I am committed.
I am committed to dutch chocolate ice cream.
I am committed to 24 and Jack Bauer even when the US Government, who owe Jack Bauer the world, is not.
I am committed to my kid in Tanzania (Charles Richard Shahanga)
I am committed to coloring the entire picture once I start it.
I am committed to American Idol.
I am committed to learning something new about one of my kids every time we meet.
I am committed to being confident in whatever it is I decide to put on that day or how I decide to fix my hair.
I am committed to the Houston Astros-to the bitter end.
I am committed to watching the entire season of LOST no matter how rediculous it gets.
I am committed to doing better in graduate school than I did in undergraduate school.
I am committed to staying in contact with my dearest friends from ACU.
I am committed to finishing the Chronicles of Narnia series; to being the best Aunt and Sister I can; to making my parents proud; to making God proud; to following my call to Youth Ministry; to my friends and family and someday I will be committed to a man.
I am committed to never doing anything halfway; to viewing people with God vision; to putting Jesus and others before me; to teaching Jesus and to being Jesus.
I am committed to loving people and finding joy in all areas in my life.
I am committed to never letting Satan rule my life and to doing everything in my power to never let Satan rule the lives of the people I love.
I am committed to my kids, that when I leave this place they will know Jesus better than they did before I got here; that they will love Jesus more than they did before I got here and that they live Jesus louder than they did before I got here.
I am committed. I like to finish what I start but I am learning that in this profession being committed usually means jumping in to the journey God starts, and letting him finish it.
Life is not a coloring page, or chocolate ice cream, or a book, but it is a journey with God to draw near to us. I am committed to being near to God.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monday, April 02, 2007
Forgotten
One thing that I have come to realize in the last couple of weeks is that it seems one of the biggest fears we have a humans is to be forgotten. You hear it in songs like the one by Carrie Underwood titled "Don't forget to Remember Me" and we see it in the things we do when people leave, such as giving gifts and throwing parties.
I have begun to wonder if we say good-bye because the person is leaving or because we want to be remembered and it is our last chance. I suppose the sentiment is right regardless but it has been on my mind lately.
I want to be remembered, not because of myself but because of Christ. I know some of you are probably thinking "how cliche` Mandy" but it's true. I want people to see Jesus when they see me and I want them to experience Jesus when they are with me. I want to treat people like Jesus would and more importantly I want to love people like Jesus. There are times when I have truly felt the love of God in my life. Those are the times when I look up at the beautiful blue sky while laying in the grass listening to music and think-God is smiling on me. If you have never felt like God is smiling on you I hope and pray that one day you do.
On the days you feel like no one will remember you, look up to the sky and know that I will, and that God will and he is smiling on you.
I have begun to wonder if we say good-bye because the person is leaving or because we want to be remembered and it is our last chance. I suppose the sentiment is right regardless but it has been on my mind lately.
I want to be remembered, not because of myself but because of Christ. I know some of you are probably thinking "how cliche` Mandy" but it's true. I want people to see Jesus when they see me and I want them to experience Jesus when they are with me. I want to treat people like Jesus would and more importantly I want to love people like Jesus. There are times when I have truly felt the love of God in my life. Those are the times when I look up at the beautiful blue sky while laying in the grass listening to music and think-God is smiling on me. If you have never felt like God is smiling on you I hope and pray that one day you do.
On the days you feel like no one will remember you, look up to the sky and know that I will, and that God will and he is smiling on you.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Mexico
Well, our group went to Mexico for Spring Break and I have come back more refreshed then I have been in a long time. It it less and less of a wonder to me as I get older, why Jesus went away to pray. Grant it, I wasn't in Mexico alone but there is something amazing about being in a different place with no distractions and the only thing on the agenda being to serve God in anyway.
I have learned a lot of lessons since graduation and I have avoided learning lessons as well. God worked on me in Mexico and to be perfectly honest he made it very clear some of the things I needed to see. People, conversations and observations were all injected with a huge dose of God and grace.
Just a taste of what we did in Mexico:
-Tripled the size of the Medical clinic
-Built a play scape
-Put a fence around the entire property
-Spread about a million piles of dirt (which is more work than it sounds like
-Poured a concrete floor for the part of the building we added on to
-Got up at 5:30 every morning :o)
All in all it was a wonderful trip and God really did some amazing things in my life and in the lives of those around me.
