Oddly enough we had ANOTHER sermon on marriage. Desperately wanting to hear encouraging words for singles who may desire to be single for a lifetime or who may be called to that I went here. May God strengthen and encourage you wherever you may be.
I have been BLESSED with some amazing friends. And not only are these friends amazing they are also beautiful, caring, talented, blah, blahblah, blahblah. I know I just blahblahed over wonderful attributes of these people but the list could really go on for a while!
So there are 3 people that I would like to SPOTLIGHT today.
(this is a baby. an actual human life in its just beginning stages. pretty amazing right? Also, I refer to this little guy in male terms naturally. I'm not dropping hints at anything.)
So this little guy or girl is going to be quite the game changer. One of my besties is pregnant. She is already one of the gentelist, kindest, most even keeled people I know. I'm so excited to see the qualities that motherhood brings out in her. I can't even begin to imagine how awesome this litte babe is going to be. But I'm guessing between the sweetness of his mother, the creativity of his father, the adoration of his extended family, and the goofiness of his "aunt" he'll be pretty well rounded. Don't cha think!
Do you remember this post? Here's an amazing thing that I don't think I ever posted. All 3 of these people were healed. Pronounced cancer free. Pronounced free to keep living! WOW!!!! I remember the awe I felt as each got their clearence. One day they were fine. The next they had cancer. Months later cancer free. It's amazing to me the way God has designed our bodies. How they respond to things. How they themselves can be the attacker and yet also the agent that brings healing. This is a divine mystery to me. Those were fairly dark times for me. Watching these friends walk this road. Not knowing how to be a help or encouragement because I myself was wrestling spiritually. But I can say confidently the Lord met me there. He didn't answer all my questions of why. But He brought peace which is actually something I could understand better than His answers of "Why". So it is with saddness and yet much sureity that God loves and does good that I say the cancer has returned for one of these friends. Read her story here and be encouraged! She is one of the most beautiful people I know. Her blog address is Jenny O. loves Jesus. That is proven in her every word and response through this process. I know the sweet response she hears back is Jesus loves Jenny O.
Then there's a dear friend of mind who is RIDICULOUSLY encouraging. I mean she's one of those people that you'd be hard pressed to hear anything negative about anyone coming out of her mouth. She is also kind of brilliant. She'll never admit it herself because you know she's humble of course. But she challenges me to really think about things or why I believe certain things. She's pretty great. and guess what?! She's just started her own blog Unsilent Things. So now the world can read these wonderful thoughts of hers. Take a minute and check her out.
So this title came from a time when Emily and I were watching Fashion Star and that lady Kara Laricks (the one who won) wore and made those crazy pants with the high waist and the low crotch and some kind of crookedness going on in between. Oh my.
Confession: A blog I enjoy posted this video and I found myself watching it, longing to be on my own pantoon. Fully decorated with a slide and fun dancing. Bigger confession... I may have watched that video more than once.
Tonight I had high hopes of starting and finishing a to-do list I made last week..... That didn't happen. Between fun blogs and Facebook updates the time just slipped away. Dang it!
I'm currently listening to a song called Get It Together. Lyrics: "You're gonna have to get it together cause you're coming apart". So I'm going to go ahead and take my cue and start working on that to- do list.
Saturday is Great American Backyard Campout Day. (Ya, it's a real thing! You know how I love my holidays!) Thinking about grabbing the neices, building a teepee like this one (how cute is that!), relaxing by the pool, and talking teeneybopper girl stuff. Sounds kind of perf actually.(I thought about writing the whole word but then just decided to own the fact that this is how I talk now. It is what it is!)
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." Malachi 3:10
Truth. This is it. He is true to His word. I often don't believe it or really wrestle to grasp onto it and believe it for myself. But my friends He has proven Himself faithful in this over and over and over again in my own life and in others. IT'S TRUE!
This whole process of finally putting my hand to the plow of missions has been revealing, convicting, painful, scary, and full of blessing, joy, purpose, and beauty. I've had some major reservations about pursuing long term missions for years. From simple logistics to down right fear. I have run laps on this spectrum. But let me tell you that when I did finally give myself away to Him to be used completely and fully for and by Him, much blessing came. Let me also say a tithe can and should be money given to the purposes of God through His body, the church. And there is blessing to be had in that. But a tithe can also be anything you set apart as an offering to God; your time, resources, energies, self.
Now, I don't wish to give you the wrong impression that I somehow magically came to this point of easily surrendering myself to God; to be used by Him however He wished. I don't really know of any Christ follower who could say they EASILY surrendered. What I can say is that by His grace and His Spirit's leading I am acting and believing in ways I didn't feel capable of in times past.
I'm a procrastinator. Oh I hate the anxiety of not knowing if I'll make the deadline but I love the thrill of waiting to the last minute and making the deadline. And that thrill wins out most times. In this desire for missions there were reservations and also my complicated love of procrastinating. After pouring my heart out to the Lord again and submitting my life to His will whatever the cost again, He broke through my years of procrastinating tendencies to move me to act quickly on an opportunity to serve in London this summer. Blessing #1.
