Moving' on Up...or something like that

I'm now blogging here.

A Prayer

Someone sent this to me this morning:

Franciscan Prayer

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in the world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done
to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amen.

Ringing true

Doesn't this quote seem to ring true?

"The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: ‘From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.'”
-Alexander Tyler

WRITE IN!!!

Okay, I know I'm not the only one who is looking at our current choices for President -- at least the ones the Republicans and Democrats nominated -- and are asking the question, "How about neither?"

Well, did you know you can WRITE IN a candidate?

Check out this Wikipedia Article and get yourself edumacated! haha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write-in_vote#President

and how about that Mike Huckabee?

http://www.onlyhuckabee.com/

Check it.

Not the same path

I'm different than I was 10 years ago. I guess most people can say that. I wonder how it is that some couples get married when they're in their early 20's and stay together. My parents did it. Well, my mom was 21 and my dad was 26, but still.
When I think back to how I handled myself in certain situations, I cringe. My self now hurts for my self then. I was so willing to make other people happy at my expense. This played out in certain relationships that went on way too long. I guess most would say that I totally dodge a bullet and the Lord certainly protected me.

A situation came up recently where I could have easily gone back down that path I was familiar with, but I'm stronger now. I feel like I actually have learned something in 10 years. I won't allow myself to compromise my happiness, emotional well being for someone else's.

To most of you this is probably a bit cryptic. And that's okay. There are those of you who know exactly what I'm writing about and hopefully you will be encouraged and proud of me! It's progress, y'all.

The Lord has healed some hurts from the past and I know there's good stuff in store.

Retreating

This past weekend, a group of my friends and me escaped to Boone, NC for some time together. The point of the weekend was to share our stories. Our stories all have a common theme: God has been working in our lives. I knew this weekend would be an important one for our group. I knew that we'd grow closer by know where others came from, what struggles they've faced, disappointments they've had, broken relationships they've come out of, etc. But it was really wonderful to hear how the Lord has been working in each of their lives from childhood (in most cases). A lot of us had knowledge of God or had been exposed to God, the church, etc, but it hasn't been until our adult lives that we have gained a real understanding of Him. And even though we've shared parts of our stories with each other before, I think there's been a shift, a trust that's been gained. I hope to see the fruit of this down the road.

In addition to sharing some pretty deep stuff, we also laughed a lot and just enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. Here's a few shots from Boone!

The Election

This is kind of how I'm feeling about it right now

not my image

Questions

So I saw a mutual friend posted these questions that John Wesley asked himself every day. They are questions definitely worth asking:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying or self-justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give it time to speak to me every day?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I go to bed on time and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?
17. How do I spend my spare time?
18. Am I proud?
19. Do I thank God that I am not like other people?
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard?
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
22. Is Christ real to me?

God's Love - it's a jealous kind of love

here's what I e-mailed my small group this morning. thought it was worth posting here too!

*****

So interestingly enough, at Charlotte One last night, a lot of Stuart Hall's message had to do with God's "jealousy" of us. He even brought in the story of Hosea and Gomer. Coincidence? I think not! (For those of you not at small group on Monday, we had a lot of discussion around how the Holy Spirit "envies intensely" when we give anything in our lives precidence over the Lord. I'm telling you guys, this is the stuff like that makes me keenly aware of the realness of our God. Perhaps this is a message that really needed to be heard a couple of times!

And then that verse from James 4 keeps coming back to me "but He gives MORE grace." (emphasis added by me)

We sang this song last night Oh How He Loves Us which was written by John Mark McMillan. This guy writes some amazing lyrics. Here are the verses.

NOTE THE FIRST LINE!!! Crazy how it went with small group....and then the message last night. Crazy cool in my opinion.

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

Pre-Chorus:
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us so

Chorus 1:
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Verse 2:
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And the heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

Verse 3:
Well, I thought about You the day Stephen* died,
And You met me between my breaking.
I know that I still love You, God, despite the agony.
...They want to tell me You're cruel,
But if Stephen could sing, he'd say it's not true, cause.. (back to chorus).

*By the way, Stephen was a follower of Christ, an early Christian, who was stoned for his faith.

Thoughts from Sunday

So Bruce was talking about giving yesterday -- not just about money, but of your time, of yourself. And the motive not being about what it can get you, but more of giving as an outpouring of the passion that God has instilled in you.

A couple of things I jotted down were:

"Until your heart is captivated by gratitude, you will wait." You will just sit around and let life pass you by until you tap into that passion that resides within and it motivates you to act.

"What would be too much?" How much giving is too much? I'll let you ponder that one.

"You've got to get your passion." "You've got to know who you are."

Amen and amen. I'm still processing, but this resonates with me. I'm on the path to discovery...

Vid

Okay, I'm sure you've heard that Travis Barker was in a plane crash. He is an AMAZING drummer. Here....you can see for yourself.

