Words with Friends II

¹¹ The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
      Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
      Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"


I've heard this story since I was in elementary school. The moral was always something along the lines of - "God doesn't have to always come in the big things, sometimes He's in the little whispers." Which is true. And sometimes completely relevant.

But something a friend said last night about this story really hit me.

God told Elijah He was going to pass by. But then there was a wind that tore the mountains apart. And an earthquake. And a fire.

I've seen the destruction done by tornadoes. Last week I sat through my very first tiny earthquake. Large fires scare the heck out of me. But Elijah just waited. He waited while the mountains around him fell apart. The MOUNTAINS. They just crumbled and he waited. He waited while the entire earth beneath him shook. He waited while he watched the vegetation melt before his eyes.

My friend said it something like this:

"Elijah knew God was coming because He had told him He would. While the earth shook around him, he was still, waiting for God. While things were melting and he was probably scared to death, he still waited for God thinking 'My God said He'd come so my God is going to come.' And then He did come. In that still, small whisper."

Elijah waited.

Goodness but do I have a hard time waiting. I want to know why the Lord is sending the wind. I want to know the meaning behind the earthquake and the precise purpose of the fire.

But that's not my job. At least not today. My job is to sit and wait on the Lord who has told me He's coming. For today, my job is to be still and know that He is God. 

Goin' to the Chapel

Remember this??

Well, let me introduce you to two more great ladies who have also asked me to be a bridesmaids!!! 

The first:

See the girl in the top right corner? 

Well that's one of my roommates, Audrey.

This picture was taken at good, old Iron Springs way back before we even dreamed of being roommates. 

But now I like to tell people we've been roommates for four years (because she was basically in our room enough to live there our freshmen year).

We decided on a whim that we would be church buddies.

Then became great friends.

Then she met this great guy.

And the rest is history.

They're getting married on January 1!! 

Audrey, I'm so excited to be a part of your wedding. I love you!!

And then next we have:

 

This fantastic girl.

 Meet Rebekah. 

We just have so much fun together I can't even start to describe it. 

She's crazy and hilarious and the best kindergarten teacher I know. 

I loved being a part of her engagement and can't WAIT to be a part of her (and Lane's) day on July 2. 

Rebekah and Lane, I just love you both so much. 

I am so so SO excited to be part of one of the biggest days of your lives.

So 2011 will be the Year of the Wedding. 

I'm in 3 and probably attending way more.

I can't wait! 

Discipline Thursday

The discipline: Waking up at 6 am and no texting.
Success of discipline: The first two days I woke up at 6:30. Every other day? Anywhere from 8 - 9:30. Oops. But I successfully did not text for one whole week.
The lessons:

• I had to be present. When I was someplace I didn't want to be or talking to someone I didn't want to be talking to, I couldn't escape by texting. I had to be where I was and paying attention to who I was with. No escaping. No dwelling on other things. Just being present. It was oddly refreshing.
• Some things are just not as important as they seem in the moment. When I couldn't just text my friends when a conversation didn't go as planned, I forgot about it. When I couldn't immediately tell them about the girl who gave me a dirty look in class, it didn't really matter anymore. It allowed me to stop worrying about every little thing in my day and just relax.
• We are not used to real communication. People were shocked when I would call them instead of text them back. Not that I think texting is evil or anything, I just think sometimes we forget what it means to actually communicate with the people around us.
• And as for waking up every day - I learned that I am not a morning person. I would love to be. Really, really. But I'm just not. If you have any pointers, I would love to hear them.

This week's discipline: Be positive. It's going to take a different form for everyone. For me it's no complaining and no saying anything bad about myself. 

Please go read this post. 

Discipline Thursday*

*Just pretend today is Thursday. I got a little sidetracked after I wrote this and forgot to publish. 

If there's one thing I've learned in college it's that sometimes crazy things happen late at night. You're tired. You let your guard down. You agree to do crazy things.

That's how I agreed to be part of a secret society last year.

But it's also how I agreed to be part of some strange group almost 2 weeks ago now.

Picture 7 college kids sitting in a living room. Might as well picture a pretty small living room because, let's face it, we're broke college kids. They're all talking, laughing, and of course studying. Then one issued a challenge - "Let's try going without Facebook for a week."

