Laughing

I love laughing. Seriously. It's one of my favorite hobbies. Who doesn't love laughing? Those moments when you're rolling on the floor, gasping for air, because someone said that inside joke from two years ago. I love it when my belly starts to hurt, or my mouth starts to hurt, or when my eyes start to water. Those are the best laugh. That's when laughing is the best.

I really don't know why God invented laughter. How do human beings even have a concept of something being funny or hilarious? I would have never thought of it. It's really not something we think of all the time. Laughter. We take it for granted. The ability to just burst out gasping for breath because something is so unbelievably funny. Have you ever stopped to think about how many different kinds of laughter there are? Some people snort, some people snicker, some people laugh silently, others chuckle.. some friends laugh differently every time they laugh. There is such a beauty in laughter. It's like God was composing a song when he created all the different forms of laughter. I wonder if He created laughter because He enjoys hearing us happy?

Just think about it next time you hear someone laugh, and delight in the creator who gave us the ability to laugh.

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." -- e.e. cummings

Sunset

One of my friends was looking at the sunset and I seized the moment with my camera. I really love this shot, enjoy.

Shooting Stars

The sunset was amazing. An array of pinks, oranges, and blues painted the horizon as the sunk sank behind twinkling city lights. It truly took my breath away. Beyond the burning embers of the bonfire, millions upon millions of stars lit up the night sky. The milky way danced through their midst. Not only was God's creation displaying His glory, stars shooting across the expanse, but around the bonfire there was laughter and smiles (not to mention s'mores!).

How crazy it was that our bonfire 'just happened' to be next to one of the other campus ministry's bonfires, and that they had brought a guitar and we had forgotten. How crazy was it when we all began to sing praises to the glorious King of Kings together, one group, under one sky, praising one God.

Poetry took residence in the sand, in the stars, and in my heart. This is what I have for you today:

Looking at the stars
I ponder who You are
Giving Your son to die
For a sinner such as I

That the Creator of everything
The Great and Glorious King
Cares for this tiny creature
More than the stars I'm seeing

I fail so many times
Betraying myself to the father of lies
Still You take my back so readily
Looking past my inability

Staring at these stars, I know Your glory
Each sunset tells Your story
Showing me love beyond measure
May this life be for Your pleasure

How can people gaze up into the sky and believe it all just came into place like this accidentally?

The Gaze

Sitting in Biology, my eyes wandered past my professor an down to the students sitting in the front row. As my eyes grazed over heads, suddenly a head turned, and a pair of eyes was gazing into my own. Startled, I just kept looking at the guy. In a lecture room filled with students, a person had looked back (generally not done) at the same exact time I looked at him. Finally, he looked away, but the occurance got me thinking.

As we go through our day, do we realize that the God of the Universeis constantly gazing at us?

The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. (Proverbs 15:3)

The Righteous Judge, the Perfect One, is gazing at us when we're falling asleep in class, when we're having deep conversations about sloths with our friends, when we're falling into our beds, when we walked by and ignored that awkward person trying to avoid them, when we let a four letter word fall from our lips, and when we choose to play a game rather than spend time with Him. A little unsettling, isn't it? Should it be? If we lived with this constant awareness that Christ was gazing at us all the time, would we do half of the things we do? Would we do more of the things that we ought to do? I think so. If this idea seems unsettling to you, I admonish you to look at the way you're living your life and see if you'd want Christ to see you blowing Him off -- the God of the Universe! Because, frankly, He is seeing you blow Him off.

Having Christ gazing at us, doesn't have to be, and shouldn't be, a negative thing. It should be comforting and relieving to know that no matter what we do, we cannot run from God. That no matter where we are, God is there with us. We are never alone. I was very lonely during my high school years, but if we live our lives recognizing the presence of our Savior, it's ridiculous to even think that loneliness exists. This is a beautiful thing.

I encourage you to read Psalm 139. It's well worth it. Having the gaze of God upon us is both unnerving and so amazingly comforting. I know I'm not there yet, but I will seek to live my life in the knowledge that God is ever-present.

Prologue to a Moment

Most novels start with a prologue, a foreword, a disclaimer of sorts. And this is mine. I don't claim to be the best writer, the best person, or the best anything, really. I rely on grace that was bought with a price by a Savior, the God of this universe, who gave it all up for me. I'm living this life, as an imperfect human being, giving it all back to Him, because it's all really His anyway (Philippians 3:7-9). So if you want to read a blog that's perfectly written with funny anecdotes and well versed phrases delivered at the right moment, I ought to warn you. I'll try my best to be witty and include some tear jerking moments now and again, but this story is not really mine. It's being written by someone else. So, if you can't handle me talking about God, and how amazing He is, then please make your way to the exit. Although, I'd be thrilled if you decide to stick around anyway. You can witness my learning surrender.

This place of surrender has not been easy. If I fool you in to thinking it was for one moment, please disregard. I've been through desperate, lonely, dark places, but even after it all I find that Christ is still holding me in the palm of His hand. There have been times when I've wanted to throw in the towel, when I could not find joy in any moment. Yet, I know now that no matter how miserable the moments, I needed those times. Because no matter how many times I fell, failed, and wept, it never sunk in that the God of the Universe had always come through, done His best for my life, and had never failed me. I finally got it.

I was laying on the beach, next to two amazing friends, listening to the waves and pondering life. I watched as a star winked, blinked, and then disappeared in the sky. A star just died, I thought to myself. When I mentioned this to my friends, one pointed out some scientific fact that if you stare at something for so long it will seem to disappear due to not having as many cones or rods in the center of your eye..* As I think about that explanation now, it seems when we focus our attention on Christ, instead of our problems, they disappear from view, and all we're left with is Christ, the King of Kings, standing in our midst. Regardless of the teachable moment I found myself in at the time, the stars were beautiful. Millions** of them, seen from a small section of beach, in a small town, on millions beyond millions** sand particles, seen by a girl who walked down to the beach to get a respite from the heat. Not to mention all of the them were made by a God who, although He created the universe, all those stars, the sand, everything, still loves that sad child on the beach. Woah.

Please don't take a moment for granted.

* Please do not take this for scientific fact -- I have no idea..
** Number grossly under-estimated.