This life is pretty black and white.There’s right, there’s wrong…but what about when we get into shades of gray?What about the difference between a good choice and a better one?It gets a little more sticky then.We make mistakes, but there is no such thing as a mistake that isn’t rectifiable.This world has been spinning for several thousand years now, with people making more than their share of mistakes everyday.How could our blunders and failures be worse than the rest? The fact is—they aren’t.And we can be satisfied with that.We can trust that in the hands of our Maker, our mistakes…aren’t.They are opportunities to guide us into our destinies.
I went to the park today (Westlands, to be exact)… It was so beautiful!It inspired me to take some pictures…in black and white.
Beauty is simple; unfathomable.It doesn’t make sense, but we want it more than all else.It stares into the eyes of a little girl searching the mirror, and overwhelms the fear of a lover hoping to win.
Beauty is found in brokenness; in fact, that is the only place you will find it.You will not find beauty in perfection, unless what is whole was once crushed.Beauty silently slips through the smallest cracks and mends what is hurt in its wake.Beauty waits for no one, hurries for no one.Beauty must be embraced; it will not push itself on anyone.
Beauty is found in hearts that are shattered.
Beauty encompasses the dreams of all humankind.
Beauty is what God sees when God sees you.
Bucket list additions for the week!!!
39. Go to the east coast and eat authentic, fresh clam chowder.
40. Perfect my handwriting.....seriously, you'd all thank me if I did that.
41. Take a tour of the Denver Mint. I think you can still do that!?
42. Buy a baby blue convertible bug.
43. Go cow tipping.
44. Get a good tan. This one's weird because tanning is so bad for you...but my rules say don't think, type! And I guess I should stick to my rules, huh?
Who could dream that a universe spun on a web of weightless, barren space could tuck away a speck of life somewhere in its folds, endlessly protecting it from spinning out of control?
Who would think that life is only created through beauty, joy, and pain?
How do the littlest things so readily capture our undivided attention?
How can we grasp the idea that someone would trade his life for another’s?
But it does, it is, they do, and He did.
He traded His life for yours.Think about your life for a moment…what is it worth?If you could sift through your fingers every single moment you will ever live, which ones would really be worth keeping?
“As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”(Psalm 103:15-16, NKJV)
On our own, our lives are nothing.But remember…?Jesus left a kingdom of perfection and beauty, became the creation He created, and traded His perfection for our filth and pain.
All so He could give us His life instead.
Let me try putting this in more graspable terms.
If I could trade lives with you, what would I be doing?I would have your identity.I would have your name, think your thoughts.I would respond to people and things based on your history.If I truly traded my life for yours, I wouldn’t even remember my old life, would I?I would step in…and be you.
“…if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, NKJV)
He is a King.He is pure.He is righteous.Why then do we see ourselves as worthless, dirty, and impure?We are not our own…
“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians , NKJV)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV)
I don’t know about you, but this world has nothing for me.If I can lose myself in exchange for the life of my Creator…then hey, You can have all of me, God.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have our own identity when we let God have us.It does mean that we’ll find out who we were created to be, and it does mean that we’ll finally realize who we are, because it’s God who knows us the best anyway.
It sounds like the most beautiful exchange anyone could ever make.
I feel like there’s so much I have to learn!How in the world am I ever going to learn everything that God is?He is unfathomable, infinite, and so much more than I could ever grasp.And even though I’m okay with not always understanding His plans and quirky schemes, I’d like to try comprehending Him as much as I can.
Because His life is the one I’m trading mine for.
P.S. That first verse I quoted has a really good ending!“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.”
P.P.S.When I asked “what is your life worth?”, let me assure you…it is worth every drop of Jesus’ blood spilled on calvary.You are worth THAT much to Him.
Folks, I'm gonna get me a baby blue convertible slug bug one of these days.
You know what?? It's okay to dream. It's okay to let your imagination go places no one's ever been before. So why don't we?
It's called FEAR. I don't know about you, but I'm absolutely sick of fear. I'm sick of seeing people waste thier lives away just because they were afraid of the BAD that might happen instead of expecting the GOOD that might happen.
So I'm determined that from now on, NO MORE FEAR. Will you join me? Let's dream like crazy! Let's catch some stars, build insanely huge mansions, row some boats, pursue our passions, and forget that fear exists.
Hey!Long time no write!Seriously, in the past week, I have started five blogs…… five!!!Annnd, I got even more inspirations for blogs just randomly throughout the day.But for whatever reason, I just couldn’t manage to finish any of them.So I think I’ll just conglomerate them all into this blog and maybe all their loose ends will tie together and somehow make sense.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately.No, I mean like a lot.I’ll find myself spacing out for a looong time, just THINKING.Granted, thinking’s good.It’s so good, in fact, that if we didn’t think, nothing productive would ever be accomplished at all.But there’s a time when you have to stop thinking and just do it.In the words of my dear dad:“When you have to say something, it’d feel better to put it off, but it’s rarely good to procrastinate.”
I just finished reading Hebrews yesterday.I loved it so much that I (a.) intend to go through and study it even more in-depth and (b.) discovered in the process how satisfying it is to highlight and underline everything in bright, lovely colors.Really, if you’ve never tried it, you should start.Get a couple colors of pens and five or six highlighters and mark away!(Know where I got the inspiration?!None other than my dear, Sydney.)
I have another dear that I get inspiration from all the time… I am positive you will too!Click on the frog to check out her blog.FROG.(Oh goodness, I must be tired.)
Have you ever heard “All the Things You Are”?It’s an old love song, but I just love singing it to God.Especially the last line. “Someday my happy arms will hold you…someday I’ll know that moment divine…when all the things you are, are mine.” I find myself wanting Him more and more everyday.Not just some of Him, but ALL the things He is.
