Thinking Outside the Bun

Yes, I am a Taco Bell lover. Have been since I was a child. I'm a soft taco, cinnamon twists kind of girl. As I have aged, I've added the hard taco to the order. And, depending on the reason for my craving, a side of nachos and small Dr. Pepper will be added to the mix. Typically, my TB craving happens during these occasions:
1. I'm eating with my friend Lauren
2. I'm home alone, don't feel like cooking and out and about anyway!
3. I've had a completely hectic and horrible day...which usually calls for the side of nachos and small Dr. Pepper to soothe me.

Today, was #3.

Here's was how I thought today would go:

Marc would go to his overnight CFA staff retreat in Stone Mountain...enjoy some golf and team building activities while I leisurely strolled to the gym after work, stopped by Home Depot on the way home to pick up some pansies to plant in our front yard (I thought I could surprise Marc with my attempt to have a green thumb...), and enjoy a nice relaxing night at home with some good fine and maybe even a glass of wine.

I should have known it was too good to be true because the words leisurely and relaxing were mentioned...

What really happened:
I woke up late and when I went to the kitchen to make some coffee, I see Marc's work clothes for tomorrow. By the time I let him know, he is already in Stone Mountain about to start playing golf. I have a less than perfect day at work. Marc and I decide to meet at 4:30 somewhere off 285, however a monsoon makes it a little stressful to drive compounded by the fact that the exit we decide has a split where I have to decide if I want to go north or south...and I have like 1 nanosecond to decide (I don't do cardinal directions BTW...). Of course I pick the wrong one which puts me on another highway and I'm in another county before I can turn around. I do realize I am being dramatic right now, but the nachos I am eating right now are starting to calm me down...maybe if I eat them faster! I have the brilliant idea after my rendezvous with Marc that I will stop at the closest LA Fitness since traffic is stopped everywhere. Another great idea in theory but once I get off the exit, it takes me another 30 minutes to go 1 mile....

...But alas, I finally made it to the gym to sweat off my frustration...2 hours later and I'm pretty sure I'm eating enough calories to completely negate my workouts from the past week but it's totally worth it. Now off to enjoy my tacos and cinnamon twists!

Adventures in KY

This past weekend, my mom, Marc and I traveled to Lexington, KY for the UGA-UK game. My mom has been talking up this UGA-UK game since she and my stepdad, Fred, went two years ago. So, this year, she got 4 tickets for all of us to go. Unfortunately, Fred couldn't come at the last minute so we gave the 4th ticket to my sweet friend Sloanie. The adventure started on Friday morning when Mom picked us up and after a short stop at Whole Foods, we were KY-bound!

If there's one thing about my mother, she never meets a stranger. When in public, she can hardly concentrate on one thing because she's so excited at the possibility of talking to someone new (I guess I know where I get my short attention span from). Mom made friends with the employees of the KY Welcome Center (yes, we did stop there just to talk with them), our hotel, our waiter at dinner on Friday night, at Keeneland for the race horses and of course at the game on Saturday night. Mom always leaves places with friends...which I have to admit is quite helpful when you're in a new place. Thanks to her lack of a shy bone in her body, we discovered Cumberland Gap Falls off exit 15 in Kentucky and a great running trail near our hotel that winded through horses farms (we ran a grueling 6.5 miles...Mom has her 1/2 marathon in December, mine is in January and Marc is just plain crazy but a great encourager!)

Here are some pictures from our adventures this weekend:

Mom and I are super excited about stopping at the KY Welcome Center!

At Cumberland Gap Falls as suggested by our friend at the Welcome Center. It was beautiful!


At the horse races in Keeneland. For all of us, it was our first horse racing experience.
A nice gentleman gave us his tickets to his box!
Go horses! I have to admit I can see why betting becomes addicting...we stopped after one race and none of our horses won.
My friend Sloanie was at the races too (she's the one on the far left)!
Go Dawgs!

