Aloha! Haha don't I wish that I was in Hawaii!! Just watched a movie that takes place in Hawaii last night and really wish that I was going there or somewhere tropical to really experience summer, since it certainly has not arrived in BC. Anyhow, this post isn't so much an update on life, but a really eye opening observation I made today (pardon the pun, you'll get it later).
I was just doing my workout in front of the mirror in my living room and stopped when I started staring at the mirror. I was super close and just looking at my eye. It was so cool. My eyes have this light blue color around the outside and then get green towards the pupil. Both of them are very different in shades of color, textures and shapes of the swirling colors. I would squint and look into the light to watch my pupils dilate and enlarge. It was just really neat.
Which really led me to think how great of a creator we have. I mean He designed each little detail that I picked out of my eyes. It's like a painter who takes very careful detail to capture the object of his art. He plays with shades, colors, and patterns. However, the painter takes long hours to create a masterpiece while God took just one day in the beginning. And even now when a baby is developing, the eye is formed in a minimal amount of time. The cells working together with blood and proteins to form this amazing organ.
The eye provides our view of creation and the world. We see our loved ones, nature, dark and light, colors, wrong and right, and everything else that God had destined to be. I know that I have really taken my sight for granted. I see what I want to see. I see concrete, my messy apartment, people I may not like, so much sin, etc. Yet God sees hurt, orphans, poverty, thirst, and desperate hearts for something more. I want to see how God sees. I want my eyes to see the needs of those people I walk past every day. I want to see the hurt that people are going through and have the God given grace and wisdom to talk to them and meet their needs. I just want to see others first and me second. It's all about me, me, me, but I want it to be about God.
So what can I do today to see what God sees? How can I treat people how Jesus would treat them no matter their attitude, age, or race? And how can I make this an everyday thing in my walk with Jesus, not just a passionate pledge once a month?
I just wanted to share this all with you, but perhaps I have challenged you to look closer at something that you have taken for granted in your life. Look closely in a mirror and you too might be amazed at just how awesome your eyes are.
When we see with God's eyes, not just beauty, but true life is in the eye of the beholder.
Later days!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Summer has finally arrived!
Greetings all!
Summer has officially arrived, not just because of the date of summer being June 21 but the actual weather. It's funny because I as talking to a customer the other day and he was saying that Canadians are the worst to complain about the weather. We are mad cuz it's raining or complaining when it's hot. It seems like we never win. It's even the topic of every conversation when there is nothing else to talk about. It's a valid point he made but I think that talking about the weather with strangers is a good way to start conversation and get things rolling. It's something we all have in common and other stories and topics can come out of that. Like what they are doing for summer vacation, where they work, do they have to be outside all the time, do things on the weekend, etc. It could go on and on. I am pumped for the hot weather. It is actually pretty dry here too like Alberta heat so I went out and bought a fan yesterday. I am just thankful that the bugs aren't like they are in Stettler.
My cousin Rissy's wedding went wonderfully. It was definitely different but suited to them as a couple and just what they wanted. I am glad that I could be a part of it and spend some time with all my relatives.
June just flew by too. Basketball is done. I officially got promoted to be a shift supervisor. I have more free time to hang out with my friends and college and career group. Plans for the upcoming weeks include the chocolate buffet with Diana next Friday, Canada Day Party fireworks and parade with Serena, work potluck on July 6, New York Yankees against the Seattle Mariners on July 8 and much fun in between. There are lots of good movies coming out as well that Leia and I are planning on going to!
As for life, well I just can't get ahold on this time in my life right now. I am here in White Rock yet for what reason. I sure am not making that much money. I am not committed to anything cuz I don't want to be here forever. I am almost reaching the point at Starbucks that I just won't want to work there anymore. I am tired of applying for other part time positions and jobs that are entry level. Leia got a job in her career and I really want one in mine too!!!! I am so happy for her though. She enjoys it a lot and I look forward to going to the salon to get my hair done from time to time!!
Well keep me in your prayers. I'll just keep looking up to the One who knows it all. It's all I can really do. Later days!
Summer has officially arrived, not just because of the date of summer being June 21 but the actual weather. It's funny because I as talking to a customer the other day and he was saying that Canadians are the worst to complain about the weather. We are mad cuz it's raining or complaining when it's hot. It seems like we never win. It's even the topic of every conversation when there is nothing else to talk about. It's a valid point he made but I think that talking about the weather with strangers is a good way to start conversation and get things rolling. It's something we all have in common and other stories and topics can come out of that. Like what they are doing for summer vacation, where they work, do they have to be outside all the time, do things on the weekend, etc. It could go on and on. I am pumped for the hot weather. It is actually pretty dry here too like Alberta heat so I went out and bought a fan yesterday. I am just thankful that the bugs aren't like they are in Stettler.
My cousin Rissy's wedding went wonderfully. It was definitely different but suited to them as a couple and just what they wanted. I am glad that I could be a part of it and spend some time with all my relatives. June just flew by too. Basketball is done. I officially got promoted to be a shift supervisor. I have more free time to hang out with my friends and college and career group. Plans for the upcoming weeks include the chocolate buffet with Diana next Friday, Canada Day Party fireworks and parade with Serena, work potluck on July 6, New York Yankees against the Seattle Mariners on July 8 and much fun in between. There are lots of good movies coming out as well that Leia and I are planning on going to!
