And awesome doesn’t begin to describe her. Godsend may be more appropriate. Wow may be the best thing i can say. I’m so very thankful for bumping into her. It’s like the heavens opened up and pointed us to each other, and my heart is totally captivated. May I never find freedom from my captivity!
More to come…
Lord,
I was once told I was needy and that it was a bad thing. To be needy is unattractive. Independence and self-sufficiency are. Which is a funny irony: if you don’t need someone, why would you want them. I am independent! I am self-sufficient! Who needs relationships anyway?
I recognize now that I need You more than ever. To place that need on another person is setting myself up for disappointment and heartaches, but at least when I am needy I can come to You relentlessly and You are not offended by my needy antics.
Thanks Father for being the One who fills my needs.
A happy person is one who ignores the advice of those who delight in doing what is wrong, neither does he copy the actions of the sinful, neither does he take on the habits of cynics.
He loves to meditate and discuss the words of God. Indeed, he thinks about it all the time. He is passionate about it, and can’t stop talking about it.
His foundation is like that of a tree that has a steady stream of water and will never be uprooted. His good habits and discipline are unchanging. His success may change as the seasons, but he is unswerving; and in the long run, he is prosperous.
–noun
1. the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.
2. ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.
I have never been one to follow a personality around, feeling it somewhat degrades my own personal value and trying to live by the axium: “Great minds discuss ideas, Average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people”.
That being said, I am star struck with Sarah Palin. Having been a conservative for about as long as I can remember, I was nervous about John McCain’s VP pick, thinking it very risky. (Considering that this is a more Democratic year, one can hardly blame John McCain for swinging for the fence though)
I didn’t hear her RNC speech until a day later, and I think I’m in love. I’ve not heard a conservative speak with such candor, conviction, and persuasiveness since a certain person we conservatives have come to idolize. This lady is quite possibly a star, and it’s no wonder she has been relentlessly attacked by many in lefty blogs and in the mainstream media (Is it wrong to take pleasure in Keith Olbermann’s discomfort? He looked like he swallowed a vitamin that expired 50 years ago.)
So it’s just one speech, but dang, I think I’m in love. Sigh….
Just for fun, a pretty funny website. www.Palinfacts.com. It’s in the same vein as www.ChuckNorrisFacts.com These sites pop up fast, don’t they?
Boy do I hate change. Seems like every time I get settled into something and comfortable, life steps in and shakes things up. I took a job last week simply because I felt like I was getting stale and I want to challenge myself. Big risk! I guess we’ll see how it goes. I start 9/15/08.
UPDATE: My friend sent this CS Lewis quote…
“The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. If we start to feel secure, we will try to make the world our permanent home. The world itself will then become an obstacle to our return to God. … a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry mtg with out friends, a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home…. such experiences give us glimpses of God’s tangible goodness and place in us an intense longing to know God better. He is working even now to accomplish his redemptive purposes but on occasion we actually experience God, however briefly or dimly”
And I have to say, the band Downhere has such deep lyrics, I feel like I’m reading a hymnal while listening to rock ‘n roll. Wow. Poetry and music that goes after the senses. Very satisfying! 
It’s like Downhere decided to write lyrics for guys just like me who love loud music and something beyond the trite spiritual strains I’m used to. These guys have a new fan.
I’m in a constant freefall
When I’m following You
Can’t see the next step’s footing
But I know that You do
And life is all just a bunch of work
Nothing more than a climbing fall
Till I surrender, surrender, surrender
All these things to You
All my life to You, to You
I was a meteor burning
With a need for Your rescue
And it’s the safest kind of falling
Now that I’m falling into You
And it’s true I still don’t have control
‘Cause You’ve got it all along
So I surrender, surrender, surrender
All these things to You
All my life to You
All my dreams to You
I keep falling in surrender
I end where You begin
Lose it all to win
A constant realign
Beneath Your love divine
In this fall without a bottom
The deeper my surrender
The higher we will rise
Surrender
All these things to You
All my life to You
Surrender, surrender, surrender
All these things to You
All my life to You
All my dreams to You
I keep falling in surrender to You
I don’t feel very organized. When I wake up (ok, when I’m actually out of bed), it’s go-go-go. Once I actually get going, I hate sitting still. I’ve got to get to work, got probably a hundred things to accomplish and I don’t want to forget anything. Hence my lack of organization, because I don’t typically plug most of that in my calendar on my phone. I’ve never ever been able to sit still long enough to worship, pray, or (gulp) read the Bible in the morning. I love doing all those things, but it seems like when I’m able to reflect on the day and give God the next day is in the evening.
