Twitter Killed My Blog

So, I haven’t been in much of a writing mood lately. (Hence… nothing yet on John 14-16.)

Then again… it could be Twitter.

Twitter is easier to update. You are limited to 140 characters, so it’s not a big time commitment. AND… I update from my phone… so it’s always accessible. I just push a few buttons and there it is… on facebook, on my blog, and on a few friends’ phones. So easy.

Oh, convenience… how easily I have given in to you.

Anyway… if you are just dying to read something I wrote… there’s always that little twitter widget in the side-bar of this blog. Not that I can say much in 140 characters.

Hopefully I’ll be in the mood to write again soon.

TULIPS!!!

The amazing Dorean Beattie just posted what may be the best pictures I have ever seen of tulips.

In all honestly, when I see ANY picture of a tulip, I get absurdly happy. But I am usually somewhat disappointed (once the “Oh! A TULIP!” wears off) by the failure of the picture to really capture the tulip.

These pictures, though… there’s nothing disappointing about them. Which makes them a pretty exciting find. Even more exciting, I know the incredible woman who took those pictures. Crazy!

Anyway, you should go check them out. They’re absolutely fantastic. I would write about the specific pictures, but I already rambled on about them in slightly incoherent, overly-excited fashion on the page itself. So… you can read the outburst of “ooh, I like” that came out when I first encountered them, if you really want to know how I feel about them.

OK… here it is again. Go love them. They’re perfect.

Boldness

I am watching the DVDs of David Pawson’s recent visit. I LOVE that man. What he just said was really resonating in me, so I decided to push pause (on the DVD and my admin) and write a quick little post-let.

He talked about the Greek word “parrhesia”, translated boldness. Here’s what he said:

“God is looking, not just for people who speak in tongues to him, but who will speak in boldness to a world that needs to hear the truth. And the Holy Spirit gives both gifts. So are you as keen to have the gift of boldness of speech as you are to speak in tongues? Hallelujah if you are. Because it takes great courage to tell the truth to a sinful world.”

YES. Holy Spirit, give me the gift of boldness. Purify my speech and make me a wholehearted lover of the truth, without compromise. Give me courage to speak against the spirit of this age and to be a witness and messenger of the truth.

I never really wanted boldness before. I’ve always had some vague notion of the implications of that… and they terrified me. The Lord knows that. So the simple fact of my desiring to be a messenger and saying yes to His invitation to this kind of partnership is evidence of God moving. So it’s going to happen. It’s still somewhat horrifying. But He only really asks me to lean and to rest in His leadership, anyway. (Ummm… and to die. But… whatever.)

I enjoy myself

I have come to the place in my life where I can sincerely say that I enjoy myself.

That seemed worthy of a blog.

Way to love me, God!

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loved me SO well that my heart overflowed in love for God and then love for myself. Now… learning to love other people.

I really want to excel in this… in loving. It is the most excellent way. It, along with with faith and hope, is one of the three that remain.

I have a vision to love that terrifies me. Love can be really painful… death. But it also scares me because I have never loved like that… I have never loved in the way that I now want to love.

But God, who is love, lives in me. So I know it’s possible. And I figure that my overwhelming desire to love well is the first step to Him producing it in me. So… here it goes… eek!

Glue fumes. Oops.

My roommate’s closet just… gave out. It was quite the seen. I ran in to help.

The plastic end-cap was cracking, so we found the only glue-type thing we could and I started trying to goop stuff into the seems. STRONG smell.

And then we read the label. You’re only supposed to use it in a well-ventilated space. Yes… I was standing in the corner of Wendy’s not-so-well-ventilated room with the stuff inches from my face.

I’m sure I’m fine. I’m sure I have a few brain cells to spare. But my eyes are kind of burning. That concerns me a little bit.

Man, that stuff is strong.

Why does Kansas City hate me?

Imagine, if you will…

It’s 4 in the morning. In a couple of hours, when your alarm will be going off, you have a VERY full day ahead of you. Your present engagement, sleep, is desperately needed and very important to you.

You are sleeping peacefully when the obnoxious rotating weather siren starts blaring. It keeps going… and going… and going. You imagine the trees violently shaking at 45-degree angles because of strong winds. You hear nothing but the obnoxious siren. You imagine green skies and the potential of at least a bicycle or something flying through your window.

You lay there for a while hoping it will stop. The siren keeps going. You try burying your head. It doesn’t help.

Finally, you decide to look out the windows and check the weather.

The sky looks normal and the air looks peaceful. No airborne bicycles. Calm trees. You get online and check the weather advisories. Why did Kansas City decide to wake you so rudely?

They wanted you to know that there is some flooding.

You’re not an idiot. You know it has been raining constantly for the last few days. You are aware that your yard is exceptionally mushy. You’ve seen the roads… you know what happens when the rain keeps falling.

Really? They woke you to tell you that there was some flooding?

You try to go back to sleep. You fail miserably.

You begin your busy day. All the while wondering why Kansas City hates you.

Reynolds Wedding

For the record… CJ & Christina Reynolds’ wedding (the one wedding that I have ACTUALLY helped coordinate) went very well. We had our share of last-minute UH-OH(!!!) moments. But all of those uh-oh moments were fairly smoothly remedied. God’s just really good.

AND… the stormy weather that was supposed to be here today didn’t even hit until I got home from the reception. We had beautiful weather while there were pictures to be taken, things to be transported, and hair, makeup, and dresses to be maintained.

Christina was absolutely gorgeous and those two are good and married now.

