"Follow Me"

I recently had this refrain running through my head over and over again to a variation of a traditional Irish tune called The Chanter's Song. While I was hearing it, I kept picturing being surrounded by children somewhere in the Middle East, I think, and they were all vying for my attention, trying to pull me to their village to help them. I finally jotted down the lyrics in an effort to get it to stop repeating, so here you go:

There's a way 

through the wind and the sea.

All around they cried, "Follow me! Follow me!"

And I heard them laugh 

and I heard them scream.

All around they cried, "Follow me! Follow me!"

"Why," they ask,

"are you caught in a dream?

There's a world out here and we have many needs."

And they took my hands

and pulled me through their streets.

All around they cried, "Come with me! Follow me!"

And I said to them,

"It's not as easy as it seems.

I have school and debt and not many means."

And they faded fast

receding into dreams

and they called to me, "Come with me! Follow me!"

Saying:

There's a way 

through the wind and the sea.

All around they cried, "Follow me! Follow me!"

And I heard them laugh 

and I heard them scream.

All around they cried, "Follow me! Follow me!"

Raw Vegan Desserts

As you may know, I've been playing with the idea of going to a raw vegan diet and thought I'd test the waters a bit with some dessert recipes I found while doing a stellar job of procrastinating... ;)
The first is brownies and the recipe is here:
http://uncooking101.com/site/raw-food-recipe/caramel-fudge-brownies/

I didn't have lucuma so the frosting isn't caramel, but it is still very good! I ended up spreading the brownies into an 8x8 pan instead of 6x6 and then cut them into 36 squares and garnishing each with half a red raspberry. :)

The second recipe was Baby Blondies (recipe here: http://almostveganchef.com/2011/01/22/the-5-minute-single-serving-raw-vegan-blondie/ ) with chocolate ganache (recipe here: http://almostveganchef.com/2010/10/04/reviews-tropical-traditions-xagave/ )

Instead of making a single serving with the recipe, I pressed the dough into five smaller servings. I also took the vanilla option versus hazelnut in the ganache based on what was in the cupboard!

First attempt at intentionally raw vegan desserts has been deemed a success! :) I highly recommend the recipes and hope to pursue raw vegan foods in general (slowly transitioning from my cooked vegan diet, of course!).

Mission Accomplished.

Well this wraps up my fourth and final day of the juice reboot. Why not ten, you ask?
My purpose for this reboot was two-fold:

a) I wanted my mom (who has been doing this with me) to feel better from various ailments and adopt a healthier life style. I had told her that I would do it if she would do it and she has for three days (I started a day before her). At this point, she says she needs to have more than juice in order to do her jobs up to par, but has realized how unhealthy her diet was and wants to center her diet in the future around fruits and vegetables- which I'm thrilled about! :) She also plans to cut down her meat intake to once or twice a week (also fantastic!) and cut out white flour and refined sugar! We (I'm going to continue to eat what she eats, hence stopping the just juice portion) are going to continue to juice once to twice a day and to still just eat fruits and vegetables for probably around another five days, at which point we'll add in nuts, seeds, beans, etc. and then after that she can add back in moderate animal products if she wishes (I will not be eating the same as her in that case, though!).

b) I was impressed in the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead by the need to give your digestive system a rest, which given our typical American eating patterns, we don't tend to do much. So, I'd say that four days qualifies for that. I do still want to do a ten-day reboot at some point (hopefully after I have a wide variety of really yummy juice recipes to live on!) but that will be slightly postponed for now.

From this mini-reboot:
- I've enjoyed clearer vision.
- My resting heart rate has come back down to 54, which is what it was when I was training pretty hard over two years ago.
- My body feels healthier in general and more ready to resume training (yay!), less sluggish, etc.
- I've learned some important lessons in nutrition and really experienced the difference on how you can feel on great fuel.
- I've also learned that it's okay to feel a little bit hungry. This is a very important lesson as I was starting to pick up a pretty nasty habit of diving into food given the slightest excuse of hunger, boredom, need for brainpower, etc. On the reboot, I was rarely not hungry, and learned to be okay with that.
- And yes, I also lost a little bit of weight. :)

So! I recommend to all of you to focus on fruits and veggies and experiment with how to make healthy living work for you! (And maybe you'll even do a little reboot yourself!)  :)