Marc's Recap of Catalyst

I wanted to share a recent paper my sweet hubby wrote for school. Marc never ceases to amaze me how much he can accomplish in a week - working 30+ hours at Chick-fil-A, reading a few books for school and writing papers when he gets home, and any additional projects or chores I ask of him. I am so proud of him, so check out his recap of Catalyst:

I attended Catalyst for the first time last year and was instantly hooked. I came home each night and regurgitated the amazing things I heard to my wife, Cris, and told her that I wanted her to attend with me this year. I work for Chick-fil-A’s corporate office, here in Atlanta, and am lucky that they consider the Catalyst conference an opportunity for training and development and pay for me to attend.

I attended the conference with several things on my mind. I am entering my final year of school, looking toward graduation in June. After working for 2 years as a part-time analyst at Chick-fil-A, I am also looking to move into a full-time position at the beginning of the year. Both school and work fall under my “have-to” commitments. In addition, I am also involved in my church as well as my wife’s work with kidz2leaders, Inc., a non-profit that works with prisoners’ children in the Metro-Atlanta area.

Entering the labs on Wednesday, I chose to attend the sessions that seemed to speak to urban ministry as well as teen ministry, the focus of my efforts with kidz2leaders and my church. I began with Eric Mason as he spoke about incarnational mission, defining it as “understanding and practice of Christian witness that is rooted in and shaped by the life, ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.” He also said, “In order to be a healer, the church needs to know the wounds of the city firsthand.” These comments hit home for me as Cris and I have been recently discussing how to become more involved in the lives of the kids from kidz2leaders. We both knew that the weeklong camp each summer and sporadic events throughout the year were not enough to make a true investment in the kids’ lives.

Every summer at Camp Hope, youth from an Atlanta suburb come from their nice homes and new technology to spend a week with the under-privileged kids from inner-city Atlanta. It becomes easy for me to look at the suburban youth as the perfect examples from Tim Elmore’s Generation iY, completely self absorbed, lacking character, and entitled. But as I consider these negative qualities about the youth, and become hard on them for their lack of investment in the society around them, I realize that I live in their same neighborhoods. I feel convicted that I too go to the communities that the Camp Hope kids live in, often taking them out of their neighborhoods for an event, then returning them back home before I come back to my comfort zone. Though I understand that the kids from Camp Hope have a hard life at home, I do not understand what they face daily because I am not in the middle of their lives daily.

My misunderstanding of their lives and the things that they face bring about additional questions as well. As Eric Mason warned us to “never reduce the Gospel to only a part of the Gospel,” TD Jakes also challenged us to “Go into all the world, not all of our community,” and to leave our “corner” of comfort in order to expand our mindset. He said, “If you only talk to people like yourself, your truth is distorted” and “Until you are willing to be uncomfortable, you will not grow.” These statements all hit home for me. Since camp this summer, Cris and I have been discussing how we could get more involved with the kids in their own neighborhoods, and we both have a desire to spend significant amounts of time with them, not just the extra time that we have after our commitments. We want to be able to spend time with them daily and have a place that they call their own, where we can meet them there, in their community. As Alan and Debra Hirsch discussed, we desire to have a relationship similar to an extended family with these kids. It becomes easy for us to get hung up in our nuclear family, and it becomes especially easy for me to want to protect my family from the “dangers” of a different society. However, I truly believe what TD Jakes said; “No one single people group represents the totality of who God is.” Believing that, I cannot know the fullness of God in my white-suburbia neighborhood and family. I have to go into the communities with these children and I have to be willing to learn, not assuming that I know the best answers. Too often I am tempted to share the things that I know or that I have learned rather than taking the time to learn from those that are not like me.