Also worth noting: Cassie Campbell is amazing. Super flexible. Ridiculously talented. Wonderfully persevering. That girl is such a servant that it’s almost absurd. I love it! And she really helped out a lot at the wedding. (She played for a good 30 minutes longer than she had originally agreed to. AND she filled in at the last minute when Clay was too busy coughing out a lung to come and sing. I’m pretty sure she just learned that song in the last couple of days and she did a fantastic job with it. Not to mention making it sound amazing and completely un-awkward when she had to extend it to almost twice the length of what might have been ideal.)

I have a bunch of people that I could thank right now. But they wouldn’t be reading this. And there are too many of them. But… I’m very grateful for the many people who served Christina & CJ today.

How many weddings have you helped with?

Mysteriously, people have this idea that I have helped with a bunch of weddings. Before tonight’s wedding, though, I have never really been THAT involved in helping with a wedding. Here are a few weddings people think I have helped coordinate:

Chris & Pamela Harms
What I actually did: I helped Bret and Brandie Mavrich with the catering and helped set up the reception room. The extent of my help with the catering was cutting some stuff… stirring some stuff… opening some jars… and helping assemble and transport plates of food. That was it. I did recruit a few other helpers for that day (a couple of which were ACTUALLY useful in the kitchen). But this hardly qualifies as helping plan a wedding.

Darin & Kacie Damme
What I actually did: All I did for Darin & Kacie’s wedding was basic bridesmaid stuff. I was kind-of-top-dog-ish-of-the-maid-of-honors (official title). It’s really just a complicated way of saying “organization and planning girl”. This means that I handled most conceivable maid of honor duties (communication with the other two girls, planning and hosting the showers and bachelorette party, with help… figuring out bridesmaids’ dresses). However, unless I have forgotten something, I didn’t really do that much for their wedding either. Now, the showers and the dress drama did require a lot of time and were slightly challenging. So maybe that is why people thought I was doing more than I was. I don’t know. But… that was pretty much it.

David & Kristen Scoggan
What I actually did: Once again… I really had no part in this wedding. I handed out most of the reception invitations that went to NightWatch people… because I was on the NW and would actually see those people. I did make it onto the invitation list for that very small wedding, but I’m pretty sure that had something to do with the fact that I was dating the Best Man. AND… I baked a couple of cakes for their reception. Very minor details in the grand scheme of wedding planning, if you ask me.

Other than that, I have worn a pretty dress and stood at the front of a church for 20-30 minutes. I have helped clean up after a weddings. And I have a helped with minor decoration stuff. Oh… and I helped Audra bake & decorate something like a million (yes, gross exageration) cupcakes for the other Damme wedding (Travis and Jessica). But those have been things that SEVERAL other peolple were also doing on all of those occasions. So, you see… I’m really not that helpful or experienced after all.

In any case, I cannot tell you how many times, in the last few days, I have been asked how many weddings I have helped with. And I cannot fully communicate how surprised people have been when I’ve said that this was pretty much it.

It’s all a mystery to me.

Making an Appearance

So, I seem to be making an appearance in many a dream, lately. OK, so I only know of two. But that is two dreams in one week that people have made a point of telling me about.

My friends show up in plenty of my dreams. So that isn’t weird. But both were dreams that the Lord was speaking through. So two felt like a lot for one week.

The dreams have actually be really interesting. Like… God seems to be speaking to me through their dreams as well.

So, if I was in your dream this week and it was one of those especially vivid or just oddly noteworthy dreams, you might want to ask the Lord if He is saying something. That seems to be the trend for the week. (Yes, I am aware that two hardly justifies calling it a trend. Whatever.)

Oh… and if you don’t mind sharing, I would love to hear. Particularly if you think there is a chance that God is saying something to me as well. Though… posting it on my blog would probably be… weird. Did I die in your dream? No worries… it wouldn’t be the first time this week. I won’t be offended.

My dreams this week, on the other hand… those have just been weird.

More, Lord. Speak in dreams. Bless my friends’ sleep. Do Your thing. You’re really good at it. Oh… and I wouldn’t mind less of those really weird dreams that I’ve had this week. Or some clarity concerning what the heck that was all about.

Two Years

I don’t really have anything profound to say. But I wanted to write about the second anniversary of my mother’s death. So, I’m going to write something… starting… now.

I can almost guarantee a trip to Texas at this time every year. (That is, until I get my dad to move to Kansas City.) My mother passed away on February 12th and my dad’s birthday is February 14th. Sounds to me like a perfectly good excuse to spend some time with my dad.

People always ask if it’s a hard week. Well, yes… it is a hard week. Honestly, though, most weeks are pretty hard. Some are less intense than others. But my mom doesn’t suddenly become dead on the anniversary of her death. It’s kind of one of those perpetual realities. A perpetual reality that always hurts.

The anniversary does affect me, though. Honestly, anniversaries and mensiversaries really get to me. In fact, if an event was significant enough (and recent enough), I am probably accidentally keeping track of the weeks. I don’t know what it is about the passage of time, but I am very aware of it when it comes to the extreme highs and lows of life.

Later this week will be 3 months since the last event that I have been consciously aware of every Friday… as one week further away. (Once I hit the three-month mark, the weeks become a little silly to keep track of, and it becomes units of months and half-months. I even apply logic to my unintentional compulsions, you see.)

Anyway…

This has been a good week with my dad. We’ve had some incredible conversations. We have enjoyed some of the things that she enjoyed. We have remembered her well.

I miss my mom a lot. I also know, more than ever before, that God is good and He is faithful. And He will continue to lead me into that truth. He will be faithful to His promises. He will make everything right. Jesus was the FIRSTborn from the dead. And He isn’t going to be the only one.