I liked this quote and stole it from Jamie...

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.

--E.B. White

Thoughts From The Throne...

Each week I write a "Thought From The Throne" that are posted in the ladies bathroom stalls around campus. Here is the one for this week...

On Sunday I visited a church that I normally don’t attend. The service was at 7:45am, which needless to say made me get up much earlier then I was used to on a Sunday morning. After the service was over I went to my home church to meet up with some people. After we hung out I was planning to go back home and take a nice long nap. So I got in my car and started to drive away.

As I was driving away I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to go back to church and stay for the 11am service. I didn’t know why I felt so compelled to do so, but the feeling wasn’t going away. I thought, “No, I already went to church once today and am really tired—-and a nap is the next thing on my agenda.”

But God persisted and the feeling continued. The feeling was so strong that I had no choice but to turn around and drive back to church. So I did. I parked my car, walked inside, grabbed a bulletin and looked for a place to sit down.

I looked around the sanctuary as people were milling around talking with one another, when my attention gravitated towards the back row. There was a woman sitting by herself though people were walking and talking all around her. There was an empty seat close to her so I sat down. I introduced myself and we started making small talk. From the moment we started talking I could tell God was at work in this woman's life and she didn’t like it. Her name was Megan and that Sunday was the first time she had been to church in over five years.

We didn’t talk a lot but from the conversation we did have I could see and feel that she had experienced a lot of pain over the past few years and specifically in the past few months and she really didn’t know what to do. At the end of the service, she looked at me and said, “Thanks for introducing yourself and for talking to me. I’m in a rough place in life right now. But your kindness means a lot—more then you’ll ever know.” I looked in her eyes that I could see held a lot of pain, smiled and we went our separate ways.

I don’t know if I’ll ever see Megan again and I don’t know exactly what things she experienced or was in the midst of experiencing that caused her so much hurt and pain. But I do know that God is pursuing Megan. And God is pursuing you. And God is pursuing me. And He doesn’t stop.

Like Megan, you probably have your share of hurt and pain that you carry around, though some of us hide it very, very well. But just because we hide it doesn’t mean it’s not there. And often the more we hide it the heavier it becomes. It gets heavier and heavier until it’s too heavy to carry and something breaks.

You may be one carrying a really heavy bag right now or you may be one whose bag recently broke and your left looking at the remains. Wherever you are, God wants to meet you there. It may sound cliché, but it’s true. The beauty of the cross is that it’s not all about forgiveness but it’s about restoration. God wants to restore your soul. He wants to take that bag and give you rest like you’ve never experienced before.

And if you don’t give it to Him now, things won’t get easier...but don’t worry, He’ll keep pursuing you and calling you and loving you…and trust me…He won’t stop…

Things I've Been Learning...

In the midst of some pretty busy days as of latley, I have been learning a lot. Here's just a snippet...

1. Everyone has a story filled with hopes, fears, hurt, pain and joy.

2. My God is mighty to save.

3. Having a never ending cough makes me feel like a smoker.

4. I'm convinced as you get older things get harder, not easier.

5. The truth is good but it can hurt.

6. A diet cherry coke from Sonic is one of God's greatest creations (I love their ice!)

7. There is freedom in truth.

8. Life is not black and white.

9. It's a great feeling to have lots of clean clothes after doing a ton of laundry.

10. The cross isn't just about forgiveness--it's about restoration. Jesus wants to restore my soul.

11. It's extremely difficult to see a person with so much potential not embrace their God given gifts and abilities.

12. The choices I make now will directly shape much of my future.

13. I would argue cold pizza is better then hot pizza.

14. For Jesus to heal our souls we must stare our junk in the face.

15. If one has issue surrounding their identity those will always be there until dealt with directly, honestly and openly.

16. My mom can make me laugh in a way that no one else can.

Busy Times

Things are busy right now--hence the lack of posts on my part. And things will be busy this weekend, though all good things (i.e. FPU women's retreat to the coast on Saturday--I'm super excited about it!)

But have no fear, I have some thoughts circling in my head that I'm excited to blog about soon...

