God works in the dish room.

The other day I was working in the dish room--The dreaded job where so much food is wasted--and since not many people seem to want to talk during work there is a lot of time to think about things. Naturally, my mind was wandering this way and that and I started worrying about things that I had to do and issues. Well I spontaneously had the urge to just right there, during work, pray in my mind. I began praying to God about well everything and anything. In my prayer I realized that when I decided to go on the Spring Break Missions Trip to Florida I did not say anything to God about it or ask what His will is. How messed up is that? I then realized God is the first person I should have gone to and I began praying about the trip and then just for His will. In the middle of my prayer I had the memory from Winter Break come back where my parents said "I wish you didn't have to come back here for break, you should go somewhere like Florida!" and it hit me. They could have said any place for Spring break, but they said Florida...the place that the school is taking a Missions trip to. Also I could have thought of anything, any memory then...but it was this memory mentioning Florida that came to mind in my prayer for God's will. Then I felt a tug at my heart and realized the Florida trip is where God wants me to go. It is hard to describe this feeling I got when I realized it, but it was a combinations of peace and excitement to actually know for sure something that God wanted me to do. God works in mysterious ways. The next time that someone tells me that God can't use them, I'll simply tell them that He can because God even works in the dish room.

Time to let go, God is in control.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing?  Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,  yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

  “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.  Seek the Kingdom of God^[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

  “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." -Matthew 6:24-34

This passage really stands out to me today as I have begun to realize how crippling worry truly is. There are times in life where it is easy to fall into a dry valley in your spiritual life and it is hard to figure out the reasoning behind it. I truly believe that God showed me this reason tonight by simply doing my homework. I was enrolled in a class entitled Introduction to the Spiritual Journey in the fall, but due to the amount of people in the class I got pushed to take it in the Spring--which is now. So, from the moment I walked into the first class I felt like it would be good for me in this rough valley. It is better than I thought, in fact it is as if God intended this class to be now to help me through this valley. Is that the definite answer? I do not know, but whatever the case I believe God is using the class to help me. To elaborate more on that conjecture, I must explain that we are supposed to read the book Making All Things New by Henri Nouwen. I picked up the book for the first time today and began reading, and well I am hooked. It is talking about how worry grips our life and prevents us from growing in our Spiritual walk. It is amazing how God works to show us what we need to fix. Shows me that I need to completely surrender my worry to Christ. That is probably going to be one of the hardest things for me to do right now, because it's so easy to fall into worrying about anything and everything. But I know with the strength God provides I can do it. It is time to let go and let God take my worries. God works in miraculous and amazing ways. God is Good.

You Make Beautiful Things

All this pain 
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way

I wonder if my life could really change at all

All this earth

Could all that is lost ever be found

Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground

Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

You make me new, You are making me new

You make me new, You are making me new

You are making me new

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

You make me new, You are making me new

You make me new, You are making me new

We need Community. We need God. We need Relationships. As the Trinity is Three in One, so should these three be. For God makes beautiful things from the dust regardless of our flaws. 

The Seeker in the Valley.

"'For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD.

 “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.'" 

These words from Jeremiah 29:11-13 are very often heard but how often do we listen to them? We know that God has a plan for us but what does that entail? A better question to ask is how do we figure out His plan for us individually? I feel like the second part of these verses--12-13--gets overlooked at times. We need to actively seek God and not just pray, but spend the amount of time that one talks to God, quiet and listening. It is one thing to ask and listen and it is another thing to do it wholeheartedly. If we look at these verses we see that if we look wholeheartedly we will find God. There are times however where we feel like we do not feel His presence even though we are sincere. I know that if we look at Proverbs 3:5-6 one learns that if we seek God's will He will direct us. One also knows that if they are on track with God their desires will be God's will, but there are times when it is hard to discern if you are truly on track at that point. Since Holiness, Sanctification, and our Spiritual Journey are constant and do not end until we meet our Creator, there are times where we need to grow in order to be confident about God's will for us. 

So now the plane--I mentioned in the previous post--has crashed. There is a wreck on this Island and I am just seeking the Savior to find redemption here. I am not necessarily happy that it finally crash landed, but I know that it is what needed to happen. I know there will come a day that is better and compared to the brokenness in the world I am doing well, but I need to seek God more. I now know that I need to make Him more apart of my life as I work my way through this valley in my journey. Even stuck in the after effects of the crash, I know that I must seek God and His will and He will provide...Man is not alone. God is relational. God is with Us.

The Curse of the Never Crashing Plane.

