Ridding ourselves of the dualistic notions of sacred & secular is not a statement that "nothing is sacred." Far from it! The goal is to face life as a whole - the beautiful & the messy all in one - and to realize that "the sacred" can be found anywhere. Our aim is to work into life what Christ accomplished in His death - the renting of the temple curtain. God is no longer contained in the Holy of Holies. He has escaped - and He wants to be discovered wherever you are.

We are at the end of the modernist experiment, and we have forfeited, we are missing, truth and goodness. Only beauty remains, but beauty appears to be dislocated and homeless, because, to borrow from Gertrude Stein, “there is no there there” anymore. How do we reconcile beauty and Auschwitz; how do we reconcile beauty and vacuous Madison Avenue? We have launched out into the deep and cast our harpoon, but we have missed, we are missing God. We miss God: we have missed in our attempt to grasp the incomprehensible, and thus we are missing, we are yearning and are pining for God. If modernism was the confident demand for the presence of God, the building of Babel, then postmodernism can be the passion to sift through the ruins of the twentieth century, the rubble of Babel, in a search for the absent God. It is no secret that our culture is experiencing a profound sense of alienation. We are alienated from ourselves, from others and from God. This is what I mean by the absence of God—not that God has abandoned us, but that we are estranged from God and others.

—Don Hudson, “The Dance of Truth: Postmodernism and the Evangelical”

source: Stephanie Berbec

Fashion, beauty, and other thoughts

Ok... I've kind of been on a fashion binge lately. I mean, I've always loved fashion, but the Lord has been re-awakening my love beauty and dress up and being girlie! I love it. The last few days I've been looking at pictures from New York Fashion Week (which just wrapped up). It's got me really excited. I feel like a lot of designers--not all, but most--are getting back to fun, feminine things, rather than wild, risque messes. Anyway, here are few that stood out to me:

Marc Jacobs, fall line

loveee this ensemble... :)

Victoria Beckham, fall line

PS. I reeeeally like that belt!

I'm also super excited for the Oscars tomorrow. I do hope that The King's Speech and Inception win big... but I'm way more interested in seeing what people wear! After the show, I'll post some of my favorite looks, but this was by far my favorite dress from last year. Rachel McAdams was just stunning in springy floral print with an elegant up-do and tasteful earrings. I just love it.

With my little obsession over fashion right now, I asked the Lord to show me more of what He thinks is beautiful and what beauty means. I've been in this process for a while--asking Him what beauty in literature looks like, beauty in film and music and art. I don't think beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is in the eye of the King... But getting back to fashion and outward beauty, He revealed some really amazing things to me. The first verse He pointed me to was Proverbs 31, about the Virtuous Woman. This is how it reads in the Message:

"A good woman is hard to find,

and worth far more than diamonds...

She makes her own clothing,

and dresses in colorful linens and silks.

Her husband is greatly respected

when he deliberates with the city fathers.

She designs gowns and sells them,

brings sweaters she knits to the dress shops.

Her clothes are well made and elegant

and she always faces tomorrow with a smile..."

Ok... a few things about this passage really stood out to me. First of all--the verse about her husband being respected is literally bookended by two verses about his wife's clothing. There seems to be a connection between the way she presents herself and the level of honor he receives.

The other thing--which to me was a HUGE revelation!--was the last verse. This whole section is talking about her designing and making beautiful clothes. Then it ends with the coupling of (seemingly) different ideas. Yet, once again, the author makes a connection between her clothes being "elegant" and her facing the future "with a smile." In other words, the author is connecting her outer beauty (her clothes) with her inner beauty (peace about her future), and pointing out how they affect one another.

Isn't that amazing?!? I totally flipped out when He showed me this. I mean, fashion matters to Him! He created the heart of a daughter to want to be beautiful--even over the top. Why? Because He likes to be over the top. I'm convinced that's why we have so many different eye colors, why there are such breathtaking sunsets, why there are mountains and wildflowers and beaches. We don't have these things because of the laws of nature. These are the laws of nature because our God is an extravagant God who loves beauty. And so He made a little girl with the desire to dress up--not just for the purpose of dressing up--but so she could face "tomorrow with a smile."

update

I'm LOVING college!

This is kind of new for me! There have been moments of excitement, but not like this. Now i'm really loving it!

I'm taking French 102 and it's real fun because nearly the entire class period is in French.

I'm also taking English 197 and 202. These classes are linked. So, what that means, is that in 202 the professor lectures on how to approach literature and in 197 a different teacher gives us writing exercises and helps us with papers regarding the reading homework for 202. This basically means I have less homework and less "in class" time. Which is fine with me! So far, we've read the "Lucy Poems" and "Tintern Abbey" by Wordsworth, an article by T.S. Eliot, and a selection of Shakespeare's Sonnets. We're going to be reading a lot more poetry and articles but we also are reading Things Fall Apart by Achebe, Heart of Darkness by Conrad, and, one of my favorites, Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. My teachers are great too. My English professor said the other day, "Literature is the art of words arraigned a certain way." Hehe! So excited!

I've been able to engage so much more this quarter and step more fully into my intended major(s).

But it hasn't been easy. I've also really been wrestling with a lot of the philosophy that is being blasted our direction. We have had several "New Historicists" vs. "New Critics" debates--and i've had to just stand back and say, "I don't agree with either!"

I have noticed how easy it is for my mind to be over-stimulated by all this amazing information i'm hearing and discovering. But it is so empty!

It's amazing and all to learn and to understand. But, I'm learning how much I don't want that to be my goal or my focus.

It truly is all about His glory. I'm beginning to see how dissatisfying everything else is--especially intellectualism. I don't want book-knowledge... I want His wisdom.

I know this probably sounds pathetically religious; but i'm seeing how He is my treasure. He excites and satisfies me more!

Kim Walker has a new song out called "I Need You More" and it has been the soundtrack to my life this last week. The words are SO simple! And yet, they wreck me!

I need you more

More than yesterday

I need you more

More than words can say

I need you more

Than ever before

I need you Lord

I need you Lord

More than the air I breathe

More than the song I sing

More than the next heart beat

More than anything!

And Lord as time goes by

I’ll be by your side

Cuz I never want to go back

To my old life!

I need you more

More than yesterday

I need you more

More than words can say

I need you more

Than ever before

I need you Lord

I need you Lord

We give you the Highest Praise!!!