Mystery Solved

As I wind up the day, I find myself thinking again about old-fashioned mystery stories: locked rooms, oxymoronically loud whispers, lingering colognes, and a long line up of suspects. Why are vintage who-dun-its so popular? I once read an article positing that people like classic mysteries because they bring order into chaos. We recognize that there will always be evil and wrong-doing in the world. Victims will suffer every day. However, mystery stories, at the very least, bring resolution. There are understandable (if not reasonable) explanations for human behavior after the solution is discovered. Even little "red herrings" have their explanations. Wrong and right are clearly defined. Also important-though the body count may mount, usually the perpetrator is brought to justice.

Source

Enjoyment of both cerebral feats and structure marked me as a mystery consumer from a young age. Years before Robert Downey revived the oddly compelling sleuth, I read the entire Sherlock Holmes collection twice. Rainy mornings in junior high were marked by his cynicism and articulate eighteenth century lexicon. I've waded through Agatha Christie, Father Brown, Elizabeth Peters and even some Raymond Chandler. The characters amused and challenged me, but frankly, I no longer read mysteries to exercise critical thinking. Rather, they offer escape into a few hours of clear explanations, order, and justice. In a world where both criminals and heroes are capricious and definitive answers are rare, I need a good mystery every few months.

Coming and Going

The other day I caught myself coming and going. I forwarded an email from my work address to my personal address, and my automatic response from home ended up in my work inbox:

Hello Friends,

This is an automatic email to let you know that due to several work
and volunteer commitments, my response to your email may be delayed a
few days. Thank you for your patience. If your communication is
time-sensitive, please feel free to give me a call.

Katie

Then when I arrived home that evening, I saw that my automated email from home had triggered my automated out-of-office reply at work warning that I was at a conference and would be delayed in responding. As my esteemed father would say, "Ye gads!"

Don't worry, you're not out of the loop. I'll blog in the future about the traipsing that is pulling me every which way. In the meantime, I wanted to give you a little glimpse of how I spend 40+ hours a week: Here is a blog post from work about one of our interns spending a lunch hour with Joni (our founder) and a visitor. What makes this lunch date remarkable is that all three are quadrapeligics whose lives have been transformed by knowing Jesus Christ. 

Thanksgiving 2010 was particularly difficult for my family as we had just lost my grandfather three weeks previously. My aunt shared at the time that we can't appreciate the "high highs" of life without going through the "low lows." I think of that statement almost every day at Joni and Friends.

Color

He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, 

yet so that he cannot find out what God has done 

from the beginning to the end. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Water Walking

Monday night at Friendship Class highlighted a review of the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water. Now, I probably first heard this story at age 3 and can quickly rattle off the sequence:


After a busy day involving motivational speaking to upwards of 10,000 people without a PA system (not to mention miraculous provision of protein and carbs), Jesus decided to take five and went for a walk. The disciples hopped in a boat presumably left over from their fisherman days and proceeded to sail across a humongous lake. (Yes, the Middle East does evidently have a few). Well, a mean storm swirls up out of nowhere, and the disciples presume they are about to perish. This seemed to happen to them on a fairly routine basis, which can't have been good for their blood pressure. Anyway, in the middle of the spurting waves and gasping winds, Jesus comes sauntering across the waves. The disciples' first inclination was that He was a ghost (guess they assumed only lonely spirits hovered in fatal weather) until Jesus called out to them not to be afraid. Then they were just plain confused (which also seemed to happen on a fairly routine basis--hence all the sheep analogies in the Bible), but Peter--our hero--blurts out, "Lord, if it really is you, tell me to walk to you on the water."


Well, the rest of the story generally gets all the press. Jesus tells him to come; Peter jumps out of the boat and walks on the water to Jesus; Peter becomes scared by the wind and waves and starts to sink; he has enough presence of mind to yell, "Help, Lord!"; Jesus escorts him back to the boat. Good stuff. Better than dragons and dwarfs, but let's backtrack for a minute, back to yours truly blearily cogitating in Friendship Class.


As I was sitting there after a twelve hour day with no rest, I thought, "Why the heck did Peter tell Jesus to call him out of the boat? What motivated him? Did he want the miraculous? Was he just overwhelmed and not thinking clearly? Was it the Holy Spirit? Why would commanding Peter to do something stupid prove Jesus' identity? It seems counter-intuitive. So crazy!" And then the Holy Spirit reminded me, "You pray that way Katie." Oh. Right.