I want a life full of God. I want to be around people filled with his Spirit. I want to overflow the joy of the Lord to those who know me and even to those who don't. Praise God from who ALL blessings flow!
Enjoy the pictures!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Goodness
I feel good today. I have a fresh feeling over me, like when you are baptized and come out of the water a new person. That's how I feel, baptized.
God shows up when we need him most and when we close our eyes he shines brighter. God blessed me with good conversation yesterday and encouraging company.
I am grateful for the people God has allowed my path to cross while I have been here in Belton and I am beginning to feel the anticipated sadness of having to leave in a few short months.
But not yet. For now I am here. I am all here and God is all good!
God shows up when we need him most and when we close our eyes he shines brighter. God blessed me with good conversation yesterday and encouraging company.
I am grateful for the people God has allowed my path to cross while I have been here in Belton and I am beginning to feel the anticipated sadness of having to leave in a few short months.
But not yet. For now I am here. I am all here and God is all good!
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Worship
"'Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert and
speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards
and will make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
'In that day,' declares the Lord, 'you will call me "my husband"
You will no longer call me "my Baal."
I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked."
~Hosea 2.14-17
Today Toby's sermon was on the topic of worship, focusing on confession and the true state of our hearts in worship. Toby wasn't preaching though, it was God. It was as if God was standing there using Toby to deliver a message that so many of us need to hear. I can only imagine what it would be like to be chosen by God to deliver a message to his people like that. I suppose today for the first time I saw a little bit of the struggle the prophets must have endured in the messages they carried to the people of Israel on behalf oh the Lord.
Throughout all the prophets we read of Israel's struggle to remain faithful to the God that delivered her. Each prophet cries out to the people to turn back to God and in each story Israel dances between God and the Baals. Over and over we see her turn her back on God.
It is easy as an outsider to say, "Can't Israel see how God has delivered her? Can't she understand what God has done for her?" Yet when we examine our own lives how often do we ask ourselves this same thing? "Mandy, can't you see how God has delivered you? Mandy, don't you understand what God has done in your life? Look around you Mandy, God is here! God is everywhere! How can you call on the Baals?"
When I struggle, the first place it shows up is in my worship to God. As I sing praises to God it is my personal conviction to sing with my whole heart and to listen to the words coming out of my mouth and the mouths of so many around me. Often times I am touched to tears by the statement I make, we make, as the body of Christ in the words we sing. But when I cannot sing the songs of praise, I have learned it is because I am not living to glorify God. Something in my life is not pointing to God; Satan is attacking and has gotten to my heart; I am not praising God I am worrying about me.
God has called me out of this. God has bigger plans for worship. God has bigger plans for me.
"I will allure her. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her."
I love this. When I cannot, God can. God can, and God will. God is going to allure me, you, us back to true worship. Worship for him. Worship in different key's, worship with off-beat claps, worship with instruments, worship without instruments, worship in pews, in a circle, indoors, outdoors...true, broken, pure worship.
God,
Break our hearts and convict us of our Baals. Show us again what you have done for us and how you have delivered us and may we respond in true, broken, pure worship to you.
Amen.
I will lead her into the desert and
speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards
and will make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
'In that day,' declares the Lord, 'you will call me "my husband"
You will no longer call me "my Baal."
I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked."
~Hosea 2.14-17
Today Toby's sermon was on the topic of worship, focusing on confession and the true state of our hearts in worship. Toby wasn't preaching though, it was God. It was as if God was standing there using Toby to deliver a message that so many of us need to hear. I can only imagine what it would be like to be chosen by God to deliver a message to his people like that. I suppose today for the first time I saw a little bit of the struggle the prophets must have endured in the messages they carried to the people of Israel on behalf oh the Lord.
Throughout all the prophets we read of Israel's struggle to remain faithful to the God that delivered her. Each prophet cries out to the people to turn back to God and in each story Israel dances between God and the Baals. Over and over we see her turn her back on God.
It is easy as an outsider to say, "Can't Israel see how God has delivered her? Can't she understand what God has done for her?" Yet when we examine our own lives how often do we ask ourselves this same thing? "Mandy, can't you see how God has delivered you? Mandy, don't you understand what God has done in your life? Look around you Mandy, God is here! God is everywhere! How can you call on the Baals?"
