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Our NorthStar Communities
NorthStar Community now meets at two locations in Virginia! Bon Air and Mechanicsville.
Walnut Grove Baptist Church, in Mechanicsville. Services and small groups continue to be an inspiration and support for those attending.
They meet on Sunday's at 10 a.m. followed by spirituality and recovery groups. | |
Mark Your Calendars!
Keep up with NorthStar happenings! Full details for every event! Calendar ... |
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Words to Ponder
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 NIV |
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Recovery Conference Reports
Those who attended the recent conference in California are
REALLY EXCITED
to share with you what they learned.
Join us on
Thursday, April 22
7 to 9 p.m.
in BABC room 348.
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We have something new and exciting we'd like to share with you! It's the new NorthStar Community toolbar - once added to IE or Firefox, each time you shop at more than 1,300 stores (from Amazon to Zazzle!) a percentage of your purchase will automatically be donated to NorthStar Community - at no cost to you (and you may even save money as the toolbar provides coupons and deals as well!). The toolbar also has a search box and each time you search the Internet, about a penny is donated to NorthStar Community.
Click here to download your toolbar! |
 Movie Night
See Crazy Heart
Friday, April 16, 6:40 p.m.
Westchester Commons
(Midlothian at Rt. 288)
Future movie dates:
May 14 and June 11 |
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 Donald Miller
A Million Miles
in a Thousand Years Wednesday, April 28th, 7:00 p.m.Northminster Church 3121 Moss Side Avenue |
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Greetings, NorthStar Friends!
Spring has sprung, and at NSC we're thinking....fall scheduling. I don't recommend this as a lifestyle. Instead, I'd suggest we act not only responsibly (think ahead, plan appropriately, etc.) but also reasonably. It is reasonable to stop and smell the tulips. We can plan and prepare and work hard on our recovery - good stuff. When I stop actively attending to my own recovery program, I absolutely positively know that no good will come from this decision. Notice that I said: actively. I'm not talking going through the motions, I'm talking full on engagement with the process - no phoning it in. I'm not talking about sitting passively in meetings - I'm talking fully engaging with the material and community, proactively adding tools to the belt and reaching out to resources (old and new). Responsible people learn how to live a well-paced life. If physical muscles need a rest between strength training sessions, then it makes sense that recovery muscles need the same.... This doesn't mean take a week off! It could mean looking for a place in your routine to add some reasonable resting. Here are some suggestions:
Recovering people learn to eat regularly and within healthy limits. They can partake of one of these nutrition breaks on a park bench or turn lunch into a picnic.
Recovering people are perpetual students and often ask for feedback, study, journal, read....all of which can be done in a cool coffee shop or sitting outside.
Recovering people practice restoring their lives by learning how to handle things like finances, work, relationships , etc. in new ways. It helps to treat ourselves once in awhile - within healthy limits. (A mani? A pedi? An iced tea off the value menu? Sit at a bookstore and reading a magazine we can't afford to buy?
Recovering people practice HALT (don't get too hungry, anxious/angry, lonely, tired)... a blanket and a snack followed by a nap in the sun covers a lot of recovery principles!
Recovering people love to value community - and part of valuing is making time to play together. Cards anyone? Want to go to the driving range and hit a few balls? How about tennis?
Be reasonably good to yourself - and you will have the sturdiness to do the same for others! t |
TF4: Holiness is not my striving to be more like Jesus, but living with nothing hidden.
Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves.
(This month's devotionals were written in grateful collaboration with my mother-in-law, who passed away a couple weeks ago.)
Although the kingdom of God cannot be contained by buildings or denominations, there is something sacred about people who decide to belong to each other as an expression of God's commands. Church, at its finest, makes us want to wear our best 'sitting shoes.' Our urge to show up for church in shoes pretty enough to only sit in comes from something deep within us. It springs from a longing to love and be loved. We must entertain the notion that there is value in building a community of faith because we were created to live in fellowship with God and humans. I realize that going to church is not culturally cool at this time in history. I often hear people comment on why they hate church but love God. I believe them, understand them and on some days even agree with them. But I fear that our willingness to abandon God's call to meet together is more a sign of the times - that we have become self-centered and unwilling to suffer for the sake of another - rather than a true commentary of the state of the modern church. I'm getting older by the minute, and I've learned that some things that seem hateful in the moment turn out, in hindsight, to be sacred.
