Today

Life lessons from my 26th year of life...all one day of it:

• Pumpkin Spice Lattes when placed in the microwave for a minute and a half in it's original Starbucks container will explode.
• 75 years old landlord's with white hair, a 30 year missionary background in Mexico, and a name like "Van Gladden" will fix your screen door when it breaks. He will also break two windows in your garage...
• Not all What-a-burger's are created equal.
• Six year old soccer games can be intense. Sweat, blood, and tears.
• When a one year old's can unlock an iPhone, one can only guess what kind of technology will be around when that one year old has a one year old.
• Roommates are the best. Especially roommates that you can borrow clothes from. and shoes. and jewelry. and toothpaste. and...
• Annie Hennie is one of the greatest people I think I will ever know.
• My brothers look cute in glasses.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

I am sure there will be much more wisdom to come in the days ahead. :)

A Stolen Entry

Hello. Remember me? No? That's ok. I'm just going to pretend I haven't been gone for the past 4 months and continue blogging. Here it is.

Please read this. It challenged me and encouraged me. I pray it does the same for you.

And, yes, I did steal this from the lovely AEH...who needs to come back to America soon.

THE VISION,

FROM RED MOON RISING

by Pete Grieg

So this guy comes up to me and says, “What’s the vision? What’s the big idea?”
I open up my mouth and the words come out like this:

The vision?
The vision is Jesus:
obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is of an army of young people.
You see bones?
I see an army.

And they are free from materialism—
They laugh at nine-to-five little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn’t even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the West was won.

They are mobile like the wind.
They belong to the nations.
They need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting, dirty and dying.

What is the vision?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimal integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, from every conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps—their Satan games.

This is an army that would lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day, its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great “well done” of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.

They don’t need fame from names.
Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: “COME ON!”
And this is the sound of the underground, the whisper of history in the making, foundations shaking, revolutionaries dreaming once again.
Mystery is scheming in whispers, conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground.

And the army is disciple(in)ed—
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners.
Martyrs.
Who can stop them?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them?

And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulfuric tears and great barrow loads of laughter!

Waiting.
Watching.
24-7-365.

Whatever it takes they will give:
Breaking the rules,
Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide,
Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs,
Laughing at labels,
Fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mold them.
Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late-night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive on the inside.
On the outside?
They hardly care!
They wear clothes like costumes: to communicate and celebrate, but never to hide.

Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their lives, swap seats with the man on death row, guilty as hell: a throne of an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as though it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses Jesus.
He breathes out.
They breathe in.
Their subconscious sings.
They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

Their words make demons scream in shopping malls.
Don’t you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdoes!
Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes!
They walk tall and trees applaud.
Skyscrapers bow.
Mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.

Their prayers summon the Hound of Heaven and evoke the dream of Eden.

And, this vision will be.
It will come to pass.
It will come easily.
It will come soon.

How do I know?
Because, this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the spirit, the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is His today.
My distant hope is His 3-D.
And, my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking, great “AMEN!” from countless angels, from heroes of the faith, from Christ himself.

And He is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed."

Something is Better than Nothing

I apologize for my lack of updates as of late...I have neglected you, my ones of followers. As I am graduating this Saturday (whoot whoot!) and will not be starting a job any time soon, I hope to be better at this to keep you all entertained.

Here is an overview of key points of my life over the past month or so:

• I finished up my last two weeks of Capstone class, presenting a total of 3 presentations (one of which was rather a major one), and making 100 on all of them.
  
• Welcomed into the world Aidan Josiah Murray!!! And I am realizing how I love, love, love this new season of everyone around me having babies!

• Was able to visit with my family for the weekend, without knowing there is something looming over me that I need to get done! Paul and Debi were first on Friday night (where another wonderful conversation arose...stay tuned...), then Rachel's soccer game/Cici's lunch with her 11 year old soccer team and a mad game of Uno with them all, and then dinner Saturday night and time on Sunday with my wonderful Mom, John, Nana and Papaw.