Maybe it's because we're competitive. Maybe it's because we were bored. Maybe it's because God needed to show us all something. (I think the whole late at night thing had something to do with it.) But eventually that one challenge evolved into giving up Facebook, Twitter, and blogging (reading and writing) for a week with the promise of giving up something different each week.

So from here on out (at least for the next several weeks) Thursdays will become Discipline Thursdays so that I can tell you all the great things the Lord taught us in the past week of giving things up to Him.

For the week of September 1-8:

The Discipline: Give up all social networking (Facebook, Twitter, and blogs) for one week.

The Lessons:

• There were several times over the week that God did really fantastic things in my life. Anytime it happened, my first inclination was to get on some social network to tweet or status update about it. "God is so good!" "I'm so amazed at what God's doing in my life." "God's timing is perfect." But I couldn't update electronically so most of the time, I just stopped thinking about it. Did you get that? I just stopped thinking about it. I didn't run to tell my best friends. I didn't find the first person to tell them. I just stopped. How disappointing. I am so comfortable praising God online but when it comes to praising Him in my everyday life I get embarrassed or afraid or apathetic. 
• There were also several times during the week I was in a horrible mood. Again, my first inclination was to turn to my beloved internet. I wanted to read all those encouraging blogs. I wanted to see who had encouraged me on Facebook. I wanted to laugh at someone's tweets. But instead, the Lord called me to Him. "Let me heal you. Let me dry your tears. Let me put you in a better mood."  
• I got SO. MUCH. DONE. I did more homework in the past week than I've done in most of my college career combined. 

So hopefully now that it's over I'll be able to still limit my time on this internet thing.

This week's discipline: No texting. And waking up at 6 am every morning. Ambitious, I know. 

Encouragement

About a year ago, maybe a little less, I stumbled on this great site called (in)courage (as seen on the linky thing on the right). I actually think one of my best friends introduced it to me.

Anyway, today is the National Day of Encouragement and I signed up through (in)courage to get 10 free cards to use today and in return to blog about how I used them.

For some reason, encouraging strangers comes easily to me. It's seems to take no effort to tell a teacher or public speaker they did a great job. Or to go out of my way to comfort the girl crying in the bathroom I've never met before. What is difficult for me is encouraging my friends.

I can't describe it and maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, but I see it as a big problem. The Lord has blessed me with absolutely amazing friends that support me in so much and I let so many days go by without telling them how much they mean to me.

So today I used my cards to encourage some of my closest friends. One that is doing a fantastic job in a ministry that doesn't get much thanks. Another that life just has not been fair to recently. A best friend who I don't tell enough how much she means to me. You get the picture.

Maybe this whole thing will help me outwardly appreciate my friends more. On those horrible days, and even on those just not perfect days, they need to hear it just as much as I do.

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you are doing." I Thessalonians 5:11

Empty Hands

The Lord has blessed me with many wise friends who seek Him out on a daily basis. Because of this, He often speaks to me through my friends (many times without them even knowing how much their words have meant to me).

So I'm going to call these next few posts: Words with Friends. 

Get it? See what I did there?

Anyway. Back to today's quote.

(I guess before I start I should also give a disclaimer that these will be paraphrases of my friends' words. I don't take a notebook with me to every conversation so I often come away with the gist of what they said - not word-for-word. You'll forgive me.)

"How can I receive blessings from the Lord when my hands are full of everything else? I have to first empty my hands (and keep emptying them) and then receive His blessings."

Man alive. When my dear friend said this talking about her own life, it was like she had hit me upside the head. I so often do not have empty hands.

I try to fill my hands with anything and everything. Is there something I can be in charge of? Let me take it into my own hands. Is a boy showing interest? Let me fill my hands with things that will impress him. Is a friendship heading south? Let me grab on as hard as I can.

And they're not always bad things. Has God blessed me with a new ministry? Let me juggle all the details. Am I succeeding in piano? Let me practice even more. Is someone hurting? Let me hold them until they're better on their own.

While so many of these things are good and can be used for His glory, He's still calling me to empty my hands. Because when I do let go of everything I'm so desperately grasping, that's when He fills me with Him. Nothing less. Nothing more. Just Him. But how can I receive Him when I've piled my hands so high with stuff, I have no room left to hold His hand? No room to receive His love?

Oh LORD, empty me. Empty my hands that I may receive you and only you. Nothing less. Nothing more.