Marion and I had three days together, almost alone. During that time she tutored me on what it meant to live an abundant life. Every story centered on relationship, not performance. It spoke of the snafus and inconveniences of life lived within the context of family. She spoke of past offenses and resentments - without the baggage of having to hold onto the resentment. It seemed as if the actual numbering of her days gave her clarity of vision that illuminated her past and provided me with a beautiful view of the nearness of the kingdom of God. During the last days of her life, she was blessed with the gathering of her family. By the final hours, her room was filled with eleven children, grandchildren, and daughters -in-law. The chairs were uncomfortable and the temperature was freezing. We bundled in coats because for some strange reason, the closer
Marion got to eternity, the warmer she felt. She slept without discomfort and we sat in mostly silent but sometimes talkative vigilance - just in case we were needed. Mostly we weren't needed; but for sure, we all knew we were wanted. Together, we had built a house of memories that informed our decision making. We knew she would want us with her. It didn't matter that the chairs were hard and the room was cold. It counted for almost nothing that there weren't enough seats for everyone, and some ended up napping on the carpeted floor or doubling up in the one upholstered chair. No one fretted that we had no time table or road map for what lay ahead (well, we speculated but it wasn't the deciding factor). This last time with Nana on earth would take the time it took, and we were resolute in our steadfastness to remain fully present for the experience. The kingdom of God is near...and we will miss it if we make decisions based on what suits us, feels comfortable, and avoids pain and suffering. The kingdom of God is near...for those who are willing to live with a lot of "clomp clomp clomping" in the midst of trying to figure out what it means to love God and others. The kingdom of God is near...and we will never recognize it if we care more about being right than being fully present for others. The kingdom of God is near...and people in faith communities, as uncool and annoying as they can sometimes be are at least trying to figure out how to take their next right step..."clomp clomp clomping" along.
(To receive a daily devotional, go to the NorthStar devotional blogand sign up!) |
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The Book Nook
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
"We live in a world where bad stories are told, stories that teach us life doesn't mean anything and that humanity has no great purpose. It's a good calling then, to speak a better story. How brightly a better story shines. How easily the world looks to it in wonder. How grateful we are to hear these stories, and how happy it makes us to repeat them."
Once upon a time Donald Miller wrote a book. Maybe you read it - Blue Like Jazz? Maybe you liked it. Some other people liked it too - so much that plans were made to make it into a movie. That's when the trouble, or as Donald likes to call it - the "conflict" began. You see, the makers of his movie felt the need to make up some stuff about his life - because...well...his stuff wasn't the stuff good stories are made of... his character was...boring. All this made Don  wonder... what are the elements of a meaningful life? So, he investigated and took a class - a thirty-six hour seminar all about "Story", to be specific. And then he began to wonder whether a person could plan a story for his life and live it intentionally. And, so, he wrote another book - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It's about the things in life worth pursuing and the other things that are not, so much. Donald Miller has always written good stories, but with this book he begins to live better stories. So, you might wonder...does Don live happily ever after? This is where the tale really takes off , the adventure begins, and this synopsis ends...because, as someone once wisely said...that is the rest of the story... |
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Music Notes
Several months ago there was a Facebook post, a friend saying something along the lines of 'I can't stop listening to this', with a link to the Avett Brothers' most recent recording, "I and Love  and You". Considering the friend, that was a ringing endorsement, so I'm passing it on: this is a great album! Scott and Seth Avett are the vocalists/multi-instrumentalists (guitars, banjo, mandolin, piano, drums....) at the core of the group, supported by a bassist and a cellist. A one-word label for the sound may be Americana, but these guys have created something very extraordinary out of the traditional - their song arrangements are very relaxed, moving in and out of time, which creates an intimacy in listening that's very natural and ultimately moving. Despite fairly sparse instrumentation (every note counts), the songs just soar - the Avetts have that great brotherly harmony thing going for them, and an honest earthiness that recalls the Band's early recordings. Every track is memorable in some way, and the collection, as a whole, is engaging, touching, and fun - I can't stop listening to it. |
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