Silence. Listen. Silence.

Stress. Worry. Overwhelmed. Burnt Out. Too Much. Confusion. Unsure. Decisions.

Ah the words that are so rough, yet so prominent in our society today. Our noisy, always moving, always scheduled society. Why is it that we let ourselves be defined but such dehumanizing words?

We sometimes need to take a break in life.

Stop and Enjoy the Flowers.

Stop and Be Silent.

Read Scripture.

Journal.

Sit.

Sleep.

Pray.

Listen.

Listen for God's Will.

I know more than anything right now it's what I need to do.

Look to the Stars...

Stars. There are so many and yet they can so often be neglected. It is so easy to forget about that which is above us. I was sitting at what we call The Eternal Flame reading Scripture and Journaling this evening and when I arose I saw a shooting star. It was one star, but it was beautiful and caused me to continue to look at the sky. I noticed so many stars were out and they created beautiful shapes and glows. There was one particular star that was glowing bright and orangish. I remembered faintly from high school Astronomy class that it was a planet, but I cannot for the life of me remember which one. As I began to return to my dorm I could not take my eyes off of the stars; I was gazing up at the sky instead of looking straight ahead or down at the ground. Then I had a thought: How often do we stare ahead or down at the sidewalk and miss out on what's above us? We get so focused on the busyness of life that we neglect what is above us; what is given to us by our Creator. What would our lives look like if we gazed at the sky more? Let us take this to a deeper level now. How often do we go through our Spiritual Journey in life looking "straight ahead" at what we need to do for the future or "down at the ground" in the present? A better question would be how often do we truly look up to our Father? We pray for Him to lead us along His will and are our taught how He moves in mysterious ways, but do we truly see most of what He does? Maybe we need to break off from the distractions of life and actually look for God and what He is doing. How different would our life be if instead of going through the routine of life we actually looked for everything  that Christ is doing--the big and the small. So I want to invite everyone to stand with arms high and heart abandoned in awe of the ONE who gave it all, to stand with our souls surrendered and make all we are HIS.

Make the Invisible Children VISIBLE!

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Matthew 25:40 

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

What is L...ust?

Lust. The evil word that we are commanded to stay away from. The word that when Christ mentions it he says "So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away..." (Matt. 5:29a) Think about the implications of that. Gauge out your eye!? Surely that would not take away the ability to lust. What then must we do? Famous theologian and leading New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright interprets this section to mean that by not giving into lust it may sometimes be so hard it feels like you are gauging out your eye. The point is to find ways to remove the temptation. But here is my main question, is Lust simply something sexual? Sure the connotation and most of the definitions are, but they can also simply mean "desire." Surely we have more desires than just sexual ones? Rob Bell, in his book Sex God: exploring the endless connections between sexuality and spirituality, says "There is so much to enjoy, yet we fixate on something we don't have." That I believe sums up what lust is. It promises us something that it can't give. It makes us want something we don't have. So what is Lust? I propose it is an overwhelming desire for anyone or anything that tries to manipulate and destroy our lives. It can be a desire for someone--maybe that girl you really like, or that boy you're dying to talk to--, A desire for the next new book--even though you still have hundreds you have yet to read--, A desire to spend time with certain people, watching certain movies, doing certain sports, doing certain activities. These are all good and godly things when done right, but when perverted by an evil desire they can become lust and thus not good for our lives. I propose we give those things we lust after to God and let God redefine them in our lives and make us new as His children with desires for the good of His creation.

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.