Haiti and Half-Marathons . . .

So, I have a lot of exciting news to share with you all tonight! First, Catherine and I won first place in the regional client counseling competition, and our 2L teammates won second place! We are incredibly excited because we never expected for the competition to go that well, but we are thrilled, and are now looking forward to participating in the national competition next month in Oklahoma! (And if we win that we get to go to Puerto Rico for internationals, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here . . . ) I am also so excited to have an excellent team of 2Ls who can do well in this competition next year, as well.

Next piece of exciting news: I've decided how I'm going to spend my 25th birthday, which is rather rapidly approaching on May 16th. I am going to spend my birthday week in Haiti volunteering with Mission of Hope. This Christian organization works in Haitian villages to provide health care, education, food, and the Gospel to the people there. Late one night the first week of January (the night I wrote this post), I started researching organizations abroad to do a mission/ volunteer trip with and found Mission of Hope, and just in the past week took the plunge, committed to going, and reserved a room at the mission headquarters for the week of May 14-21. So I'll walk across the stage at graduation and then hop on a plane four days later, and I am SO happy about it and so glad to be making this a reality. And also, my sister is coming with me! We are both very invested in this sort of thing, and very passionate about doing the Lord's work in the developing world, so this is definitely our cup of tea. I just kind of realized that it's now or never, you know? Of course I can always say that "sometime I'll go on a mission trip," but if you put it off too long, life and other responsibilities get in the way and it often doesn't happen. I decided that it's time for me to practice what I preach, put my money where my mouth is, and DO what I always say I am so passionate about. Life is just too short to wait to do important things later--we need to do them now. So I can't wait to ring in my 25th birthday in Haiti in a few months.

Applying that same "it's now or never" attitude, I also signed up to run my very first half-marathon on April 19th! I have wanted to do this for YEARS and have written about it on this blog many times and had it on my list of goals for a number of years. I know that I'm not in shape yet, or anywhere close, but I realized that I need to register for a race first and then get in shape after that. I need the time pressure of a race date to push me to get where I need to be physically to tackle 13.1 miles. So I have approximately 9 weeks, and somehow, I will be ready. It doesn't matter how long it takes me to run this half-marathon as long as I simply finish it. (Finishing alone would be accomplishment enough for me. I don't really care about my time.) So I'm doing this, and it's going to happen, finally!

I decided the first week of January that 2014 is going to be the year that I make things happen, dust off some dreams that have laid stagnant for far too long, and do my part to craft a passionate and fulfilling adult life. I decided that I need to be more assertive about pursuing the life and career I want. It's not going to just "happen," I have to be willing to work for it and to do things I haven't done before, especially in the job arena. I've realized that the whole idea of someone randomly calling you and telling you, "You know, this position just opened up, and you would be perfect for it," is 100% not a thing, and that you have to network like crazy and make opportunities happen instead of waiting for them to fall in your lap. So that's exactly what I've committed to doing, and it's beginning to work (more about that later), so I'm very encouraged. But just in general, my mantra lately for life has been this: "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." And that's just not good enough for me. What I've always gotten just isn't good enough anymore. The same old results aren't going to cut it for me in 2014, because this year I'm just pursuing more. I honestly just want to claim this year for Christ, to declare over my life that this is the year of the Lord's favor, the year that I watch God work in ways I've never seen Him work before, the year that I watch Him do immeasurably more than anything I could ever ask or imagine. I've been tapping into that for my strength and inspiration, and it's been more than enough, because He is more than enough. Make this your year, too. Claim the favor of God over your life, and go out and let Him work through you, because He is the God of new things, of second chances, and of making a way where there is no way. This IS the year of the Lord's favor.

"See, I am doing a NEW thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." 

Isaiah 43:19 

"He has sent me . . . to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 

Isaiah 61:1-2

5K Day!

Today has just been such a good day! Catherine and I had our 5K to end homelessness today. I know that I'm not in the best shape right now because I didn't run very much over Christmas break, so I only had one goal: to run the entire 3.1 miles without stopping, regardless of how fast or slow we went. And we both did it! I know that's not really very far at all, but the thing is, when I go for runs, I usually either go solid for 2 or 2 and a half miles, or do 4-5 miles but with some breaks to stop and walk. I'm just not very good at any kind of real distance running, and never have been, as much as I do enjoy getting out there and running as much as I can. So it's rare for me to do 3 miles without stopping, and that definitely felt like an accomplishment. The temperature this morning when we started? Approximately 16 degrees. It was SO COLD that we were seriously considering just skipping the whole race and going out to breakfast instead--the kind of cold where you can't feel your fingers and toes and your breath is coming out in gusts and your skin is getting chapped from the wind. I was like, what HAVE I gotten us into, since doing this race was my idea! But of course once we started running we got a little warmer. And it was worth it A) to be able to sprint full-speed across the finish line and B) together with all the other runners, to raise over $38,000 to fight homelessness in this part of the state.

And then we got to go out for breakfast. We went to this fantastic little hole-in-the-wall cafe that neither of us had ever been to before, and were so hungry that we ordered, between us, fresh-squeezed orange juice, French toast, some of their delicious coffee, an amazing omelet with red onions, garlic, and veggie cream cheese, fried potatoes, and their specialty sage-quinoa grits. It was so delicious, and we're definitely going to remember that spot to go back again!

Then this afternoon, we practiced for the client counseling competition for a few hours with our 2L teammates, and we had a very productive practice and it's all kind of coming back to me from doing it last year, so I feel like we will be ready for Jacksonville in two weeks to do regionals. And now, I'm basically sitting on my couch watching Friends but I am so tired/ sore that I think I will be heading for bed very soon.

Hope you all had a great Saturday!

30 Ways to Seriously Make a Difference in 2014

I don't know about you, but when I read books or hear stories about people who have done great things for God, I'm incredibly impressed, but at the same time, I start listing in my head all the reasons why I CAN'T do what they did. I'm talking about people who have up and moved to foreign countries to do mission work or started their own non-profits from scratch or people like the girl who wrote Kisses from Katie. It can feel overwhelming to some of us--I'm not in a place in my life to start a nonprofit, and most of us have job, family, and/ or financial/ debt responsibilities that keep us fairly grounded in our day-to-day lives and can keep us from pursuing huge, bold steps of faith--leaving us to find small ways to make a difference in our lives day-to-day. Yet sometimes the small things are not so small.

I've pulled together this list for you all in the hope that it will inspire you--yes, YOU--to make your corner of the world a better place and touch it with the light of Christ. Although some of the items on this list do require a lot of time, money, and planning (like 22 and 23), most of them don't. You can do a lot of these things right now--for example, 6, 8, 17, and 28. Some of them without even leaving your computer, in fact. So here's the list. And I will definitely be adding to it as I get more ideas.

1) Sponsor a child through World Vision or, if you already do, become a child ambassador to help more children get connected with sponsors.

2) Be a microphilanthropist, which basically involves donating the price of your morning latte or some other small expense to a good cause each day, like this guy.

3) Participate in Operation Christmas Child.

4) Do something you already probably like--shopping online--for a good cause by using Amazon Smile, where Amazon automatically donates a percentage of each purchase to the charity of your choice.

5) Next time you're at Walmart, get some extra deodorant and shampoo and socks and donate it to your local rescue mission or homeless shelter.

6) Send someone a text message that says you're thinking about them or praying for them--in my experience, these can totally make a day.

7) Invite people over to your house for dinner. You don't even have to be able to cook. You can connect with people and minister to them just as well over pizza delivery as a gourmet meal.

8) Do a beginning-of-the-year home cleanout and donate unused clothes, shoes, jackets, canned goods, etc. to the food pantry/ thrift store/ Goodwill.

9) Donate blood.

10) Celebrate 100% tip day and tip an unsuspecting waiter or waitress the full cost of your meal.

11) Connect with old teachers and thank them for the difference they have made in your life.

12) Visit residents in a nursing home.

13) Get a haircut and donate to Locks of Love, which provides wigs to kids with medical conditions that have made them lose their hair.

14) Write a handwritten letter to an old friend.

15) Go on a short-term mission trip.

16) Call your parents, grandparents, or other important people in your life.

17) Pay for the coffee of the person in line behind you.

18) Send thank-you notes.

19) Write cards or put together care packages for the troops overseas.

20) Volunteer at an adoption agency or crisis pregnancy center.

21) Volunteer at a soup kitchen or community food bank.

22) Go on the World Race mission trip or support someone else who's going.

23) Explore the option of being a foster parent.

24) Send thank-you notes to people who have positively impacted your life.

25) Run a race for a good cause, like Race for the Cure or myriad other races of varying distances that support local non-profits.

26) Pray for the nations of the world. One way to systematically do this is with Operation World, which can help you be aware of prayer needs in countries you never even hear about, like Togo or Tajikistan.

27) Get connected with local volunteering opportunities through Volunteer Match.

28) Commit to only putting kind, encouraging things on the Internet . . . Twitter updates, Facebook statuses, blog posts, comments on other's articles, encouraging emails, etc.

28) Check out Freerice.com. If you like trivia games, this site is for you. Basically you can play vocabulary games for free, and grains of rice get donated to needy areas for every correct answer you give.

29) Make a different to-do list for your day or week: not all the errands you need to run or chapters you need to read, but people you can help, causes you can support, and little things you can do to show the love of Christ around you.

30) Deliver on all the commitments you've already made to help the people closest to you. We often get so caught up in helping "the community" or "the world" that we forget that there are people in our everyday lives that we've told we would help with one thing or another. For example, I told N. awhile back that I would help him with cover letters and J. that I would help her with Moot Court, but I haven't done those things yet, and I need to. Today.

If you have other ideas, let me know in the comments!

Final Semester

Well, life is officially back to normal, which actually feels really good. While I love the whole stretch of time between Thanksgiving and going back to school/ work after the new year, it feels great to just get back into my normal routine after the annual month and a half long break from that routine due to exams and the holidays. And I might be in the minority on this, but I LOVE January. Sure it's cold, but it's brimming with new possibilities and is goal-setting heaven for a Type A person like me.

So, here's what's going on with me now and in the next couple of months:

1) Yes, this is indeed my last semester. I graduate in May, and even though I know this term will end up being just as busy as any other, at least at the outset it's academically the lightest semester I've had in longer than I can even remember. I'm taking advanced litigation drafting, divorce mediation, trial practice, torts II, and a family law seminar, and I will only have one real exam and one paper, so that's good. Most of the classes are skills courses that will involve things like putting on an entire trial and writing court documents, rather than the normal law school class that involves learning tons of case law and legal theory. So it will still be a challenge, but a different kind of challenge, and all of those classes are incredibly relevant to my future career. I've also had exposure to most of the subject matter at some point already, so this semester is mostly about nailing down the advanced skills. For example, I already know how to write almost all the types of documents on the syllabus for litigation drafting because there's not much I didn't write last summer at work, but I know I still need to get a lot more comfortable with quickly pulling together things like pretrial orders and ante-litem notices. I'm also hoping to audit one of the bar prep courses (I can't actually take it for credit because I can't take any more credits than I'm already taking.)

2) I'm doing Moot Court this semester and am really excited about it! We have the best people on our team and I'm already good friends with all of them, so I'm excited to work with each of them. Our competition problem is about the legality under the Fair Labor Standards Act of unpaid internships--incredibly relevant, timely, and also something that matters personally to most 20-somethings who have taken on at least one, if not many, unpaid internships. And best of all, we get to go all the way to Seattle to argue our case at regionals! If I literally had gotten to pick any city in the U.S. for our regionals to be held at, I would have picked Seattle.

3) As of today, I'm jumping back into eating healthy and exercising. I'm not going to be obsessive about it or go paleo or anything like that, but I just want to be conscientious about trying to eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc. Today, for example, I made salmon with honey and cracked black pepper and glazed carrots. I am planning to have smoothies for breakfast almost every morning and I am stocked up on Greek yogurt, juice, and frozen fruit to make that happen. And Catherine and I have started training again because we are doing a race soon! It is a 5K that raises money for an organization that fights homelessness, and it's in just two weeks. This was something I signed up for in my "I need to do something that matters with my life" moment about a week and a half ago. I made some other exciting plans then too, such as what I want to do to celebrate my 25th birthday, but more about that later. I'm determined to get outside my own little bubble this semester and volunteer more and do more for others. There's a whole big world of needy people out there, and I can't continue to stay comfortable in my own little corner of it.

4) In addition to the whole running thing, I really want to do a lot more strength training this year. There are few health benefits I can even think of that can't be acquired by regular visits to the weight room, even though I know a lot of women who are scared to try it for fear of "bulking up." (But ladies, that's not even a possibility because we don't produce enough testosterone. Just putting that to rest.) But the best thing about strength training is that it makes you burn more calories at rest--like, while you're sitting on your couch watching The Bachelor--than you would if you weren't doing it. What's not to like?

5) Catherine and I are also going to Jacksonville in a few weeks to compete in a client counseling competition! The topic is First Amendment law, and I know we need to prepare for it, BUT it's hard not to look at the trip as a beach vacation on the law school's dime. But we need to try to do a decent job at the actual competition, of course, and then there will be beach time.

6) Possible trips to Chicago, Albany (GA), and the beach are also in the works over the next few months. LOTS of traveling about to happen.

7) I want to read 50 books (or more) this year. I just read The Rainmaker by John Grisham, and it was excellent. Now I'm working on his book The Street Lawyer, and also Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House.

8) I'm going to at least test out becoming a morning person this month/ year. I'd like to try at least three weeks straight of getting up no later than about 6am and immediately diving into early morning productivity. If I'm not into it after that, I'll just go back to being a night owl and sleeping in a little later, but I've heard so many people rave about the early-morning thing that I have to try it.

9) Anna and I talked about this while she was here--we want to celebrate our daily lives more. Not just the big things or the big accomplishments, but the little things too. I'm calling this my "celebrate because it's Tuesday" philosophy. Every day deserves to be appreciated, not just, for example, weekends or vacation days. So we're going to try to stop and smell the roses more/ watch more sunrises/ light more candles/ wear the pretty jewelry and use the pretty dishes just because.

Thanks for reading!

There's So Much To Do.

And I am not doing enough of it. Let me explain.

I feel so restless tonight, readers. I've been reading a couple of inspiring books lately that are basically calls to radical, Spirit-filled Christianity. Recklessly abandoning the comfortable and truly following Christ, instead of just giving Him his little corner of our hearts or His two hours of our Sunday morning. And I want to do that, because I have decided to follow Jesus.

But following Jesus is, of course, not a one-time deal. It's not just about securing our salvation and then being done with it. Our faith needs to show up in our good works, in our love for others, in our compassion. That's not what brings us into right standing with God, but it's for sure what we need to have because we are in right standing with God.

And the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. There are millions of people on this planet who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are millions more who don't have the Bible in their own language. There are so many people, both in our own communities and abroad, who are struggling with hunger and poverty and abuse. Children the world over lack access to an education and die of readily preventable diseases. Women and children are forced into sex trafficking all over the world and, in fact, the United States. Babies are abandoned by the side of the road just because of their gender. Thousands of children in orphanages and foster care want nothing more than a family to love them. More people than we really want to think about don't have access to some of the very basics of life, like clean drinking water, warm clothes for the winter, basic medical care, and homes capable of protecting them from the elements. There are lonely elderly people in nursing homes that long to have someone come visit them, homeless people in our own cities who just want a hot meal or a jacket to wear, kids that just want someone to take them in and show them love.

Are you getting where I'm coming from? There's so much to do! Homes need to be built, the Gospel desperately needs to be shared, the hungry need to be fed, children need to be fostered and adopted by loving parents, and so much more. My generation is more passionate about these issues than probably any generation that has come before, probably in part because modern technology and the Internet have opened our eyes to the magnitude of the need worldwide. Some of my generation has wrongly traded social justice for faith, believing that compassion rather than Christ is what saves you, and that's so misguided. We need to have compassion because of our faith, not instead of our faith. But no matter how we look at it, we're a generation that craves maximum impact with our lives.

I know I do. I want to impact people. I want my life to be one that matters, where many people have a better life because I lived. Moreover, I get tired of my predictable life and want to reject the familiar and pursue Jesus wherever He leads me, to places I've never been before, both literally and figuratively. The Christian life should be an adventure, full of divine appointments and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and the miraculous favor of God enabling us to impact others for Him. Because really, that's what it's all about. It's not about us just chilling in our cozy little corner of the world. We need to get our hands dirty and our hearts heavy with the plight of those who suffer, and do something about it.

But do you ever just feel sort of stuck? That's exactly how I feel tonight. It's like, I'm here in my comfortable home sitting on my comfortable couch knowing that there is much to be done, people and hearts that need to be reached, but not knowing what exactly to do about it. Or having a voice of negativity drowning out the ideas I do have. Maybe I should volunteer at a soup kitchen. But you don't have time, the voice says. Maybe I should write that devotional e-book I've wanted to write for years. But you don't really know how to write, it says. Maybe I should go on a short-term mission trip. But it reminds me that I don't have any money.

But you know what? Maybe I should volunteer anyway, write the book anyway, and go anyway. And maybe you should too, and find a way to do what needs to be done in spite of the fact that it's bound to be awkward, expensive, inconvenient, uncomfortable, ridiculed, or perhaps all of the above. We need to start doing it anyway.

Because following Jesus implies that there is motion involved. We pursue Him, we run after Him, we go where He leads. And chances are good that can't all be accomplished sitting on the couch. So get in motion. Do it.

Write the book. Or the check. Or the blog post.

Go to that foster care meeting.

Sponsor a child.

Visit the prison, the orphanage, the homeless shelter.

Have that conversation.

Just do it.

Are We Going to Just Let This Happen?

Compassion for people in need, and helping people in need, is SO important. And for anyone who claims to follow Christ, it's simply non-negotiable. If we as Christians won't help those who hurt, who will? If we won't feed the hungry, visit the sick, and comfort the grieving, then who will? Forgive me if I get a little too preachy and long-winded in this post or if my writing is a little more raw and unrefined than it usually is, but this is just too important not to talk about, and this is one of my deepest passions.

The question that's been on my heart lately is this: Are we going to just let this happen? Are we going to just let people in Africa starve, or children in Romania freeze in the winter because they don't have warm clothes or blankets, or let people die of preventable diseases, or children be conscripted into armies and sex trafficking? And we can, of course, bring the question closer to home: Are we going to just let that fellow student be bullied and not be a friend? Are we going to let the struggling single mom end up unable to pay her rent and care for her children? Are we going to ignore the needs of thousands of children in foster care, or children who don't really have any adult they can look up to in their lives? Ultimately, are we going to leave our neighbor--whoever that is and whatever color their skin is and wherever they're from and whatever their "issues" are--laying beaten up by the side of the road?

Are we really ok with this?? When people just don't care about the needs of others, I just want to yell at them and be like, "Doesn't it even bother you to think about the same happening to you? Wouldn't you be hurting and lonely and desperate if you were in their situation?" Maybe we just lack the empathetic imagination we need, the ability to perceive the plight of others and to care enough to get off our butt and do something. How can it NOT bother you? Compassion requires that we be able to imagine the suffering of another, to put ourselves in their shoes, to, as a fabulous quote from To Kill a Mockingbird puts it, "step into their skin and walk around in it." We desperately need this empathetic imagination. I crave it. Lord, let me feel what they feel, cry with them and rejoice with them. I need to feel my neighbor's tears on my face and their smile on my lips.

And before I write another sentence, let me make a couple things clear. In my opinion, it is totally false that everybody should move to Africa/ Asia/ a Third World country to help with the need there, or that it's "lesser than" to be more passionate about helping people who hurt right here in the US, or in our neighborhood, than in foreign lands. I'm not going to mince words--it's simply B.S. to create gradations of compassion or to say that one person's way of showing it is less worthy and valuable than another's. I've read plenty of books that pretty much suggest exactly that, and I beg to differ. We're not all called to show compassion in the same way. We're not all passionate about meeting the same needs, and it is not my intention to guilt-trip anyone if some of the needs I've mentioned already are not where YOU feel led to pour out your efforts. In fact, maybe we'd have an easier time showing compassion if people would just stop judging how other people show compassion and shed the holier-than-thou attitudes like last year's fashion. No, we're called to rectify ANY injustice. ANY. Any sorrow or heartache, any pain, any loss, any desperation, any need.

And secondly, if you've read my blog for long enough, you know I'm not a fan of the "religion of social justice" and compassion is not what gains us right standing with God. But Jesus talked and talked and talked about helping the poor, the widow, the sick, and the orphan, and I just can't sit back and ignore it anymore. And throughout the Bible, God has always emphasized how desperately important it is that His people be a people who help. You can't say it much more clearly than it's said in Jeremiah 22:16: "He defended the cause of the poor and needy. . . . Is that not what it means to know me?"

Or in Isaiah 58, and this passage is so amazing I'm just going to copy the whole thing: "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? . . . . If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." Spending ourselves on behalf of others . . . wow. That is the high calling we have.

And probably the most important statement Jesus ever made about this topic was this: "Whatever you do for the least of these, you have done for me." And I believe we could also say, "Whatever we don't do for the least of these, we have not done for Christ." Since Jesus didn't turn his back on me, I cannot--and I will not--turn my back on them. Jesus had the ultimate compassion. He wrapped himself fully in our pain and heartache. He walked among us and bled and cried and felt deeply.

None of us can give it all or do it all or be it all, but we all can do something! We all have either time, or money, or talent, or a VOICE to offer for people in need. It's time for us to start considering whether, by NOT doing anything,  we're acting like we're ok with it, and in our silence and in our inaction giving a tacit seal of approval to suffering.

For me, I am most passionate about helping children. I don't particularly see myself being a mother myself, but I have pictures on my fridge of the two beautiful little girls I sponsor in Africa and we write letters back and forth and I feel like they are "my" kids. I want to be an attorney so I can fight for children who have no voice, for children who live in abusive and broken homes, to give a future to children who don't have one. This fall when I start school again, I want to start volunteering at my local adoption agency. Maybe your passion is the homeless, or fighting for unborn children, or opening your home to people who've hit hard times. You decide how much you can give, and that's between you and God. No one is "better" than anybody else just because they happen to give more hours of their time or dollars from their pocket, or even a greater percentage of their overall resources. We are all called to help, to defend others, to fight for those in need, and to speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves.

Are you going to let this happen? If not, what are you going to do about it?