole. Our story isn't the endpoint, it isn't the answer, and it isn't a kingdom unto itself. 30cent is a part of something so much bigger. We are trying to be an entity that furthers God’s will and kingdom, and in the end points to the Creator. So really, it is one tree in the forest that is God’s creation.

Again, I find this encouraging. As we are still in the earliest days of setting up shop in this home, I wonder what type of impact we have. Sometimes I wonder if we will see the transformation that we are striving for within our community. In many ways, maybe we won’t see everything we are hoping to. But the tree-in-the-forest idea gives me hope. Ultimately there is a much greater story at work. One that I cannot see at all times. So, I believe that if we are pursuing God, and are passionate about living like Jesus did, somewhere in the forest there will be changes and redemption, and a place that greater resembles the kingdom of God than it did when we started. The things that we do will help tell a better story, even if it is difficult to see and perceive in our immediate world. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.