It has been said that before Michelangelo created his masterpiece "David", Davinci had been given a slab of what he considered "unusable" marble. Michelangelo then used that same piece of rock and created one of the most well know pieces of art in history. When asked how he formed such a masterpiece out of such an ugly piece of rock, he said "It was simple, I just cut away everything that didn't look like David". 

I think in the same way that's what God is doing with us. Cutting away everything that doesn't look like Christ in our lives. I am far fetched from being finished...but hope, that when He is finished, there will be nothing of me left. Just Jesus, in all of His goodness. 

the unusual:.

"Before familiarity can trust into awareness, the familiar must be stripped of it's inconspicuousness; we must give up assuming that the object in question needs no explanation. However frequently recurrent, modest, vulgar it may be, it will now be something unusual." ~Bertold Brecht

I am hoping for the unfamiliar. craving what's unacquainted. wash over me your newness. cannonballing into newfangled seasons...experiences...endevors. i miss you my dear friend. the unknown has me wrapped around it's finger. can i see through it's eyes? have it's boldness? i feel at the crux of rattling decisions. what will it be? so. what will it be. all that matters is that I be. i am confident that beauty will come through it either way. "be":: to exist or live. "exist":: to remain or to be found. the latter has me curious. 

:::Immersion

A bit of my time with Jesus today...

I was reading about the Jordan River. The thing about the Jordan is that it became a dividing line. It was considered the River of the 'Jews", but to everyone else it was the river of offense. {For instance Naaman, didn't want to be washed in it, because of this}. But what do I want more...God's anointing or man's respectability? This is the same place where Jesus was baptized. Luke 3:21 talks about this. What I love about God is that in Jesus' place of weakness, the love of the Father met Him there. The same love that met Hannah in the temple. In her weakness and vulnerability, she cried out to God for a son. And the Holy Spirit met her in a place of weakness {through Eli the priest} and told her she would have a son.
And, with Jesus... it says in verse 22 of Luke 3 that "the Holy Spirit ascended upon Him like a dove...". First came the love of the Father "this is my Son in whom I am well pleased'....then came the 'upon' anointing. We have been baptized in that too! We stand drenched in the Father's love, and then anointed with His Spirit {our Great Helper}. It was only in that rooting of the Father's love that Jesus was then able to go out and be intensely tempted by Satan...and then come out of the wilderness with the Power of the Holy Spirit.

The anointing comes out of a place of intimacy.
Intimacy comes out of the Love of the Father.
And out of the Love of the Father comes the Kingdom of God.

In His presence we are refreshed. I feel it right now. A friend said this to me. In connecting with God we get the Rhythm of Life...and that is this {Seeking-Soaking-Going} :: Seeking: through His Word and His Heart. Soaking: In His love and presence. Getting filled to overflowing. & Going:Out of that overflow we can go out.
God's power on our life is meant to increase through difficulty. Just like Hannah's pain led to her to cry out to God. And Jesus' time in the wilderness, led Him to lean n God's truth. It deepened His experience with the Father, He got filled up, and came out of it in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I want to go to the unexpected {Jordan River} places, and be immersed...drenched in the goodness. To have the Love of the Father clothe me, and the "upon" anointing follow. I need this everyday. It is our lifeline. Through it comes the Rhythm of life. God's power does turn the drowning place into walking places. And we come out with the power of God. I love that He meets me in my vulnerability, and does His miracles. The Kingdom of God does not consist of words. So I wait to see, to experience, to be a part of it's goodness. Are we ready to go all in? Because eventually Naaman did. In 2 Kings it says, "Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his flesh became as healthy as a young child's and he was healed."
I am ready to go all in. God show me what that even looks like. I love how it says that Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God {Elisha}, and Naaman professed that the God of Isreal was real. Refresh us, Oh God. Dip us and cleanse us, that in coming up we are set free and anointed, ready to further the Kingdom that Jesus launched into action.

A sweet sister in Uganda wrote this...
"What the Bible does not mention, but what must be true is that years later, Lazarus still died. The people Jesus healed were inevitably sick again at some point in their lives. The people Jesus fed miraculously were hungry again a few days later. More important than the very obvious Might and Power shown by Jesus's miracles is His LOVE. He loved these people enough to genuinely care, to do everything in His power to make it better. He entered into their suffering and loved the right there. We aren't really called to save to the world, not even to save one person; Jesus has already done that. We are just called to love with abandon. With EVERYTHING we have. We are called to enter in to our neighbor's suffering and love them right there. Maybe I did NOTHING but allow Happy to struggle a few days longer. But I did love her, and she now has a spot in my heart that is forever changed.Today I am rejoicing in my sweet few days with Happy. I am rejoicing that one day I will see her again and I will be able to tell her how she changed my heart and taught me about Love."

I am in awe of the the Love of Jesus. Such deep, deep love that penetrates cultures and society, doctors and beggers. I am speechless right now, just trying to get my mind around His love. And that such Love lives in us. I feel so unworthy, so incapable. But, His love endures forever...making up for my weaknesses. And sweeping into all who want it. Lord, show me how to love like you.

::an art...and a fortunate accident::

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."