Going Green

Okay, well maybe not quite like that... ;)
This is more like it:

This is a green smoothie that I've been drinking for the past few weeks to phase myself in.
You can make it too! :)
- Start by putting a banana and a cup of water in a blender and blending until smooth.
- Then add some spinach. I started up with a small handful and worked my way up to about 3-4 cups. Blend that until smooth. The awesome part about this recipe is that you really don't taste the spinach, so it tastes like a fruit smoothie, but you get the nutrient load of all the spinach!
- At this point you can add in 1/2- 1 whole cucumber, but you don't have to at first. Be warned that you can taste the cucumber a tiny bit, but it isn't overwhelming. If you do decide to add it in, cut it into 2 inch segments and blend until smooth.
- Add frozen fruit. I like a mix from Sam's Club with strawberries, peaches, mango, and pineapple. Add however much you want. I usually go for about a cup. Blend until smooth.
- Add water until you reach desired consistency, blending it through.
- You can also add ground flax seed and hemp protein powder for added nutrients if you want.

So that's what I've been drinking the past few weeks. (Well, not just that! I've been using it as a supplement to my vegan diet and then started using it as a meal replacement smoothie.) Now, though, I just successfully completed day 2 of a 10 day juice reboot. And what I'm drinking looks more like this:

This reboot was specifically inspired (I've generally wanted to do one for a little while now) after watching the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. Here's a link to that trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv3vEXy_EwU
It's a documentary about an Australian guy, Joe Cross, who does a 60 juice reboot while going across the United States. It is a very interesting look at what we eat and what it does to us and I would HIGHLY recommend everyone watch it, regardless of whether or not you are interested in ever doing anything similar, just for the informational value on a side of medicine that we often don't think about. (And he's pretty funny, so it's not like it's a super dry and boring way to spend an evening! :) ) And if you decide that you might want to try some juicing, there are some good recipes on his reboot website:
http://jointhereboot.com/

So far the oddest thing I've noticed in the past few days is that colors are brighter and everything is more vivid. Kind of like when I go from not wearing glasses to putting on my glasses and suddenly the world is in focus. It's like that, but I'm already wearing my glasses, so it's like a step beyond that! Kind of cool! :)

More from Cornerstone Simi

I thought I'd just jot down some quotes that have really jumped out at me from the Cornerstone Simi podcasts. Feel free to comment with any thoughts you have.

"I want to be so gracious and loving that it just makes the day of each person I meet. Am I a person that loves God? Am I a person that loves people? And when they come in contact with me, do they see that? I want people who come in contact with me just to go, "Man, he like looked in my eyes, like he really cared! He genuinely loved me!" That's what God does for us. Okay, this isn't going to be by your own power. You don't just master up a love like that. You come before God and say, "God, make me a lover of You. Make me a lover of people. Holy Spirit change me. Holy Spirit empower me, so that I can show that type of love to my friends and that I can share the word of God with my friends, as imperfectly as it's going to be. Help me to disciple my friends and let's just see what happens from there."
~ Francis Chan, Love God Love People

"I'm very excited about the future... It's an adventure and our lives are going to be over before we know it."
~ Francis Chan, Love God Love People

"There will be no cowards in heaven."
~Francis Chan, The End

"I love how the fact that Paul talks about it in Philippians 1:6– the one who began a good work in you, He's going to complete it. He has a goal–not only in this grand level with these people, but in each of our lives, to shape us and mold us into the image of Jesus. That was the purpose of the cross, was that we would be drawn to Him… that now being drawn to Him because Jesus is open this way we can now go to that God and as we draw near to Him, we begin to look like Him and walk like Him and we gain His heart, we gain His mind. And we become these people, true humanity– what God desired us to be."

