I Challenge Myself

One of the blogs I follow is doing this and it intrigued me. So I shall try my best to complete the 30 day Blog Challenge. Starting tomorrow.

Day 1: A favorite song.
Day 2: A favorite movie.
Day 3: A favorite book.
Day 4: A favorite television program.
Day 5: A favorite quote.
Day 6: A moment you wish you could relive.
Day 7: Five things you couldn't possibly live without.
Day 8: A thank you letter to someone who has changed your life.
Day 9: A photo you took.
Day 10: A photo of you taken over ten years ago.
Day 11: A photo of you taken recently.
Day 12: A song that you want played at your wedding(or was played).
Day 13: A guilty pleasure.
Day 14: A vacation you would like to take.
Day 15: A person you admire.
Day 16: A song that makes you cry.
Day 17: An art piece.
Day 18: A time when you felt passionate and alive.
Day 19: A talent of yours.
Day 20: A hobby of yours.
Day 21: Something you know you do differently than most people.
Day 22: A website.
Day 23: A way in which you want to be remembered.
Day 24: A movie no one would expect you to love.
Day 25: A recipe.
Day 26: A childhood memory.
Day 27: A physical feature you love.
Day 28: A scar you have and it's story.
Day 29: Hopes, dreams and plans you have for the next 365 days.
Day 30: A motto or philosophy.

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above

Alice

Aw geez. Possibly more car trouble.. pray? This stuff for reals makes me sick to my stomach.

Me off.

Pull Out Your Yellow Pencil...

Highlights of 2010
- Going to Pittsburgh
- Finding the antique store next to AI Root
- Getting an iPod (favorite device ever)
- Meeting Chris and Amy :)
- Rachel Schmidt. lol. (I've decided she is going to be on every yearly highlight list I make.)
- Jimmy surprising us by coming home Thanksgiving
- Restored friendships
- Janelle's face when Tyler told me to "Shut your whore mouth, Shannon."
- Discovering Sleeping at Last
- Meeting Lyle and Shirley
- All the nights I spent with Jesus, my iPod and the stars in my back yard. No matter how painful, those are some of the most precious times I can remember in my life.
- Getting my prophetic painting
- The anonymous gift God blessed me with.

Things I'm looking forward to in 2011
- Finishing internship. Though it will be a terribly sad thing, too, I'm excited to have it accomplished. I want to be able to explore and see what God is doing in other congregations in my area. Not planning on leaving Cornerstone. Not by a long shot, but I just want to explore.
- Going to St. Louis! Can't wait. Gonna try to do their month long resident missionary program.
- Visiting Lyle and Shirley.
- Aaaaalllll of the weddings.
- Seeing what God does.

Death

Saw a dead giraffe in a picture today. This saddens me. The end.

On a Positive Note

After my whole nasty summer, I realized that I haven't really taken the time to talk about things being good lately. I have here and there, but not entirely.

I have my boy best friend back. (Happiness!) Things aren't exactly like they were before, but I think that might not be a bad thing.

To add to that, God has repaired several of the relationships that were less than acceptable.

As I said previously, 2 of the people that have been struggling with stuff have been starting to come around. Which creates much joy in the pit of my being!! (Can I love that sentence's oddity?)

Oh! My favorite. I received a prophetic painting a few weeks ago. Its in the intern room at church (since that is where I spend the majority of my time). This is a picture of it. I love it so much! It's actually pretty self explanatory. The path represents life and choices. The arch, contrary to popular belief, does not represent McDonald's. Actually, the painter didn't know what it meant exactly, it was just what God showed her to paint. But its meaning is extremely clear to me. The hands are showing the choice that God is indicating. I will explain all that further in a moment.

This all would be remarkable enough on its own, but then you add to it a doodle I had done at work a bit before. This is shown below.

Crazy right? The sign on the left basically represents Medina and things I want to see happen here. If you look closely enough, you can see a tiny depiction of Medina county in the lower part of the sign. The right is the St. Louis Arch. It was essentially the expression of my confliction between the two geographical locations. My heart is in both places, but where is my goal? I've been conflicted on where my focus should be set for a while.

And its funny, cause after we went there almost two years ago, I knew where I needed to be focused. But over time, well, let's just say things have distracted me, making it difficult to remember what my goal is. Basic point, this painting was and is an answer to prayer. Whenever I find myself losing track of what I'm supposed to be doing, I look at my painting and just talk to Jesus until I can get my focus back.

And obviously, the ultimate goal is Him. But at the moment, one of my short-term goals is to get myself moved out to St. Louis. This may not happen for a few years, but I'm patient. And stubborn. I can stick it out.

Really, life is quite on the good side right now. Its not perfect, but it really is quite nice to not have things constantly coming at me. I'm grateful beyond words for the people God has placed in my life. Without some of whom I really don't know that I would be typing a blog with this tone yet.

All that being said, I don't know that I will be writing here before Christmas. So, I hope you all have a wonderful day of celebrating the earthly arrival of the most amazing Savior ever! I loves you all.

Me off.

Silence is Fluffy

Oh how I love my family. The following is a conversation that ensued previously today.