It’s not that I’m stressed out in the morning. I love actually singing or listening to teaching while I’m in the car, which I guess is why I love having a 20 minute or so commute. Gives me enough time to get a flow going, hear from God on something, or even pray in the car. My problem is, I guess, I can’t really sit still. It’s like if I don’t get in the car and get going, I’m stressed out. I don’t even eat breakfast at home because I’d rather eat at work.
On the contrary, I love reading and relaxing at home at night, especially if I feel I’ve been productive. I guess I’ve ‘earned my keep’, if you will.
Psalm 46:10 is a verse I’ve heard hundreds of times: ‘Be still and know that I am God’. I’ve heard that phrase used in the context of maintaining a quiet time, but I think that’s an oversimplification of the verse. True, quiet time is important because it feeds and nourishes us and draws us closer to God, but I think this verse more than that calls on us to KNOW that He God, especially when circumstances around us are not easy, or more plainly, disaster is landing all around us. Can we hold up then? Can I believe that God is still good and caring when I’m rejected, when I’m in the throes of divorce? What if injury causes my father to be permanently handicapped? What about disease? What if I’ve been wronged and I can see no justice? What if I’m lonely, frustrated, angry, or afraid? How hard is it to quiet our minds and trust God and obey Him then?
What does it mean to know that God is God? Most of us believe in a God Who is powerful, All-Knowing, beyond time, infinitely aware, grand engineer (check out the stars or a DNA strand sometime), and ultimately Good. I think the struggle is the last one: believing that God is good.
Do we ever think of God as intensely passionate? How often does God change His mind? How often does God struggle with inner turmoil?
This from Hosea 11:
8 “Oh, how can I give you up, Israel?
How can I let you go?
How can I destroy you like Admah
or demolish you like Zeboiim?
My heart is torn within me,
and my compassion overflows.
9 No, I will not unleash my fierce anger.
I will not completely destroy Israel,
for I am God and not a mere mortal.
I am the Holy One living among you,
and I will not come to destroy.
10 For someday the people will follow me.
I, the Lord, will roar like a lion.
And when I roar,
my people will return trembling from the west.
11 Like a flock of birds, they will come from Egypt.
Trembling like doves, they will return from Assyria.
And I will bring them home again,”
says the Lord.
So we know in this case that God is burning with anger against Israel, but His heart is also overflowing with compassion and wants to restore it. To quiet our hearts is to reflect and contemplate God’s goodness in spite of circumstances, not to simply find a quiet time. Quiet time can drive us to that greater purpose: believing Him and His promises. It doesn’t mean we are ignorant of the troubles around us. In fact, it’s to God’s greater glory when we are able to glorify Him with full knowledge of our troubles.
I think an adequate prayer is something like this:
God, I believe you have been, and will continue to be good to me. Help me to believe more! Help me to recognize Your hand in these circumstances, to seek Your will for me while I’m here. I will joyfully wait for You to fulfill the needs I have until the happy day when we are fully united in Your presence forever. Amen.
Today was all about getting our stuff packed after a brief morning time spent in prayer and fellowship. We also thanked our hosts who had cooked for us the whole week. We probably spent and hour or so just taking pictures and exchanging email/facebook addresses, and packed up and it was nearly time for the students to go home. Even now it is difficult to describe that time without getting emotional, but thankfully I was able to hold it together until after the students left.
After that we went to Zilina to see sights and have dinner. We ended up seeing the upper and lower square in Zilina, and having dinner at a pub. I even learned a new way to toast. Dinner was a very fun atmosphere, enjoying the food and Slovak beer. After dinner there was another emotional farewell, as we had to say goodbye to our Slovak camp leaders and load up the same van we rode into Zilina on.
The drive was about 4 hours to Austria, and we were all very tired at this point, so there was a lot of sleeping mixed with the conversations.
We got to the hotel very late and crashed. Lauren and Kristen are flying back one day early, so they stayed in the same room, woke up together, and got a cab to the airport.
Today was our last full day at the camp and everyone at camp is feeling it. We did manage to get outside one more time to play some games with everyone, and we even got to teach the Slovaks American football (most thought it was boring and had too many rules. They’ll learn .
We also had our last worship service, and this time it was much longer, because the program included some activities geared to help the young people make decisions to follow Christ if they hadn’t already.
After that we stayed up and watched a movie until almost 3 and then crashed. What a great (long) day!
