Awe

Sometimes I need to be reminded of how incredibly insignificant I am.  Click here and watch the video.  Soak it in.  Our world is so big and it just reflects a fraction of how big the Creator, the Lord, is.  I am utterly in awe.  I am struck by how caught up I am in my own, trivial problems when life is so much bigger than me.  This is a beautiful reminder of that.


He who made the Pleiades and Orion And changes deep darkness into morning, Who also darkens day into night, Who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the surface of the earth, The LORD is His name.
Amos 5:8

New Website to Aid in the Art of Time-Wasting

So maybe I'm the last one on board this train, but I've recently discovered an awesome site called Her Campus.  Two of the girls in the small group I facilitate write for it and one of them will be the editor next year (side note: they are way too cool for school).  There's one for most college campuses and it's basically girls at the school writing about everything from advice to fitness suggestions to campus crushes.  So on your next study break, check it out!


Currently listening to:  the most recent Maroon 5 cd. So. Good.

The Waiting Game

Recently, I've been having issues sleeping and I'm facing yet another night where I struggle to get to sleep. So what do I do instead?  Blog, of course.  So lately I have been learning some hard lessons in waiting.  To say that I am not a patient person is an understatement so this has been a difficult season indeed.  However, God is finally getting through to me that He does have a better plan for me than I do so I need to give up control.  But for a worry-wart, anxious person like myself, that's not such an easy feat.  I worry that if things don't go my way, I won't be as happy.  Which is such twisted thinking.  God's plans for us are so much better than we could ever dream for ourselves.  Thankfully He has blessed me with a certain Amy Pompelia and I think I'm finally getting the hang of this trusting and waiting thing.  Here are some things she sent me that really spoke to my heart.  I hope you find them useful too!


Watch this video, it'll be the best choice you make all day (but really).  It's all about waiting and trusting in what the Lord has planned for you:  http://theresurgence.com/2011/04/06/a-poem-for-all-single-people-pass-it-on.  Mmmhmmm, snaps to that.

Wait

by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried; 

Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied. 

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . . 

And the Master so gently said, "Wait." 

"Wait? You say wait?" my indignant reply. 

"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?

By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word. 

"My future and all to which I relate 

Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait? 

I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign, 

Or even a 'no' to which I can resign. 

"You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe, 

We need but to ask, and we shall receive. 

And Lord I've been asking, and this is my cry:

I'm weary of asking! I need a reply." 

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate, 

As my Master replied again, "Wait." 

So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut, 

And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting for what?" 

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . . 

and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign. 

I could shake the heavens and darken the sun. 

I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

"I could give all you seek and pleased you would be. 

You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me. 

You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint. 

You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

"You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;

You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.

You'd not know the joy of resting in Me

When darkness and silence are all you can see.

"You'd never experience the fullness of love

When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.

You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,

But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

"The glow of my comfort late into the night,

The faith that I give when you walk without sight.

The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask

From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

"You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.

Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,

But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I'm doing in you.

"So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.

And though my answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait."

Randomness

So, recently, a good friend lent me the book, Passion & Purity.  I'm only halfway through but it's already changing my perspective completely and challenging me to focus less on myself and more on Christ.  It seems so simple doesn't it?  Yet, it's something God must continually remind me that He needs to be my center.  Anyway, I'm sure I'll blog more about the book, but for now I just want to leave you with this snippet.  

"If the yearnings went away, what would we have to offer up to the Lord?  Aren’t they given to us to offer? It is the control of passion, not its eradication, that is needed.  How would we learn to submit to the authority of Christ if we had nothing to submit?"

So now, instead of pleading with God to remove these desires, I offer them up as sacrifices and ask that His, not my, will be done.

P.S. I've been in such a funk for the past 2 weeks, but last night I went to a fantasy dance party and danced all my cares away.  How could I have not realized that the remedy for my blues was a dp?  God knew though, and I'm so thankful He provided me an opportunity to dance the night away with my beautiful friends.  

P.P.S. My two friends and I dressed up as unicorns.  Except my favorite definition of a unicorn is someone of the opposite sex that you see around Grounds (or campus) and you don't know them or anything about them, but you think they're cute.  So we were unicorns with a twist.

Unicorns fly, right?

Swoontastic

Sorry I have been MIA this past week yall.  I've been kind of in emotional distress, but that's no excuse.  But I apologize for my neglect and laziness.  Here is a treat for your Sunday night.  Some of my favorite male singers all together.  I almost passed out the first time I watched this.  Just in case you don't know, it's Dave Barnes, Ben Rector, Steve Moakler, and Andrew Ripp.  They're all wonderful on their own...check em out (I'm partial to Ben, but really I love them all).  Enjoy!