~ Todd Nighswonger, "The Great Salvation of God" 8-7-11

Of love, faith, and freedom

‎"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." 
- John 13:34-35

All across America today churches will be gathered and hold services in memory of 9-11-01.
That is not wrong. The loss of life that day was horrible.
But how many people will also remember those who have suffered and died since then?
How many people will take action to help those who are still suffering the repercussions?
The response of "Christians" in America has not always been what it should have been. We have allowed bitterness and hatred to grow unchecked towards millions and millions of people that we have grouped all into a generalized category, regardless of whether or not they fit in that category, all in the name of patriotism. Responses of certain "churches" have been completely atrocious– people reacting from their own hurt, but in turn hurting a multitude of other Christ followers around the world who then fall victim to extreme governments who wrongly have grouped these earnest, gentle Christ followers in with these "Christians" in America who are being so hateful. The result? More persecution, false trials, and wrongful imprisonment and death for those who dare to follow Christ in those districts across the world, as well as bigger barriers built between true Christians and those we are called to love.
Lately I've been listening to the Cornerstone Simi Podcast "The People of God" sermon by Christian Burkhardt given on 7-10-11 and it's really made me think through some of these issues.
Do we have the heart of a priest, representing Yahweh to the people in this world? Think back on Moses offering to take the people's punishment himself in Exodus 32. That is what Christ did for us. Do we have that same love towards others? We have indeed been called to represent God to those around us. Do we care so deeply for those who don't know God that we would be willing to offer ourselves in their place?

Here are some links you might find interesting if you want to pursue some of this further:
If you would be interested in building bridges rather than barriers:
https://www.crescentproject.org/
advocating for persecuted Christians:
http://www.opendoorsusa.org/advocacy/
writing a government official on behalf of an imprisoned Christian:
https://secure2.convio.net/ccod/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=243

Those are just a few of many options. Feel free to share thoughts or more links below.
I'd like to close with the prayer that was given at the end of the podcast referenced earlier:
"Yahweh, You are who You are and not who we think You are and You are more than we can understand. Would You, Lord, please keep our feeble minds from gravitating towards what is comfortable and understandable to us because You are bigger than we can understand and You are better than we can understand, and You have called us to make You known. Father this is not about us trying harder to be like You. This is about being in Your midst, drawing near to You. We have that amazing promise from You in James that if we draw near to You, You will draw near to us. And we see how You took a man like Moses and You molded and shaped his heart to bring it in line with Yours and we ask You to do the same in us. We do not love as we should, we do not care for others as we should... it is intimidating to think of having to love in such an uncomfortable way but Your love is uncomfortable and it's unstoppable and You want to show that through us. It's not about our ability, it's never been about our ability. It's been about You and Your plan and so we humbly ask, God, would You make us a part of Your plan? Would You use us in amazing ways to show Your glory? We ask this in Your name, Lord Jesus, Amen."

Double Take

*other people's names and scores have been changed to protect privacy*

So last night was our first EMT test (covering the first four chapters). I was extremely nervous, not having a clue as to what to expect. We took the test on four different scantrons, turned them in by chapter, and had a good half hour to sit around in agony (AKA break) before starting the lab part of class (taking vital signs). The tests came back in the room and sat tauntingly on the corner of the desk with the promise that we'd find out our scores right before we left for the night.
On another break I asked the instructor leading the lab (Eric) why my resting heart rate first thing in the morning could be as low as 54 but the one I took in class (after the test) was 78. He said he doubted that my numbers were right, but that stress could influence heart rate a lot.
I said, "Could apprehension over a test be enough stress to raise it that much?"
He looked doubtful, but Murray, the other instructor who had graded the tests, pointed down at a column of numbers he'd written and tapped a circled 91 with his finger saying, "That's her score."
Eric looked down at the number and nodded back at me. "Yes, that may have done it."

***

At the end of the night, the class started packing up our stuff and putting back stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs while Murray started reading off our test scores by number. (Each person in the class has a number so this allowed us to find out what we'd gotten without the rest of the class being able to link scores to person.) "1. 72, 2. 83, 3. 68, 4. 75..." I listened, gathering my things and waiting to hear number 11 just for added confirmation even though I'd seen the score earlier. "9. 58, 10. 77, 11. 75, 12. "
My breath caught, the muscles in my jaw briefly flinching as I willed myself not to give myself away. I slid my notebook into my backpack. Maybe he was reading off the scores for each individual test instead of the average I'd seen earlier. "Oh! Wait, sorry. Number eleven, 91. 12. 78..." I exhaled and reached for my textbook. When all the scores had been read, Murray passed out blank scantrons for the next three chapter quizzes. I swung my backpack on and took the pack of sheets he offered. He grinned, asking, "So, did I scare you when I read the wrong score?"
"Yes!"

Glad the first test is over. Hope the rest of the tests go as well! :)