Honestly, I’ve read these two verses quite often, but I’ve mostly considered them separately. And yet as I wrote them in my little copybook, I stopped. They had a connection to one another that perhaps I hadn’t fully comprehended before. Verse 1 addresses the body; verse 2, the mind. And yet there is nothing in between. They are butted up against one another in a way that made me suddenly stop and take notice.

Presenting our bodies–our actions, our fleshly desires, our energy, our mouths, everything that encompasses our bodily flesh–as a living sacrifice is our spiritual service of worship. I get that. I really do.

Our minds are to be transformed, to not think as the world thinks, but to seek and understand the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. I get that, too.

But when I put them together, I sometimes falter. Is my renewed mind informing the spiritual service of worship that happens through my body? I can’t always say yes to that. If my mind is transformed, it ought to affect my actions. It ought to help me subjugate my flesh to the will of God. If I determine to give my actions and my body as sacrificial worship in honor of God, isn’t that very motivation a moving away from the world’s thinking and a step toward proving the will of God in my life? It should be. And yet my motives tend to get mixed up in worship of God and worship of self.

I confess, I have a tendency to focus on mind over body. I know those who do the opposite. But if we all lived according to Romans 12:1-2, it would be a circular cycle, one dependent on the other. Body and mind, working in tandem to show God to the world. But it can’t be one or the other. It must be both. As I meditate on these two verses, I wonder if we need to be more cognizant of the balance between offering up our bodies and renewing our minds. In doing so, wouldn’t we then be in a better position to put on display what is good and acceptable and perfect? And isn’t that exactly the definition of the kind of sacrifice the children of Israel were instructed to bring before God?

I’d love to hear what these two verses say to you in relation to your everyday life.

In reality, I’ve moved to a season in my life where summer only means a few more mouths in the house to feed, all of us on a different schedule of work and play. So with a writers conference to teach at next weekend, a 50th anniversary trip to go on with my parents, and much revision work to be done on my 2014 book, I’ve decided to implement a new summer blogging schedule, mostly in hopes that in between work and travel I’ll be able to find some of those lazy moments, the ones where I chat with a friend by a pool or lose myself in a novel. Starting this week, I’ll blog on Mondays and Thursdays, with my usual Sunday Psalm graphic appearing on Sundays. (Because making those are too much fun!) I hope you’ll join me in your occasional stolen moments of summertime bliss!

Of course, my life is not void of learning. I think it’s one of the reasons I’ve so loved writing conferences. All those great classes learning about writing. Since a conference doesn’t seem to be in my future for this year, I took an online writing class in May (Margie Lawson’s classes are wonderful!). It doesn’t much matter how the learning happens–online, in person, through a book–or what is being learned–whether about new places, professions or cultural tidbits for my novels, or history or literature or writing in general–when I learn, I feel alive. When I learn, it renews my passion to write, to pass on some of what has become a part of me.

It’s also why I love Bible study. Learning more about God, about myself, about the world that we live in. For me, faith is not about leaving my mind behind. It is about learning and doing and being, just as I learn and do and be in the world that God created for me to live in.

Over these next two days, I’ll lap up the college atmosphere, but I’ll use it to remind me that even if we never return to a life of academia, I will not stop learning. It’s who I am. It’s how God made me.

So I’d love to know: What are your favorite avenues of learning outside of school? What do you like to learn about? Your answers might inspire us all to learn in new directions!

Yes, I’d learned to keep up the major parts of the bathrooms and the kitchen so we weren’t living in filth, but the dusting and the floors remained iffy. Some deep cleaning needed to be done. But beyond that was the real issue–my closets. My cabinets. When clutter lurks behind those doors, I can’t think. And clutter had been accumulating, multiplying for far too long.

With all but a couple of small trouble spots cleaned and organized, I can think again. I’m ready to work again. Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson and won’t let things descent to quite such a chaotic place over the next four and a half years!

The Sky Beneath My Feet follows in that vein. Beth’s pastor husband takes a strange sabbatical, leaving his wife to contemplate her own spiritual life, their crumbling marriage as well as her existence in general. In Lisa Samson’s usual style, the story is peopled with quirky, memorable characters like mother and daughter Margaret and DeeDee, her next door neighbors (who reminded me a bit of the mother-daughter Kennedy duo in Gray Gardens, though not quite to that extreme.), Mother Zacchaeus, a pseudo-nun who runs a rehab house, and the various personalities in the Rent-A-Mob, a group of vocal activists who cross paths with Beth. But it also hosts a variety of all-too-real characters, like Beth herself or her best friend Holly. Beth’s two teenaged sons and her pastor husband. They each grapple with real problems, real issues. And yet each change in believable ways, to believable degrees.

Another thing I love about Lisa’s books in general and The Sky Beneath My Feet in particular: she always makes a connection between those seeking and serving God in different, often opposing, denominations. I love how she brings the church universal to life. How she shows people putting feet to faith or seeing Truth in crazy, seemingly random circumstances. I love that her books require me to ask questions of myself. Of God.

If you haven’t read a Lisa Samson book, I challenge you to pick one up–this one or a previous title, and see what you think. See if you can close the cover as the same person who opened it. To give you a taste, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite lines from The Sky Beneath My Feet. 

Stealing the Preacher is an amazing blend of whimsical fun and spiritual depth. How in the world do you pull that off? And in a romance novel! But I’m telling you, this novel held me captive on every level. A flawless story and characters that will live long in my heart. Even if you aren’t generally a fan of the romance genre, I urge you to try this one. It’s got so much more to offer than just boy meets girl.

Way to go, Karen! I can’t wait until next year’s release!

I’ll admit that this day hasn’t hit close to him for me, none of my family falling into this category. And yet in my husband’s work this issue of remembering those who served and those who died has become very personal. For whether you realize it or not, many veterans memorials in the United States–those physical reminders that we can see and show to our children on any day, not just Memorial Day–are under attack. Why? Because many use the imagery of the cross, which is the imagery of ultimate sacrifice. (Want some examples? Check out these stories on the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial, the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial, the Coos Bay Vietnam Veterans Memorial.)

It’s a shameful situation, really. After all, so many of those monuments, decades and even centuries old, were designed by the families and comrades of those they honor. Others now seek to alter them, which would alter our history and disrespect former generations and their sacrifice.  My husband and his staff work hard to see that this doesn’t happen.

In the meanwhile, we all stop today and remember that America is free because of the price that was paid to protect her. When we remember, we honor not just those who lost their lives, but also their loved ones who sacrificed the years they could have had with a husband, brother, son, with a wife, sister, and daughter.

Thank you, veterans, for your service. May we always remember and respect your sacrifice.