makeup must-haves!

No one knows the deals at Sephora like my sister. She's worked there for several years and has awesome advice uniquely for each person that walks in the store. She's started a blog just to let you know what items are currently on sale there and which new items you should give a try! I highly recommend it if the idea of walking into a store like Sephora and picking out the ONE mascara for you feels like a daunting task. Check her out here! (http://sephorabydanni.blogspot.com/)

Just a few things she's clued me into that would have done me well to know earlier:

1. Nanette Lepore perfume

2. Tarte foundation (it's my sunscreen, moisturizer, foundation and powder all in one!)

3. Urban Decay eye shadow

4. The power of good brushes in helping you apply eye shadow.

I hope you'll check out her advice!

new places, new things

Rather than post one gynormous post about all the new things happening in life in Boston, I think I'll take it in segments over the next few days. I'm excited to introduce you to life up here! It's not as different from being down south as I expected.

One of the new things is a group of college women I'm excited about getting to know better. We're walking through the book Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline, written by Lauren F. Winner as a way of thinking about Christian disciplines in light of Judaic traditions. I want to share a few introductory quotes with you:

"Spiritual practices don't justify us. They don't save us. Rather, they refine our Christianity" (Winner, xii).

"Practicing the spiritual disciplines does not make us Christians. Instead, the practicing teaches us what it means to live as Christians" (Winner, xii-xiii).

Some of the disciplines I've most enjoyed being in my life are gleaned from Richard Foster's A Celebration of Discipline. I've found so much life and joy in prayer, meditation, fasting, and prayer. As I begin studying and working on these Judaic disciplines, I'm curious:

What spiritual disciplines do you most enjoy? Which would you most like to incorporate into your everyday life?

hasta luego, chattanooga

We are mid-trip, making our way through the chilly northeast. It's already cold! I was wearing my wool coat even tonight. We've been able to share quality time with our parents while in Chattanooga, my dad who's helping us make our way north, Larry's Aunt and Uncle in Virginia, and now with his siblings in PA. Tomorrow we're Boston bound!

It's been so uneventful that I have very few musings for you. However, the car with the We'll Miss U Michael Jackson! painted on the back window shouldn't be forgotten. The plumber's crack of the mover unfortunately cannot be forgotten. And we had a nice jaunt dodging semis as we walked along the road to have lunch alongside the river across from Harper's Ferry.



I would appreciate your prayers as we travel alongside the more, ahem, aggressive drivers of the northeast. We hope to be settling in tomorrow night!

announcement! we're moving!

It's official. We are Boston Bound!

There's so much wrapped into this move that it's difficult to begin posting about it. I've been writing less because I wasn't ready to announce, but I wasn't sure what else to talk about! So there you are. On August 31, 2009, we will be waving our final good-byes to our beloved city.

Just one serious thought I would like to share on the matter-- Larry has been teaching on Revelation this summer. Throughout our discussions and study, the topic of eternity has been on the forefront of our minds. The floodgates of emotion broke loose Monday night after I left a group of women I deeply love. I recognized, the more I thought about it, that in the moments of prayer we shared, the Lord was sealing those friendships for eternity. Temporally, we won't be together every Thursday night. However, because the foundation of our friendship is in Christ, we have all eternity to be together. This is resonating in me-- not as a cliche, but as a deep truth and beautiful hope. I am still in the process of being so sad about the friends we are leaving, but I am thankful for their foundations and for what is to come, both in Boston and in the life hereafter!

On a lighter note, I would love your recommendations for Boston!! And we would love to keep in touch with you if you'd like. We send out a newsletter email periodically. Please email me at meganhackman(at)gmail.com if you would like to receive those. And if you're already up north, we can't wait to see you!!!

PS Just realized I haven't said why we are moving-- Larry and I are both enrolling at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. The whys and hows of that we will save for another day!

a response to setting goals

I know the summer isn't over yet, but both of my goals have already gone bust-- in that, they didn't work out the way I thought they would. They may have just turned out better.

For weeks in my head I have been writing a post about my 40 day yoga transformation experience. It's taken all kinds of different forms. First, I was going to write an angry post about how the yoga book we read alongside the challenge blatantly plagiarized Scripture by lifting chunks of it out of context and using it for the means of making yoga a religion that Christians should buy into. i.e. The first law of yoga according to Baron Baptiste is "Be Still and Know." But it's missing "That I am God!" Instead, we are to be still and know our inner selves. How hopeless! There is no stillness when I look inside my fleshly self. Instead, there is confusion, frustration, failure to follow through, sin, and total insufficiency. But, when I am still and know that God is who He says He is (I AM that I AM) then I can see myself in the form he made me to be-- spiritual and growing, beautiful and clothed in Christ's righteousness rather than being judged on my own merit. You can tell that I'm obviously passionate about this. But, a whole blog of that (there are 12 laws in which I would love to point out the truth behind the Scripture) might have just done you (and me) in.

I'd rather talk about what yoga has given me. As you may remember, I was going for this side-crow pose in addition to many, many things: self-discipline, peace, strength, losing a few pounds, and opportunities to share about the Lord. Think I was asking too much from a 40 day transformation experience? You would be right.

I hit a brick wall about it last week-- well, more like a deep, depressing valley. I have not been extremely self-disciplined. I have not found peace. I know I'm stronger because I can get into the poses, but I can't see that toning in my body. I have not lost a single pound. And. I have not had opportunities to share my faith.

Praise God, He is not through with me. I've been reading through the study No Other (g)ods. Kelly Minter describes her surprise at seeing an old Egyptian idol-- a skinny cat that holds the wisdom of life in its hands. How could people bow down to a gold skinny cat and expect to find wisdom of life?! Oh Megs. I have been doing just that. I have been bowing down to yoga, expecting to find all of these things. They do not come from a practice. They come from intimacy with Christ. I have sought these gifts from the Lord more than the Lord himself, and I have sought them on my own terms expecting my own will power to bring them into my life. Why did I put my hope in something that cannot, absolutely positively cannot offer what I need? How different would it be if I would seek first God, his kingdom and his righteousness and then all else will be given to me. Because all else will be incomparable and unimportant in light of knowing Christ. Such a simple lesson, and yet it's never hit me before.

As a side note, the homemade bread thing didn't work out either. But that goal's unimportant. I have plenty of family, Hackmans and Podawiltzs, that make some mean homemade bread. I'll just be a mooch :) And there is freedom in that as well.