Naturally, there are many things that Cris and I feel limit us from being able to jump right in to being with these kids. For one, I work 30+ hours a week for Chick-fil-A’s corporate office and spend most of my nights completing my school work. After working part-time for two years, paying my own insurance, and making an hourly salary, I am on the verge of having the opportunity to move into a full-time position that will be salaried and include a nice benefits package. As exciting as it is, and as much as I love working for Chick-fil-A, I can’t help but wonder if this job is my “bowl of stew.” It’s weird to ponder that, as I believe that God works through Chick-fil-A and I have been incredibly blessed by the men that I have been able to work with the past two years. However, I know that my appetite desires a larger salary, which will allow me to better support my family as well as make some required improvements on my house, as well as receive benefits, including maternity insurance so that Cris and I can start a family. Though I can argue all day that my desires for both of those are biblical, I can’t help but wonder if my appetite is feeding me impact bias, as Andy Stanley discussed. Daniel Pink said that we are motivated by our carnal desires, including money, but also the desire to do the right thing. My greatest fear in moving into a full-time position is that it will take away my opportunity to serve Camp Hope and the kids that I love with freedom. As I work part-time, I have freedom to take time off since I only get paid for the hours that I work. I am careful not to abuse this privilege, using it more for school and Camp Hope than personal days. I have a strong work ethic, so I often work more hours during a given week than I should, but I also know that I can take time away from the office to take care of my other responsibilities. My fear is that by moving into a full-time position I will become absorbed in the daily requirements and will not have the freedom to serve both my family and the kids that I love from Camp Hope.

As I weigh these fears, it is easy to assume that in order to fulfill the Lord’s desires for me with the kids from Camp Hope that I must choose either Chick-fil-A or ministry. However, Chick-fil-A is a perfect example of a company that works in order to serve God, and even the corporate purpose states, “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that He has entrusted to us, and to be a positive influence on anyone who comes in contact with Chick-fil-A.” Danny Wuerffel said, “Too often, people think they need to put their skills on the shelf in order to serve.” I completely understand what he meant by that. Daily I feel as though I am being pulled in many different directions after things that I either desire or need to do. I have committed to working at Chick-fil-A, and love what I do, but I can’t help but wonder if I allow it to get in the way of what God desires for me.

Both my hesitancy to go into the kids’ communities as well as my concerns about the full-time position are both driven by fear of something unknown or uncomfortable. Debra and Alan Hirsch stated, “God claims full loyalty over us; anything that stands between that is an idol,” and “To accept the one-ship of God is to give up all our idols.” That clearly defines that anything that keeps me apart from the Lord is an idol, including my comfort and fear of the unknown. Much of this is from the insecurity that dwells within me. Beth Moore asked, “Can you be dead enough to yourself to welcome any movement of God?” If I desire to experience what the Lord wants for my life, I have to be willing to step into something uncomfortable. Mark Batterson said, “We all want a miracle, but never want to be put in a situation that requires one.” He also challenged that ministry should be a bit dangerous. Seth Godin echoed his challenge to live dangerously, saying that “we bowl at work every day…avoiding gutters and looking for strikes.” I don’t want to live carefully! As much as I hate failure, I want the opportunity to fail, because only then will I have tried something new. I do not want to be able to always explain the things that I am a part of. Perry Noble said, “The greatest things that ever happened are unexplainable; and if they are explainable, they weren’t from God!” He went on to say, “God will lead you to a place you aren’t sure you should go, but are happy you went.” The discomfort of the unknown will lead to a place where I can experience God.

The greatest challenge from Catalyst was posed by Francis Chan when he said, “If you put your life in the Scriptures, what is your definition of weird?” I immediately began to look at these two areas of my life, work and ministry, and couldn’t help by wonder which was more in line with Scripture. Since that challenge, my brain has been continuously thinking about all of my desires to work with the kids as well as my responsibilities to work and provide for my family. At one point, I looked to Cris and said, “What does any of this have to do with chicken?” Over the past couple of weeks, I have also been wondering, when I meet Jesus face-to-face, will He be more proud of me as a Business Analyst or as a servant of those that have less than I?

Catalyst challenged me to review my commitments and the things that I place my time and efforts into, as well as the things that I have found ways to put off. I have a desire to love on the kids from Camp Hope and help heal their wounds, and I would love to be able to do so with Cris. I will continue in prayer, seeking after the plans of God, and pray that I have the strength to follow after whatever path He lays before me.

The Power of the Impossible

Today's devotion from Proverbs 31 Ministries was so good I wanted to share it with everyone! I hope it blesses you as much as it did me:

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Five years ago I sat beside my youngest sister and listened as she boldly rejected my views of God. She's always been a free spirit, much too non-conventional for traditional religion.

"Good thing I'm not into religion," I gently replied.

She twisted her face as if half expecting a lightening bolt to strike us both. "But you ARE religious."

