Anne Marie Miller

Blog

  • Ummm…Am I really writing this?? (BLUSHES)

    So, I happened upon a little device called the Go-Girl, while looking at travel accessories for India.

    Because, you see, in Uganda, I had to use this one time.

    squatty-potty

    In India, I’ve heard the conditions can be even worse and, well, I’m just not the most coordinated person in the world.

    (Case and point – watch this…at :35, you’ll see what I mean…)

    Along came Go-Girl.com. A pretty little pink antimicrobial female urination device. Great for third-world visits, camping, and other gross restrooms or locales where you don’t want to (or can’t) squat.

    Read: Girls can pee standing up.

    Opposing Mother Nature? Maybe.

    But I’d rather oppose her than get pee on myself.

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  • ‘Twas the Night Before India

    Macbook – check
    iPod – check
    iPhone – check
    Flip Video – check
    Canon Powershot – check
    Video camera – check
    Mic for video camera – check
    Hard drive for video – check
    Kindle – check
    Assorted cables & batteries – check

    Tech gear for trip about poverty: $6000
    Wrestling the tension and irony: Priceless

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  • Women Church Planters?

    Dave Ferguson asked me a provocative and intriguing question last week.

    Do you know any women church planters?

    For once, I was left dumbfounded.

    I have never heard of a female church planter – EVER!

    I asked him if I could blog this question and get feedback from you guys.

    Have you ever heard of any women church planters?

    If not, why do you think that is?

    What do you think about the idea in general?

  • Book Giveaway – Do You Walk the Fine Line?

    I told you guys, I’m going to be giving a bunch of books away, no strings attached!

    Because we?re humans, we?re hard-wired toward irrelevance?toward crossing the line. Jesus wanted his followers to be different. In the garden of Gethsemane, hours before facing the cross, he prayed that his followers would be in the world, but not of it.

    So where is this line?

    • Separatists cross it by going out of the world.
    • Conformists cross it by becoming of the world.
    • Only Transformists walk The Fine Line of being in the world, but not of it.

    So which are you?

    I tend to lean toward the conformist camp. I grew up very traditional, so now I am freely exploring the beauty and diversity of my faith.

    Take this little test to see which camp you naturally gravitate toward.

    *The Separatists?are anti-everybody, anti-everything, and they retreat from culture. Their excessive rules are an attempt to escape the world. Those who lean toward the Separatist camp are guilty of certain characteristics. Three of the most common are that they allow:

    • rules to replace relationships
    • microscopes to replace mirrors
    • performance to replace passion.

    *The Conformists?are hypocrites, biblically shallow and consumers of culture. Their excessive desire for trendiness results in merely mimicking culture. Those who lean toward the Conformist camp are guilty of certain characteristics. Three of the most common are that they allow:

    • media to replace meditation
    • liberty to replace love
    • tolerance to replace truth.

    Thankfully there is an alternative.

    Enter stage right the Transformists, a new breed of Christ followers who are in the world but not of it and more clearly mirror New Testament Christianity. The backstory of Transformists is quite convincing. For starters, they don?t need to have everything figured out, for that would mean they?re Separatists. They don?t need to say anything goes, for that would mean they?re Conformists. They neither add to God?s Word nor do ignore it. Instead, they obey it.

    the-fine-lineThey?re not perfect, but they?re seekers. They long to have a pure relationship with the Creator of the Universe. They desire to know the ?why? behind the ?what? and the purpose behind the principle. Of course there will be mistakes along the way, but this is what sets them apart. They have a little more grace and patience with each other, because they know what they?ve been saved from.

    Above all else, they passionately love God and people. They don?t fear culture because they?re called to shape it. They don?t fear Christianity because they?re called to embody it. They are the Relevant. They are the Transformists*

    HOW TO WIN THE BOOK:

    **By owning up to your junk and posting a comment about which camp you lean toward, you?ll be entered to win The Fine Line give-away.**

    10 random winners will score a copy of Kary Oberbrunner?s new Zondervan book The Fine Line and discover more about the Transformist way and narrowing the gap between Christ and Culture.

    *(Excerpt from The Fine Line: Re-envisioning the Gap between Christ and Culture) by my friend Kary Oberbrunner.

  • Porn Addiction Video

    Recently when I was in Chicago, I spent some time with Skye and Brandon from Leadership Journal.

    One of the things we talked about was porn.

    Because that’s a normal conversation to have with two strangers.

    Anyway, Leadership Journal’s latest issue addresses addictions of all different kinds, and they interviewed me on my own battle with porn addiction.

  • OCD or Last Minute?

    By now, most of you know my pastor-boss-friend Pete and I are going on a trip to Kolkata (Calcutta), India with Compassion. We leave on Friday and will both be sharing some more about that soon.

    However, we were talking yesterday about packing. I told him I was going to start packing last night, and would probably be finished (sans some toiletries) by tonight.

    That’s just how I roll.

    I use packing cubes and organizers and have backup toothbrushes and a color coded spreadsheet of everything I need, what day I’ll wear what, and pack them in reverse order of need (so I’ll have the things I need first at the top). When I get to the hotel I unpack EVERYTHING and put my suitcases away.

    Pete said he’ll start packing a few hours before we leave.

    FOR INDIA.

    Some may find my habits a little bit compulsive in nature. All I know is I’ll sleep easy the rest of the week knowing I’m ready to go.

    Which are you? An OCD packer…or…a last minute packer?

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  • Following Conversations – Not People – On Twitter

    It still happens.

    Every once in a while I’ll meet someone who says, “I would have DM’ed you on Twitter but you don’t follow me.” or someone will post on Twitter how they’re deleting me because I don’t follow them back.

