Trophies

The bible speaks quite point blank on the issue of empty pursuit and how it became the main focal point of all humanity at the fall of man, where we exchanged the Creator for created things. It is no secret that we are in love with the things of the earth. Simply drive through the area of Suburban Atlanta and you will see the amassing of earthly treasure in the form of the biggest houses, if they can be called that, I have ever seen. As a human race we live like this is it man, "Get yours while you can cause this is as good as it gets."
Why the soapbox on earthly treasure you may ask? I got interested in it today when my mom and I began cleaning out our attic. An hour turned into a few hours and by the end of it we had taken an entire truck load of junk to the Salvation army and another load to the dump. I sat up there going through "stuff" (I mean if its in the attic, where I never get stuff down do I really need it?) and I just had to laugh. There was a box full of trophies that caught my attention and all I could hear was the scripture in my head...
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal."
Matthew 6:19
These trophies were my dad's and some of my brother's from little league. They were just collecting dust in an attic. I have this line of trophies on my shelf and this other line hanging on my wall from high school athletics and academics and I remember how proud I was of getting them and how good it made me feel about myself. I had worked hard and someone had noticed. They mattered so much at the time. I realized today how futile that is. My trophies, like my father's, will one day be looked at in an old dusty attic and tossed out.
King Solomon talks about this the most when he sets out to do this experiment under the sun. Much can be learned from his toil documented in Ecclesiastes. Why do we fill our lives with useless trinkets?

My good friend David Baker got married tonight. This time last year we were in Europe together, freezing our badonkers off and teasing him because he had liked Sara forever and just started dating her the day we left. We were gone for a month. They dated for around 7 months, got engaged in August and married tonight. It never ceases to amaze me how fast things change.
I sat at a table tonight with 3 married couples, all good friends of mine from college. Most of the time I think very little about the idea of marriage and simply enjoy my independence. It is moments like tonight that make me excited about one day being married. Its about stability, having a number one, being somebody's number one...who doesn't want that in their life? We were designed for it, meant for it and because of that we crave it. One day. Who knows who it will be.

Oh Holy Night

Sometimes I become discouraged when I survey the world and all I can see seems to be the negative, the sad, the overwhelming feeling that something has gone terribly wrong and that Christianity is becoming more and more scarce. The month leading up to Christmas is a good example of this. But other times, times like tonight, Christmas Eve, when houses are lit up and driveways are filled with cars and people are laughing and catching up and giving gifts (some wanted...some that will be regiven or returned) it occurs to me the great impact that the birth of Jesus has made on the world. I know that many things about Christmas have evolved to a point where Christ isn't even a thought, but the simple fact that this holiday exists, where much of the world stops to celebrate the greatest gift humanity has ever been given, blows my mind. The coming of Jesus to earth has impacted us all more than most of us even realize. He is woven into the very fabric of the universe.
Praise God for the giving of His only Son, so that we have confidence that He has already defeated the darkness, even if the darkness is sometimes still a very real reality!

I discovered something today that would make Christmas time a little more jolly...Christmastree stands that were not impossible to use! I know that the simple solution is a fake tree and yes, we have one of those. But really, how hard can it be to make a stand that holds a tree without an hour worth of fighting, an electric saw and a pile of fallen needles.

From an airplane window at night, a city looks like a ginormous Light Bright board. Do you remember Light Brights?

I loved Light Bright

One Semester Down

There are these strong points of reflection at different times of the year that almost bid you to stop and survey all that has happened. I have finished my first semester at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas...Unbelievable. Who would ever thought I would have been in Fort Worth, Texas at Southwestern Seminary?...Some people still do not know that is where I am. I never would have dreamed that is where I would be and yet I cannot imagine myself anywhere else. It amazes me that the place I didn't want to be has become the only place I want to be (for now at least) and I was so close to being somewhere else. I could spend days writing about all the things I have learned since I have been there and all the things I am thankful for about being there. I will only list a few...
*I am thankful for the school; one of the few institutions left that believes the inerrancy of Scripture
*I am thankful for my roommate; a gift that was just handed to me and has been such a blessing
*I am thankful for my friends; a random assortment of people who really love Jesus
*I have learned so much about myself; the good, bad and ugly
*I have learned so much about life and the truth of life in Jesus
*I am thankful for my ministry; both with my middle school job and my college-intern job
*I am thankful for the life that God is waking up inside of me

For now I am glad to be home...sitting in my den in South Carolina with my dogs and my sleeping Mom.

Peace

calmer than the sky
far away so blue
land of living God
grant your peace on earth
we can feel you move
and cannot stay the same
the winds are blowing strong
God of heaven come
(chorus:)
breathe peace
breathe your peace on us
so we might breathe you deep
breathe peace
breathe your peace on us
land of the living God
if we are in the way
move us to the side
God forgive our wrongs
rest your hands on us
all the world is yours
let us not forget
it was you who bore the cross
God of comfort breathe
(chorus) - Robbie Seay Band

The Tipping Point

I have a new must read recommendation. I'm not even kiddint. It's called The Tipping Point. It is a book by a guy named Malcolm Gladwell who has studied the idea of trends and social epedimics. This book is unbelievable! But if you read it, do not simply apply the principles to the business world, the ideas in this book reach far beyond that. Find yourself using these principles in the context of the church or a ministry. Man, such a great book!

Neat Christian boys

I was listening to another Matt Chandler sermon today and so many times he just slips in a little word about something and it will penetrate so deep. He was making a little aside that had little to do with the bulk of his sermon, but he began addressing the single ladies in the crowd about the massive influence that their future husbands would have on their children's spiritual life. And he urged us to be patient and then said this, "There are a lot of 'neat' Christian boys out there, but so few godly men." And I thought man, that is so true, but it is true for girls as well. Christian culture has its own "cool" sect that operates under the same rules as the world. There are loads of "neat, trendy, hip, attractive, Christian guys" who haven't the first thought of what it means to be a man of God. They don't pray. They don't seek. They don't study. They don't do all things or much of anything to the glory of God. They don't stand for what is right and lead with no compromise. They don't impact the world around them. They don't love unconditionally and serve those in need. They strut around with the trendy covered bible and band boy t-shirts.
Now before you think I am simply bashing the male species let me say that when I heard this truth in the sermon I immediately thought, "Lord, do not let me be simply a neat Christian girl! I want to be a godly woman!" Let what defines me be a heart consumed by the love of Jesus and a life marked by obedience to the Holy Spirit!

There is an incredible church near Ft. Worth named the Village with an incredible pastor named Matt Chandler. I cannot begin to explain the impact that his preaching has made on me. I literlly listened to 15 of his sermons (which are long, normally about 45 mintues at least) over Thanksgiving. He made this statement recently and it has stayed in the forefront of my mind...

"The distance between all that you hate and all that you are, is smaller than anyone wants to admit."

Unbelievable~ and so so true!

1 Corinthians 15

50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?" 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.