a little inspiration

disclaimer: i do not know how to write short posts. this will most likely be long. enjoy.

so. it's been almost a month since graduation. i've been "relaxing" or at least trying to learn how too. it's a hard process, but i am hoping i will be successful by the end of the summer. with all this free time...(blech),i have had time to read! Two regular novels, The Art of Racing in the Rain and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Both great! 

I got a book at the library the other day, The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time, because it had a little section on Jane Addams (first lady of social work!!!), who is stinking awesome. a HUGE advocate for the poor and oppressed, helped start the NAACP, spoke out against child labor and fought for better working conditions, started the first settlement house, and worked for the president. great strong woman. a few of the other 100 women....

frances perkins: volunteered at Hull House (Jane Addams), 1st woman member of the NY State Industrial Commission, worked for Roosevelt and helped draft the New Deal and promoted passing of Social Security Act...
mary mcleod bethune: foundexd National Council of Negro Women, founded Southeastern Federation of Colored Women, and became 1st African-American presidential adviser when FDR named her director of Negro Affairs of National Youth Administration...
eleanor roosevelt, harriet tubman, rosa parks, indira gandhi, madame c.j. walker...

so many great women. who were strong advocates. who are so inspiring. i want to have a few pages written about me in a book like this one day...
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i got an email from someone for the Inspire Magazine at CU wanting to write an article about the 10k for the next issue. She sent me questions to answer and as i thought back on the whole process, i can't help but think...did that really happen? did we serious organize a 10k, get almost 600 people to run it and raise over $22,000 for Gracehaven? yes. we did. caitlin wrote a follow up and said, because we pursued the impossible, GOD accomplished the incredible. mmm. so true.

i got an email from Jeff yesterday saying that a writer who was working on a follow-up book to her newest one on human trafficking interviewed him about Gracehaven and he told her about the 10K. so she emails me wanting to talk. and calls me today and asks me about the 10k story. so i tell it. again. and i think. seriously. oh. my. word. how did this thing even happen?? the cool thing is that she is writing this new book, a sort of "how to" guide to fighting human trafficking with "inspirational" stories about what people have done, different organizations and such...it sounds like the 10k story is going to be in it. whahooo! how stinking cool would it if the story is in a book, and a fiery, little abolitionist reads it and it inspires him/her to do something crazy huge to fight trafficking. ahh. "i run because long after my footprints fade away, maybe i will have inspired a few to reject the easy path, hit the trail, put one foot in front of the other" -dean karnazes
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i bike every other morning...9-11 miles, at the Y, which means i need reading material. i want to be intentional about keeping my mind engaged and thinking about Kingdom issues, so i borrowed my dad's copy of Make Poverty Personal by Ash Barker. I read the first chapter today: Moses, the Exodus, and the Courage to Face the Nature of Poverty. Wonderful chapter. he is talking about all of the excuses people say about not joining the fighting to end poverty, using the five excuses that Moses said when God called him. as i am reading, i am thinking again about the 10k, and all those times i said, "God, why me?" "God, what are you doing?" "God, are you sure?" "God, i have no idea what i am doing, i don't know how to plan a race, i barely know how to run..." "God, i just want to quit." i thought of all those times that i got discouraged and thought the idea was crazy and that it would never work....so many feelings of inadequacy. BUT GOD. don't you know He had a plan. with each discouragement, came an even bigger encouragement. i'm telling ya, give all those feelings of inadequacy up to the Lord, and He will work it out. 2 Cor. 12:9-10. mmm. yes. 

Barker says "i wonder how many people do not get involved with the suffering of others because they want the grace ticket in advance...like Moses, we can scare ourselves by trying to imagine ourselves in future places for which God has not yet given us grace. so we miss out on the ride of our lives and end up only living cautiously." 
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wrap it up jen. basically, so much encouragement and...inspiration everywhere. and excuses don't count. there is no excuse for not doing anything. i think of the women i mentioned above, all they had to go through to get to where they got. they did not settle for people telling them that what they were fighting for was stupid, the fought. Moses gave a thousand (or..5ish) excuses for why he was not the right person to fight for justice, but the Lord said, hey, trust ME. and He worked it out. 
what i can conclude:
1. realize that excuses don't work. 2. give all our inadequacies to the Lord. 3. trust Him to use us. 4. don't listen to what people say, because if it is a God thing, then nothing people say will make a difference. 5. FIGHT! [[how else will i get to be in a 100 Most Influential Women book one day? ;) ]]
"never be discouraged from being an activist because people tell you that you'll not succeed. you have already succeeded if you're out there representing truth or justice or compassion or fairness or love." - doris haddock