Conversation

I love good conversation. I love when people with good thoughts sit down with other people who have good thoughts and everyone shares. Tonight was one of those nights. Thankfully the people around me had the good thoughts and I could do a lot of listening... I think I did a lot of talking as well, but that's not the point :) I think its awesome when people discuss life. I think its awesome when guys and girls can have conversations together about guys and girls... Tonight was one of those nights. I think its powerful when real and thought provoking conversation happens just because. Its not forced or manipulated. So...I guess what I love is good people getting together, with good thoughts, having good conversation, about good things. Tonight was one of those nights.

What's scary is that in all of the good thoughts from good people about good things that nothing is done with all that is shared. Its scary that so often thought provoking ideas come up and are discussed and things are revealed about people and then it just sits there. I hope all the good of my night isn't lost because I'm unwilling to do anything with it. And that just means I have to choose to do something with it...hopefully something good (just to stay true to the theme).

When was the last time you had a good night of good conversation? Did you do anything with it or just let it pass you by?

Day 17

Day 17. Witness

Proverbs 12:17
A truthful witness gives honest testimony,
but a false witness tells lies.

I love what Prodigal Jon has to say about this verse. Check it out! Here or the link to the right!

Surely We Can Change....Something

Here are lyrics to a song by David Crowder...

and the problem is this
we were bought with a kiss
but the cheek still turned
even when it wasn’t hit

and I don’t know
what to do with a love like that
and I don’t know
how to be a love like that

when all the love in the world
is right here among us
and hatred too
and so we must choose
what our hands will do

where there is pain
let there be grace
where there is suffering
bring serenity
for those afraid
help them be brave
where there is misery
bring expectancy
and surely we can change
surely we can change....
something

and the problem it seems
is with you and me
not the Love who came
to repair everything

and I don’t know
what to do with a love like that
and I don’t know
how to be a love like that

when all the love in the world
is right here among us
and hatred too
and so we must choose
what our hands will do

where there is pain
let us bring grace
where there is suffering
bring serenity
for those afraid
let us be brave
where there is misery
let us bring them relief
and surely we can change
surely we can change
oh surely we can change....
something

Are you willing to bring grace?
Are you willing to bring serenity?
Are you willing to be brave?
Are you willing to bring relief?
Will you choose love or hate?
What will you choose to do with your hands?

Listening

I also love to listen.
I love to hear people's thoughts and stories.
I love to know what's going on in their lives.
I love to listen to opinions and ideas. I wonder how often I keep my mouth shut when I should have spoken up... I wonder if while I was too quiet, my words missed the chance to bring healing, missed the opportunity to bring insight to someone else, missed the chance to push someone towards making that tough decision, missed the joy of sharing His love through my words, missed out on telling someone the tough truth....
I wonder how many times I kept my mouth shut when I should have spoken up....just today.

Talking

I realized tonight just how much I like to talk.
Usually I say more than I need to and hear far less than I should.
When I notice those times that I say maybe more than I should, I wonder what I've missed by not listening...I wonder about the knowledge I could have gained, the details that could have enriched, the life stories that could have brought insight, the quiet plea that could have been calling out for help.....

I wonder how much I've missed because I've been too busy talking...just today.

Worship

We had a great time of worship and challenge tonight. I came away realizing that laying everything else aside I must worship Jesus. And if I want to serve Him, I must first be worshiping Him. Worshiping Him with everything that's within me, and every aspect of my life. We ended the session tonight with a video of a painter slowly depicting Christ on the cross as we sang Here i am to Worship - it was powerful. It was powerful to realize His sacrifice of love. It was powerful to realize my inability to fully comprehend what it cost. It was powerful to realize that my response must be worship.

Roommate

So Grant was a little upset with me that he was only mentioned once in my last post. So I wanted to post something else, but didn't want to just post something random about my roommate. Then I was thinking about cleaning tonight. Earlier today Grant and I were talking about White Glove and how much of a mess our room was. We were talking through what we wanted to do with all our.... precious items. When I said that we should make it look like "no one lives here" it wasn't very well received. He was not a fan of the idea of clearing off our dressers and clearing off our desks and on and on. I was admittedly a little frustrated. In my thinking, if we have to do this whole white glove thing, we might as well do the best we can at it.