/::St. Augustine

Baba Yetu

Good evening! I have a bunch of thoughts whirling about my head right now. Thoughts of Africa, thoughts of Judaism, thoughts of a new house with a jasmine bush, thoughts of singing kids, thoughts of a childhood friend's engagement.

I feel an expectancy again. Something on the rise. Hope. Hope on the rise. My heart is beating fast for East Africa. Uganda, to be specific. I have been connecting with orphanages there, and my heart so longs to see the kids that I have fallen in love with from across the world since I was five. I'll keep you updated on that as things unfold.

Judaism. I am reading the fabulous memoir of Lauren Winner; a brilliant, free thinking Orthodox Jew and her journey in falling in love with Jesus. I think it's absolutely gorgeous how God is in all of the details. Looking into Jewish traditions like the feasts, for instance, they so mirror the coming of Jesus. God knew. He knew, and He cared. I want to celebrate Jewish holidays when I have a family. My friend and I were talking years ago about how we love that about God...how He's so in the details; and that's how He woos our hearts. She had a vision of Jesus taking her on a picnic, simply wanting to be in her presence and her in his. They sat under a tree, and Jesus pulled out of the picnic basket her absolute favorite drinks. I know it sounds silly and petty....but it's stuff like that that make me captivated by my God. He knows what we love, and He loves to bless us.Something as a simple as favorite drinks to openings to travel the nations. This is true too, as scripture is revealed and the glory of Jesus made manifest through the Word. He knows just how to show us His marvelous plans of salvation and His drenching grace. You can't escape the intense love of the Father. And I don't know how you can deny the Truth of the Word. Both are perfect.

A new house with a jasmine bush. Let's just say, I have found my haven. Me and two friends spent a whole saturday house hunting. Throughout it,we were asking the Holy Spirit to guide us to the right place He has for us. After many other finds, we pulled up to this 1950's cottage, with a lush orange tree in the front garden, jasmine crawling up the brick porch, and a retro lemon kitchen to die for. Having heaps of people over is our dream. It was hard to keep from screaming as we walked through this lovely abode. I will keep you updated on this, as well.

Singing kids and a childhood friend's engagement could be taking me back to Indo this summer. Maybe yes, maybe no. Either way, I know God's plan is wonderful. I have ben learning to just go with the flow. It's the best way to do life. Because even when you don't know what the next step is...you enjoy everything along the way.

peace over you, friends.

{tenacious beauty}

About four months ago, the Lord laid on my friend Allie and my hearts to host a girl's retreat. So here I am, the night before...excited, ready for it to happen already, overwhelmed, fulfilled, and hopeful. I really feel like God's going to do some major things in these girls hearts. And I pray that right now. I don't know how God has done it, but what started off as a simple idea, has turned into 80 girls and women attending and helping. God is ridiculous!

I'm finishing the last bits of my teaching, here in the wee small hours of the morning...and wanted to share a bit of what God's been putting on my heart for these girls, and for myself.

As I was thinking about some of the things on teenage girl's minds and what I think society speaks to them about so often is this idea of 'change'. Things like "Be the change". They hear it constantly, and they long for it. As superficial as things around them may feel, they truly long to be a part of something greater than themselves. And this is how God has created us. Whether we realize that it's God or not. God has created us as women with passion and purpose. We long to be a part of something bigger because it's in our make-up. We were not called to the mediocre. We are called to something beautiful. Called to something great. God has formed the heart of a women with three things...beauty, passion, and purpose.

So here we are, ready to let the passion of our heart and purpose of our beauty (that which bears the image of Christ) to be let loose...but for that to happen, there has to be wholeness. What is wholeness? Wholeness is letting Jesus touch every part of you...not holding back. Allowing Him to have everything. Allowing Him in all of the questions of our hearts, our longings, our hurts, our dreams & hopes. Through wholeness in Christ there is a quiet confidence, a freedom to be unique when we are surrounded with a tidal wave of pressures and standards. Freedom to be true. That in our abiding in His love, comes our wholeness.

The constant question of a woman's heart, even from the time we we're little is "Am I lovely? Am I enough?" Most women doubt very much that they have any genuine beauty to unveil. It is our deepest doubt. Beauty is essential to God. Beauty is the essence of God. Stasi Eldredge writes, "Woman is the crown of creation- the most intricate, dazzling creature on earth. She has a crucial role to play, and a destiny of her own. And she too, bears the image of God."

I think about my childhood hero, Amy Charmichael, a revolutionary missionary to India in the late 1800's. She truly lived out of an overflow of wholeness in Christ. Because of this, she was free. She knew that God had clothed her in beauty, driven her with passion, and created her with purpose. It was because of her confidence in the Love of Jesus, and how He had created her, that she went into the world and God used her to change it! How can you tell someone about the love of Christ, if you aren't even confident in it yourself? But when we are clothed in His love, our beauty is released.

The glorious things to which He has called us to are set into action. Dripping with excitement and passion. As we as women walk in this, our hearts bearing the image of God Himself, we live in freedom and become a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Beauty is powerful. It is tenacious. It matters. And you possess it! So what is your passion and what is your purpose, beautiful one?