your photo stories to Practice Resurrection (week 1)

"... we should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children's games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts, anything that comes to mind. this is our greatest festival....This is our greatest day. We should put the flags out.

...if Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up. ...The forty days of the Easter season, until the ascension, ought to be a time to balance out Lent by taking something up, some new task or venture, something wholesome and fruitful and outgoing and self-giving."

Want to join me, to practice resurrection for Eastertide?

Take something up and share it with us.  Maybe a six-week dance class?  We want you to show us a picture.  Planting spring flowers (maybe a new variety this year)?  Show us!  Taking a new route to work (maybe taking more time than necessary in honor of the mad farmer)?  Share it!

april 12

"Hello, friend," she said, smiling, as she walked down the path. "Is this the way to the dinosaur fossil pit?" "No," he responded, "it's back that way."

(W. David O. Taylor, Durham)

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Three in one: my father on my grandfather's tractor and me taking the picture.

(Andrew Shipman, Maine, NY)

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I've always felt the presence of God the most at the sea...beauty, power, immensity, risk. It lifts my eyes off myself, my smallness, and throws open wild new realms of dreams, desire and possibilities.

(Ellen Cressman, Boston)

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This was the first time I played in front of an audience.  As I began to pluck the strings, I had never felt so alive.

(Jordan Johnson, Austin)

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First ever baseball game. First time up to bat gets a hit and scores a run!

 (Natalie Briggs, Temple)

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Lerapalooza wouldn't have worked if my roommates weren't risky enough to get excited for something before they knew the outcome. We had a backyard big enough for a stage, and people like to perform. Success.

(Andrew Murphy and friends, Austin)

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Dried leaves, steeped just right. Reviving my weary body and helping me remember. #practiceresurrection

(Jean Dunham, Austin)

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Growth and scars, a tree tells it true. Our two girls bookend the sadness of the loss of our son Max. My daughter Jemma, born 10 months after, was God's way of showing us He sees.

(Chris & Tracy Pousseur, Johnson City, NY)

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I didn’t experience a physical appearance of Jesus on the road through Tobyhanna State Park. But Jesus met me just the same.

(Rev. David M. Murphy, Apalachin, NY

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Out of this week's Practice Resurrection collection, I'm featuring David and Alicia's stories. David is the pastor at Valleyview Alliance Church in Vestal, NY (and also my dearly-loved brother-in-law!).  He is on a solitude retreat this week in the Pocono Mountains of northeast Pennsylvania and is journalling his experience for his congregation.

 You can read his entries here:

Surrendering to Solitude

Road to Emmaus

Press On

Alicia shared with us the site she found her rag rug tutorial.  You can find it here: Rag Rug Tutorial.  (by the way, Alicia is my darling sister and that rug is for my darling niece who'll be arriving in just a few short weeks!)

Also, because I'm a total Pinterest nerd, I couldn't help myself.  I created a Pinterest board for our Practice Resurrection series, appropriately titled Take Up Something New. Click here to follow the board.  I'm kind of loving the juxtaposition on the board right now -- rag rug tutorials and prayer walking resources.  God makes all of it new.

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Whiling away the waiting by working on this project. Somehow making her room ready makes it feel like she'll be here sooner.

 (Alicia Nichols, Vestal, NY)

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Three easy steps to play along:

1. Take up something new. (one day or fifty days doesn't matter, just one thing that's new or special to this season)

2. Take a picture and write a description in 36 words or less.

3. Share the photo and the 36 word or less caption with me via email orfacebook message by Thursday morning each week of the series.

Who wants to join us?