Interesting Book :)

So I often find myself bogged down with Christian books. They seem to be more like religious self-help books, and I've recently been in a season where I've just not felt the desire to read them. Not that they are bad, and I know many good people who get really encouraged by them. I've just been in a season of not feeling drawn to them. I've read other quality material instead ;) (hah!! Harry Potter doesn't count as quality). Then I picked up The Barbarian Way by Erwin Raphael McManus. I picked it up mostly because a co-worker threw it at me and told me that it was me. I was intrigued by what that meant, so I cracked it open. It's basically a book about taking the religiosity out of Christianity, and return to the rawness as it was originally intended. The book starts by talking about John the Baptist and his living in caves, wearing burlap, and eating locusts and honey. Not the religious refinement the western Christian has grown accustomed to seeing. One of the quotes that has recently stood out to me is: "Our civilized faith demands caviar and escargot; our barbaric faith accepts that we might have to eat fish eggs and snails." 

I just like the raw and real that the book captures and encourages. It's time for Christians to give up looking pretty all the time. It's time for us to lock arms with each other and commit to be the church through the good, bad  and ugly. It's time for us to love God and love his people in a real way that will take perseverance and guts. Are we ready to dive in?

Just some food for thought. :) 

Happy Anniversary!!!

Today we are off to celebrate our first year anniversary!!! Yay!! Hope everyone has a great day! We'll be back to post more in a couple of days!

The Lamas :)

In this crazy life, and through these crazy times.... (Michael Buble style)

Hello Friends!

It's been a cccrrraaaazzzzyyyy week! I've started several posts and just never felt like any of them would go some place that I would be willing to post, so I deleted them. For those of you who have checked several times and seen nothing new, I apologize :) But here we are today! Another day, and another blog post in The Lama Times.

Today I am sitting on my couch with a load of laundry in the washer, two more to go, and a sink full of dishes that need to be washed. Such is life. It moves too fast and by the time you get a day to rest, then its time to do the things that have waited at home while you ran around and took care of other things. Because of my amazing husband, there aren't as many things to clean today. The only reason I have this morning to type to you and clean my house is because my husband went to a prayer meeting for both of us. The nice thing about being married is one person can take credit of both of you. :) Days just go by too fast. We've already been married almost a year. Where did the time go?

I don't mind Texas most days. I love my jobs and our church and the people in our lives. Soon Bijay will have a job he loves too. However, the pace of DFW makes me motion sick. I could never live in New York or California. I don't like spending my days running and running and running. So today I am enjoying a still moment of listening to the television and the washer and knowing that at least for the moment I have no where to be and nothing to work on. Just a paragraph to write to you and a few dishes to clean.

Take some time today to stop and enjoy the moment. Life is not the things you do but the moments you remember. Take a moment today.

Andrea

just when you think you'll never...

How many times do you say or think I'm never going to ___________?

I'm never gonna graduate college.
I'm never gonna get married.
I'm never gonna have children.
I'm never gonna have a good job.
I'm never gonna get this over with.
I'm never gonna fall in love.
I'm never gonna... whatever it is.

I thought that too at one point. I was never gonna get married and I was going to be single forever living some kind of random adventure somewhere. I was going to be a one woman army for a cause or a people.

When you're little you always think that you're never going to grow up. You're never going to drive a car, or be done with school. You look at your mom with a frustrated look and with a big sigh and large arm movements say to her "I'm never gonna be old enough!" Then roll your eyes, and turn around walking away with a defeated head hanging and shoulders slumping. We've all been there.

What's funny is, one day you wake up and your college graduation was yesterday. Or you finally find out your pregnant, or you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Suddenly what you thought would never happen, does. I know many of you are sitting out there discouraged and wanting to be done with the struggle in your life. You want to write it off as never going to happen so you can move on and be done waiting. It will be worth the wait because one day... it happens. :)

Andrea

Another Day in the Life

Struggle and Faith have been common in many discussions recently. From sermons, to prayer requests, to just daily conversations, I have been hearing a lot about these two words. It seems as though many are in a time of struggle in one form or another. Most seem to be financial but there are many who seem to struggle with more and trying to find the faith to make it through. If I am talking about any of you reading out there, please know that you are definitely not alone in your time of struggle. We are right there with you. It always makes struggling easier when you know your not on your own.

I heard a sermon  yesterday which was repeated last night in our Bible study. We often think when struggle comes that God has left us. No, not left, that He has abandoned us. Left means he stepped outside while abandoned means He purposefully ran away from us. I'm sure this idea is an American cultural idea probably linked somewhat to the idea of the prosperity gospel that says if God is with us then He will prosper us financially and keep us comfortable. Wrong. When we look in the Bible, some of the people who struggled the most were closest to God, and God used the struggle to bring glory to Himself and to lead people to know Him. How awesome and yet backwards to us humans. We glorify big names and powerful people, but Jesus, who was God, came to earth in the form of a servant, the lowest of the low, and ask that we do the same. He ask that we get in with people and struggle with them and struggle with the sin inside ourselves, and seek to be like Jesus, but understand that He was perfect and we are not. Life in some sense is struggle.

But then there is a whole different side where Jesus promises life and life abundantly. So life is struggle, and we all know this. But life is faith- the substance of things hoped for and unseen. Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross. We endure suffering for the faith that God is going to do something great in and through it. How wonderful our God is to use our sufferings to bring about His glory. To use us as part of His plan.

I know its not always easy to see suffering and struggle in an encouraging light. I am feeling encouraged today in our struggling, so I am sharing with you. I hope you were encouraged to.

Andrea

Welcome!

It's the beginning of a journey for us that we are not sure exactly where the road will lead. Since we have people who would love to know what is going on with us, a blog is an easy way to make that happen. So here we are, joining the many many bloggers out there who share their lives and stories. For those who are reading, thank you. We hope you are inspired by the words you read here. As God continues to teach and grow us, we hope to share that with our reading audience. It's gonna be a fun journey, welcome along for the ride.

We are soon approaching our first year wedding anniversary. Strange to think it has already been almost that long. It doesn't feel that long. The first 9ish months of marriage have been mostly smooth. For me (Andrea), it was a whole lot smoother than I imagined. We had friends who told us that your first 3 months are hell on earth, and other such disheartening type stories. You marry someone because you like them and love them and want to be with them, then get told by those who go before you that what you think is going to be great ends up being a terrible thing. Not so fun. However, we have been blessed to have a different experience which we are both very thankful for. We have had to make adjustments as do most married newlyweds, but overall its been a very fun experience. My view of marriage most of the time is that its like hanging out with your best friend all the time. I can't think of a better way to spend my life. I just get to call him my husband also. I know some will chuckle with a just wait until.... and list about their year of marriage struggle. I am not naive enough to think marriage is perfect, but I also don't think it has to be an ongoing struggle. I guess we will see.

All in all, its been a good year. And now we are sitting in a very hot Texas continuing to learn about doing life and ministry as a married couple. It is a challenge, but such a good challenge. I am convinced that their is nothing as powerful as a man and woman both called by God to a specific purpose and joined together for that same purpose. The unity of people is a very powerful force, and in marriage it is both powerful and beautiful. The power being the unity of two people joined together for a common purpose. The beauty being how that plays out. Nothing is more fun than watching a man and woman in love play off each other in a positive way. We got to see that as a couple of our friends who will have a baby soon sang "A Whole New World" karoke style last night. They were so cute.

Since this is my first post, I will keep it relatively short, wouldn't want to burn readers out too soon. Happy reading! More to come soon.