When I struggle, the first place it shows up is in my worship to God. As I sing praises to God it is my personal conviction to sing with my whole heart and to listen to the words coming out of my mouth and the mouths of so many around me. Often times I am touched to tears by the statement I make, we make, as the body of Christ in the words we sing. But when I cannot sing the songs of praise, I have learned it is because I am not living to glorify God. Something in my life is not pointing to God; Satan is attacking and has gotten to my heart; I am not praising God I am worrying about me.
God has called me out of this. God has bigger plans for worship. God has bigger plans for me.
"I will allure her. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her."
I love this. When I cannot, God can. God can, and God will. God is going to allure me, you, us back to true worship. Worship for him. Worship in different key's, worship with off-beat claps, worship with instruments, worship without instruments, worship in pews, in a circle, indoors, outdoors...true, broken, pure worship.
God,
Break our hearts and convict us of our Baals. Show us again what you have done for us and how you have delivered us and may we respond in true, broken, pure worship to you.
Amen.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Miracles
I have been bothered by something lately. Miracles. We read about them in the Bible, we believe them because we have faith, we pray for them when people are sick, we pray for them people have "gone astray" and we even pray for them when people's spirits have been burned. If we don't believe it why do we pray for it?
I have come to see something for the first time concerning miracles. We believe it can happen BEFORE it does, we believe it happened when it's OVER but where the heck is our faith in the midst of it? I'm not talking about the sick person who over night seems to be getting better, it's easy to believe God is part of that because we can write it off if we need to. A miracle disguised in natural processes. I'm talking about the people pray specifically for someone to be free from a certain sin when there is no explanation as to why anyone should know about the sin in that persons life. I'm talking about the people who seem to always be in the right place at the right time to save people. I'm talking about believing what we pray for. Having an expectant faith.
If we would have an expectant faith, would we then be more of a people who see the bread breaking as the 5,000 are being fed, who see the footprints on top of the water as Jesus is walking out to us and who watch the woman at the well spread the word of Christ, or would be still be the people we are, who pray but do not believe until the result is showcased?
I don't know where I fall into all of this. I fear that skepticism has taken over expectation for far too long in my life. What I am finding now, is that in the midst of a miracle my passion for people to believe in Him and my desire to expect God to complete something he has started in the people I care about has fed my spirit in a way that fires me up about my faith! Our human nature drives us to the cynical prayers. No doubt those prayers will always be around but how long do we go on sitting and letting Satan jog around our faith, every now and then poking at it planting seeds of doubt and skepticism in our lass than expectant faith. I'm done with it. For now I will stand strong in the expectant faith God calls me to and I will have no doubt in my mind that God will fulfill his promises in my life. I will expect God to finish what he started.
I have come to see something for the first time concerning miracles. We believe it can happen BEFORE it does, we believe it happened when it's OVER but where the heck is our faith in the midst of it? I'm not talking about the sick person who over night seems to be getting better, it's easy to believe God is part of that because we can write it off if we need to. A miracle disguised in natural processes. I'm talking about the people pray specifically for someone to be free from a certain sin when there is no explanation as to why anyone should know about the sin in that persons life. I'm talking about the people who seem to always be in the right place at the right time to save people. I'm talking about believing what we pray for. Having an expectant faith.
If we would have an expectant faith, would we then be more of a people who see the bread breaking as the 5,000 are being fed, who see the footprints on top of the water as Jesus is walking out to us and who watch the woman at the well spread the word of Christ, or would be still be the people we are, who pray but do not believe until the result is showcased?
I don't know where I fall into all of this. I fear that skepticism has taken over expectation for far too long in my life. What I am finding now, is that in the midst of a miracle my passion for people to believe in Him and my desire to expect God to complete something he has started in the people I care about has fed my spirit in a way that fires me up about my faith! Our human nature drives us to the cynical prayers. No doubt those prayers will always be around but how long do we go on sitting and letting Satan jog around our faith, every now and then poking at it planting seeds of doubt and skepticism in our lass than expectant faith. I'm done with it. For now I will stand strong in the expectant faith God calls me to and I will have no doubt in my mind that God will fulfill his promises in my life. I will expect God to finish what he started.
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