I heart this video

Someone sent me this video in an email. I just couldn't bring myself to delete it without sharing first. It is great!

Thoughts from West Palm Beach

The blue ocean sends waves that break along the shore with steady, controlled force. It’s as if the ocean is overflowing – stretching further than the horizon, it seems eternally vast.

The salty waves move so consistently – sometimes strong and vengeful, yet always graciously refreshing and peaceful. The tide paces in and out; there is a perfect timing for everything. The sea is not dictated by human means or reason.

I feel so small standing in front of the ocean, but so do my problems and my agenda. I am freed by the reminder that my feeble attempts to control life are worthless. I remember that I can rely on my great Provider and Justifier to meet my every need.

I see God revealing himself to me through the waves: “I am faithful, I am strong. I am constant, I bring peace. I am the great judge and am capable of complete wrath – yet I love you and your debt has been paid. Why don’t you see me in every aspect of life? How can you look at the ocean and not see divinity? I am the Creator. I command the ocean and tell it where to start and stop. How much more will I care for something created in my very image? My power exists far beyond the waves and the current, and I want my power to exist in YOU.”

Being at the beach provides a great opportunity for “inner solitude.” It helps me to allow God to make me so solid within that I can have outward peace, even around lots of people. I am trying to be “silent.” Not so much literally, but by listening to God in the midst of clamor.

I read this on the beach today:

“We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us that we talk in order to straighten out their understanding…Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification. One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let God be our justifier. We don’t need to straighten other people out.” –Richard Foster

The God who created the ocean is also my Justifier. I have nothing to fear!

God Does Not Take Risks

I heard this phrase one time in a sermon.

Think about it for a moment. God often calls us to take risks and do things that make us uncomfortable or that seem unclear. But it’s not like God doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing.

Something is only a risk because WE don’t know what the outcome will be. We are afraid of pain and unacceptance and the unknown. 

But not only does God know the outcome, he also planned the outcome…before we were ever born. For risk-adverse people like me, this is a comforting thought. We can trust God. 

Of course this truth doesn't mean we will always be comfortable, but the end is written down already. And it is victorious. Worth the painful moments.

What is a risk to us is actually God's gentle, steady leading that always is for our own good and His glory.

Life without Internet

It's been a long time since my last blog posting.  And I was planning to do such a good job with consistently writing!  Oh well...

I will make excuses though.  I moved into a new apartment at the beginning of the month (yay!) and I still don't have internet access.  That's right, I have now survived for 20 days without internet at home.  We don't have cable yet either. 

This was a very hard concept to cope with for the first week.  I had Facebook and Gmail withdrawals.  But now, it isn't so bad.  I've learned that life goes on with or without the internet.  And I'm also finding that it can be a nice break to go home after work and not sit right back down in front of a computer screen.  Home becomes more of a retreat.

Don't get me wrong, I am still anxiously anticipating the day the internet comes to Apartment 1109.  But until then, I'm trying to look at the benefits.

Perhaps next week my blog will be crazy with activity.

Idolize Yourself

Tonight is the season premier of American Idol.  I found this image while exploring the show's website.

"Idolize yourself."

Seeing the words stated so plainly caught my attention. Though we hear the message everyday, idolizing self used to have a negative connotation and seemed to be woven through advertising more discretely.  It seems as though it's become okay...even out loud.

Introductions

I have a clear picture in my head of a child building a house with popsicle sticks and glue. Can you see it? The sticky white Elmer’s glue oozes through the seams of the lopsided wooden structure and trails onto the table and into the hands of the little one.

Sometimes I feel like the little kid building a popsicle house. Meanwhile God is standing right in front of me, offering me a mansion of brick and mortar. It’s bigger and better than anything I could imagine. But I don’t have time to look away from my timid little building. I go about adding one more drop of glue, one more support beam, one more responsibility, one more ministry, one more great decision…

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel ... Now that you know God--or rather are known by God--how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?  Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?" 

-Galatians 1:6, 4:9

I'm on a new journey to put aside the popsicle sticks and let God build something much better.