Ok...I confess...I sing in the shower. If you are a cohort of mine in this endevor add this to your repetoir ( I have NO CLUE how to spell that word...), it resonates beautifully :) In fact, I found myself singing this song all the time in the last few days. It reminds me that reguardless of what's going on around me, my main purpose is to glorify Him. How can those around me be pointed towards Him if I'm not singing?? The reasons to sing are boundless...Lord, just help me to open my mouth.
I want to sing a song to you Lord, lord to you I wanna sing a song
I want to lift my voice to heaven, listen while the angels sing along
A song of your faithfulness, a song of your grace
and of your loving kindness to the glory of your name
With everything that's in me Lord, listen to me say
I want to sing a song to you, I want to sing a song.
~Third Day
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Monday, February 21, 2005
what you don't hear is me...
It's a really good thing that blogs work so that you don't have to use your voice to communicate...cause I don't have one anymore.
After an awesome weekend of cheering my team on, not only to state but to first place at regionals I am tired, happy, and sounding very much like a frog. Our boys did an awesome job and the final game was amazing...and yes, we did have a bigger and louder crowd than the home team. :) Between games we enjoyed a lot of jaw jabbing and shopping and eating. We also spent a fair amount of time stalling at the mall and Target on Friday waiting for everyone to get back to the hotel ahead of us so that we could throw Ms. Cheryl a surprise birthday party...we decided that being 50 is really being 18 with 32 years experience. Our crowd effectively "livened" the hotel (much to the chagrin of anyone trying to sleep) and we had a fun time together.
Ok...change of pace. Ya know...sometimes I am overwhelmed by how God works in my life, and the timing that is always perfect, though I often want things different. I've been really struggling with feeling like I am useless as a Christian right now. Ever hit that stage? Like you're pedalling faster than ever but the chain isn't attached to the gears? I had a conversation with a buddy about feeling like a playdough knife...like I'm supposed to be useful, but cutting through butter is difficult. He challenged me that MY significance has nothing to do with it...that it was God who would accomplish the work with anything...just so long as the "anything" was willing to be used. Still I have been frustrated by failure after failure lately. Pride, discontent, and jealosy are working hard to cut my faith to ribbons.
Today I was again encouraged...first by the words in the service this morning. Our speaker preached on never giving up. Why? Because God has commissioned and is watching over us, because the devil is trying to tear us down constantly, because we can be an encouragement to those around us, because it is God who will give us the strength. Even tonight, just now as I was reading from Isaiah I was stopped short...
"Listen to me, you islands, hear this you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, ' you are my searvant in whom I will display splendor.' But I have said 'I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is with my God.' "
After an awesome weekend of cheering my team on, not only to state but to first place at regionals I am tired, happy, and sounding very much like a frog. Our boys did an awesome job and the final game was amazing...and yes, we did have a bigger and louder crowd than the home team. :) Between games we enjoyed a lot of jaw jabbing and shopping and eating. We also spent a fair amount of time stalling at the mall and Target on Friday waiting for everyone to get back to the hotel ahead of us so that we could throw Ms. Cheryl a surprise birthday party...we decided that being 50 is really being 18 with 32 years experience. Our crowd effectively "livened" the hotel (much to the chagrin of anyone trying to sleep) and we had a fun time together.
Ok...change of pace. Ya know...sometimes I am overwhelmed by how God works in my life, and the timing that is always perfect, though I often want things different. I've been really struggling with feeling like I am useless as a Christian right now. Ever hit that stage? Like you're pedalling faster than ever but the chain isn't attached to the gears? I had a conversation with a buddy about feeling like a playdough knife...like I'm supposed to be useful, but cutting through butter is difficult. He challenged me that MY significance has nothing to do with it...that it was God who would accomplish the work with anything...just so long as the "anything" was willing to be used. Still I have been frustrated by failure after failure lately. Pride, discontent, and jealosy are working hard to cut my faith to ribbons.