I laid my head against the back of the lounge chair, closed my eyes to the sun now washing over me and simply replied, "Nope."

Deciding to let my statement just sit for a while, I decided not to clarify unless she asked. And ask she did.

That's when I explained that I follow God not a list of rules. I am passionate about getting into the Bible - God's teachings - and letting the Bible get into me. I no longer evaluate life based on my feelings. Instead, I let my feelings and experiences be evaluated in light of God's Word.

I have watched God chase me around with rich evidence of His presence and invitations to trade apathy for active faith. But I had to make the choice to see God. Hear God. Know God. And follow hard after God.

Then I took my sister's hand and told her I'd be praying for God to mess with her in ways too bold for her to deny.

Fast forward over five years later. My sister walks into one of her professor's office and sees one of my books on her bookshelf. I don't think she really believed anyone actually read my books. But there it was. And it messed with her.

She later went home and poked around my blog a bit where she found a clip of my testimony. Again, it messed with her. One verse in particular messed with her so much that she let the possibility that God exists slip into her heart.

A few days later she went and had Jeremiah 29:11 tattooed on the back of her neck. And she started calling wanting to talk to me. About life. About tattoos. And about God.

Last Thursday, I stood in the middle of the Atlanta airport praying for this precious girl who had called asking for those prayers. She had called. She had asked. And that's the miracle of our Jesus. He is the God of the impossible.

I wonder what might happen if we dared to ask God for the impossible just a little more often. I'm up for it? Are you?

Dear Lord, use me today to reach the heart of one. I want to trade any apathy I may have today for active faith. Lead me, and I will follow. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

The Tension is Good

Last week was the week of conferences! Following my "big girl" conference, I experienced Catalyst 2010. And, what an experience it was. I heard from so many amazing men and women - Andy Stanley, Beth Moore, Francis Chan, Christine Caine, Perry Noble, T.D. Jakes and more. I was blessed to hear Kari Jobe sing - she is such a gifted worship leader!

The focus of this year's Catalyst conference was "The Tension of Good." This is a concept that I am still digesting - being the type A perfectionist, tension is not good. I strive for organization and efficiency...I am a tried and true people-pleaser (most of the time). Ask me where I want to go to dinner, and I will probably say, "I don't care, where do you want to go?" Not because I don't have an opinion, I'm just not confident in it and would the other person be pleased. The speakers challenged this idea of perfection saying that tension is good...it's where progress occurs.

As I wrote in an earlier post, Marc and I have feel that we are just in the beginning of what God is calling us to. kidz2leaders has introduced us to the world of inner-city and know that these doors have been opened, they can never be closed. We feel called to more, we have desires and passions - to adopt, to foster, to have our own children, to go where He leads us. But, when I tell God that I will go where He leads me, do I really mean this? Am I really willing? I have to first learn obedience to Him, even at the risk of not pleasing everyone around me. Omg...that is scary to even type. I can't be lukewarm, I can't make everyone happy, I have to learn to tell people no. And more than that, I have to get over myself. I don't want people following me or Marc, I want them following our Heavenly Father. I pray that I would just get out of the way and be obedient to Him - whatever that means.

So, the tension is good!

A Big Girl Conference

Today I had the amazing opportunity to attend Forever Family's Practitioner's Institute - a conference that brought together all of the amazing men and women who work with incarcerated families. For those of you that don't know, the ministry I work with, kidz2leaders, inc. works solely with prisoners' children in the metro-Atlanta area. I was excited to go for the simple fact that I would to be surrounded by other men and women who are passionate about making a difference in people's lives whether it be the child who has a parent incarcerated or the parent who is coming out of prison.

It was humbling to be surrounded my people who had been advocating for this population for 20-30 years. Sometimes I feel like having worked with k2l for 4 years makes me an expert but there is still so much to learn. While not all of the organizations were faith-based, I was impressed that the guest speaker encouraged us all to put God in the middle of the work we have been called to do. We (me) all need a good reminder that it's His work, His will, His kids and not mine.

