Speaking of wonderful memories, I'll never forget meeting Archbishop Duncan this summer. The Anglican Church in North America is a somewhat new church in a very old line of tradition and history.

I fall more in love with its theology and its people every day.

I know there is no perfect church, but I'm always so blessed to see our church expressed in truly charismatic, evangelical and liturgical worship. Meeting the leadership of this forming church was amazing, surprising, fun and affirming.

I think we have 7 churches in Chicago and the suburbs. And while we're all committed to our own local congregations, we're also committed to our entire Chicago family and, beyond that, our world family. (Archbishop Duncan leads all of North America!) So with that, I'd like to share a stunning video made by our Anglican brothers and sisters in Canada.

I reaaaally love the music:

ps: you'll never guess which people group the archbishop said he'd most like to reach ... undergraduates!

"Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry, you will be saved."

"In your patience, possess ye your souls."

"By your endurance, you will gain your lives."

Luke 21:19

I have to admit something.

This summer has been hard. Very hard.

Make-me-angry-and-depressed hard.

And that's because, as they say, "the rain falls on the good and the bad."

And as my friends say, "to think we can really do something to manipulate our lives is not faith, it's superstition."

You know, I'm not afraid of hard things.

I'm afraid of bad memories.

I'm afraid of waking up next year, miserable at the thought of last year.

But in Luke 21 Jesus said,

"By your endurance, you will gain your souls."

And endurance is not brief. Endurance is waking up in the morning day after day when you'd rather not. Endurance is not panicking or being lazy. Endurance is steady and faithful until the end.

Besides, I do have some remarkable memories from this summer!

I dare not overlook them or God's abundant and surprising provision in other manners. It may be a little miserable, I may need to shape up, but God has been with me. I have no doubt about that.

Some of those fine memories include this Monday with Rickie & Carlos, kind friends we do not see often enough:

And then with Prince William (my own David Sedaris and the most recent Chicago transplant):

Blessed is the life.

Today, I am feeling very young. I feel green, twiggy, wick.

There are so many older women whom I look up to, but perhaps looking up for too long made me dizzy. Because I look back down and am sometimes confused to find that I am not 29, I am not a mother, I'm just starting my career, I'm not 25, I'm not even 22.

Inspired by a brainstorming session at work yesterday, I came home brimming with excitement at the though of seeing Jake mature as a godly man.

He already is such a role model to me, he is profoundly thoughtful and he is diligent in prayer. But he is still so young! And for now, it's perfect.

Today, being young and having so far to go is perfect!

The sight of adventures and growing pains is endearing. Recently, I've been far too afraid to face those adventures. And who can be both worrisome and productive at once? Not I.

So today, I resolve to enjoy life's hardships (and joys) as I grow up along side the love of my life. Now is our time. I will rejoice in our youth.

7:01 am - a rush of rain (and maybe even hail) comes flying through our windows. i look at the clock.

7:01:15 am - i'm out of bed, running the perimeter of our home to close all of the windows.

7:02 am - Jake asks, "what's going on?" i respond, "so much rain, wild isn't it?"

7:02 am - i proceed to the bathroom to close the window and notice it's already closed. i ask, "Jake, did you just close this window?" he answers, "yeah, what's going on?" i respond, "so much rain." and think to myself, silly man.

7:03 am - we both lie back in bed, hold hands, and smile at the booming thunder.

7:04 am - from the look of our windows, it appears our building is going through a car wash. i pretend that is what's happening for a moment, until another shout of thunder shakes our floor.

i drove by myself Saturday.

through 30 miles of corn.

and i loved feeling comfortable behind the wheel.

over the hills. tail of dust.

and i wondered about this world grain.

i wondered where it would end up.

in your cereal bowl?

sweetening your cola?

feeding your will-be hamburger?

the opportunities are endless, really.

and inspired by such opportunity,

i turned on the local country music station.

yes, yes i did.