Author Archives: lucyduggar

London… and Paris!

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We’ve been busy!

Halloween came and went with several parties (people here love Halloween… who knew?). Hult rented out a bar near the Gherkin for a full-on costume party.

{Grant was a 1970s soccer star. He was a big hit!}

We went to a Swedish birthday party from my classmate Elin–so fun!

I attended a Hillsong London Sisterhood event and met Mrs. Anna Smith, got a signed copy of her book(!) and explored Surrey (perfectly English!).

Wednesday we had dinner first at Wahaca (the only decent Mexican food in London) with Grant’s Peruvian classmates, Alejandro and Fiorella. Then we made our way to the dazzling Lyceum in West End/ Covent Garden.

Grant and I have had a packed week with school, but managed  to see The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre (beautiful, moving, powerful, and awesome).

             

Tomorrow night Grant has tickets to see Incubus at the Alexander Palace (aka, “The People’s Palace,” aka, “The Ally Pally”) with a fun group of guys from church.

I am attending Hillsong’s VELOCITY Masquerade Boat Party!! The tickets sold out earlier this week!! {There should be 300+ people at this kick-off event!!} I have several classmates coming! And the usual fun crowd from church. It should be amazing, with drinks, nibbles, a DJ, masks, and fireworks on the Thames as we cruise from Embankment to Putney Bridge!!!!

And now for the best bit: WE’RE SPENDING THE WEEKEND IN PARIS! Yep. Can’t wait. We’ve booked our eurostar tickets from King’s Cross/ St. Pancras to Gare du Nord, Paris {from the center of London to the heart of Paris!} Oui oui!

We’re staying in the Eiffel Tower District and plan to see as much as we can before returning Sunday night. I can’t wait! I’ve written too much already. I’ll give you the details of Paris when we get back!

Guilty Pleasure: My So-Called Life

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So can we talk about My So-Called Life? I love it. It is exaggerated, ridiculous, and has hilariously characteristic 90’s high school banter – sprinkled with plenty of “umm… you know”s, pregnant pauses, and “like”s.

Here are my Top 10 Favorite Things about My So-Called Life {sad that it only had one 19-episode season}.

10. The awkwardness is palpable and the tension in some strained relationships on the show is painful {in a good way}.

9. 1994 was the year of combat boots, over-sized plaid shirts, and grunge bands.

8. The issues of identity and searching for self are legit.

7. It’s set in Pittsburgh.

6. The parents’ relationship is embarrassingly real.

5. The hair.

4. The clothes.

3. The frienemies that the girls morph into – catty one minute, bffs the next.

2. The melodramatic nature of unchecked high school emotions.

1. How the show miraculously portrays a youthful Jared Leto (whose character, Jordan, is on the verge of dropping out, is habitually indifferent and makes little/ no effort with Angela {Claire Danes}, and who can barely read) as irresistible boyfriend material in true high school form.

I wasn’t exactly allowed to watch it {at the time, I was in 4th grade} but as I caught up on the reruns in high school, my Dad thought the name “My So-Called Life” was fetching for a maladjust teenage show.

Speck and Plank

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My own blindness astounds me.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person’s eye.” {Matthew 7:3-5}

It’s amazing the things that seem so clear in me someone else’s life but I’m blind to that very thing in my own life. I recently said:

“How does she not know that faith is grown life, not in bible studies?!”

Wisdom, knowledge, discernment, identifying and drawing near to the Character of God, the Person of Christ, the Miracle of the Holy Spirit all happens in bible study–and bible studies are great! But faith is something that is grown in the everyday–the good and the bad, but especially the bad…

How did I miss God growing my faith (even especially in my doubt and anger) by all this in my life?? How??

So I’ve made up with God and we’re on speaking terms again; things are good and I’m now open to instruction (whereas before I had serious bouts of throwing my toys on the floor and stamping my feet around like a toddler). We all have our moments. And thankfully, in God’s grace, we can have them unedited–He can take it.

But when we are ready to grow up a bit–and I am ready–we can learn from the pulling and stretching, the pruning and circumcising, when we are ready to accept both the new wine and the new wineskins, our covenant (like a reconciled marriage) is a beautiful and intimate one.

That’s where I find myself most of the time these days. The difficult, graceful, new, frustrating, reassuring place of faith-growing life here in London.

Ungrateful

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I cringe as I write that word. It’s true of me: I’m ungrateful.

This came crashing into my reality only recently when I read this quote:

“What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?” 

 My response was: I would have nothing.

That got my attention. Finding things–searching outside myself–to focus on that I am truly grateful for really pours water on the fire of anger and bitterness.

I struggle most days with choosing joy and contentment over selfishness and circumstance. But I have learned that a thankful heart is rarely self-centered and a grateful attitude rarely contains anger. So I focus on being thankful.