...On a side note, I was reminded that even though your office lets you wear t-shirts and jeans to work, it is ok to bust out your business attire every once in a while. It's been such a long time that I have been to a "professional" conference, I think I forgot wearing a suit is actually appropriate. Oops...I guess my capris and cardigan weren't exactly business casual! I was also asked to serve as a "faculty member" in break-out sessions to talk to people about summer camps for prisoners' children which means I had to submit a bio on myself...let me just add I need a little help in this area. My bio read at the end, "Mrs. Hunt lives with her husband, Marc, and their dog Bailey. Yes, I included information about my dog in my bio. So...next time I am asked to attend a professional conference where a bio is needed, I will be sure to put on my big girl panties, wear a suit, and be sure to have someone other than me write my bio .....

13 weeks to get ready for...

...13.1 on January 8th at the most wonderful place on Earth...Disneyworld!

I've been contemplating running one when Btrain (college roommate and best friend) aka Georgia Belle J.D. gave me a million reasons to do one...she's doing it! Excited to run with her and sport some cute mouse ears. But, I can't help but think... what am I thinking?! More to come later....

Let's Hear it for the Boys!

Ok...so I have a confession. I really enjoy hanging out with boys at Camp Hope, our church and just in general. They say the funniest things and they are just so cool! For example, this was a conversation between me and Gregory on Saturday:
"Mrs. Cris, what is your full name?"
"Well, it's Crisara Douglas Hunt but it used to be Crisara Lynn Douglas."
"Oh, what happened?"
"I got married."
"Oh yea, how is that going for you?" (Gregory is 16 years old btw...)
"It's going great Gregory!"
"So Mr. Marc is nice to you?" "Yes he is."
"Well Mrs. Cris, you know where to find me if he's not."
I would really hang out with them all the time if I could but I'm pretty sure they just think I'm lame. Anyway, this weekend was a packed weekend of hanging out with boys. On Friday night, Marc and I went to Friday Night Lights with City of Refuge. On Friday nights, they open up their gym for the kids in the area to come play basketball. The guys there were so nice to us - once again, would hang out with them all of the time. I had a little guy help me with the score board and Marc painfully stood on the sidelines watching the guys play. Next time he will be sure to wear clothes to play...including his infamous white tee and shoes. Saturday, we had an afternoon of football and ultimate Frisbee with some of our Camp hope guys at our church, St. Philip UMC. The day went off without a hitch except for one of our footballs getting stolen by a neighborhood kid. The guys played for 5 hours straight and pretty much wore out all of the adults. The boys always impress me with how polite they are. They kept thanking me for organizing them to play football and when I would ask them how they were, they always respond, "How are you Mrs. Cris?" Yes, I want to take them all home.Ok...just one more story about one of my all-time favorite kids from church, Ray-Ray. He was at our church last year for about 6 months and then after Mother's Day, he and most of the kids from the neighborhood left and haven't been back since. I heard that Ray-Ray moved, but he will always have a special place in my heart. Here was a deep conversation Ray-Ray and I had about his life aspirations:
"Ray-Ray, what do you want to do when you grow up?"
"Well, I want to live in a big house with like 25 rooms."
"Wow Ray-Ray, that's going to be expensive. What are you going to do to make money to build that house?"
"I'm going to be an engineer."
"Well, I hear GA Tech is a great college to go to if you want to be an engineer."
"Yea yea, but hey, Mrs. Cris, what is an engineer?"

Summer Adventures

Well it seems that fall has finally made its way to the South. The leaves are starting to turn and there is a definite chill in the air. This also means our air conditioner (and our power bill for that matter) will get a break...hallelujah! Last night, as Marc and I were eating a delicious dinner on the porch (another favorite thing of ours to do when it's not 100-jillion degrees outside), we reminisced about this summer and how quickly it flew by. Actually, this year is rapidly flying by! Here's a recap of the many fun adventures we had this summer...
We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary with a visit to the High Museum and dinner at Canoe.

We celebrated Bethany's graduation from law school and Brooke's wedding!


We did our first triathlon and went to Houston for Kim's wedding.
We ate a LOT of Chick-fil-a!
We went to our third year of Camp Hope!!!


We relaxed at the beach...

Hung out with some kids...



Went to visit B-train in D.C.

Did another one of these...
And when there was time...