I have a theory…or maybe just a thought.

Most of us live in constant fear of the judgment of others.

We are terrified that someone will see us and think badly of us.

We work incredibly hard to ensure that no one could possibly think badly of us at all.

We waste so much time trying to be perfect that we forget how to really live life…we truly make “all of the world into a stage”

and we forget that the performance only happens once, and that the curtain will probably close without an resounding applause from the audience.

Not to say that we were not loved or appreciated, but few get to die as rock stars.

Most die as has-beens who wish that they had forgotten about the audience before the audience had forgotten about them.

There is also the fact that few really have an audience at all because we are all so concerned with acting a part for others, that we never take the time to sit in the audience of someone else’s life.

We do not support one another as we should-we do not clap for the scenes of other’s lives because we are so concerned about hearing our own applause.

This needs to stop-we need to stop acting and start applauding.

We need to encourage, promote, and celebrate the acts others.

It is time for a change...who's with me?

Loved In the Midst

Before fall break last month, I always dreaded coming home-I loathed leaving my semi-organized college life because I knew what would be waiting for me here-a mess.

While it is true that I often struggle with keeping my personal life and belongings organized at school-I would have been so embarrassed to let anyone from school see the mess that I had left here in my bedroom. I wished, desperately, that there was someone else to blame for the fact that I literally could not open the door to the small room without bumping into boxes, clutter and general disorder-but I was the only one at fault. Somehow, the room had become a storage unit for all of the cluttered pieces of life that I had not yet found a place for-boxes left from the previous school year, incomplete craft projects, assignments from high school, and clothing that no longer fit.

When I had finally cleared a path across the room, I sat on my bed and took a moment to feel ashamed of my unholy creation. As I sat there in the midst of my clutter, it occurred to me that God loves us in the midst of the mess. He joins us in the center of the rubble and he loves us right there. He loves me in the midst of my mistakes and my mess. He knows that I am the one to blame for all of it, and chooses to remove my shame.

I still do not understand God’s sightless love, but I am learning this…He didn’t die for us because we were perfect. He continues to lay down his life for us, because we are anything but. He sits in the center of my mess and sees only me; his beloved daughter.

Silly Me!

I have to admit…there are times and days when I find myself questioning God, and I find myself wondering why he doesn’t make himself more obvious…and there are also times when I find myself delighting in God’s subtle voice. Sometimes the most powerful messages are not shouted. Sometimes they are whispered and sometimes they are texted!

Tonight I was walking back to my dorm from dinner, and I found myself wondering, for the thousandth time, about my future. I am a person who likes to constantly be working towards some goal or another, and it can be so irritating to have nothing that I can do about so many aspects of my future. I can do nothing to guarantee that I will ever get married, find the kind of job that I can hope for, or even figure out what God is trying to do with my life…I was thinking all of these things when I felt my cell phone go off in my pocket with a text message reading…

“Love is Patient

Love is Kind

It does not envy

It does not boast”

The “Love is Patient” part is what made me stop in my tracks. I do not show love to God, or to the people who will be in my future when I so impatiently attempt to wait…in fact, I cease to show love to the people in the present when I spend all of my time wondering about my life in the future…silly me!

Love is Patient…

it rejoices in the joy that is right in front of it rather than seeking its replacement.

What?

“Wait what is an Ebenezer?” I remember whispering to my roommate during chapel last semester when the words to “Come Thou Fount” were displayed on the screens at the front of the room. Her response was “’Scrooge’, from a ‘Christmas Carol’, right?” Somehow, I didn’t think that was it…Actually!
The word “Ebenezer” is found a few times in the Bible, the most memorable being from One Samuel Chapter Seven. In this chapter, Israel has finally beaten the Philistines for the first time in a long time. To commemorate this Samuel, the prophet, sets up a rock calls it an Ebenezer saying "Thus far has the LORD helped us." The rock was intended to remind the Israelites that God had been with them…he had not abandoned them.

The rock was set up so that, when life became impossible again…when it looked like the Philistines would win forever, the Israelites would have a reminder that God would shine through again! That is the goal for this blog! I want it to be a testament to God’s faithfulness…I want it to remind me, along with anyone else who might read it, of God’s radical faithfulness. On the days when I have coffee on every shirt that I own, can’t seem to get anything right and feel that the world is coming to an end...I want this to be my Ebenezer…I want it to be a place where I can look back and remember that God will always shine through...even if it takes Him a little while!