(This picture was taken at my sister's soccer game, but it just makes me smile.)

That's not much, but it's the best I can do at 12:20 in the morning. Love you guys...more to come soon. :)

Beat It

Ok, so apparently I am on this video kick now, but this is awesome. One of the reasons why I love Baylor is because you never know what is going to happen. This group of students started doing a choreographed dance to "Beat it" in the middle of campus yesterday. I love things like this. I would love to be a part of this one day...

Albertine

Ok, here is another video/song. This it's just good... "Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead..." Watch and be motivated/encouraged.




I am sitting still
I think of Angelique
Her mother’s voice over me
And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent

And on a thousandth hill
I think of Albertine
There in her eyes what I don’t see
With my own

Rwanda

CHORUS
Now that I have seen
I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
Now that I have held you
In my own arms
I cannot let go ‘til you are

I cannot let go ‘til you are

I am on a plane
Across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
And in the dust on, the dust on my feet

Rwanda

CHORUS

Bridge
And I’ll tell the world
I will tell them where I’ve been
I will keep my word
I will tell them, Albertine

CHORUS

I am on a stage
A thousand eyes on me
I will tell them, Albertine

Nail Biting

Well I started biting my nails today. This is always a sign for me that I am getting stressed out. I have had nails most of the year, which is a good sign, however, now that I have two weeks left in my program and still have a major presentation coming up, the pressure is catching up to me.

I recognize that I have not updated in the past month. The work load of grad school caught up with me. Here is a quick recap of what all has happened:

• I finished my internship with Gladney. My last week there I attended a 3 different luncheons, a vision meeting, and a post placement visit. It was a crazy week. I am sad that this part of my life is over. I realize how much I enjoyed being there. The people there were so wonderful, and I will miss them very much.
  
• I said goodbye to Paul and Debi. I ABSOLUTLEY loved living with Paul and Debi these past few months. They have been my family, my community and my friends. I am incredibly thankful for this time with them, and I look forward to more times with them in the future.
  
• I moved back to Waco. It is great being back here. It's weird though. My life is completely different from last week. Last week I was going to meetings and talking with my families and now I am sitting in a classroom for 4 hours, starting at 8 AM every day…Baylor Science Building, be glad I like you. It has been really wonderful thought being back and getting to jump back in to life here. My roommates, my lifegroup, the Bonows, Antioch, and Baylor. I've had some wonderful refreshing conversations over the past few weeks, and I look forward to finishing school so I can have more of them!
  

So, that is what has been going on and I don't even really want to talk about what is coming up…just know that I am biting my nails (which is not a good thing). Please pray for peace, wisdom and diligence in these next two weeks. Right now, I am going to go enjoy Dia del Oso…the first burn of the year (even though it is cloudy), ultimate Frisbee tournaments, dog shows, and concerts. Too bad the SSW thinks it is ok to still have class today, even though the rest of the university says it's a day off.

I love you all, my readers. I'm off to the dog show.

Thoughts from the day

* God is love. God’s word is truth. Neither of those can be changed.

* Why is popcorn in a tin (sold by the boy scouts) so enticing and addicting?

* Pizza may be my favorite food. Especially pizza from Sams (the "Take and Bake" kind.)

* I am glad that I left my running shoes in Waco.

* Burnt Pizza makes me very sad. Especially when it is the last piece.

* Popcorn in a tin is going to be the death of me.

* “Jesus you’re my light within, Jesus you’ve made me what I am.” I love United Pursuit Band.

* I am very excited that tomorrow is Free Pastry Day at Starbucks.

* I am very much looking forward to wearing Courtney’s bridesmaid dress on Easter Sunday.

* Because of the last two thoughts: I wish I had brought my running shoes back to Fort Worth.

* I love my Chacos.

* I don't love research.

* Maybe I'll get to sleep at a decent hour tonight...