Visits From Jack Frost

A long time ago this semester, Jack Frost visited College Station. Classes were canceled. That day was free pancake day. After some blueberry syrup drenched pancakes, snow ball fights ensued. It was a glorious day!

Special thanks to Jeremiah Johnson for designing my logo.

Freedom

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." - Galatians 5:1 ESV

Fact and Link.

(Links aren't as predictable as what they may seem. Also, these are things that have caught my eye over the last few weeks. Enjoy.)

Lately, I've been obsessively listening to Robbie Seay's new CD, Miracle.
I like when pastors (or really anyone) practice what they preach.
I do wish the snakes would quit biting.
I enjoy Pacman, pranks and street art.
Sometimes, I'm sorry I'm a Christian.
I really like airplanes, traveling and wish I had a tie like this.
I like when something new is voiced or a different perspective is provided.
It's no secret that I need to rest more.
I liked the movie, Beware of Christians, and encourage you to see it.
One day, I want to ride in a hot air balloon.
I enjoy the musical stylings of Johnny Stimson.
I'm glad I've been given a comma of grace.
I enjoy coffee, the 9th most dangerous food.

But, I don't really like bad days.

Freely Loved, Freely Loving

I don't want to discuss immigration anymore after today. Forget the series that never really started. If you want to discuss immigration, one on one, I'd love to sit down with a cup of joe or facebook chat about it all. However, I just wanted to leave you with a quotation from my friend Mikey because I agree with him 110%. This was from our original discussion about immigration way back in October.

“My biggest fear is when I go before the judgment seat of Christ to have been found lacking - that I didn’t go to the least and the last, that I ignored people outside my own door that need Jesus, like illegal immigrants. We’re supposed to love the criminal. Yeah, they’re illegal immigrants, but Jesus still died for them. His grace is sufficient to cover that. Who are you or I to judge them? By feeding them you’re not offering amnesty, you’re offering love - a love that they might not love, but a love that was freely given to us and a love that we must freely give.” - Michael Ryan

Barefoot on Cobblestones

Yesterday I participated in the TOMS movement. (I just found this video that the Today Show posted on TOMS if you would like to watch it as well.) I didn't wear shoes to raise awareness that many go shoe-less everyday, which causes all kinds of problems. I'm not saying going barefoot was easy, because if it was I would be handing out breakfast tacos with some friends and not be sitting on my couch right now. It's difficult for me to walk this morning as the soles of my feet are worn out and bruised to say the least. It's a sacrifice for the statement I made yesterday.

Early in the morning, I was thinking about everything the day would entail - walking to class, doing interviews for the yearbook, the pain of the cobblestones underneath my feet that line parts of campus and many more scenarios.

I never would have expected that around 9 in the morning, my feet would almost meet an enemy tangled in the grasses if it wasn't that I decided to wear shoes for part of my photoshoot with Jeremiah and Stephanie. We went out along the edges of a nearby highway that was covered with wildflowers in an array of splendid colors. I thought about grabbing my sandals and I thought about going barefoot for the shoot. For some reason in that moment of contemplation next to my car, I grabbed my sandals out slipping them on my feet as I began the ascent over a hill.

The flowers were beautiful, but amongst them was a deadly feet killer that is also known as blackberry bushes. The blackberry bushes are covered with prickly things that don't care whether you get hurt by stepping on them or not. I can't imagine going barefoot on top of those. As I walked past some, they jarred at my legs leaving my legs stinging for hours after the initial contact. Just think of if that had been my feet! Praise God for that split decision to grab sandals for the shoot. However, some don't have that luxury. They step on things that make them uncomfortable all the time. What I saw from that though is the Lord's protection down to finite details that we so often overlook like shoes. If I hadn't listened to Him prompting me to put them on, I would have walked right into the pain of blackberry bushes. So often I am disobedient and go headfirst into sin because I don't listen to Him.

At one point in the day, I checked out the soles of my feet and noticed there was a rock lodged in there that I simply didn't feel, but I knew that it had to have been affecting me even if I remained oblivious to it's place in my life. I feel like a lot of times that happens with sin. It'll be in our life, but we'll be so focused on something else, we won't even see it sneak up on us. We can slowly see that there is a rock in our souls that we need to take care of, something that we didn't see, overlooked or simply avoided.

I took the rock out of my sole, but what rock in my soul did I miss yesterday? Today? Tomorrow?

Enough

Yesterday was Easter. It's kind of funny but Laurinda asked a question in one of the services that really stuck out at me. It seems to be a question that was never fully formed, but that I had been mulling around on my mind for the last two weeks. Now it is phrased:

If you lost all your possessions and all your loved ones right now, would the Easter message be enough for you? Would the sacrifice Christ made be enough for you?

Wreckage

I have a problem.
I like my plans, even when I tell God he can wreck them.
I like to keep my fist semi-clenched around my plans.
I like to make justifications on how God can wreck my plans, as long as it's the part of my plan that I'm okay with being wrecked.

God is in control of my life and my plans, not me.
God has indeed granted my prayer of wrecking my summer plans to glorify Him, just not in the way that I asked Him to.

I posted this on here last week:
I'm not sure if you're supposed to necessarily pray for wrecked plans with how you'd really like God to wreck your plans, but if this is what God's going to wreck them for, well, BRING ON THE WRECKED PLANS LORD! (whatever they may be!)

Well, God answered those prayers. My summer plans have been wrecked. Instead of wrecking Argentina so I could have the missionary internship. God wrecked the Argentina Global Media program, the missionary internship that I could possibly do and my backup Costa Rica classes for Summer 1. All in all, it looks like I will be in the states this summer. (Or maybe I'll be in Brazil? Haha!)

This leads me to wonder what I'll be doing this summer...
all I know is that it will be for God's glory wherever I am, whatever I am doing.

I'm clinging to my lifeverse for this season because yet again it rings true for me: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." - Joshua 1:9