I have some sin issues. And by some I mean lots. Some that I'm aware of and others that I'm not yet cognizant of. Some of these sin issues revolve around the area of money and pride. In being accepted by the organization to go on this trip, participants were asked to examine their finances and see if there were any places of known sin and to repent of them. Immediate conviction was followed by immediate obedience. I was moved to go back to places where I had been financially sinful and apologize and to set things right. Humbling to say the very least. And another place where I know it was only by God's Spirit motivating me to change. Blessing #2.
Then there was this issue of actually raising support. Lots of doubt about God's calling on my life but also a place of seeing lots of trust that if God wanted me to go He would be the one to provide the way. I truly believed this. So when asked, "Do I Continue?" I could only respond yes. Until God said no or the money stopped coming or the agency rejected me I had to keep going. I have to tell you that today I received my final financial update and I am $670 over my required amount. Blessing #3
That's amazing right?! To go from a place of not knowing if I would make it to being far over my goal. But the place where I have found the most joy, excitement and encouragement is in the 34 of you who supported me and the countless number of you who have prayed for me. You are my blessings. You are what have come from the floodgates of Malachi. You have overflowed my cup so that the joy in my heart brims in my eyes every time I think of you.Blessings #4- 34 and beyond.
So, it is in this revelation of God's provision and urging that I've begun the process of applying for a position in full time missions. While in London I will meet with a different organization and discuss the possibility of serving with them full time beginning next summer. I am shocked and awed by God's ability to move this fearful and trepid girl to a place of boldly wanting to declare Him to the nations. He is indeed in the business of shock and awe.
"Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay." Habakkuk 2:3
I had prepared myself for the worst. A mental roller coaster of hearing my name partnered with 4 different medical terms. A whirlwind of emotion. Fear of the unknown and hope of having answers. One phone call, 2 minutes, and like that relief.
More questions press at my mind but what I now know is I'm healthy. Fears subside as answers comfort. Determination rises as the answers given place responsibility in my hands.
So here we go. I love that life is full of second chances. Here's one of mine. A chance to make different decisions. A chance to be preventive. A chance to be proactive.
I can't help but think of the many times my physical life has been saved, reminding me of the still active purposes God has for my life.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity." Jeremiah 29:11-14
Have I told y'all about my "mad drawing skills"? I mean words aren't even necessary at this point. Just look at this masterpiece. Thank you Draw Something.
After not making much of anything for awhile a friend asked me if there was anything I could do with her argyle socks. This is what happened. Not too shabby for socks. It sure was fun crafting again.
What else could give me this smile in my car but a stop to QT for an Iced Coffee/Frappicino! I'll have you know this was after going to a different QT and finding their machine broken. Desperate times call for desperate measures people.
Can you even stand those faces! Oh I love them. Very glad for reasons to go see them during the week.
Life with these girls is pretty fantistico! It is guaranteed when we are together, good convo will be had over good food. Love that summer allows for impromptu taco nights, Fro Yo, and delicious Kenyan meals with City Lights folk!
True story: I have allowed people to believe both of these boys were my children at one point in their lives. Wouldn't you? How sweet are they! Thank you house church for producing such beautiful children that I get to love on!
So it's Father's day and I've just returned home from a day of hanging with my family. BBQ. Music. Reminiscing. And laughter.
Today's sermon at church was about marriage. This is kind of unheard of at New City. An entire sermon devoted to the topic of marriage. In college it seemed as though every service I went to was on marriage or singleness. Its been nice being at New City and enjoying the predictability of a sermon. I know it will be the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it will be Kingdom focused. It will be a call for God's people to be a blessing to the nations. It will not be fluffy. It will not be specifically catered to seasons of our lives.
I will say that today though it was refreshing to hear someone speak so highly of marriage. Sometimes in my singleness I can forget. I can forget to hold marriage in high regard and respect the hard work and effort that goes into successful marriages. Sometimes, brutally honest moment here, I can want "marriage" so badly I forget what I'm actually wanting or I can disdain marriage, forgetting that it's actually something I want to be apart of someday. It's easy to look at marriages of friends and want what they have without knowing the work it takes to get them there.Then there are other times that I look at friends marriages and pity them because they're not single. It was good to be reminded that marriage is big. It's hard. It's good. It's life changing and changes lives.
Today talking with and observing my dad and family I was convinced that Tony was right in speaking of marriage today and not giving a Father's day speech of some sort.
I don't know that anyone can say they've had an easy marriage. (If they say it they might be lying or their marriage might be terribly unhealthy.) But my parents can attest to the truth that they have not had an easy marriage. There were many things going against them at a time and in a society when interracial relationships where taboo. There have been several other missteps and setbacks in their 30 years of marriage and yet here they are this year celebrating 31 years of marriage.
Many families in today's society are broken because of divorce, abuse, abandonment, affairs, sin. I see much of this in the city among black families in the community. Single mothers raising children without the help of a man for one reason or another.