Today I was again encouraged...first by the words in the service this morning. Our speaker preached on never giving up. Why? Because God has commissioned and is watching over us, because the devil is trying to tear us down constantly, because we can be an encouragement to those around us, because it is God who will give us the strength. Even tonight, just now as I was reading from Isaiah I was stopped short...
"Listen to me, you islands, hear this you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, ' you are my searvant in whom I will display splendor.' But I have said 'I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is with my God.' "
Isaiah 49:1-4
read the rest of the chapter for more...I am amazed. I may not see the results, I may be the cheif of sinners, I may be unfaithful to my savior again and again...yet he has commissioned me. And you. And anyone who is willing to be a playdough knife in the hands of a mighty God. What you don't see or hear is me...after all...I'm just plastic. what I pray you will see is the will of my maker.
read the rest of the chapter for more...I am amazed. I may not see the results, I may be the cheif of sinners, I may be unfaithful to my savior again and again...yet he has commissioned me. And you. And anyone who is willing to be a playdough knife in the hands of a mighty God. What you don't see or hear is me...after all...I'm just plastic. what I pray you will see is the will of my maker.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
*Insert really cool title*
boy am I a looser! No I didn't find the edge of the world, I just don't have a life anymore. Could I get a little MORE homework over here??? That'd be great... :)
Well let's see...I'll try to get you caught up on my life. Homecoming came off great...I went with Laura C and we had a BLAST!! The decorating turned out really neat, especially the part where we had a tailgate party with ham sandwiches in the parking lot at 11:30 the night before...long story, good times. Laura and I and Casey and Heather spent a good part of the afternoon hanging out and getting ready...Heather didn't go but was our cheif adviser. Casey hung with the freshman and looked gorgeous. I'm so proud to have such a beautiful, fun, modest sister... look out boys! Just before Laura and I left the house I got a huge surprise, my dad who had been in LA for the week and was not supposed to be home until Sunday drove in to take pictures and attend the coronation ceremony since we were on court. It was so fun to see him, and I was reminded again of how lucky I am to have a dad like him. After the dance we all headed to Jackie's and sat around since we were out of energy...watched a movie and didn't sleep much...good times.
Since then life has been a blur. Whoever said senior year is a blowoff needs to come and hang out with me for a few days. I am wearing pretty thin and the end of the tunnel, though visible, is still much too small. It's tough to keep sane and not loose touch with my family in the midst of it all. Prayers would be appreciated. At the same time everyone keeps saying, " this is the last time you'll..." and I'm realizing that the next few months are going to be either all nostalgia or all senioritis. I guess it's up to me to figure out how to balance the two.
Good stuff happening too. The congregation at Riverside will vote on a new pastor next week after being without one for almost a year. We are preparing for a youth rally in April for several churches in the city. Been having some interesting talks with common threads with many different people...so glad for the mentors and friends that care enough to help me gain wisdom. From pride and usefulness, to surrender, to relationships--good thought provoking conversation is enough to help me through about anything.
Praise the lord we are headed into a 4 day weekend, and even though the folks have claimed it for scholarship work I'm looking forward to a little bit of catch up on my sleep at least. I'm also going up to Kankakee with Casey, mom, and the Cos girls to watch boy's basketball regionals.
Hang in there all...a very wise man once said,"those who are asleep are never awake." I'll let you figure out what that means. :)
Well let's see...I'll try to get you caught up on my life. Homecoming came off great...I went with Laura C and we had a BLAST!! The decorating turned out really neat, especially the part where we had a tailgate party with ham sandwiches in the parking lot at 11:30 the night before...long story, good times. Laura and I and Casey and Heather spent a good part of the afternoon hanging out and getting ready...Heather didn't go but was our cheif adviser. Casey hung with the freshman and looked gorgeous. I'm so proud to have such a beautiful, fun, modest sister... look out boys! Just before Laura and I left the house I got a huge surprise, my dad who had been in LA for the week and was not supposed to be home until Sunday drove in to take pictures and attend the coronation ceremony since we were on court. It was so fun to see him, and I was reminded again of how lucky I am to have a dad like him. After the dance we all headed to Jackie's and sat around since we were out of energy...watched a movie and didn't sleep much...good times.
