Go Bayside!

List Friday!

1. OK, I’ve got to start with the best news. My friends over at Office Pretty are having a giveaway. You can win a Jigsaw London dress plus $200 for accessories! Yes, please! Enter right this second. And don’t say I never did anything for you.

2. The other night I dreamed that someone gave me a teacup piglet! But it was kind of disappointing because it was much bigger than I wanted it to be and it kept biting me. Also it had sharp little toenails. The guy in my dream (apparently some kind of teacup piglet whisperer) told me to hold it like a little baby and it would fall asleep. So I did, but I was afraid it would bite me again. This was a very traumatic dream, you guys. It made me afraid of the thing I love the most! I’m pretty sure there’s some kind of subconscious psychological conclusion we could draw from this, but mostly I’m just sad that I’m now kind of scared of my tiny little piglet friend.

3. Speaking of teacup piglets, there is a 15-year-old girl in Colorado who is breeding some! I think I should buy one from her. Except that they’re $1,500. And my apartment complex doesn’t allow swine.

4. I was looking at old clips from Saved by the Bell last night on YouTube. Don’t be jealous of my fascinating life. I thought you’d like to see this one of our favorite A.C. Slater.

This one is also a gem. Although it’s when Tori was around. Who was Tori anyway? Where did Kelly and Jessie go? I never understood.

Apparently a lot of singing went on at Bayside. Just like my high school.

5. Did you know that 2 Timothy is probably the last letter Paul ever wrote? He basically writes it as a last testament, and passes the torch of apostleship on to Timothy. Paul was in prison in Rome at the time, due to Nero’s persecution of Christians, and he knew that his time was short. What a hard life he lived. All for the sake of Jesus — a man he hated until he met him.

6. It’s just more casual, you guys. No pressure.

7. I like Narnia. I think it’s a good place to start our weekend. Because God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love and a sound mind.

“You have listened to fears, Child,” said Aslan. “Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?”– Prince Caspian

Have the bestest weekend, friends!

There Will Be Unicorns In Heaven

Well, hello! I am so happy you’re here! Let’s chat.

Yesterday I got to spend some time with my friend Suzanne. She is an awesome writer and it was so fun to chat about writery things. We challenged one another to be entrepreneurs in the Craft of Writing. Actually, we didn’t do that, but we did drink coffee and smile at her baby and talk about all the books we want to write someday.

So the day started out great, but unfortunately it ended in anguish. This is because my friend Kristy and I went to a Body Pump class at the gym last night. Umm, Body Pump is a weightlifting class in which you use real barbells and barbell plates and do that weird move like you see on the Olympics when someone is trying to lift a million pounds over their head.

Kristy and I did not so much look like that guy for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s hard to look quite that impressive when you’re only lifting a total of ten pounds. Secondly, we forgot our weightlifting gloves so we did not want to get too risky. Finally, by about halfway through the class, I was mainly just watching other people while I pretended to lift my bar because my arms hurt, you guys. Out.Of.Shape.

My friends Lauren and Kim and I met for drinks the other day and we started talking about heaven. We decided it will be good times.

Right now, we all go through times of discontent and unhappiness. People around the world suffer from hunger, disease, violence and danger. We’re all affected by the pain of loss, rejection and loneliness. No matter what stage of life we’re in, we decided, we’re always wanting something different, something more. The earth groans. The rocks cry out. Every part of creation knows that something is broken.

But heaven. Heaven will be so good. God will repair and restore and make new. He will satisfy everything with his redemption, and those who have accepted Jesus’ gift of salvation will finally worship him as he deserves.

I used to think that heaven would be boring because we’d have to just sit around and sing a lot. But I don’t think that anymore. I think heaven will be like Isaiah 65 and Revelation 21 describe it. A restored earth, renewed bodies, reclaimed joy for relationships, work and fellowship with God. Our worship won’t be in just songs — it will literally be in everything we say, think, do. All of it, everything will be worship to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I found this when I Googled "heaven." Oh, Charlie.

I think heaven will be things we recognize but so much clearer, so much better. It will be like it was meant to be in Eden, before all was broken. The picture we get in the beginning will be restored in the end.

In the final Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia book, The Last Battle, the old Narnia is destroyed, but Aslan creates a new one — better than the one before. This new place is like the old, but things are set right. I think the unicorn sums it up best (unicorns are so wise):

The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked like it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will know what I mean.

It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia so much is because it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!”

Further up. Further in. I can’t wait.