    I’ve written about why I only follow a handful of people before (mainly because I don’t want to manage another inbox of Direct Messages – I have an email address, email me for the love!), but since have changed my strategy to become even more involved with conversations on Twitter. However, I still only follow a small group of people.

    Let’s say all the people who follow me on Twitter and myself were in a big room at the same time.? My friend Joe is somewhere in this room talking about his wife who just had a baby. I’m across the room by the food table eating a cookies. And cupcakes.

    And in between us are 3300 other people talking.

    Now let me ask you a few questions:

    Am I going to hear my friend Joe over all the other conversations?

    Am I even going to be able to make sense of all the noise 3300 people talking at once?

    No way.

    Last night when I twittered someone, “I don’t follow people on Twitter…I follow conversations,” he replied, “How can you engage in conversations if you don’t know they exist?”

    Fair enough. I used to be a web-only Twittergirl. I have since moved on to TweetDeck, which allows me to better manage my small group of friends, but it also allows me the option to create and save groups based on searches.

    Searches on TweetDeck are amazing. For instance you can search for simple themes you may be interested in like “church” or “baptism” or for me, “church burnout.” I also have searches set up for “Mad Church Disease” so I can see who’s talking about it and engage with them. Other fun searches that can help you engage in conversations with people you don’t follow are “Just finished reading” to see what someone just finished reading and what they thought or “Great post by” to see great blog posts you may have never found on your own. Clicking on others’ RTs (Retweets) and Retweeting things yourself is another way to introduce your followers to a new conversation.

    Overall, unless you have a real strategy behind Twittering, by following a ton of people, you’re not networking. You’re only following a lot of noise. Sure, you may occasionally find a nugget to chew on, but a lot of other well-deserving Tweets will fall through the cracks and be buried in the chaos of the masses.

    For example, a friend I work with follows me on Twitter. It was three weeks into my online media fast before he knew what I was doing, and it was because I told him face to face. He hadn’t seen the flood of Twitters about me quitting for Lent. Even as a close friend, I got buried in the noise.

    If you truly want Twitter to be an effective social networking tool, strategize *somehow* (it doesn’t have to look like mine) or clean house.? If you want it to be a flood of noise, keep hitting the Follow button and let the Tweets roll on by.

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  • Looking Through the Eyes of Love

    It had been a really long day.

    6 am came too soon, and as usual, I was running late to the airport. Due to the extra few minutes I spent taming my hair, I was unable to stop by Sonic for my habitual Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper.

    The tragedy.

    The flight from Nashville to Houston was one of the bumpiest I’ve ever been on. And I fly. A lot. Several people on our plane threw up and one even passed out on our descent.

    Evidently, April is Monsoon season for the state of Texas.

    Once in the terminal, I checked my next flight on the screens.

    My 12 pm flight to Dallas was delayed until 1 pm.

    Then 2 pm.

    Then 3:15 pm.

    4:15 pm.

    Canceled.

    Fortunately my phone alerted me a good fifteen minutes before they announced it so I was able to get in line early and snag a seat on the next flight out.

    5 pm.

    6 pm.

    6:45 pm.

    7 pm.

    7:30 pm.

    Finally.

    I have never been happier to be en route somewhere.

    Dallas wasn’t my final destination though. After spilling Diet Coke on a very conspicuous area of my lap, landing, collecting my soaking wet luggage, and getting my rental car, I drove to Coppell to meet my mom and brother for a quick bite to eat before driving to Wichita Falls. Normally a two hour drive isn’t anything to fret over.

    But I was tired.

    Frazzled.

    Decaffeinated.

    Grumpy.

    And my hair, which I so purposefully wasted time on, had succumbed to the humidity and easily doubled tripled in size.

    At least I was in Texas.

    I fit right in.

    Shortly after midnight, I pulled into my hotel and knowing I would be sleeping in the same clothes I was wearing (as my PJs were drenched from the Monsoon), I rang the buzzer to the front desk.

    A middle aged woman with few teeth and a bit of a scowl checked me into my room. Honestly, she kind of creeped me out just a bit. Enough that for once, safely inside my room, I actually locked all the locks on my door.

    I looked in the mirror at my road-wearied face. My Diet Coke stained jeans. I looked like I had aged ten years in what was really just a ten hour journey.

    The walls are a little thin at the hotel, and outside my room I can hear the scowly lady talking to someone. Immediately my heart sunk as I realized what a jerk I had been to judge this woman. I think it would be safe to assume a middle aged woman who looks like she’s lived a lot of life probably didn’t plan on making $6 an hour working the midnight shift at a small town, Texas inn. And in my hurried, cranky, spoiled interaction with her, I didn’t view her through the eyes of love.

    Leaning into the mirror more to look into my eyes I prayed, “God. Help me see people the way you see them. Help me see people through the eyes of love.”

    It’s so easy for me to judge. To compare, contrast, and separate the worth of humanity within my own mind, and by my own eyes. As if somehow I have the right to do that.? Yet I do it.

    All the time.

    I wonder what people look like through the eyes of love. I can’t say I’ve ever really set every agenda aside and simply narrowed my focus to see them the way Jesus would have seen them.

    Beautiful.

    Worthwhile.

    Broken.

    Child like.

    Lovely.

    And so it’s my hope this week that I can open my heart a little bit.

    Open my mind.

    And this week, may we all be challenged to look through the eyes of love.

  • Is it ever okay to lie?

    Random question time.

    Do you think it’s ever okay to be dishonest, or not forthcoming, for the end of a better good?

    To protect someone else’s well being?

    To save another?

    Ever?

    Ahhh, “situational ethics.”

    I look forward to the conversation this weekend.