Becoming Beautiful To God pt2

More images from the Conference "Becoming Beautiful to God" with Amy Vest and Loving the Lord Ministries

Breakfast

I took Bethany and Grace out to Breakfast this morning at the K-bob Cafe.
Its mostly a n old people hang out place, which meant that they all looved Grace .
Hence the whip cream.
Yum.

Goal

I am not a runner.
My whole life, I have never been good at running.
Ever. I was always the slow sluggish one.
I love swimming and biking and volleyball and tons of other sports, but running?
Nope.
Not me.

Which is why one of my goals for this year is to be in a race.
As a runner.


Today, I signed up for a 5k.
Me, the non-runner.
Running a 5k.

Sure, I mean, 5k... thats only, what, 3 something miles.
Not THAT big of a deal.

But to me, the non runner....its sorta a big thing.

So I am trying to get a bunch of people to run with me.
Not just anypeople....
but all my non-runner friends. I want them all to run with me.
So, if you are reading this, and you are a non runner.
Show up! May 25th, Lake Nikomis, Please.

And together ...we can... maybe... finish...a 3mile race.

:)

BecomingBeautifulToGod

Today I shot the First night of The Becoming Beautiful to God seminar hosted by the Amazing Amy Vest and Loving the Lord Ministries. Over 600 Mothers and Daughters regestered to come. It promises to be a fruitful event.
Pictures from night one....










More to come....

February 27th

Spent the day at my grandparents house today...

paradox

I've been thinking about paradoxes lately. How they are pretty upsidedown and illogical. And how, at the same time, they make all the sense in the world. I've been thinking about the kingdom of God and what it means to be poor in spirit, for those are the people to whom the Kingdom of God is revealved. I was thinking about being hungry and being full, and how needing something and not needing something are so defined in our culture. If you are needy, or hungry, or poor- you are weak. But, in the kingdom of God, its almost directly opposite.

The hungry ones are the ones that know they need food.

-L

Ive

Who I Am

The other day I took twentyfive images of things about me. This was the first one.

40 days and Nights

So,
I just realized 2 things.

1.) I am on my computer way too much.

2.) Today is the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday.


To many, Lent is a catholic word.
I know I used to think it was.

And many don't even know what Lent is or what its for or why it should effect us or anything.
I know I didn't.


Historically, I guess people have gone to mass or church or service on Ash Wednesday. A day of repentance and the marking of the beginning of Lent.

Ashes were used in the ancient days to express mourning.
Dusting oneself with ashes a way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults and failures and mess ups and all the ways and times that we have blown it.

So, on Ash Wednesday all these people would go to services, kneel at the alter and put ash on their forehead, in shape of a cross.
As a symbol of our need to repent,
and our need to be forgiven.

The priest or the pastor would say something like:

"Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return"


Usually, you would keep that cross on your head all day long, until the sun set.
Not to show yourself haughty or proud,
but rather, as a mourning for humanity.

To show the depravity of us all, apart from God.

A symbol of our need to repent,
and our need to be forgiven.

The Pastor or Priest would then say:

"Turn Away from Sin and be faithful to the gospel" and then later
"Repent, and hear the good news"



Heavy Stuff.

So, Ash Wednesday, all of Lent even, is a day, a time of putting aside the things that drag us down, away from God- and putting on something new. The Cross, a need to repent, a reason to be faithful to something bigger than our own lives.
In Hebrews it talks about laying aside all the junk that gets in the way

"let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."


Paul says something like that in Phil.
"But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press on, for the prize of calling of God" (par.)

Forgetting and Getting Over and Pressing On and Becoming Faithful and Hearing Good News

Those are all things that I want, that I need in my life.

Ash Wednesday and Lent and Easter-and all of life really- are about that, I think. Today is about that.

Traditionally, during lent, people give up something that they really love or want or need for the sake of purifying, simplifying their lives. Some give up chocolate. Others music, or meat. Or whatever.

I was sitting in my room this morning thinking of the things I could give up, and the things I could not give up, and what it means to give something up. Some were easier than others, funny how that works.

Here is the thing. I don't really think lent is about giving stuff up just because its holy, or a good cause or makes you look good. I think Lent, the true lent, is about clearing a space in your life- perhaps a bigger space than you wanted- so that God can fill it up. You know, taking those things that we know are unhealthy and wrong and laying them aside so we can have the better.

I think truly, I want that. I need that.

I need forgiveness and when I feel like just holding a grudge and always remembering.

I need "Getting over" - whether its over somefeelings that were hurt, or an insane crazy last year.

I need "pressing on" when I feel like giving up, when I don't want to get out of bed in the morning, when I feel like not going on.

I need "becoming faithful" when I feel unfaithful. To my family or to my faith or to my world.

I need "hearing good new" when I turn on the tv and all.I.hear. is death and hopelessness and the DOW.

So, essentially. Lent is a very much needed time in my life. And coming to think about it.
We are called to Lent everyday.
Isnt that the message of Jesus?

To love as he did? To forgive and hear and see and press on and get over and
to clear out our lives.... so He can fill it.

He will fill it.

Ponderings of a past/present/future

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year.

It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes.

Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions.

Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.

Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards.

Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. – G. K. Chesterton



My year was upside down


The end was in the Beginning

and the Beginning was really in the end


Ive been thinking about love this year. What it means. How it means, and though what means it changes us.

Ive been thinking about Sharpies and Pencils and how both write well, but one is more flexible than the other. One is erasable One is ok with mistakes. One is perfectly fine with forgetting the past and rewriting the future.
Ive been thinking about my life and how I am like a sharpie marker, wanting something very permanent, but the paper on which my life is writing is thin right now, so my ink just sinks right through making a mess and rendering the letter unreadable.

Ive been thinking about Jesus and what he meant when he said his burden is light.
I've been thinking about how I am like that guy in the bible who really stressed out. And how I am carrying a really really really really really heavy load that maybe I wasn't meant to carry.

Ive been thinking about Christmas
and its lights and presents and gifts and hectic annoying songs and its crazy rush and money and how it came really fast and left a big mark and ...
and how Jesus came to save us.
maybe even from Christmas.


I've been thinking about babies and being born. How, babies are fresh and warm and beautiful and hopeful and when you hold them you think it might be ok after all. How they love and trust even when its weird and uncomfortable and awkward.

I've been thinking about the Kingdom of God. And how Jesus says we can't even understand what it is until we become like little babies.
Its upsidedown.
Everything is.

Its kinda funny too.
Because its so easy.
Being a pencil is easier that being a sharpie.
But the process is of getting to be ok with being a pencil is hard.
So, you see. Everything is upside down.

Being a normal human being is easier than being a "world changer" who bears great burdens.
But the process of letting go of the burden and realizing that you are significant just because you exist, thats it, that is hard.

Being a kid is easier than being an adult with many adult issues.
But the process of trusting like a kid, enjoying like a kid is hard.

See... its easy...but its hard...


Kinda like the Kingdom of God.

Kinda like this past year for me.
Its been easy, but its been hard.

But thanks be to God, who gives us victory in Christ Jesus!
Victory over pride and unhappiness
Victory over 'sharpie minded lifestyles' and unbelief
Victory over sin and sorrow
victory over very adult worries and the economy and changing the world and money and bills and despair and guilt and fear and bondage and success and pain and suffering and unemployment and cancer and Darfur and AIDs in the world and war and mean people and those 'are you kidding me??' moments.

Thanks Be To God.

for 2008 and all the junk and all the beauty in it.

Thanks Be To God
Who makes burdens light.

Blind Flash of the Obvious

This is my blog.


This is my blog post.


Amen.