So hang with me and stay tuned...

Valentine's Day

I'm hanging out with a friend of mine tomorrow night. But we clarified a few things last night while we were on the phone...

1. It's not a date.
2. It's not going to be extravagant.
3. It's not going to be planned out.

"It's just going to be a normal Thursday." Should be a fun night...!

Tag...Your It!

My brother and I have called one another a total of 12 times (6 times each). This is officially the longest game of phone tag I've ever played. And he's the one "it" right now.

My First Crush...

In light of Valentine's Day being this week, tonight in my small group meeting with my RAs we went around and everyone shared the story about their first crush. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of laughing and giggling.

Think for a minute about your first crush. I have a feeeling it will make you laugh a bit.

Dear Diary...

Two years ago I had my gall bladder removed because I had gall stones. These tiny little stones (made of calcium deposits and build up) would cause me incredible pain from time to time. Like pain to the point to where I would curl over and sometimes have to lay on the ground in the fetal position...not fun.

Ever since then things still haven't been working correctly in my digestion system. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I still get sick after eating...but only sometimes, not all the time.

It's for this reason I am starting a food diary. I will be (and have been) writing down all the food that I eat in hopes of finding a pattern of what may be making me feel sick.

I figured it's worth a try. I haven't written in a diary since the 2nd grade. And all that stopped the day my brother found and read my diary and embarressed me to tears. No hard feelings though...well maybe it is still a soft spot for me.

And it was a Beauty and the Beast diary. I know, it was awesome.

Questions, Oh The Questions....

I love having conversations with people about faith. And actually what I really enjoy is having conversations about faith with people who may have a different perspective on it then me.

The first time one's faith or values is questions it can be scary...and it makes one think...and start to ask questions. And if I would have written this post four years ago, I would not have enjoyed conversations that questioned my faith--they would have really scared me. But I no longer feel that it's my job to defend my faith or God--I'm pretty sure He has that covered on His own.

I love questions. I think questions are good...and healthy...and necessary if as followers of Christ we're called to continually pursue the life God calls us to.

We'll never fully understand God. We can't. But I think the more one asks questions about faith and genuinely seeks biblical truth, it makes the pursuit of God that much more exciting.

I've found the more questions I have, the more answers I find but thus they lead me to more questions. I had two conversations just yesterday with people wrestling through questions of their faith. And in the world we live in we like to have answers and we want to have things painted in black and white--but I've found there is a whole lot of grey that colors our world.

I think questions are necessary for growth. And they don't have to be scary. I think what's really scary is when people don't have any.

I Believe...

1. I believe it's sometimes harder to forgive yourself then it is to forgive others.
2. I believe you really don't realize what you have until it's gone.
3. I believe it's not possible for mankind to understand Christ's infinite love us.
4. I believe some Christian circles push the idea of marriage way too much.
5. I believe people who say they don't have issues really have the most.
6. I believe in a God who knows and understands far more then I do.
7. I believe there is great power in honesty.
8. I believe, and have no doubt, God puts specific people in each of our lives for reasons we may or may not ever know.
9. I believe people who stare their brokenness in the face are the ones who make a difference in the world.
10. I believe I have one of the best jobs in the world.
11. I believe women can enjoy football just as much as men can.
12. I believe God never stops pursuing us. Never.
13. I believe many Americans (including myself) carry around a sense of "entitlement".
14. I believe we will never truly understand how much we impact the lives of those around us.
15. I believe the way our society sees women's bodies is insane.
16. I believe in miracles and things that can not be explained.
17. I believe people stay in difficult situations/relationships because if it's painful at least the pain is familiar.
18. I believe a nice hot shower can do wonders when you're sick.
19. I believe satan knows our tendencies and uses them to tempt us everyday.
20. I CAN'T believe the Giants won the Super Bowl...but they did!

Life

My quote of the week last week that I found myself saying a lot was: "Life...it's all about the choices we make."

And then I found this quote...

"Life is series of choices, good and bad, that shape who we are and what we want in our future."

What kind of choices are you making?

No Wonder Our Perception of Beauty is Distorted...