Libbie (ranting about nonsense)- "hear that....? that's blissful, peaceful silence....... now we.."
Me (cutting her off) - "yeah can we keep it?"
Libbie - "No."
Jimmy - "It's cute and furry. It might reproduce."

Knuckles that are White from Holding On

We interns have practice sermons coming up again in January. Its a little ways off, but I figure since I have time now and probaby won't later on, I should probably start working on it. Pastor Zach is having us each take the devotion for our birthday from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. This excited me because I love that book. And beyond that, every time I read my birthday entry, even when its not actually on my birthday, it is so applicable to my life.

The verse used as the basis for the devotion is Revelation 3:10 which says, "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth." Mr. Chambers then goes on to talk about what it means to persevere;

"Faith is not some weak and pitiful emotion, but is strong and vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love. And even though you cannot see Him right now and cannot understand what He is doing, you know Him. Disaster occurs in your life when you lack the mental composure that comes from establishing yourself on the eternal truth that God is holy love. Faith is the supreme effort of your life— throwing yourself with abandon and total confidence upon God."

That's just a portion of what he talks about. Its funny how much this idea of persevering and holding on has been a theme of my life and conversation and thoughts lately. Jimmy and I just had a conversation last night about wanting to quit. He was saying that if he could say anything to the students who first come to the Dream Center, he would tell them that there will be a time that they will want to quit, but that they should stick it out because its worth it.

This sort of reminds me of my thoughts lately on being called to ministry and how, sadly, many people who are called don't seem to stick that call out to the end. They hit the testing period and can't get past it. As I talked with my brother he said that people only will want to quit if they are giving something their all. Its true, I think. Because when you pour your entire being into something, you're allowing all of you to come to the light. That includes the ugly parts. But this is a good thing. Because then those parts can be removed and made beautiful. But that transformation isn't easy.

But then, I think I've said all this before in some form or another.

Greatest joys of my life right now: two of my friends who have been struggling with some stuff are starting to turn around and are doing really well. Its so exciting to me when I see people finding out for real that Jesus is hope.

Greatest sorrow in my life right now: another friend of mine revealed to me his/her skepticism in God. This makes my heart sad. Pray for this person?

On a more shallow note, I am excited. Tonight I'm going to Stan Hywet Hall with a group of people. Should be fun. Might paint my room while Jimmy's home for Christmas. For some reason he's decided this is something that he wants to do. He's an odd one.

Never let go of God. The end.

Me off.

Oh the Joy!

Can I just exclaim my incredible excitement at the fact that I have just discovered that Sleeping at Last released a free Christmas album?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

A blog of more substance will follow in due time.

Me off.

Ps. Giraffe on a box of tea today. I think this is my favorite thus far.

I hear war drums.

Accidental Light From the Ground Up... Snow

Sleeping at Last - December Yearbook EP released today!!! Happiest day of my life! lol. Lyrics :) Snow is my favorite!

Accidental Light
On your mark, get set...
A million miles past the finish line
My heels lift
At this imaginary starting line
The trigger slips
My heart was racing well before it's time
Time's running out, it's always running out on me
As the road up ahead disappears

Though it's all been said
And this empty dictionary's all that's left
I'll try to change the world in a single word
My hands are shaking, ready or not
Invisible ink well it's all I've got
So I'll concentrate and pick from these barren trees

Cause time's running out it's always running out on me
And every road that I discover disappears under my feet
Some call it reckless, some call it breathing

Have I said too much or not enough?
Is it overkill or is it giving up
Just to measure out the distance of an echo's reach

If it's all broken mirrors and a chance roll of the dice
Then I'll risk everything for a glimpse of accidental light


From the Ground Up
One by one the knots we've tied will come undone
Like picking locks, we'll sow our seeds beneath the sun
Our accomplice is the rain
With patience, that of saints

It grows and grows
Our home sweet home

It took me 27 years to wrap my head around this
To brush the ashes off everything I love
Where courage was contatious, confidence was key

Right as rain, soft as snow
It grows and grows and grows
Our home sweet home

We'll try to document this light
With cameras to our eyes
In an effort to remember
What being mended feels like

We're home sweet home


Snow
The branches have traded their leaves for white sleeves
All warm-blooded creatures make ghosts as they breathe
Scarves are wrapped tightly like gifts under trees
Christmas lights tangle in knots annually

Our families huddle closely
Betting warmth against the cold
But our bruises seem to surface
Like mud beneath the snow

So we sing carols softly as sweet as we know
A prayer that our burdens will lift as we go
Like young love still waiting under mistletoe
We'll welcome december with tireless hope

Let our bells keep on ringing
Making angels in the snow
May the melody disarm us
When cracks begin to show

Like the petals in our pockets
May we remember who we are
Unconditionally cared for
By those who share our broken hearts

The table is set and our glasses are full
Though pieces go missing may we still feel whole
We'll build new traditions in place of the old
Cause life without revision will silence our souls

As gentle as feathers, the snow piles high
Our world gets rewritten and retraced every time
Like fresh plates and clean slates, our future is white
New year's resolutions will reset tonight