reminders from romans.

love from the center of who you are;

don't fake it.

run for dear life from evil;

hold on for dear life to good.

be good friends who love deeply;

practice playing second fiddle.

don't burn out;

keep yourselves fueled and aflame.

be alert servants of the Master;

cheerfully expectant.

don't quit in hard times;

pray all the harder.

help needy christians;

be inventive in hospitality...

discover beauty in everyone.

-- romans 12.9-13, 17 (the message)

i've always liked this passage, and i'm currently struck by eugene peterson's interpretation of it. sometimes the christian life can seem complicated, theology can get wordy and confusing, and doing ministry and mission can mean lots of planning/strategizing/meeting. all of that to say, the simplicity and beauty of this passage are a refreshing reminder of how good it is to love God and love people. 

happy friday, everyone!

tour de south.

last weekend chris and i went on a little adventure. my best friend had a baby two weeks ago, so the original plan was to venture down to birmingham, meet the little cutie, love on the new parents, and make our way back to norman. then, kinda at the last minute, this quick little road trip turned into a whirlwind tour of the southeast. i mean, if you're gonna drive that far, you might as well maximize your time, right? well, maximize we did. 5 days, 8 states, 2000 miles, and 20 friends later, we're exhausted in the best way possible.

in summary, our #tourdesouth:

longview: on thursday, we kicked off the tour by driving down to longview (5 hours) to see my mom's new digs... which, of course, also meant enjoying some yummy pizza king (hometown favorite) and some time with our little nephew (oh yeah... and mom and luke and teri).

atlanta: on friday, we woke up at the crack and drove alllllll the way to atlanta (our longest drive of the tour -- 11 hours). all of my friends there live in midtown, which means they all live in these really cool, old, southern house/apartments, surrounded by pretty trees, right in the heart of the city, and all within walking distance of each other. incredible. we were welcomed with a fun dinner out, a relaxing night of desserts in, then brunch on saturday morning at one of their favorites. it was perfect. 

surprise #1: one of my good friends (chase -- in the blue) who has been in china for a year just happened to be driving thru atlanta with his fiance and stopped by to see us. i freaked.

birmingham: after brunch in atlanta, we hit the road to birmingham (only 2ish hours!). we were SO excited to meet mr. john michael hefner. y'all. look at this baby:

so handsome. that hair is just too good. i loved getting to see sarah and justin be parents. clearly they're brand new at this and still trying to figure it all out, but let's be honest, they're already champs. chris and i took turns holding the little guy... and by "took turns" i mean, selfishly fought over him. can you even handle him all curled up on chris?!

surprise #2: my friends who just adopted a little boy from ethiopia (read their story here) just happened to be in birmingham for a wedding shower, so we met up with them for coffee and got to meet little israel and talk church-planting and adoption (two of our favorite things). 

surprise #3: one of chris's best friends and his wife just happened to be in birmingham for a wedding, so we got to enjoy a long breakfast with them on sunday morning (which included blue corn grits -- hello, south -- and, of course, more church-planting talk). 

fayetteville: on sunday afternoon, we took off for fayetteville (our second-longest leg of the journey -- 9 hours). on our way (surprise #4!), we made a quick stop in north little rock to see one of my girls from KAA. i haven't seen this girl in 3 years!!

one of my roommates from waco now lives and works at a church in fayetteville, and another friend works at a different church in fayetteville and is married to one of my friends from auburn. the world is tiny. we loved getting to crash at their new house, tour around the university of arkansas, and enjoy one of their favorite lunch spots (and, wait for it, more church/ministry talk). then, we wrapped it up with a little 4-hour drive back to home sweet 'homa.

welp, there you have it folks... the bristers' whirlwind tour de south. we had such a blast getting away and hanging out with some of our favorite people on the planet. it was so refreshing to remember that we're not alone in the grind of ministry -- so many of those friends are right there with us, just a few hundred miles away. the thing is, we're all working toward the same end. we're all loving and serving the Church by loving and serving our churches -- sounds simple, but it was a much needed reminder. 

thanks to all of you for being such great hosts and for breathing a little life and encouragement into us! we promise we'll return the favor if you come visit us in norman! (HINT, HINT!)

fasting.

i've never really been into fasting... as if it's something we can choose not to be into. seriously, it's never been a part of my life. ever. i did the daniel fast with my roommates a couple years ago, but let's be honest, i think i was more intrigued by the nutritional aspect of it than the spiritual. some people practice a type of fasting every year during lent, but i grew up in a first baptist church, so not surprisingly, lent was never a part of our annual rhythm. so, 20 years into walking with Jesus, i realize i've completely ignored this discipline that he practiced frequently and commanded of his followers. yikes.

during the last few months, however, fasting has been slowly but surely making its way into my life. chris recently preached on fasting during our series on spiritual disciplines, and our missional community group has tried to fast together once a month. (thankfully, the husband loves fasting -- he's been super intentional about leading both me and our group in it.) needless to say, it has been quite a learning, growing, stretching experience for me.

i for sure have a love/hate relationship with fasting. i love that it's a means of knowing jesus more intimately, but i hate not having something i want (read: food). i don't know if there's necessarily a "right" way to fast, but when you find yourself justifying drinking chocolate milk and odwallas all day because they're filling but not technically "food," you're probably not doing it right. oops. unfortunately, i think the whole point is to be hungry. i think the whole point is to feel those hunger pains and to let them remind you of the only One who can satisfy and sustain... to recognize i need Him more than i need food... to desire Him more than i crave that pb&j that i literally find myself daydreaming about while fasting (i'm a work in progress here, people).

