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| I want a life of adventure. I want to strive for excellence. Reach with all the depth of my being for something beyond myself. I want to know that I have lived a life enriched by my Lord and heart-friends. And that I have enriched others lives as well. That what I achieve with my life would be beyond what I could possibly imagine, and beyond what I could have done on my own.
But the desired life—and adventure—is more than achievements. It is about enjoying, capturing every moment. Capturing the deepest essence of the opportunities present, while pursuing ever larger ones. To thank the Lord for the current day and pray, dream and seek concerning the days to come. I want to experience the highs and lows of life. Someone once said that the best life to live was one where you laughed, thought and cried everyday. If you can experience such vibrancy with each day of your life, than depth and flavor has been achieved. Stagnation is a state so many fear, but so many inevitably reach.
There is a passion in each of us. One that is interwoven into the essence of our souls, our lives, our existence, even our faith. One that we fear pursuing in the world because others could trample it, or destroy it. So we instead hold it inside. Lock it away.
There is a place for storing things in our hearts, but that storing is them to mature and grow in life in our hopes and dreams and prayers. Proper storage lets the light of God feed those dreams until they grow out of us into reality. Improper storage seals up our dreams and passions, like keepsakes from out childhood that we leave to slowly wilt because we dare not risk its fragility to the world.
But God has a greater strength then we could ever imagine, and when we trust in Him, and His time and His Love (my friend Lauren Mauck wrote a wonderful note about His Love), our dreams are protected by a force greater than all creation, even when it looks like we’ve been destroyed. Even then, in reality, our dream lives on, sheltered by the Lord’s abundant healing strength.
Take the chance. Take the risk. Let your heart pursue its passion and let the Lord protect it, develop it, and mold it. Take the risk to really live a life of adventure. It may seem or even actually be dangerous, but what is danger next to our God? If He is for us, who can be against us? | | |
| Robert Frost says "i took the one less traveled by,/and that has made all the difference."
What happens when both paths are less traveled? I have two opportunities that are proving to have conflicting schedules. Whichever one i choose one, i risk crippling my connection with the other. Opportunities are great and it's an encouragement that i have so many chances to use my giftings...but now which way do i go?
Better yet...which way is narrower? Which way is straighter? Cliche, i know...but it's all that i have to hold to.
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| One day i'll grow up. One day i'll mature. One day i'll stop making the same stupid mistakes that i regret every time and work to avoid them ever again, and then meander right back at them sooner rather than later. According to who was is...Einstein?...i'm insane. I attempt the same feat without approaching the situation any differently, and expect different results. They aren't coming. Somehow a lesson learned is not necessarily a lesson learned. I see the problem, i feel the pain, i know the errors, i know the situation, but yet i don't avoid the sequel. And it's a crummy sequel at that. I learned my lesson as to what happened, but haven't learned my lesson of how to change and prevent a redundancy. Normally i write on here to try to get something out and feel better. To share and hopefully help someone else through what i have to say, some message of new revelation i've gained. Right now, maybe i don't want to feel better. Maybe if the pressure in my chest stays longer, it will serve as a better reminder why i should avoid buying into the next sequel. The beginning is sweet, but the end...the end isn't sour, but rather revealing. But not revealing enough. I'm not entirely sure why i feel so torn, so wilted. A Paradox: 1) What the enemy intended for evil God has turned for good. 2) The good things God originally designed, the Devil corrupts into weapons of his own. | | |
| And what will people remember? Liviu Librescu, 76, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer. He was born in Romania, immigrated to Israel in 1978 and moved to Virginia in 1985. An Israeli citizen, he had taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years and was internationally known for his work in aeronautical engineering. "His research has enabled better aircraft, superior composite materials, and more robust aerospace structures," said Ishwar Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department. Librescu's son, Joe, said his father's students sent e-mails detailing how the professor saved their lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot. “My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee,” his son Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. “Students started opening windows and jumping out.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18143312/?GT1=9246) | | |
| ORU chapel rolls around roughly twice a week, give or take 1%, and i'm there for every one, partially because ORU has something called a mandatory attendance policy, but mostly because i choose to be there. Interesting speakers (most of the time) see everyone on my floor and sister wing. However, the worship (my favorite and most dear part of any service) has only struck me in a great and mighty way in chapel once...out of what 50 times now? I've continually wondered what the cause of this rarefication of corporate worship and adoration has been. The answer came last night. Not at chapel, but at Campus Worship. Same building, same band, same sound system, same me, yet there was a distinct and tangible difference between the spiritual atmosphere in chapel and the spiritual atmosphere at Campus Worship last night. I have not felt the passion i felt last night sense August 2006 at the Southwest Believer's Convention. It is a passion i know not how to express in movement or word, or any natural means. And i asked myself what was so different about that service as opposed to the Chapel services. The answer struck me almost immediately. It was not me, or my heart. It was not the band, or the sound system, or the friends i was sitting with. But rather, it was the heart of the entirety of the "congregation." Chapel services are mandatory. This means that everyone has to be there, even the students that want nothing to do with God. The ones that sit in their chairs during worship and listen to their iPods, somehow drowning out the massive levels of volume coming from the live worship. The ones that are there to some how show off the rest of the campus by yelling and cheering louder than anyone else. The ones that legitimately understand the concept of Christianity, but are only at Chapel because there are no excuses for getting out of chapel. There are plenty of other things they would rather do. However, the smaller crowd at campus worship was not there because it was mandatory, or because they wanted to impress others (well, there is a likelihood that in every service of any large size that there is at least one guy going to the service just to impress the girl sitting next to him--or vice versa.) They were at Campus Worship because they legitimately wanted to spend time with their Father and Lord and Creator in corporate setting of worship. And when the atmosphere has a strong polarity of hearts truly seeking the same cause, the effect will be something akin to their desire. Likewise, when chapel is half-filled of people halfheartedly attending, the tangible presence of God is only halfway released, which really isn't a release at all. This is not the whole truth of experiencing God, for that i need more than a xanga post, but it is a truth about this aspect of worship. | | |
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