There comes a time in ones life when they think an era has ended, but then there comes another time when one truly does end. The worst part is realizing that it's coming to a close and yet, as a good friend put it, it's like a plane is crashing and gravity is somehow preventing it from landing. You know that the inevitable crash is going to happen and then in the future things will begin to unwind, but it's this constant falling that has created so much tension. It's like that time in life where you know you need to do something and you feel like it's the right thing to do...but you just do not know if it's truly best for you or how to go about it. There are times, such as now, where I just wish that the crash could happen and be done with. Times where I wish Oceanic Flight 815 would just crash, because I know it's going to crash and land on an Island where something good will eventually arise from the wreckage...but when will that time come? If I take the initiative and make the plane crash wouldn't that be worse than letting the plane crash on its own time? But maybe the plane will never crash if I don't make it. Just as Oceanic Flight 815 crashed because of Jacob and Desmond not pushing "The Button." Should I let it go and crash already? My fall semester and J-term have come to an end, so shall I allow that to become the end of this era? I thought before was the end of an era, but now so much more is changing. The dynamics of everything and the plans that were created are just minutes away from ending. What should I do? As the great poet Shakespeare once said, "To be or not to be, that is the Question." I just do not know what I should do about this never crashing plane. Curse gravity and it's want to keep this in the air.

Realizations don't change the world, Actions do.

The end of this relaxing, glorious break is about to come. There were so many great events that transpired during this break and many realizations. Today I had made plans to spend lunch with a well known friend only to have the plans cancelled...again. Now I won't let this get to me--as I never do--but it certainly made me question my high school choices. I had been so determined--at times only subconsciously--not to make many close friends in this town that went below surface level. Don't get me wrong, I still had many close friends who were below surface level, but they all seemed to live so far away. I always wondered why it was hard for me to make close connections--I have a few here, but not many my age--here in my own hometown. There were times when I thought maybe it was because I knew that I would be leaving for college...but that didn't explain the close friends miles away. It was not until being stood up again on this break that I realized the real answer. I had lost my two childhood best friends in high school in this small town. Now by lost I do not mean they have passed away, but I mean we drifted apart. One still calls me her "best friend" and the other still likes to hang out but it is not really the same. So why should I be so disappointed when they cancel on me? It's like they did when we drifted apart. I should be used to this, but there is still a small part of me that is bummed about it. So, sure I have been given a realization through this, but that does not make it any easier. I will always have a place in my heart of this small town, but sadly I will not have too much trouble leaving it behind one day...only to return for visiting sake. Its a sentimental feeling, especially with my family speaking of moving in the future, but it's life. We need to stop fretting about things in our past and just be optimistic about our present and future ready to make a difference in this world. So instead of focusing on realizations, We all need to take the advice they say in the song "Wavin' Flag" by artist K'Naan and redone by Artist United for Haiti.

How come when the media stops covering

 and there’s a little help from the government

we forget about the people still struggling

and assume that its really all love again, nahh

see we don’t have to wait for things to break apart

if you weren’t involved before it’s never too late to start

you probably think that it’s too far to even have to care

well take a look at where you live what if it happened there?

you have to know the urge to make a change lies within

and we can be the reason that they see their flag rise again.

So as we begin this new year, filled with promise, let us all join together to make a difference in this world. One person cannot change the world alone. It would be so easy just to have made a resolution that you will soon break, but instead of another meaningless one let us all do something meaningful this year. Let's all do our part to make a difference and to work towards bringing heaven to earth. I will work towards making 2012 the year of making a difference for the betterment of God's Kingdom coming to Earth.

The Three Word Miracle

Today as I sit and type this, is the wonderful day that we set aside to remember Christ's first coming. Last night at our Christmas Eve Service I had a perspective change. I had spent the entire day watching a television show--a great one at that--but I realized I had spent most of my Christmas eve in a fake reality. How messed up is that? Shows are great, but when its this amazing season of giving, spending time with loved ones, and love I should have been doing more than just watching television. So by the time I was sitting in the service I was just praying for forgiveness for being so materialistic and for lack of better words beating myself up, and then something happened that changed it all. It all started with three words "Look Whose Here." My sister had no idea how great those words felt to me, as I saw that the family that left church 5 years ago had entered our church for the first time since they left. I realized I had witnessed a miracle that night--some may argue whether or not that was one, but I believe it was--this family that did not want anything to do with our church came back. It totally made me reevaluate my Christmas perspective and reminded me not to be so focused on "me, me, me." but to focus on others and what I can do for others, I mean for all I know the time spent obsessing over the amount of television I've watched I may have missed out on an opportunity to show God's love to someone. Then today, we had a Christmas Service, as it is Sunday and it was incredible. Maybe it's the geek in me coming out, but I loved the sermon so much and am just reminded how much we can forget how amazing this day we celebrate truly is. I mean it's the season we celebrate God giving His most precious possession, His one true son. The season that we can all stop our anger and give to those in need. There are so many things we can do to give, such as: lifestraws, Toms Shoes, Heifer International, and many more. I pray that the Christmas attitude of giving will stay in me and others 365 days a year and not just during this Advent season. Let's all try and move past our flaws from the dust and become the people that we truly can be. The people the Christ made us to become.