faith

Welcome to Nice.

/ Erin Kirk / 5 Comments

To be a writer, it’s fairly important to write daily. But trapped as I am in a whirlwind romance with the unforgivably sexy South of France, my writing disciplines have slipped off like bikini tops on the beach.

So, why not just run the highlight reel. Thank God a picture is worth a thousand words. Welcome to Nice everybody.

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I know I can’t believe it either and I took the picture.

What’s that? You’d like to putter about on that lovely turquoise water? Pas de probleme… you can rent this little sloop – The Excellence V for 360,000 euro per week. At the current exchange, that’s about a half million dollars, but it sleeps twelve, so you know, you can split it with your friends.

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It is excellent!

Ninety minutes by train up the steep and piney Var Valley, is the fort city of Entrevaux. Nobody wants a history lesson right now, but this town was designed to keep Europe (Rome) from invading Provence. Hence the drawbridges, stone walls and the 17th century citadel perched at about 5,000 feet above sea level.

The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary.

The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary.

And here’s the Entrevaux cathedral inside. Check Mary out having a little party in the lower left corner. Maybe that’s a sacrilegious thing to say, but Mary is the one who told Jesus to hurry up and make some more wine at Cana, which we all know he did. Although my French is loose and unreliable, I’m told Mary was actually ascending here, not whooping it up like me.

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I just read a New York Times article about the value of taking a short walk after you’ve stuffed yourself with steak tartare, frites, creme brulee, vin rouge and cafe creme. We did just that after dinner tonight at Castel Plage. We ate yet another off-the-hook French meal, while the waves shoved millions of pebbles up the shore and then hustled them back out to sea. That’s why the beach pebbles are smooth here, incessant tumbling.

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See pebbles, not sand.

On the walk home, we admired the city, all lit up and shimmering. At nine or so, everybody finally showed up dressed for dinner – the men in tailored jackets, women in summer dresses and Chanel No. 5. Seriously people, the French get this so right. Let’s get dressed for dinner again, shall we America?

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And once again, this is Villefranche Sur Mer. We’re headed back there in the morning because I literally cannot get enough of it. Bill Gates, Sean Connery and Mick Jaggar have homes here. Can you blame them?

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Sometimes, I feel a little guilty about what a ripping good time I get to have in France, but then I remember something Jesus said and I get over it.

I came so that you might have and enjoy your life, have it in abundance, to the full until it overflows. John 10:10

So I’m doing that because I’d be crazy not to. I spend a lot of time at home, praying and studying and mowing my lawn, but here I’m laughing and drinking wine and letting my life overflow. One is not holier than another, Jesus loves me both ways.

But Jesus also said:

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48.

And do you know what? I’m fine with that bargain. Exactly one month after standing on the dock next to the Excellence V, I’m going to Africa to work in a bush orphanage where kids don’t have shoes. Who lives their life like this? Me, because I’ve decided that living a big, exuberant life and helping other people isn’t an either or proposition. I think it can be both and… It’s crazy but it’s interesting and ultimately that’s what I want.

If Jesus is the foundation and the master architect of our lives, I don’t think it matters what we build, just that we do it with gusto and create something beautiful, not just for ourselves but other people too.

Living in Wisdom and Love – Meet Gayna

/ Erin Kirk / 2 Comments

On Monday, I asked you, my readers, to think about how and whether you live with intention and purpose. As Bob Goff says, forget what you are capable of doing, what were you made to do?

One response caught in my throat.

Meet Gayna. She’s a born and bred East Texas gal, who works with special needs kids in the local school district. Here is her answer to the question:

Picture 1I have always taught my children that no matter what comes our way that God has our back! I have taught them that everyone has a God-given talent and we are to take that talent and use it for the good in our lives and others. Needless to say this is how I was raised. I have been blessed to possess the talent to work and teach children and youth. My joy has been hearing a child I have worked with for months say his first word, take his first step or just acknowledge that he is loved. Wow!

The emphasis is mine because that is exactly what I’m after here. Love + Service = Joy.

When the Apostle John said, No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us, I think he was dreaming of a girl like Gayna.

Countless kids have tumbled into her orbit and because of who she is, they cycled out with more love, more confidence and more vision for their own lives. What Gayna does is simple, but it’s not easy. She listens to Jesus and does what he says, whether anyone notices or not.

Soon, a few of us are embarking on a new project based on that very simple principle. Don’t just talk about Him, do what he says. Christians and non Christians are welcome to join us because this isn’t about religion, it’s about wisdom and love, and discovering your purpose, so you can live it.

If you want to come along, sign up as an email follower, so we can keep you posted. In the meantime fill in the blank:

If I could, I would love to ________________.

How to Make Your Life Matter – A Study.

/ Erin Kirk / 8 Comments

One morning when I was 20 years old, I stood on a dock at the Southern tip of Spain waiting for the ferry to North Africa.

My college roommate Marcia stood next to me and was by far the braver. Had she wavered even slightly I would have talked us out of getting on that boat. We were juniors in college in Southern California, abroad for a year, and we’d never been on the African continent or to a Muslim country. Although we’d hitchhiked around Ireland and slept in a tiny, unlocked customs shack on the Portuguese border, Morocco felt way outside our headlight beams, in that dark periphery where all manner of unknown danger lurks.

With reasons not to go blooming like algae in my mind, I walked on that ferry.

Here are three memories from Tetouan, Morocco in 1992.

chefchaouen, Morocco

chefchaouen, Morocco (Photo credit: PnP!)

  1. Just outside the Medina, the white-walled, old city, packed with spice merchants and carpet sellers, women were taking their kids to school and grocery shopping. I sat on the steps, studying their abayas, and headscarves. I smiled when I got caught staring. I usually got smiles back.
  2. It was hot and dry and mint grows everywhere. If you order a glass of iced tea, they stuff it with mint leaves and pour the tea over them – basically a mint julep, minus the Bourbon.
  3. Many of the buildings have rooftops where you can gaze over the bustle of the city and the orange orchards that surround it. The ivory buildings pop against the blue sky and The Rif mountains shimmer green and gray in the distance.

Of the year I spent in Europe, Morocco was my favorite adventure because I got smarter and braver. Standing on that rooftop thinking about writing books one day, I vowed I wouldn’t allow the dark peripheries threaten my horizon again.

But then I grew up and did it.

For the last eight years, I’ve worked in Corporate America, doing a job that was lucrative and age appropriate, but one that was no more suited to me than size five shoes.  Last Thursday, I quit.

I want exuberance, meaning and purpose, but I followed luxury and security. If your headlights were made in America, you may have done the same. The path is bright and well-marked, lots of folks are on it and your parents won’t regret sending you to private school if you choose it.

But what if you didn’t choose that path? What if you wound up there by default and you’re so stifled you’re about to jump out of your skin? How do you get off it? And what do you do instead?

The Old Medina, Tétouan

The Old Medina, Tétouan (Photo credit: EstuarineDesign)

Those questions have crashed about in my mental rock tumbler for so long they’re now just shiny pink agates. I’m rubbing them like talismans, quizzing smart people who’ve bushwhacked their trails and come into new territory, muscular, scarred and grinning. I’m doing the same for the 20-year-old girl on the roof in North Africa, she just happens to be 40 now.

This blog is the lab and I want you to come along.

Are you drowning in debt? Waking with dread? Bored out of your mind but terrified of the dark outside your headlights. Want to make your life matter more than it currently does?

Me too. Let’s do it together.

Here’s where it starts: What would you with your life do if you could anything? What is your purpose here? Think hard and reply.