Alive

Time ticks by but i don't feel a day older than the previous. I feel alive when your with me. No matter where I go, or what I do I know that I will always have joy in my soul. You are my provider, my rescuer, my comforter, my everything, my Savior!!! When did life get so good? Was it when I stopped worrying about all the ridiculous trivial issues that have so many times consumed my thoughts? Was it when I felt the music in my soul, it crept slowly but surely out of my body. First through my fingers and my toes and then I couldn't contain myself; full body moving in unison with the music!! I FEEL ALIVE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tMKO_9SD1Y

Life's lens

The melody of the guitar and a language foreign to my ears embrace my senses. As I sit in a coffee shop (how all my stories generally begin) I stop and think to myself, “when was the last time that I really took time out of my busy schedule to do the things that I enjoy doing just for me?” I search frantically in my mind for the answer and after a few moments of pondering I come up empty. The past four months have been dedicated to as busy a social calendar as I could possibly manage and I am left feeling depleted. It is time to rejuvenate and the best way I do this is unplugged, uncharged, and totally unafraid to explore. I love to take in life through a contemplative lens; filtering what comes my way with intention to unravel truth.  The best part is that this lens isn’t mine alone anymore, it’s Jesus' too. What better way to view the world than through the creator’s eye. I will admit, in all honesty this does not come naturally to me. At the end the day how many times have I said “me, myself and I”?? Likely a great deal more than I utilize “you” in my vocabulary. That, my friends needs to change. 

A new arrangement...

I am sitting in my bed listening to "One thing remains" a song i have sung and listened to countless times, but somehow this time it has a new meaning to my life. So i stopped what i was doing, what i was thinking about and decided it was worth deciphering. I asked myself why does this song seem new, inviting in a way that I have not experienced before? And then the answer came to me, it has a beautiful new arrangement. Interesting how something so familiar can take on a whole new meaning by changing the tempo, the key sung in, the melody of the musicality, yet it is still the same song.

In many ways this reminds me of life. You continuously "sing" the same "song" and eventually it can become thoughtless, background noise, meaningless. Well, let's give our lives a new arrangement. I feel 2013 is a year full of potential for taking what God has given you and asking how he is going to rearrange it and then step into it.

Are you ready to mix this song up with me?

I'll become even more undeignified than this

It is ten days into the year 2012 and I have really been questioning where these next 12 months are going to take me? When I look back on 2011 so many emotions surface; joy, sadness, heartache, but above all else happiness. God has filled my first year with him with undescribable awesomeness (not a word but indulge with me for a moment). I have the sense that last year was about myself, as selfish as that sounds God really wanted me to understand his unconditional love for me. Looking back at my journal entry from February 3rd I read "I want you to know my love Hannah." a phrase I heard while sitting silent listening praying for something, anything to to soothe the ache I felt.

Now the ache is no longer there, 365 days of healing  and growing have brought me to a place I couldn't have ever dreamed I would be. So enough about 2011 this entry infact is about 2012. I really feel a pull to let loose, to recklessly abandon my worries, my predisposed notions of how I am to act and be in society and to embrace my love for Jesus and not be so selfish with it. This is a year full of building new relaiotnships, nurishing old ones and embracing all that Jesus wants for this hurting world. Yes, I am only one person but with you that makes two and then three and then four. Join me this year on a journey of being what He wants you to be and stepping out of the fear of worrying what "They" want you to be.

"In God's presence I'll dance all I want!...Oh yes, 'll dance in God's glory- more recklessly even than this. And as far as I am concerned... I'll gladly look like a fool." 2 Samuel 6:22

Let's be a little more like David this year.

Thank you 2011

This past year I have truly discovered that God has an innate sense of humour, which makes perfect sense when you really think about it. After all we are made in his image and all love to enjoy a belly rolling, eyes tearing laugh every once in a while. So it is only natural that our creator would enjoy the same.

When I first started my walk with Jesus this January it was more a leap of faith than I can put into words. I was at a point where to smile was painful, to do anything was painful; physically, emotionally, mentally my whole body ached from injury. Injuries accumulated over the duration of way too much time away from God and so much time spent in a broken dysfunctional relationship. Now that I have put into context my life at this time you will better understand what I describe next.

I had just handed in my resignation from my job, decided to sell everything in my apartment pack up my little versa and move to a new country 15 hours away from what I knew to be home for most if not all my life. At church the last Sunday before I was to make my big move I was speaking with my pastor and he had a word for me. He told me that he saw a picture of me overflowing with joy, like a spring of water. And there was no pain insight, the joy over took me and I couldn't even remember the pain that I was experiencing at that very moment what was so real to me would be nothing more than a distant memory.

For the past 6 months these words remianed with me, I loved the hope that it brought, to think that God had this promise of such joy waiting for me. I have realized as 2011 is coming to an end and I am forced to look back on the year and all that I encountered that I infact have experienced this vision on more than one occasion. The joy of crossing the pond to a world that I only ever dreamed of exepriencing, the people I met when I was there, the pure joy of seeing a culture that I connected with immediately, the laughter I have shared with new friends and old alike, the warmth that radiated through my body as I saw my very best friend get married this fall, phone conversations that last half the day talking about nothing but enjoying everything, dancing with my father, baking with my sisters, skype dates where I cleaned out my closet and making money off of it, great music discovered, an amazing latte, feeling Jesus right beside me every day of my life, getting back up when I fall, taking on each day as a new challenge, living my life hopeful for the future and respectful of my past, connecting with people in a way that is refreshing and somewhat unknown but invigorating all the same. All I can say is that I feel the spring of overflowing joy, and I am truely greatful for each step I take, even when I am unsure of where my foot will fall.

You have been one amazing year 2011, Thank You!!

Social networking isn't social at all!

I am sitting in a coffee house, well lets start this blog off being truthful, Starbucks, and I am surrounded by technology. Technology comes in many forms, people on cellphones, people on their laptops, people reading their kindles, people doing anything but connecting with other people. My mom's best friend is visiting from Canada for the week and we had a nice little chat this morning before i went to work about technology and what it is doing to our society as a whole. How many times today alone have you checked your facebook? And what were you hoping to get out of those twenty plus visits to a site dedicated to you. Are we really that important? I think we would like to think so, and the better question is why are we checking a website to see what our friends have to say to us when we could just pick up the phone and chat with them, or better yet when possible sit in a cafe with them and converse face to face. When did electronic social networking become the favorable way to connect with our peers? How easy is it to hide behind a computer or even a text. Do not get me wrong I love technology and I know it has a place in our lives, but when did it become more important to bring your cellphone with you on that jog then to just go for the jog? Seriously, I saw this with my own two eyes yesterday on the Greenway, a lady jogging and chatting on her phone. Well at least she wasn't checking her facebook page!

Basically this post is to make you think, think about where your life is headed, where our society is headed and if you want to join it? I put this challenge to anyone who is reading this post; one week facebook free. Can you do it?

Midnight Music

My sister shared this song with me today in an email and I feel it would be truly selfish to keep it to myself, so I am sharing it with you all now.

Enjoy: John Mark McMillan, Carbon Ribs

http://grooveshark.com/#/s/Carbon+Ribs/3UQgNd?src=5