As for life, well I just can't get ahold on this time in my life right now. I am here in White Rock yet for what reason. I sure am not making that much money. I am not committed to anything cuz I don't want to be here forever. I am almost reaching the point at Starbucks that I just won't want to work there anymore. I am tired of applying for other part time positions and jobs that are entry level. Leia got a job in her career and I really want one in mine too!!!! I am so happy for her though. She enjoys it a lot and I look forward to going to the salon to get my hair done from time to time!!
Well keep me in your prayers. I'll just keep looking up to the One who knows it all. It's all I can really do. Later days!
Monday, June 7, 2010
The mercy to glorify
Live missionally. It’s what has been talked about the past few months at church and cluster. How do we glorify God with our lives in the real world? We talk about what we need to work on, what the Bible says that we need to do in Bible studies but does it end there? Do we just discuss it and feel bad about not doing anything and leave there with the same mindset? Or do we start living it?
In such an unbelieving world today, people are so quick to judge Christians on their actions. Their hypocrisy. Their Sunday – church going life and their everyday work life. Are we contributing to that? What are we doing that is setting us apart as Christians so that others are really inquisitive as to why we have the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15)?
Glorify. God is the King of Glory. He demands and deserves so much more of us than we are giving and have to give. He wants our whole heart, strength, soul and mind. He wants all of us. But mostly He wants our lives to reflect His majesty, His heart, and His glory. Glorifying God involves living in harmony with one another, being sympathetic, loving others as brothers, being compassionate and humble and not repaying insult with insult (1 Peter 3:8-9). It is seeing a need in a person and catering to those needs, whether it be listening to what they have to say or recognizing that they too are in a hurry and need the right of way. Glorifying God is seizing every opportunity that he sends our way to help out a person in need. It is too look after orphans and widows and to keep oneself from being polluted from the world (James 1:27). Finally, glorifying God is not merely listening to the word of God, but doing what it says. God demands action with our faith.
Glorifying God every minute of every day is not easy, but it starts with having integrity in every small decision that we make. It is deciding to turn off the tv and instead read the Bible. It is turning away from someone that has made you mad and restraining from a bitter and discouraging comment. It is being calm and patient with the driver in front of you instead of laying on the horn or getting angry. Even in this though, when we give all that we have, it is never enough. In comes mercy.
Without mercy, God would never get the glory that He deserves. Like the old chorus sings “His mercies are new every morning” we are able to be renewed day by day. Mistakes may have been made, wrong choices were made and we felt like we failed God, but He forgives. He showers us with mercy and grace (1 Timothy 1:13-14). This is glorifying God: allowing His mercy to cover up our sins and weakness so that we can bring all that we are to His feet.
I must confess that all this is right from my heart because I am so guilty of glorifying myself or other things before I bring the glory due to God back to Him. I am so quick to anger, quick to judge, impatient with people and so focused on myself. I have and am constantly asking for forgiveness and being forgiven for these sins that keep recurring in my life. His mercy is great enough to cover me so that I can still glorify God in my life. It’s a struggle each and every day but WE are doing it.
In such an unbelieving world today, people are so quick to judge Christians on their actions. Their hypocrisy. Their Sunday – church going life and their everyday work life. Are we contributing to that? What are we doing that is setting us apart as Christians so that others are really inquisitive as to why we have the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15)?
Glorify. God is the King of Glory. He demands and deserves so much more of us than we are giving and have to give. He wants our whole heart, strength, soul and mind. He wants all of us. But mostly He wants our lives to reflect His majesty, His heart, and His glory. Glorifying God involves living in harmony with one another, being sympathetic, loving others as brothers, being compassionate and humble and not repaying insult with insult (1 Peter 3:8-9). It is seeing a need in a person and catering to those needs, whether it be listening to what they have to say or recognizing that they too are in a hurry and need the right of way. Glorifying God is seizing every opportunity that he sends our way to help out a person in need. It is too look after orphans and widows and to keep oneself from being polluted from the world (James 1:27). Finally, glorifying God is not merely listening to the word of God, but doing what it says. God demands action with our faith.
Glorifying God every minute of every day is not easy, but it starts with having integrity in every small decision that we make. It is deciding to turn off the tv and instead read the Bible. It is turning away from someone that has made you mad and restraining from a bitter and discouraging comment. It is being calm and patient with the driver in front of you instead of laying on the horn or getting angry. Even in this though, when we give all that we have, it is never enough. In comes mercy.
Without mercy, God would never get the glory that He deserves. Like the old chorus sings “His mercies are new every morning” we are able to be renewed day by day. Mistakes may have been made, wrong choices were made and we felt like we failed God, but He forgives. He showers us with mercy and grace (1 Timothy 1:13-14). This is glorifying God: allowing His mercy to cover up our sins and weakness so that we can bring all that we are to His feet.
I must confess that all this is right from my heart because I am so guilty of glorifying myself or other things before I bring the glory due to God back to Him. I am so quick to anger, quick to judge, impatient with people and so focused on myself. I have and am constantly asking for forgiveness and being forgiven for these sins that keep recurring in my life. His mercy is great enough to cover me so that I can still glorify God in my life. It’s a struggle each and every day but WE are doing it.
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