Thirty two

My birthday week got off to a great start by racing in the SheRox Triathlon up at Latta Plantation early on Sunday morning (and I mean early). I should blog about my race experience in another entry because I have a lot of thoughts about it, but right now I'm basking in my being thirty-two years old. I am no longer just barely in the thirties; I'm solidly in my thirties. Any age with a two at the end sounds so much more substantial.

I'm 32 and I'm just fine. 31 started off with a lot of turmoil - a relationship ending, but quickly started to get better as I got involved with my wonderful small group! I found some new friends as well as continuing to invest in my tried and true friends. I found peace and hope in the midst of some hard family stuff. In April, I launched into training for the triathlon which helped me get to a level of fitness that made me feel so good about myself and what my body could do. I deepened friendships through long bike rides and runs and trips to the pool. I gained confidence. So, thirty-one was good to me. I can only hope thirty-two will be even better!

Yesterday was a great day. I received so many birthday wishes (thanks to Facebook) and received phone calls, got taken out to both lunch AND dinner and I smiled...a lot.

From the previous post, I'm still confident that "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me..."

Meditation

It's less than 24 hours until race time.

This is what I read this morning and what I'm meditating on:

"The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and lovingkindness, O Lord, endure forever -- forsake not the works of Your own hands." Psalm 138:8

Seriously?

Okay, I must hurry and post this entry because I need to be at work early this morning, but I had to get this out there into cyberspace.

Racewalker (not my image)

Since when did Race Walking become an Olympic event? Last night, I was watching the Olympics with some friends and one moment we're watching the USA drop batons (both men and women) and the next moment, we're watching some women walk really, really fast.

I guess the one exciting thing that happens during this event is that if you even look like you're about to jog or both feet come off the pavement just a little bit, some "referee" jumps in your face out of nowhere and flashes a yellow card! I don't know if they say anything or just flash the card, but it's the ONLY entertaining or interesting thing about this event. Oh wait, it is kind of interesting how it seems that the legs of the walkers almost seem doublejointed. And Scott asked the question, "why must they wear the same outfits as marathoners?" Is it really necessary to wear the little bitty bottoms and the sports bra to walk really fast?

The winner, who walked REALLY fast (of course), looked like she was in a great deal of pain as she entered the Bird's Nest last night. And people were cheering awfully loud for her. I repeat, they were cheering REALLY loud for a race walker. Odd, I tell you -- very, very odd. So she finished and then all the other walkers.....you guessed it.....walked really fast to the finish line. It doesn't even SOUND right. UGH.

Okay, enough about the racewalkers.....I need to go get ready for work. And, by the way, I'm going to walk very fast everywhere I go today.

Guess I should post...

Lots of things swirling around this morning:
1. I had my feelings hurt (stupidly) because I wasn't included in a group September birthday celebration. It is SO dumb, but if any of you know me well, you know how I love birthday celebrations and to think that I was left out of a birthday celebration for September birthdays....
2. It's less than a month until race day for SheRox. My current thought is that I'll do fine in the bike/run portion of the race, but the swim will be where I lose time. I'm swimming after work tonight. Really.
3. I love french press coffee. It is so much richer and flavorful than drip coffeemakers. Try it.
4. Back to training: my run has improved so much. Last night, I was running pretty fast for the whole 5K. It helped to have another woman pacing right with me. She was struggling (so she says) but was too competitive to slow down. Ha!
5. Let it Go, Let it Flow has been taken to an all new level with the additional information from Joy. I obviously need to sharpen my "skills".
6. I have a lot of wonderful friends in my life. Let me be grateful for them.
7. Oh, I'm more blonde than I used to be.

Route for a nice little run (3.33 miles)

(Just don't do it in the extreme heat like some of us did last night. YUCK.)

http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/nc/charlotte/460950188

OH, and
map my run is a great site for all you runners (or aspiring runners) out there!

Happy trails (or pavement)!

Alaina

Hey Alaina,
Dear friend, if you are reading this, I hope you know that you have friends (me included) that would like to hear from you -- even if it's just to know you're okay. I know a lot has happened in the last 2 years -- some fun times, some bad times...some really bad, but hopefully now it can be left in the past and that your eyes are fixed on a brighter future. We miss you. We love you. Please write soon.
Love,
Fifi

Green Pastures

Found this song this morning....love it.

	Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Dolly Parton - Green Pastures
	Found at skreemr.com

Rear wheels

So my bike has been in pieces since Saturday. "Why?" you ask. Well, I'm a pro at getting the front wheel on and off, but the back wheel -- not so much. I walk by it every day and it frustrates me that I haven't been able to do this myself. I even tried again Monday morning, but no dice; I end up with grease all over my body every time (both legs, arms and hands).

I am going to ask my friend Michelle to help me tonight. She's coming over to help me pack (the big move across town is this weekend) and see if she will do it. She's a pro and it's her bike that she's letting me use for my training!

Weezer

I love this band.
I love this song. Enjoy!

	Weezer - Jamie (Live Acoustic B Side)
	Found at skreemr.com