My dad is a black man, my mother a white woman. A fear her family had was that he would abandon her, which societal trends pointed to. At several points in their marriage either could have thrown in the towel and no one would have blamed them for it. Marriage is hard. Who WANTS to do the hard task of working through it? I know I'd much rather take the easy way through things.
I say all this to say, my dad stayed. He stayed at a time when divorce rates rocketed. And when "happy" may not have been on the list of words he'd use to describe his marriage. But there is fruit from that decision that I can see very clearly now. He has a son, my dear brother, who also would not describe his marriage as easy and yet he also has chosen time and time again to stay committed to the vows he made to my sister in law. He has a daughter, me, that values marriage and desires to one day marry to be an expression of God's loving kindness to the world with her husband. He has grandchildren that he and his son are teaching by example what it means to be promise keeping men and the sacrifice it takes to make marriage work.
His life was radically changed in marrying my mother. But my life, my brother and his family's life have all been radically enriched by his choosing to stay married to her. What a blessing he has given us.
A part of my dear family at New City has decided to go serve back in their home city in Canada. With joy and sorrow I'm in the process of saying goodbye to them and their children. How heartbreaking to say goodbye to this cuddly chunk.Aye. He is one of the sweetest things I've ever known. I will miss mothering him Sunday mornings and being taken for his mother! Once I was told he had the best seat in the house by a stranger as he rested on my chest. Completely inappropriate? Yes. Unforgettable memory? Yes. Want more information about what they'll be doing in Canada? Email this guy's daddy!
I'm a little bit taken by "magical" moments these days. For me, flying a kite on my own successfully is absolutely magical. I had tried to get it up for quite some time with no luck. Just as I was rounding up everyone to go inside I tried it one last time and this is what happened. My feet on the ground and my heart soaring with that little kite. Pretty amazing.
FOOD TRUCK FRIDAYS! So fun. Except that we sat in the car in traffic for far too long only realizing the lines for food were longer. Epic FAILURE! So instead of food from a truck we went to....
A VEGETABLE GARDEN!
Not quite as exciting as a food truck?
Except that it's a thousand more times exciting than a food truck because this a food building! It's the size of a truck. Working with probably the same amount of equipment and space. Yet still COMPLETELY delish!
I introduce you to Fozzies! Oh my word! I just have to say I'm sorry my life went so long without it.
LIFE CHANGING!
Parmesan and herb chips with Chicken Parmesan
Not pictured: Foz-ilicious Shake (caramel, apple, and GOAT CHEESE)
OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!
These girls are so happy to be at Fozzies! Look at them.
Thank you a trillion times over for introducing me to Fozzies.
So, I'm reconsidering moving to London now that I've found this place. I could just buy the Silver Streaker (which is btw what I call myself when my gray temple hairs get out of control.)
I love fireworks. When asked what my favorite holiday is I'm prone to say 4th of July or New Years Eve simply because of my deep seeded love for a sky lit up in brilliant colors. I love the magic of it.
There are certain things I love about this little space of mine in Town and Country. I love that on any given night I can star gaze and get a pretty good view. And on a night like tonight I can sit in my backyard and watch fireflies dance around the woods. It'squite magical. Little living twinkle stars hanging out in the woods putting on a show for a willing audience of one. Pretty great.
You should know, simply because I laugh to myself about it from time to time, I went to gaze at these guys with a mason jar in hand. Hoping maybe to catch a few but I was quite paralyzed in amazement of all of them filling the woods. So one time a friend of mine was telling the story of he and his wife waking, while camping, to the magical scene of horses galloping in a field filled with fireflies in the middle of the night. That sounds amazing right? I thought so to but all I could blurt out was "MASON JAR!" That's all I said. Just mason jar. Not, oh I love collecting fireflies in mason jars. Or wow, you know what I would have done... Just mason jar.
So tonight I laughed at myself. Alone. Outside. Firefly gazing. With mason jar in hand. One of my favorite pastimes.
I've been having a difficult time getting into the word lately. Finding lesser things to busy myself with. I recognize the defeat and vow to be different tomorrow. Today I came outside to begin studying and heard these awful cries from surrounding birds. Not the beautiful tweeting I was used to hearing but more screeching. I thought to get annoyed and go back inside but then it occurred to me that this is my voice right now. My feeble attempts at study are not these beautiful songs like they used to be. Instead they are more screeches and stutterings. But I was also reassured they are something. I am making a joyful noise to the Lord though it may not be a beautiful one right now.
Speaking of joyful noise, have you heard this? If you're a softy and always ready to be amazed you might want to get a tissue ready cause it's pretty amazing.
Tonight sitting outside, enjoying dinner by myself I heard a tree break and a limb fall. In the calm of my mind I started thinking of the question posed to me during high school at some point: If a tree falls in the middle of the forest with no one around did it make a sound?
I've decided I officially know its summer because my mind has the freedom to ponder such ridiculous things. :)
