NSYNC.

Friend.

Writing.

Coffee.

Wonderful night.

Worship Leader

Real worship leaders are ones who can reach such high levels of success, fame, fortune, fans, and yet desire ONLY to help others worship the Lord.

I was at a Chris Tomlin concert the other night. It was amazing to compare his show to other shows I've seen or heard about. The other shows are about the band. The other shows are about being famous. The other shows are about self. The other shows are about everything earthly. His show was about simply coming to our Father God on our faces ready to lift our hands and voices in praise. Thats all that Chris seemed to want to happen that night. He couldn't care less about the fact that he has written numerous chart-toppers, and hit songs. He wanted to worship and he longed to bring others to worship. Anyone can tell from watching him, or looking at pictures of him while performing that he himself is in worship. Chris never made any kind of transition from worship leader to celebrity.

He is what a worship leader should be.

Such A Plan

God works in absolutely everything!

Everything.

That is no overstatement.

I'm noticing Him in the tiniest situations.
I am blessed to be part of such a plan as his.

He understands.

Stuck

There are so many situations in my life recently that have two sides.  I learned about this in psychology. I can't remember what it is called, but it is something like there are two situations and there are things in each that pull you toward them.  I can think of two certain current situations in which I feel like I'm being pulled back and forth, back and forth.  I cannot stop it.  This morning I woke up and discovered that my doorknob was tied to the doorknob of my "across the hall" neighbor.  Thats how I feel, but this time I'm stuck in the middle.  I pull on both strings, but I cannot bring myself to cut either side.  If one side is cut, I can't go back there.  I'll never have this choice again.  I'll have to deal with the decision I made for a very long time, if not forever.  I can't do this.  I cannot deal with being stuck.  I am the kind of person who would LOVE to jump in head first, but I can never bring myself to do so.  I am not daring enough.  I am not radical enough.  (That is a problem in every area of my life.  I need to be more radical just in general.)  I want to understand the situations I'm in.  I want to understand why this is happening.  I want to understand what I can do.  I want to do better.

I'm so stuck.

50 Years

If I'm feeling like I've read all there is to read in the Bible right now... how am I going to feel in 50 years when I'm 70 years old? 

Really bored?

Lord, show me yourself.  

Through Me

I want to write things that mean something. I don't want to write generically. I want to make impacts. I want to make people think. I want to be intuitive. I want to be different. I want to have a new perspective. I want to have my own ideas. I want people to read what I write and say that I am different, that I said something important.

I want to make music that changes people. I want people to hear the music I make and for them to have to think about it. I want to deliver pieces in such a way that people will start to think about the lyrics. I want to have passion in my voice.

I want to BE in a way that others notice. I want to look, act, talk, laugh, care, joke, love, promise differently. I want people to see something in me that they don't see in everyone else. I don't want to be normal. I don't want to be generic. I don't want to fit in. I don't want to blend.

But I can't.

HE can.

He will speak, act, sing, love, care, BE through me. That is all I need, all I want.

picture taken by: Katie Smith

Greater Love

This goes out to anyone who wears makeup. I was going to say girls, but I guess there are some boys that like to wear makeup too, so I don't want to leave them out.

You know how when you are looking in a mirror that has a florescent light above it, you can see every imperfection on your face? Every red spot looks redder, and every bump looks bigger. It is just a known rule among makeup wearers that florescent light makes you look rough. So, you start putting on your makeup. First comes foundation. Under the florescent light it is impossible to blend it so that it looks the same as your skin. Maybe you use powder. You can see anywhere that there is even the smallest clump, and all the little grains are visible. Then comes the blush. It won't blend right, it looks like a line; there just isn't a way to make it look natural under the light. So you move onto your eyes. There is eyeliner, and mascara. When you put your eyeliner on, you can see any little mistakes you made, and personally, I can never get my eyeliner right. Then your mascara looks clumpy and nasty. It just doesn't look like it should. So in the beginning of your makeup endeavor you looked pretty rough under the light. Now, in the end, after trying to cover up your imperfections you still look rough under the light.

This is how we would look to God without Christ. Even our attempts at righteousness are dirty rags, and our attempts at covering our imperfections don't do anything, but change the type of imperfection. God is perfectly HOLY! There is no red spot, blemish, or bump on his face. He doesn't need makeup. He looks perfect, because he IS perfect. So he can see ANYTHING that isn't absolutely perfect on us. You can't cover your sins. You can't do enough good things to make up for the bad. You look to God like you look in a mirror under florescent light.

BUT, God sees us in a different light. He sees us in the light of Christ. When he looks at us he sees beauty and righteousness because he sees us as he sees Christ. Christ is like a lens. When Christ died he took all that ugliness and all that dirt that was all over our bodies and he put in on him. When Christ died, all of that sin died with him. When Christ rose, the sin was gone. He left it in death. He took it from us, and destroyed it so that when God looks at us, he can look at us as righteous children of the Lord of the earth.

There is NO greater love than this.

picture taken by annia316