Today I feel like He kept telling me over and over again, “You can do this.Stop telling yourself you can’t…you’ve got what it takes because I gave you what it takes.”See, I’ve been feeling kind of inadequate lately to do everything I’m supposed to.But He’s determined to make me believe He’s got plenty of strength to help me through it, and I’m determined to believe Him.Oh, I could go on and on and on about this topic!His grace, power, love, joy…everything He is is SO much more than enough for all we need!It’s not just a nice concept.It is truth.
Did you hear about that guy named Ted Williams?!This guy’s incredible!He used to be a radio announcer but ended up being homeless for ten years.But his VOICE!I could hardly believe it was his voice when it came out of his mouth because it’s so rich and perfectly radio-y!You really have to look him up.
You know what’s crazy?Well, a lot of things.But this morning I woke up, rolled over to turn off my alarm, and this phrase popped into my head.I have no clue why, except that God’s just cool like that.“He slackens the thirst of the broken warrior…”Doesn’t that sound poetic?But it’s true; He really does.He is moved by our brokenness.When we come to His feet, holding nothing and wanting nothing other than Him, He fills us up.“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 NIV, emphasis mine.)
If you’re still reading, thank you for bearing with me!I apologize that it’s kind of all over the place…
One more thing.“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end….Everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.” (Ecclesiastes , 14 NIV)
P.S.I only thought of one bucket list addition this week…
Why is it so amazingly gorgeous outside today??The mountains have just enough snow on them, the clouds have just enough wisp to them, and I think the air has been sweetly affected by the melty snow running around everywhere.
I kind of wish I hadn’t been the driver as we were putzing around town earlier.There was a certain spot we passed where the whole mountain range was spread out, with the city below and the very blue sky above…and of course I couldn’t look, because I wouldn’t be looking anyway if I’d hit something…
So I drank in as much of the beauty as I could (while trying to stay in my lane) and silently prayed the beauty would somehow be stained on my heart.
It doesn’t take too much of God’s flawless artistry to make me the happiest girl alive.Clouds are my weakness…I’ll stand there as long as I possibly can, oooing and ahhing over how cool they are, almost as bad as the double rainbow guy.Oh, and if you get me up in the mountains on a warm night to watch a sunset, you’ll witness me gawking to no end.Well, until the sun set.But then there would be the stars to see, which are so much clearer in the mountains…so then there’d be even more gawking and awe involved.
I think God really enjoys making my heart skip at the wonder of His nature.When I walk outside in the morning and the sunshine splashes my face, I could stand there and let it splash me for hours.When I run through a soft, grassy field with my bare feet, I don’t ever want to leave His tangible embrace.I could go on and on about how much I love His beauty, and He could go on and on about how much He loves ME.
I don’t always get that.
How could this…indescribable Creator love me so deeply?It’s not a surfaced love, either.Not that I always feel it, because honestly, I don’t.There are days I’ll wish for and wait to feel that spark of knowing that He loves me.And on some days, it doesn’t come.Maybe I just haven’t waited long enough, or maybe that’s just part of the mystery of God.
Who can know the mind of the Lord?His ways are so much higher than ours, so much deeper, so much more perfect.And I’m okay with that.If I knew why He loved me so much, there wouldn’t be any reason to chase after Him to the end of the world.
And that’s exactly what I want to do.
I’ve decided to look at life from a different perspective from now on.He said to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and He’d take care of everything else.Everything.I think I’m finally starting to realize that any hard work I do outside of seeking Him first is pointless.So…I’m going to change that, and make sure everything I do is in accordance with His will.But that’s for another blog. J
I don’t know about you…but I want to change the world.
One moment, one life at a time.
I want to run with endurance the race set before me, looking to my King with every step.
I want to throw my heart over the edge and jump in after it, no matter what might lay at the bottom.
I want to do the right thing and make as few mistakes as possible.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.I look behind me and see who I was before, only to find that now I’m so much closer to God than I’ve ever been.Yet I look up and see the person God’s challenging me, daring me to become…and wonder how I’ll ever get there.
And I get so, so, so excited every time I think about the journey.
Just think about the people I’ll meet, the places I’ll go, the lives I’ll see changed!I really can hardly contain my excitement.
Who knows how long it’ll take?Who cares?This life is an amazing journey and I want to embrace every second of it.
I know there will be rough places on the path.I know the climb will get steep and hard. I know there will be more than one time that I’ll want to give up.
But giving up is not an option.
He didn’t give up on me.
How could I give up on Him?
I can’t care about the potential failures I might go through.Failure is simply God’s way of pulling us closer to Him.He is near to the broken-hearted and saves those who have a contrite spirit.It’s when we’re broken, with no agenda, scattered before His feet, that we see His heart.It’s when we have nothing left within ourselves that He can step in with His grace and be enough.
I want Him to be enough.I don’t want to want anything else but Him.I want to place my heart in His hands, close my eyes, and leave it there. I never want to see it again unless He lets me.For I am His.
When will I be able to trust Him at such a level?
How about now.
He’s the one who created my heart in the first place.He’s the one who knows how my life is supposed to go.If He can create me, surely He can complete me.
So I think I’ll trust Him.Starting today, I’ll stop analyzing my life and just…breathe.I’ll take a step when He says go and take a break when He says stop.
And in the process, maybe I’ll change the world.
P.S. It's Wednesday. And I didn't add anything to my bucket list! This could be a tradgedy......but not to worry! Here are my additions for this week:
30. Make Christmas cookies in July.
31. Deliver a litter of puppies.......uhh or help a dog deliver them..........
32. Rock a hat that I actually like.
33. Go on a missions trip.
Okay I think that's about all for today!!! Hasta lavista mis amigos!