Anyways, then came time to clean. Before I knew it his clothes had disappeared and his desk was spotless. His dresser was clear and his bookshelf was organized and dusted. I couldn't believe it. We cleaned the stairs, vacuumed our room, got rid of the trash and finished with the hanging of the blankets that I described earlier. As we sit at our immaculate desks with nothing but laptops before us I couldn't help but think about how impressive it was that Grant had changed his attitude in a matter of an hour and instead of grumbling through doing the least bit of work possible, he jumped right in and our entire suite ended up impressed by our room.

It's been a real blessing, and sometimes challenge, getting to know Grant. I'm so thankful for how God chooses to place people in my life. I'm so thankful for the times He makes it clear to me and somehow I'm watching closely enough not to miss it. I can't help but wonder how many people have passed in and out of my life that could have been "more." Whether it was based on my own ignorance or selfishness or my lacking His perspective. Or perhaps it was based on the other person's choice. Whatever the reason for the past, I have to look ahead. I pray I would be open and aware of the people around me; that I would be searching for those He wants me to interact with, for however long. I pray I wouldn't take for granted the people He has so blessed my life with. And I pray I wouldn't take for granted those people He has challenged me to love despite my sinful perspective.

Blogging and Cleaning

I heard some criticisms of blogging today describing people who do nothing but sit at home and eat while they rant and rave their poorly thought out ideas. I'm very glad I don't know any "bloggers" like that. I am continually encouraged and/or challenged by the blogs that I keep up with, or at least try to keep up with. I'm so thankful for people who are willing to share their lives and hearts even if just in little blurbs online.

We cleaned tonight for what BBC has termed, "white glove." The goal is for the judges to vote our dorm the cleanest amongst the other guys dorms, and the same for the ladies. And believe me, that's not an easy process here in good old Shaffer... After misplacing some ceiling tiles, and a few trips out to my car with Grant - our room looks great. No clutter. No dust. Nothing that would make the judges take a second look and question the cleanliness of our room. The problem with that is that above the ceiling tiles are TV trays, cameras, blankets, and clothes. And behind the blankets hanging from my bed and our closet is a jumbled concoction of dirty clothes, computer parts, boxes, shoes, dumbbells, suitcases, and rubber-maids. And in our dresser drawers are dirty glasses, dirty clothes, pens, tissues, a hammer, movies, and kool-aid mixes.

I can't help but think about Jesus' words in Matthew 23:
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.

I'm praying for a soft heart, and a spirit that is willing to allow God to get on the inside and do His dirty work on my heart. I'm praying for the Lord's hand to stir within the mess of my inward parts and cleanse me from the inside out.

What do people see as they look at your actions? Are you neat and clean?
What does God see as He looks at your heart? Are you full of hypocrisy?

Francis Chan

Here is a video of Francis Chan that was posted by one of my professors earlier today. These are a couple of statements he makes:

“If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley,
... I bet you mine would be bigger.”
“If Paul had a church in Simi Valley,
... I bet you mine would be bigger.”

This is a thought provoking video, asking whether or not we're really willing to say and do what it is that Jesus would desire of us.

By Your Side

Here is a video of the song.

New Life

Rolling around in my mind tonight have been thoughts about my inadequacies. Thoughts of my sinfulness. Thoughts of my unwillingness to lay it all before Him. Thoughts of my failure to love Him with my whole heart. Thoughts of my decisions day after day to choose sin, or self, or even good things, instead of choosing His best. It is humbling to fall under the reality of our own short comings. And then I decided to (finally) listen to a song that my sister Kate had told me about a few days ago. It's called By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North. Here are lyrics to the chorus and part of a verse:

and I'll be by your side
wherever you fall
in the dead of night
whenever you call
and please don't fight
these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you
look at these hands at my side
they swallowed the grave on that night
when I drank the world's sin
so I could carry you in
and give you life

I've been focusing on what I'm not, focusing on failing, focusing on my selfishness, focusing on what I do wrong and who I'm not -- Instead I'm going to focus on who He is, the fight He's already won, the heart that He's sanctifying, the wrong He's righted within me, and who I am in Him... I'm going to let the thoughts of His patient unfailing love and grace carry me and give me life and power!

