catching up

I have needed to blog for a while now....been falling down on the "every other day- at least" rule.
I have been studying a lot....reading the news about Gaza and Lebanon (comparing AlJazeera, BBC and CNN is tons of fun!) and hanging out with friends. Last night, I went down to my friends Jeff and Pam's house (they have 4 kids and live down the street from me) They have people over to their place every Thursday (our Saturday) for home-made pizza and a movie. It was fun- lots of new people there this week.
We went down to the Balad again, and had people over to our house for dinner (Roommate is a great cook) and other than that I have been studying (or avoiding studying)
I am reading some great books- Giving and Forgiving in a culture stripped of grace is one of them. It is fantastic has already been shaping my thinking about dealing with culture, loving my neighbors and living a life marked by grace. I have been thinking about Eph. 5:1-2 lately -Be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice.- I have been thinking about this verse because of this book (he talks a lot about it) but I have been thinking "what does imitating God look like? And how can I, a human, imitate God? And how is imitating God as a "dearly loved child" different?" And this has made the mantra "love others well" run through my head more often :)
I am also reading the Cairo Trilogy by Mahfouz- and the voice series and......I am really scattered tonight -