Since then life has been a blur. Whoever said senior year is a blowoff needs to come and hang out with me for a few days. I am wearing pretty thin and the end of the tunnel, though visible, is still much too small. It's tough to keep sane and not loose touch with my family in the midst of it all. Prayers would be appreciated. At the same time everyone keeps saying, " this is the last time you'll..." and I'm realizing that the next few months are going to be either all nostalgia or all senioritis. I guess it's up to me to figure out how to balance the two.
Good stuff happening too. The congregation at Riverside will vote on a new pastor next week after being without one for almost a year. We are preparing for a youth rally in April for several churches in the city. Been having some interesting talks with common threads with many different people...so glad for the mentors and friends that care enough to help me gain wisdom. From pride and usefulness, to surrender, to relationships--good thought provoking conversation is enough to help me through about anything.
Praise the lord we are headed into a 4 day weekend, and even though the folks have claimed it for scholarship work I'm looking forward to a little bit of catch up on my sleep at least. I'm also going up to Kankakee with Casey, mom, and the Cos girls to watch boy's basketball regionals.
Hang in there all...a very wise man once said,"those who are asleep are never awake." I'll let you figure out what that means. :)
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Wow!! Homecoming week can be a blast, but when it comes to Thursday night, It's downright exhausting!! We've been plotting for Saturday for about a month now...much discussion on the decorations (snowflakes? music? candlelight? disco balls?) and the theme. We finally settled on a 50's Hollywood theme...very cool stuff going into it. Who ever heard of decorating with film pulled out of the canister?? I'm excited! Yours truely got put in charge of the banister and balcony decorations...which means I got to cut out about a million and a half stars in ever shape and size I could come up with. I also got to cover them with glitter, either in silver or red. They look fun, but wow, I never want to cut out another star again! The gang heads to the Decatur Club to set up right after school tomorrow...and who know's when we'll emerge, but hopefully sometime before midnight. :)
Spirit week has been fun...Mix and match Monday was school wide geek day...got to love sandals with toe socks and crazy hairdoos! Twin "Twosday" brought people to school as identicals, which was hilarious. Jackie dressed up as Joel (you got to know he was thrilled...) and LC and Cos came as Raggedy Anne and Andy. So cute! Turn back time Thursday was today....basically a mishmash of fashion nightmares...and a lot of laughs! It's nice to be able to have some fun with people we see every day but don't always connect with. Too bad the teachers haven't cut back on the homework...
Amidst the fun there is the expected drama...had an interesting chat yesterday with a friend and we talked about the "hype" of it all. It's sad that this week has to be the one where the boiling point in relationships is reached and sometimes emotions spill over. Somehow all that doesn't quite seem worth it. So, I guess I'm going to give it my best shot to have fun and lower the drama quotient. Wish me luck...
Spirit week has been fun...Mix and match Monday was school wide geek day...got to love sandals with toe socks and crazy hairdoos! Twin "Twosday" brought people to school as identicals, which was hilarious. Jackie dressed up as Joel (you got to know he was thrilled...) and LC and Cos came as Raggedy Anne and Andy. So cute! Turn back time Thursday was today....basically a mishmash of fashion nightmares...and a lot of laughs! It's nice to be able to have some fun with people we see every day but don't always connect with. Too bad the teachers haven't cut back on the homework...
Amidst the fun there is the expected drama...had an interesting chat yesterday with a friend and we talked about the "hype" of it all. It's sad that this week has to be the one where the boiling point in relationships is reached and sometimes emotions spill over. Somehow all that doesn't quite seem worth it. So, I guess I'm going to give it my best shot to have fun and lower the drama quotient. Wish me luck...
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