my new site!

Yes! That's right folks! I am officially becoming a blogger with a domain and customized site! It is still a work in progress, but you can visit me at Loving Dangerously. Change my link it your blog roll, subscribe on your feeds, get the word out...I am officially becoming a big time blogger! :)

(thanks to my awesome fiance for hooking me up!!)

incredible.

Alright, so earlier this week I was thinking about songs for camp this summer and just praying that we would be able to choose songs that would have an incredible impact on the hearts of the students. As I was thinking, praying, and listening, I thought, "how conceited that I think the songs we choose will move their hearts? Isn't that God's place?" Mind you, I want to be a part of providing excellent programming in our camps, but God is definitely not limited to our production in how He is going to move.

That aside, I have had this song in my mind ALL week that Eddie Kirkland did a part of at camp last summer. It repeats over and over "How He loves us, oh how He loves us, oh how He loves." Such simple words, but such powerful, powerful truth. Then, as I was reading through my excellent Google Reader subscribed blogs today, and on Ragamuffin Soul he had a video, oddly enough, of this song. There are 2 videos here...one of a band performing, what I think, is a very powerful version of this song. The second pretty much brought me to tears. It is a video of the guy who wrote this song, and to sum it up...his friend was a youth pastor and was praying for a powerful movement among the teens of this generation. He said he would give his life that day if it would shake the youth of this nation. Later that night he died...and through his death came this song, through this song came change and restoration among teenagers...although not instant, God answered both parts of that prayer. Not only did a change happen in the generation over time, but He did take that youth pastors life. I urge you to watch the video and hear the whole story in more detail...it is very powerful.

Honestly, I am not sure why I am writing this blog, but as camp gets closer, part of me dreads the schedule that we are about to go through again this summer, grueling and hard, heartbreaking to be away from family and friends. But more than that, just the remembrance of the moments last summer, seeing the students on their faces in surrender before the Lord, broken and weary, but worshipping their hearts out, I am reminded of why I do what I do. My prayer for this generation of students is that they will have their worlds rocked, wrecked, and broken to the point where they can do nothing except fall on their knees and proclaim, "HOW HE LOVES ME, OH HOW HE LOVES ME, OH HOW HE LOVES!" I think this song just served as a reminder of that...and I am thankful the Lord reminded me of that.

If you get a chance, check these videos out.

ugh...

so this morning I had to drive downtown because I have a rehearsal tonight at church, so MARTA wouldn't work out. So I get to Chris's lot, and they are still doing construction on the billboard because of the tornado, and I went into a no parking spot on accident. So after I pulled in another construction truck had come in making my backing out quite tricky. So I was focusing on not hitting the sharp billboard beams, trucks, and other cars, and then....I hear the dreaded sound. Scraping car against something that was not moving. I had NO idea what I hit because it was in my blind spot...didn't know it was there (the blind spot). So I opened my door and saw the giant OTHER billboard pole...it had scraped bright yellow paint on the new Scion...sad.

So I looked, and although it had a lot of paint and a few little gashes, there is no damage to any metal or lights...so...probably not gonna get it fixed. I am going to get the paint buffed off today so I can really see how bad it is. I know it is just a car, it just sucks that it is my new car. Why did this stuff not happen to the Sunfire? And to top it all off I dropped my phone screen down when I got out of the car and now there is another scratch on it.

Oh well. Lesson learned. It's just stuff. My car still drives and my phone still works. Time to move on.

thoughts.

I am in a Women's Studies class this semester and we often talk about images of women in the media, which has stirred some thoughts in me!

I saw this ad the other day that said "parentheses are always helpful, but not on your face." And they had ( ) around the woman's mouth. This was an ad for some wrinkle reducing cream or whatever. This really made me think. Why is it that wrinkles and grey hair are not beautiful? I hope that when I am older I have smile lines on my cheeks and crows feet at my eyes from smiling and laughing...evidence that I have truly lived a joyful life. And what about the ones between your eyes that come from deep concentration and though...why is that not a beautiful symbol of wisdom?

I just don't want to buy into the thinking that younger is beautiful. I want my body and my face to be a reflection of my age and my years, a picture of the things God has carved into my life. Why should I paralyze the muscles in my face just to look younger? Or inject weird things through my body to make things more plump or toned?

So those are my thoughts. There is beauty in age...why not display it?

a terrible miracle.

So, it's rare I actually write a blog with substance, but I really want to today, so you can skip it, or you can read it.

The past few days I have been listening to the song "Why?" by Nichole Nordeman. It is a really powerful song for me and was part of a very life changing time in my life. The song is definitely a journey. It starts with a little girl hanging out with her dad, when she sees a man (Jesus) and she noticed that He looked fearful that day as He walked through the crowd of people screaming, and rejoicing, that this man was walking towards His death with His purple robes and crown of thorns. She says, "why do they want him to die?" The songs moves on and the little girls dad tells her she needs to go inside, but she decided to follow the people to a place where she knew people were often killed. Then the song makes a change, and it is as though she is speaking Jesus's words. He says "Father, why are the screaming? Why are the faces of some of them beaming? Why are they casting their lots for my own? This crown of thorns hurts me more than it shows...please, can't you do something? I know you hear my cries, I thought I could handle a cross of this size. Father, remind why everyone wants me to die. When will I understand why?" Then the song continues and the words are as though God is speaking them to Jesus and He says, "My precious Son, I hear them screaming, I'm watching the face of the enemy beaming, but soon I will clothe you in robes of my own, Jesus, this hurts me more than you know. But this dark hour I MUST DO NOTHING, thought I HEAR Your UNBEARABLE CRY. The power in Your blood destroys the lies...look there below and see the child trembling...she is why you must die."

I have to say, that is a powerful song. This week I have really been remember the power of this holiday that, for some reason, we celebrate with giant bunnies and eggs. But this weekend signifies what we live for. The One who created us sent His son to DIE, the most painful death anyone could bear, FOR ME. He sacrificed His son FOR ME. Why do I deserve that? Jesus was separated from His father...because of ME and I am absolutely not worthy of that.

Can you even imagine sacrificing your child for someone? I don't have kids, but I can imagine that I would never want to send my child to die the most painful death for someone else. It's really unfathomable.

I remember on my DTS when we had a week on the power and meaning of the cross. I had been a Christian for about 13 years at that points and I realized, sadly, for the first time, the power of this weekend we are about to celebrate. Jesus died for me. Who am I to say I am too busy to spend time with Him? Or too stressed out, or too tired? Seriously? How conceited am I to ever say that.

I called this post a terrible miracle. I was thinking today that Jesus died such a painful, terrible death. Yet, He conquered that death, rose from the dead...and that is a miracle. A terrible miracle. Can you imagine being there on that GLORIOUS day?!?!

It's just really hitting me this week, and for that I am thankful, that God sacrificed His precious, precious Son for us, and we are so undeserving of that. But because of His sacrifice, we don't have to be separated from Him. And that, my friends, is a really beautiful thing.

bored.

sittin here in the airport so bored!! Blogging on my phone for the first time. Got here at 7:30, flight isn't until 10:30 for Miami...awesome.

Oh well! This is way too hard to blog on here. Back to my audiobook! :)

have you heard about this?

You gotta read this news story.

Totally nuts.