some of you may be super consistent fasters (is that a word?), and if you are, please send me some tips. but some of you may be like i was/am -- wondering why something that's all over scripture is nowhere to be found in your life. i encourage you just to think about doing it. if Jesus did it, and if Jesus said things like "when you fast..." (not if), it's probably a good idea to at least consider it. a few thoughts:

• read about it in scripture before you do it so you have an idea of why you're doing it. i didn't do this, so the first time i ever tried fasting, i was just hungry and grumpy. 
• think of it like prayer -- a normal rhythm in a christian's life, but sometimes practiced more fervently during significant times (big decisions, major life events, etc.). 
• start small. just fast through one meal the first time you do it. spend that time that you would be eating in prayer or scripture. maybe you eventually fast through two meals, or all three, or multiple days in a row, but maybe you don't. it doesn't matter. no need to be legalistic about it -- just be obedient to what you feel is necessary and appropriate. 
• try fasting in community. again, our missional community has been trying to practice this together and it has made all the difference in the world. you could do it with your small group or spouse or best friend. it brings a level of accountability and solidarity to it that i wouldn't have if i were trying to do it on my own. when we do it, we try to fast through breakfast and/or lunch, then we break it together with dinner that night. love this.
• give yourself some grace. this one's hard for me. i always feel like i'm not doing it right or that i'm missing the point or that i could be doing it better... but i'm not sure if there really is a right/wrong way to do it, and i don't really know that Jesus cares. 

so what do you think? if you have thoughts on fasting, any comments would be much appreciated... because clearly i'm still new at this. 

"blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

-- matthew 5.6

"my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever... for me it is good to be near God; i have made the Lord God my refuge, that i may tell of all your works." -- psalm 73.26, 28

color me rad.

i ran a 5k on saturday morning -- but not just any 5k -- a super colorful, everyone's just having fun, no one care's about the time 5k. sounds like my kinda race, huh? especially since i haven't consistently run in MONTHS. needless to say, i'm sore.

my sister-in-law, teri, and her sister, brittany, came up to run it with me. (they've actually been running recently, so i was basically just trying to keep up with them the whole time!) we decked out in all white, ready to be bombarded with color.

we ran through 5 color stations on our little 3.1 mile journey, then encountered this at the finish line:

it was a crazy mess of colored cornstarch madness. these cuties were waiting for us at the finish line, too:

{side note: somehow in the last month my nephew went from baby to toddler, and it's kinda blowing my mind... still adorable as ever though!}

we had a blast and came out looking like a bag of skittles!

check out color me rad or the color run to find a crazy colorful 5k near you!

7.

if i've had any kind of conversation with you recently, you've probably heard me rave about this book. i finished it a couple weeks ago, and i still can't stop thinking and talking about it.

so, the author is jen hatmaker, who i wish i could be friends with in real life. she and her husband are church planters (yep), and they've adopted 2 kids (win) from ethiopia (hello!!). on top of that, she's hilarious... and a texan. i mean, come on, y'all.

7 is a book about her "experimental mutiny against excess." she spent seven months examining seven different areas of life in which most of us live in ridiculous excess, and she reduced each area down to seven simple choices. so here's the rundown:

1. FOOD: she only ate 7 foods for a whole month. (nightmare.)
2. CLOTHES: she only wore 7 articles of clothing for a whole month. (not including underwear. that would be gross.)
3. POSSESSIONS: she gave away 7 things each day for a whole month. (wow.)
4. MEDIA: she shut off 7 different media outlets for a whole month. (which is essentially all of them.) 
5. WASTE: she picked up 7 green habits for a whole month (gardening, composting, recycling, etc... you know, all those things i wish i did or even knew how to do...)
6. SPENDING: she only spent money at 7 places for a whole month. (no eating out. yikes.)
7. STRESS: she practiced seven sacred pauses each day for a whole month. (yeah for our monastic brothers and sisters!)

so why in the world would she do this?! to purge the junk and find the necessary. much like a fast, it was "an exercise in simplicity with one goal: to create space for God's kingdom to break through... a deliberate abstinence to summon God's movement in my life." yes please.

when i was describing this book to a friend and trying to get her to read it, her response was, "no thanks, that sounds too extreme for me." here's the deal -- it's totally extreme and i have absolutely zero intention of ever only eating seven foods for a whole month (especially since there weren't any sweets on the list!). that's the thing about this book though -- it's not a guilt trip at all. i never felt like she was talking down to me or trying to make me feel like a terrible person -- but she did make me think and she did challenge me to reconsider these areas of life in light of who jesus is and what he's called us to. and the best part?? she made me laugh... a lot. always a win.

if i could read it again (which i might), i would move through it much more slowly and actually try to consider one area of life at a time before moving on to the next. by the end, i felt a little overwhelmed by all the things i wanted to add/change in my life -- and unfortunately, i'm often the queen of good intentions but have terrible follow through. so if when you read it, try not to take it in big chunks like i did. all that to say, i really, really think you should read it... and i'm fairly certain you'll love it. 

aruba, jamaica, ooo i wanna take ya...

well, maybe we didn't go to aruba, but we did go to jamaica! and grand cayman and cozumel! it was a fun week with chris' family and a much needed getaway for us. when i wasn't lathering up in sunscreen or covering the spots i missed with aloe (love ya, fair skin), we were taking lots of naps, reading good books (hopefully i'll post on them soon!), and eating way too much food. i'm seriously having soft serve withdrawals.

as we pulled into norman on sunday night, we both agreed it felt good to be back... which is huge for two reasons: 1) i think that's when you know it's been a good vacation -- when you feel refreshed and ready to hit the ground running again. 2) it means norman feels like home to us. maybe that sounds like a no-brainer since we've been here for nine months now, but moving here was a huge transition for us, so it was a big deal to miss norman friends while we were gone and to be excited to come back to our "home."

if only norman had sunsets on the water...