Okay, so I do try to avoid smelly fishing boats, but the principle applies. I do pray that way. Sometimes my circumstances are crazy and I think I see God showing up in a certain way. I want to be where He is, but the environment is chaotic, and I'm not sure it's really Him. It's confusing. It's scary. And yes, I have been known to say, "God, if this is really how You're moving, confirm it for me. Confirm in me this absurd inclination that is not something that would come naturally to me. Prompt me to be kinder than I actually am. Give me the urge to volunteer for yet one more thing that doesn't fit into my schedule. Tell me to call this person who really annoys me--because these are things I know don't originate from my brain."


And the other reassuring thought from the Peter lesson was that even if I become overwhelmed and sink, it doesn't mean that I heard wrong. I'm still processing this one, but I do know that He's not surprised when I fail. So it's better to try. Maybe I'll sink, but at least I will have walked on water. 

IJM Benefit

Friends--I mentioned that I volunteered last week for an International Justice Mission fundraiser, and I want to share this communication as a follow-up. What a joy to know that the event was so successful financially! Also, this email (now a post) has several links for easy involvement, including a link to an audio clip of the speech about tenacious love that has been replaying in my mind all week. Thank you, Jesus, for the internet, since I didn't think to take notes. I remain, caffeinated-yet-sleepy, yours, Katie

Dear Katherine,

It was such a joy to have you join us this weekend at the IJM Benefit Dinner, and we’re so encouraged to see the justice movement growing in Los Angeles.

Our evening together raised nearly $1.1 million for justice. If you would still like to give and send IJM to care for victims of violent oppression, simply go to www.ijm.org/give.

We would love for you to deepen your partnership in this fight. Here are a few additional ways you can join us.

Spread the Word: Introduce your network to the work of IJM. Start with this video celebrating IJM’s 15-year anniversary, or share the L.A. Benefit speech,available here on our website.

Advocate: Urge your elected officials to become anti-slavery champions! Join IJM and learn about local advocacy efforts by "liking" the California IJM Advocacy Facebook page.

Engage Your Church: Encourage your church to join the other churches in the Los Angeles area that participate with us in the work of justice. If you would like to connect your church to IJM, please contact Director of Church Mobilization, Jocelyn White (jwhite@ijm.org).

My IJM colleagues are in the midst of the long, worthy fight for justice - sustained by the love you've shown for children, women and men around the world who desperately need an advocate.

On behalf of the IJM team and those whom you enable us to serve, thank you.

Warmly,

Gary Haugen
President and CEO

P.S. If you have questions about IJM or the difference your support makes in people’s lives, please feel free to e-mail us at giving@ijm.org.

Modern Day Mordor

Arrigetch Peaks, Alaska

National Geographic Photo of the Day

Faithfulness

Thinking a lot this morning about the lyric “Pain is no measure of His faithfulness.” It’s amazing how you can be familiar with a concept—even trusting in it and meditating on it—but a certain phrase encapsulates all the thoughts and circumstances. That is the power of poetry. I’ve written out this phrase in dark purple Sharpie and posted it on my bulletin board at work right under the verse that says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

Measuring

On Saturday night I volunteered at an International Justice Mission benefit dinner. Their Director of Church Mobilization asked me what motivated me to give up a Saturday. My thought was, "Are you kidding? I love being around you guys, and you're actually on my side of the continent this weekend!" Thankfully, my response was a bit more articulate: "I'm a big supporter of IJM and care deeply about justice, and I would love to work for IJM someday."


The evening was a healing occasion personally, one of the many reasons being the live music of Sara Groves and David Hodges. I added three more of Sarah's CDs to my collection. Her thoughtful lyrics betray an English degree. Reclining in my little Kia before tromping into the convalescent home this afternoon, this line from her newest CD, "Invisible Empires" filled my brain and heart:


"Pain is not a measure of His faithfulness."


...


So true. So timely. Still another thing to process: How have I been measuring His faithfulness?

How's that?

"But there was one interesting moment, and that was when an entire table of guys--two television executives, one move producer, and an agent--was disrupted by the sounds of their cell phones ringing simultaneously. They all took the calls, of course, rising from the table to move to more secluded corners of the dining room in case they were screwing any of their lunch companions in a business deal and were going to be told so by an assistant. General hilarity reigned when each returned, and before long the entire restaurant was in on the joke: three assistants had been calling to say that the fourth lunch companion would be late, while his assistant was calling to tell him she had told the others that he would be late.


"'And he's not even late!' they all roared.


"Then the restaurant manager came over to personally deliver the message they'd just received that Mr. Blah Blah was running a little late. And the place went wild. The fact that everyone thought this was the hilarious high point of the day goes a long way toward explaining how lame most movies and TV shows are, particularly the ones that are supposed to be funny."


From Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen