Last week was, last year was, and three and half years was.

I’m entering the fifth week of the last semester of my senior year, and I feel like I should be preparing for another round this fall. However, on May 19th, I’ll be walking across the stage, receive my diploma, and go on with my bad self. Regardless, I still like to linger on what I’ve been thankful for/on goings since January 1.

On the shelf: I’ve discovered The Hunger Games series (which I’ll finish reading after classes die down), revisiting Sylvia Plath, W.B. Yeats, and moar Flannery O’Connor. It’s basically senior orals time!

Health: I’ve exercised three times this year. Judge not.

Religion: Since the new year, I’ve been attending St. Aidan’s Anglican Church in Nicholasville, KY. I’ve never felt more loved and at home than I have at St. Aidan’s.

Grad School: I’ve been offered a an assistantship to one university, but I’m still waiting on two more universities to respond. I hate waiting.

Life: Birthday’s on Saturday. I’ll be 22, the same age my mom was when she gave birth to me.

Abroad: I’ve been named finalist for a Fulbright grant. This will allow me to teach for an academic year in South Korea if selected.

Preparing for: Ash Wednesday and Lent. Pray for me, a sinner.

Academics: I’ve been invited to join Phi Kappa Phi, an honor society for the top 10% of seniors on my campus.

When I grow up, I want to be: A Ph.D., anchoress, and that lady with all the books.

Divided into almost 90 entries, Shepherd’s book is formatted in a series of letters and ends with “Love, Your King and Your Purity,” determined on which topic is being discussed. With this book, girls and young teens alike read letters that have been “written” by God to them, addressing different kinds of life situations: confusing emotions, connection with God, and pulling through difficult situations. Another nice features of the book is a corresponding Bible verse for each letter, therefore tying in a passage from a much larger “letter” into small individual letters. The diversity of the topics addressed in the book will also help the book’s audience see that God truly does understand what they are experiencing. His Princess (even the light and airy feel) truly does an excellent job of letting girls and young women know that they are loved by God, and are indeed part of a much bigger story. I would recommend it for those trying to teach the young women in their lives about what it means to be a daughter of the King.

For more information about Sheri Rose Shepherd, check out her website.

PS – The good people at Multnomah’s Blogging for Books gave me a free copy of His Princess in exchange for an honest review.

What I liked about Mercy Come Morning was its focus on a strained mother-daughter relationship that is marked by eventual forgiveness. Though Krista is angry with her mother, she eventually comes to forgive her through the help of a family friends and the Christian faith.  Though Morning can be written off as somewhat sappy and love-saturated due to the fast-paced romance between Krista and a childhood boyfriend, the book is heartwarming and brings to light the real struggles associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

PS – The good people at Blogging for Books gave me a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Let’s all pray and strive for a world that favors life: from natural birth to natural death. Check out March for Life here.

“Be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful.” Matthew 6:36

Thankfully, I’ve been spared the tumultuous childhood and other tragedies that mark some individuals’ lives. However, my life has been marked by quirk, pure unadulterated quirk. With that being said, over the 2011-2012 Christmas break, I read Haven Kimmel’s memoir A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Moreland, Indiana. I like life stories, and I especially like life stories that are a lot like mine: not too dramatic, not too traumatic, but just enough quirk to make me smile and think “this would make a good book.” If Kimmel (who is a professional writer) can write about growing up small in the small town of Moreland, Indiana (a place very similar to my hometown ), then I can attempt write about growing up small in a microscopic town of 202 people wedged in the hills of Central Kentucky. Each life has a story, and I want to tell mine.

So, why “Seventeen Forty-Four”? Sure, the Careys sailed over in the 1700s from Ireland (says family records), but 1744 is the number of the house I lived in for eighteen years before moving away to college. In fact, it’s the house my parents and brother still live in. Thus, Seventeen Forty-Four will serve as the root for my entries as I a journey through my life and the recording process. Seventeen Forty-Four may never make it past this blog. It may never be finished, I may not even make it to the thirteenth or third heading. It might not even be in chronological order. What Seventeen Forty-Four acts as is simply an exercise in writing and an exercise in looking back on a life of quirk and solidarity. No, it may not be frequent, and it may never be complete, but this will be my own way of sharing the excellent parts of life along with the not-so-excellent parts.

With all of this being said, I present  Seventeen Forty-Four: A Life in Thirteen Tales. All of these tales are simply about an everyday female child living in the middle of deserted sloping bluegrass hills who just happens to love the bookmobile, hates riding the bus, and struggles every Sunday to get out of bed to get to church on time. This is Seventeen Forty-Four, and this is the life it gave me.

1. The all-nighter. I’ve never pulled an all-nighter. Lest I be called arrogant, I always finished my work ahead of time, and therefore, got to sleep in heavenly peace the day before a project was due. Quite frankly, I never understood the logic of not doing a task until the very, very last minute. And don’t you dare say “It’s so much more motivating.”

2. Spontaneous pizza ordering. I always heard that in college, it was nothing for somebody to rise at 4 a.m. and summon Papa John’s to deliver a pizza. I’m sure it happens, but I never quite got around to the midnight pizza run. I have, however, went out a 2 a.m. for doughnuts. Maybe that counts?

3. Skip class for the kicks and gigs. Once last year, I was super tempted to skip class to go to a local horse racing track for their college scholarship day. It was so tempting, but my conscience wouldn’t let me. So I went to class and spared myself the guilt.

4. Not go to all the chapel services. I’ve been to every chapel service my campus has hosted, except during my student teaching semester. I’ve reached my maximum amount of chapel attendances needed to graduate, but I keep going back like some sort of Christian boomerang.

As I head into my final semester, I look back on the things I was supposed to do as a college student. Then I look at the things I have done. Things have turned out very well, but I think I might be risky one night and order pizza while working on an almost due essay.

Happy semester!

Sarah

I’m not being unique here, in fact, I’m clogging up the Internet universe with the thousands, possibly millions of responses to the recent spoken word YouTube video that praises Jesus, but hates on organized religion. Though well-meaning, the young man’s video fails to acknowledge what religion truly is.

On a side note, as an English major, I do a lot of things: read, write, read more, and evaluate. One of the most important skills I’ve developed is that of close reading, which is when I read “in between” the lines of a text. According  to my friends at dictionary.com, religion is best defined as:

1. a set of beliefs, concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe; 2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices; 3. the life or state of a monk, nun (to enter religion).

I believe the best way to solve the “Jesus v. Religion” debate is to do a little close-reading, a skill that everybody can use, especially in the world of theology and religious practice. Rather than simply cast away the institution of religion, which according to video, doesn’t care for the poor and starts wars, I think it’s critical to look at the words that we use and their denotations, not just the connotations:

First and second, we (or the dictionary) recognize that religion is “a set of beliefs, concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe; a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices. ” The world is a broken place, and only took a few chapters into the book of Genesis for Adam and Eve to usher sin and brokenness into the world (Genesis 3). However, Jesus came to bring light into the world, a light that overcomes darkness (John 1:4-5). As an adherent to the Christian religion, I recognize that my purpose in this vast universe is to serve the Son of God and to allow Him to cast out the dark parts of my life. I live for “the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world,” I am constantly changing and challenging my desires in order to conform to this standard (John 1:29). Is it easy? Absolutely not, but because I have a “set of beliefs” (which can be summarized in the Apostles’ Creed), I choose to allow Christ to transform me each and every day.

Lastly, the dictionary informs us that religion is “the life or state of a monk or nun.” I’m not a nun (if only!), but the important part of this definition is in “the life or state.” This prompts me to as what is “the life or state” of someone in the fold of the Christian religion? Jesus himself tells us that “whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). The state of the Christian life, though joyful, is not always a state of pleasure. It means reaching out to those who are hurting (Mark 3:5), to give selflessly (Mark 12: 41-44), and to submit to the Lordship of Christ (Luke 9:57-62). This is hard. This is painful. This makes us rethink our allegiances. However, if religion never “feeds the poor” as the video claims, then that is not true religion. That is simply not taking the gospel of Jesus Christ seriously. As Christians, we are to be serious in our endeavors to expand the Kingdom of God. That is the “life or state” of a religious Christian.

As I conclude, I warn myself and other readers not to attack the young man in video for the sake of an argument. Jesus warned us against this in Luke 9. When John saw another man casting out demons in Jesus’ name, John was upset and wanted Jesus to stop the man because “he does not follow with us” (49). However, Jesus reminded John that “one who is not against you is for you” (50). I fear that much of the retaliation against this video may be because the young man “does not follow with [most of] us” in our beliefs about the beauty of religion. However, as a person who seeks to grow in the Christian religion, I have to warn against throwing religion out the door simply because the word’s connotation makes us feel uncomfortable. Instead, we should seek fundamental practices and pure “state of life” which displays a religion that visits “orphans and widows in their affliction” and keeps “oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).

-Sarah

—-

Join in on more conversations on Twitter: @secarey

Better yet, comment below with your loves and hates. Be polite, though.

I suppose that my love of planning and mapping has not waned. I like planning, it’s what I do. However, unlike in 2005, when the world was well and spotless, my plans seem much bigger and even scarier. I keep having this recurring dream of sorts where I arrive at a graduate school and nobody knows  I’m supposed to be there or my feet are stuck to the ground. I hate this. Maybe this is the cost of dreaming of something bigger. Over the past few weeks, I’ve wondered if my goals are manageable, worthwhile, or if I’ll even make it out in one piece.

Regardless of the peace that dwells inside, I’m still uncertain. My senior year of high school was one long, easy ride where I looked forward to the future. Now I’m a little afraid of what happens beyond the third Saturday of May 2012. I’m afraid of getting my wheels stuck, being unknown, being lonely, or getting my feet glued to some tacky carpet. I’ve talked to many of my friends, and many of us feel the same way.

Perhaps the cost of dreaming is being uncertain, and perhaps the joy of being uncertain is finding out that what I need most is to “seek out His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6: 33). Because, despite what I believe, pursing the Kingdom is all that truly matters.

-Sarah

Pros:

1. Harris offers his readers personal examples of his failure to maintain “purity” with his past girlfriends. Humility is good, and Harris does not hide the fact that his track record in pursuit of purity is not spotless.

2. In terms of the popular question “How far should we go physically?,” Harris reminds his readers that unless two people are married, their bodies do not belong to each other. Therefore, if a couple is unmarried, Harris suggests that they treat each other as “brothers and sisters” in Christ.

3. If my future husband were to say he followed the relationship guidelines as promoted by Harris in I Kissed Dating Goodbye, I would be impressed by his dedication to purity and Christ-centered relationship building. The book offered a biblical basis for rejecting casual dating in exchange for meaningful friendships  that can eventually blossom into a meaningful relationship.

Cons: 

1. The book is not for the perpetually single. It is written for an audience of young men and women who have had “experience” in the dating arena. While those who have never been in a serious relationship can take Harris’ advice, the book focuses more on reverting from casual dating to a loose form of courtship.

2. The book also seems to assume that once one begins his or her courtship, the date offers will be never- ending or that the supply of Christian men and women are abundant. One example that the book gives is one of a recent high school graduate who sold on the idea of courtship, but she enters her local conservative Christian university only to find gaggles of young, Christian men ripe for the picking. This perhaps is the biggest flaw of the book, as it seems to suggest that everybody reading the book struggles to not accept a myriad of dates.

Though I am not fully sold on I Kissed Dating Goodbye, I do recommend Harris’ book on the belief that our society needs to reexamine its stance on casual dating.  No, courtship is not for everybody, but this books does raise interesting questions on what it means to act in a Christian manner towards those of the opposite sex.

PS- The good people at Multnomah (through its Blogging for Books program) offered me a copy of I Kissed Dating Goodbye in exchange for an honest review.

Rank this review:
http://www.waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/reviews/ranking/15442

I always say that I despise New Year’s resolution, but I believe that since I am near the end of a chapter of my life (college), it would be appropriate to evaluate what I want to accomplish in the new year. Perhaps, with a short to-do list for 2012, this year will be different:

1. Maintaining contentment. For the past year, I’ve finally become more content with my life, especially my singleness. I’ve feared that I may never marry or find someone to spend the rest of my life with. Maybe it’s a typical “girl” thing, but for years the thought of an unmarried life worried me. However, this past year, like a rock on the head, I realized that I can live a perfectly whole life for Christ without a spouse. This year, I want to maintain my contentment and focus more on what Christ wants from me.

2. Develop community. I’m exceptional at acting like I don’t need people. In fact, I need people, I need community. As an introvert, I’m painfully shy in new or awkward social situations. This year, I want to make more of an effort to surround myself with people who will help me in my life journey, especially if I skip along to graduate school. I need people, even when I don’t think I do.

3. Make room for Jesus. This morning, I allotted 30 minute of silence for Bible reading and prayer. It wasn’t easy. I want to maintain this habit for the year, but I know it will be difficult. Hopefully, rather than talking about “making room for Jesus” in my mornings, I’ll actually do it. I also want to work on praying for others. For reasons unknown to me, I find it very hard to pray for others. Through the grace of our Lord, I’ll work on my prayer life.

4. Budgeting. A little more practical, and I don’t really spend much money. In fact, my expenses are mostly for food and my monthly cell phone bill, and I always have most of my check left over. However, I am an utter failure at giving back part of my check to the Lord in one way or another. It’s time to ditch the excuses and to start being a cheerful giver.

*  Also, in addition to giving back, I also want to start setting aside more to my “after graduation account.” Saving is also a good habit to begin.

5. More sleep. I love to sleep, yet I’m always tired. I know it’s because I don’t get to bed early enough at night. Rather it’s a good book or stress, I can never seem to get to bed at 9p. It’s always more like 11p or midnight. Though it may be a stretch, I’m going to work on getting enough sleep.

–

Five things. That’s all I have for this new year, and hopefully this list will help me develop as a Christian steward of my surroundings. Will I fail? Yes. Will undertaking these tasks be worth it? Yes.

Perhaps this year. Perhaps.