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.....So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. --from Romans 6

Provision

Sometimes I struggle to really "trust" God. It's hard for me to rest in knowing that what He's doing is best. I'll say the right words when someone asks, but then in the quietness of a morning or in those last few thoughts before I fall asleep, the "situation" comes back to mind and I doubt. I doubt Him. I doubt that He's enough.
So today I'm going to try just as hard as I can to view everything that happens through the lens of His provision. I'm going to take everything someone says to me, everything I hear said around me, everything I say, everything I do and everything people do around me and try to see God's provision in it. When I hear a complaint or when I complain today I'm going to stop and instead of thinking about what isn't "preferable" I'm going to try to think about it with His perspective; how He's provided in that situation. When I'm cold walking to class I'm going to try to think about how He's provided me with a coat and gloves. When I hear that someone accomplished something I want to think about how it was by His provision that it was possible. Okay I think you get the point... I want to focus on His provision so that I can better understand how much sense it makes to trust Him. I know I'm suppose to trust Him just because, but He's given me soooo many reasons to trust Him that it just makes sense to try and focus on them. I think the more I can grasp how He's providing everyday for everyone around me the more I will desire to trust Him. Because ultimately... He is enough.

So what is it today that you know is true about God but you're struggling to live it out?
What is it today that you need to focus on in order to straighten out your perspective of Him and of your life?

Do you need to focus on His grace to stay humble?
Do you need to focus on His love to better love those around you?
Do you need to focus on His justice to keep from doing wrong?
What is it today?

97 Seconds With God

Day 1. Stupid

(For the next 28 days, I’m going to walk through Proverbs 12 verse by verse, with short, quick thoughts. I hope you’ll read along with me.)

Proverbs 12:1
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
but he who hates correction is stupid.

I like this verse for a few reasons. First of all, it comes right out and says that if you hate correction, you're stupid. No wasted words, no soft peddling the truth or hand holding in the delivery. Yeah, you're stupid. Whenever I try to say, "The Bible is so complicated, I can't read it because it’s so difficult to figure out," I need to remember this verse.


This is a post by "Prodigal Jon." You can read the rest of his post on Proverbs 12:1 as well as follow him through the rest of Proverbs 12 here or click the link for 97secondswithGod under my "Blogs to Watch" to the right.

Stories

Had a great reminder this morning about how important it is to understand people's stories. How important it is to hear their background, their family, their circumstances and understand how those pieces of their lives have shaped their perspective and lifestyle. We can't underestimate the power of perspectives and habits that have been ingrained from birth.

Mozambique

I've done a lot of talking today...probably too much. So it was nice to just sit and watch the Superbowl quietly as others talked around me. As much as I enjoyed the game I spent a lot of time thinking about Mozambique. A lot of what I talked about and listened to this weekend revolved around Mozambique and the people I'd be spending time with. I'm extremely excited to watch God continue to work in me and all around me. I am praying that I will set aside my expectations and just stand in awe of what He chooses to do. I am just excited to spend time with friends and family while in Dondo this summer. It makes me smile to think about how He works.

Steelers and iPods

So... Grant's Steelers won.

As much as I wanted to see Kurt Warner get the win, and as impressed as I was with the Cardinals come back I've realized that there may be some good in the Steelers' win. The basic idea is this: Grant's not depressed. He recently "misplaced" my ipod and I'm hoping in his excitement over the win he will have extra energy to search for it! ..okay so probably not, but I'm trying to stay positive!

I've been thinking a lot lately about the choices people around me make. And I've been thinking about the bad choices that are often so obvious to everyone around that person and yet they just don't seem to get it. They don't grasp how bad the choice is, or how sinful. It's upsetting to watch as this sin is surrounded by blindness and ignorance. And yet how often am I blind to the sin in my own life, and instead focusing on it happening in others all around me. I'm so quick to get angry over a lost ipod and not even realize it. Instead, I think about how it was irresponsible of the other person to have lost it.

...You always hear about how people are too focused on themselves; too wrapped up in their own worlds. And yet when it comes to the sins and poor perspectives in our own lives how quickly does that focus shift? How quick are we to stop talking about ourselves and instead start gossiping and pointing out the faults in others? I'm afraid that I fall into this horrible routine far too often...