How do you measure a year?

This was my favorite movie this year. I loved it because it showed people hurting...it showed how community can bring such support and healing. Sometimes I relate my life to how these characters lived....I have some friends that have financial difficulties. Some have relationship woes... some are sick, some are lonely...One is trying to find himself. One is on a quest that I'm extremly interested in. We all love....we dont hold back....and I pray that everyone feels cared for.

Looking back at 2005, It's been one of the most dynamic years of my life.

1. I graduated college
2. I was offered a really excellent job without looking for it (Thank you God!)
3. I dated a redheaded marine (she was really cute guys but dont mess with her!)
4. I was rejected by a redheaded marine
5. I forgot who I was
6. I was rejected by my closest friends
7. I got my new apartment (living by myself for the first time)
8. I met someone that taught me to love with reckless abandonment
(CS, that was the most important thing I learned this year. Thank you so much.)
9. I started this blog and found out I could write
10. I discovered great men and women of God that I cannot live without
11. I look forward to what adventures 2006 holds for me.

I really appreciate everyone that writes on my blog. I've learned so much from you.

Submission

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

Husbands, love [your] wives, and be not bitter against them.

Col 3:18-19

A close friend of mine challenged some friends and I to the question of Christian submission. I have been thinking about it for the past few days and this is what I've come up with.

Imagine that marriage is like a car driving down the road of life. Now imagine that the car had 2 steering wheels. What a great concept! One could sleep while the other drove, One could navigate...you get the concept.

Now imagine that a huge crevice appears in the road in front of you. Which person should avoid the obstacle? What if both people turned the wheel in opposite directions and you fall straight into the hole?

Lets discuss this :)

Breathing

Through breath we were created;
Dirt before, something else so suddenly.

Life sustaining air flowing into our bodies,
A testament to His glory.

Breathing in, our blood replenished;
Breathing out, our bodies cleansed.

Each one tells a tale;
Smells sensed, memories embraced.

Without it, our voices mute;
Sobbing can be quenched or created
By our tongues of fire.

When my last breath is gone,
Understanding will be mine.

Unseen Hope

Breathing deeply I take inventory of my soul.
Lonliness mixed with exhaustion are revealed.
Where is my hope?

Romans 8:24 says this:
For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he hope for?

Then it says in verse 25:
But if we hope for that which we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

I push so hard to find my own answers..Solve my own problems.
Why should I be surprised I feel this way?

The wonderful world of Mediocrity

Not too warm, yet not too cold,
Life is good if I may be so bold..

My heart is lonely but friends abound;
Still looking for the one, yet none to be found..

I pray just enough, I feel no remorse;
My vision blurry, loosing sight of my Source.

Looking inwards I see that momentum is congested;
Full of selfish thoughts, my mind is infested.

Cutting through the tape that holds me back,
I realize that a path is what I lack.

Purposeful life is like a ball of snow,
The farther it moves, the more it will grow.

Peace

Peace isn't a pool of still water;
Comfortable, yet prone to stagnation.

Nor is it a fortress where I feel safe;
Sheltering me from those I was sent to help.

Peace is like a river flowing down a mountain;
Where high banks guide, gravity pulls.

It is as if I could close my eyes.
Running headfirst into a forest;
Knowing I will not be injured.

Peace is when the pain is still there,
But you have somewhere to put it.

In total darkness, it is a hand
Reaching to grasp mine.

Lord please grant me peace,
So I will have the courage to do what you sent me here for.

Cling

A child buries her head;
Reassurance flows as fingers entwine in Mother's dress.

Solitude creeps in like a winter chill,
He grasps.
Anxiety that he will never reach the surface.
A friends shoulder is always there,
Reminding him that he is not alone.
His hurts..his happiness; they willingly share.

A Season of Birth
A Season of Love
A Season of Hope

Unfold your arms so a child can cling.

Thought of the day

If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000. The rate in Washington D.C.(among others) is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are about 33% more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington D.C.

When I am Quiet

My pride has nothing to feed on;
I plainly see my selfishness.

What was hidden to my ears,
whispers like a morning breeze.

Closing my eyes, my heart becomes animated;
Mind, body and spirit regain balance.

Surrounded by quiescent darkness,
My direction is true; my footing secure.

When I am Quiet I feel you.

The 8 Cow Woman

There once was an American man that fell in love with a woman.
This woman was from an island named Kiniwata where gifts were given to the father of the bride. Usually the dowry was a cow. The more attractive the woman, the more cows that the father received. The woman was considered homely by most, but the man was deeply in love with her.

When he announced the engagement, he gave the father 8 cows as a dowry (an unheard of dowry to most people). The woman was absolutely amazed. She lived a life where she considered herself unvaluable...not worth the effort.

Fast forward a year down the road and you will see a very beautiful happy woman. When she began to treat herself as if she were valuable, her outward appearance reflected it.

Most of us do not consider ourselves valuable.
We desperatly need to compliment each other.
We need to lift each other up at every opportunity.