Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Adventure Called Life day 003

today is wednesday. and i'm super excited. i love wednesdays. first there is Espanol before chapel, then chapel, lunch, VOICE LESSON, class, break in which to practice piano and guitar, and then finally another class. i especially love wednesdays like today. tonight is prop shop worship. for the past two weeks we have been scrambling to put together a service as worship arts majors. we do this every month to "practice" what we are learning and to grow as worship leaders. i wanted, at first, to be in the band with my wellspring teammates but now i am grateful to have been working with Liz and the prayer team!! yay! marc and i are also in a skit, and its super sweet...you'll have to come tonight to the small chapel at SAFMC at 9:30 to see what i mean!!

well i need to make a sign for our little skit, and need to finish making tea before i walk over there. i'll update this after the service to give a little "overview and review." :)

so...WE DID IT! Prop Shop was a definite success. It was definitely not your typical service, but I feel like it went well. God really moved in some of my friend's lives tonight, as well as mine. My hope that my father will confess Jesus is Lord has been renewed. I prayed with a friend of mine and I found myself bursting with thankfulness at his salvation and his dedication to the things of God. I want to be the example, the light that shines into the darkness of my father's world and makes it light. I want to be a tool in God's plan to draw him unto himself. God is good. All the time. God is good. Thank you Lord!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Adventure Called Life day 002

For the past two days it has been gray, drizzly, windy and cold outside. All I have wanted to do is curl up on the couch with a blanket, a book and a cup of tea. but alas, I have class. Actually I have a lot of class to go to. especially mondays. I have class at 9am then all the way until 9:15pm! Of course there are breaks in between, but it seems that mondays are always FULL. Tuesdays are not bad. I call tuesday and thursday my "music" days. I have private lessons, choral conducting, chamber singers, and concert choir on those days. That's it! Such a great way to spend the day. Its nice that I have those two days during the week to relax, and get things done for other classes.

Today I woke up, and for the first time in a long time I was actually thankful to be awake. Usually I groan and roll over shutting off my alarm as quick as I can, longing for more sleep. But today was different. Today I awoke to laughter coming from the living room and the shower running in the bathroom. Music was coming from a room somewhere in the house. I rolled over and laid there looking up at the ceiling, thankful for the sleep I had gotten, but also the day ahead. It was neat to have a few moments just being thankful to be alive. Hearing my housemates get ready for the day, and also the fact that I had awoken a full half hour before my alarm is supposed to go off, made me smile. I found myself praying for each of them, that they would have good days, accomplish all they needed to, but most importantly that they would walk with God today.

I have choir devotions today. I will be speaking about how I was led to SAU and where I am right now. I shared with Eric on Sunday night, my "testimony" about college and choosing to follow God's desire for my life instead of my own. I think I will read "a letter to myself." that I wrote a few weeks ago as encouragement and reminder to where I have come from, and how God has met me where I was at.

I am going to go and pray and prepare for that. I'll write again soon.

"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 a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Adventure Called Life day 001

Strange isn’t it? That is, the fact we share an orbiting, rotating rock with 6 billion people. Some that we can’t understand because of their difference in tongue and those who we share a native tongue and culture with that baffle us still. I often wonder how did we all become so different, and what does that mean if God is the creator of the universe? How does God fit into our world?


I have come to the realization that these questions are absurd! Of course God fits into our world! He created it! Something tells me we forget this fact when we ask this question. So knowing this fact, let’s ask this question again...


How does God fit into our world?


My answer? I don’t know.


I know right? I’m a ministry major and I can’t answer this one! My goodness! There is something terribly wrong if I can’t answer this...right? Again, I am not sure.


Maybe a better question is...how do I fit in GOD’s world?


Now that I can begin to answer. Let’s go back to the beginning. Why did God created stuff? He created “stuff” to bring himself glory, because after all, he is GOD. I once thought it was for companionship, but God already has community. God is a community. Father, Holy Spirit and Son. The trinity is the perfect community and family. Could it be that God wanted to extend that love, commitment and compassion out into a world of their creation? Again, not entirely sure, but it begins to make sense.


This Sunday at River Tree, Andy, the lead pastor shared about family. He also shared that God did not create humans because he was lonely or bored. He said that God already has perfect wholeness. He ventured that God created us to share that wholeness.


Okay, so we’re his creation, created with the purpose of worshipping him and bringing him glory. That’s it, that is how we “fit” into God’s world. Okay, but how do we do that?


Love. I know, I know, you still want specifics or examples. I challenge you to close your eyes. Picture your workplace, your home, your church, even your commute to and from work. Okay, think about all the ways you have to LOVE the people around you...


Love. That is how we fit in God’s world.

Last month, I saw Julie and Julia. It sparked something inside of me. Watching Julie blog and dedicate herself to finishing something for once in her life made me think, “hey, I can do that too. I can finish things.” So I’m not promising that each entry this next year will be some sort of revelation. This will be a journey, an adventure if you will. A little window into the life of a twenty year old Worship Arts Ministry major trying to discover who God is so she can be the woman and the worshipper that God created her to be.

After the movie, on the car ride home I kept the radio off. I let my mind go blank (while paying attention to the road of course) and wait for God to speak. I was asked by our creator if I would “stop running”. My quick reply was, “I am not! I am at SAU, in the major I am supposed to be in!” and the reply came just as quickly. “Will you stop running ahead?”


what?


Then I realized that I have been. I have been running ahead of what God is doing and the plan that he has placed me in. I’m on the right way, I am just running past the scenery and the opportunities to grow and be challenged. I find myself being very discontented. I am single, on a campus that flourishes with romantic relationships. Most of the time its sort of cute, but now its just infuriating! I’m not going to name names, but someone has caught my attention. Someone said this summer to him that if he didn’t want to be single anymore that he wouldn’t be. Well, obviously he wants to be single, or he has his eye on someone else. I am sure he knows that I'm interested. Its terribly obvious.


Anyway, so no more running. No more planning ahead a year or two in advance. No more playing piano and fantasizing about when I’ll be able to lead worship from the piano, finally. No. No more. I am living now. In the moment, enjoying the frustration, the hard work and the endless “to-do” list called Life.