Learning Over Winter Break

1.)  My body naturally sleeps for nine hours a night.

My parents may tell you that I sleep for nine hours a day, but you get the point.  This winter break has allowed my body to catch up on some much needed physical rest.  While sleep is never something that I have in abundance during the semester, I can hope that I will be able to make it a higher priority and get more than the fiver or six hours/night I got last semester.

2.)  I don't like to deal with my emotions.

I know that it's important to not just stuff them down.  However, there were a few times over this break where I just needed to cry and go pray.  Mental and emotional stuff that I thought I had 'worked through,' came up and I realized I wasn't as 'over it' as I had originally thought.

I have to keep giving these struggles to God, because many of them are previous hurts that I haven't truly or entirely given to Him.


3.)  Resting is good for the soul.

As mentioned before, over this break I was able to take the time to find out how much sleep my body gets when I don't interrupt it with alarms.  With the right amount of sleep I have found that my brain works much better in terms of creativity and the time I spend with God is much more meaningful and worthwhile.  (I'm not saying that I was wasting the time I spent with God when I wasn't well rested.  I'm saying that I should have been more well rested in general.  God calls us to work, but He also calls us to rest).

4.) A little bit of Russian.

We'll see if it stays in my brain and if I can continue working on the language as I keep up with college classes and my part time job.

5.)  Making arts and crafts is great way to spend my day.

I've made clay things, painted a 3'x3' canvas, created a paper tree with an x-acto knife.  All of them have been a joy to make and been wonderful to pass along to people to decorate or use in their lives.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  

Matthew 11:28-30

Lessons from a 77 Year Young Man

"Thank you, Lord, for this miserable day, because it is still one that you have made."  My grandfather said this in a prayer before a meal one day this week.  My parents and I were at his house to eat our dinner, as the icy rain in the morning had caused the power to go out for about seven and a half hours.  (My parents' house has electric heat and our stove is also electric, so we were there for supper.)

As a 77 year old veteran of the Korean War, who has been farming his entire life, my grandfather has seen his fair share of miserable days.  He has had 3 joints replaced and his hands are full of gout and arthritis but yet he still farms. He has raised 3 children and held many grandchildren.  He has shot a squirrel in my grandma's kitchen and lead many 4-H calves through the pasture with his kids and some of his grand kids.  He isn't a perfect man (he sometimes forgets to give my Grandmas Christmas or anniversary gifts), but he sure does know that he needs to be grateful for what he has.

Some people would hear what my grandfather said about God making a miserable day and say that he wasn't being grateful.  However, I think the fact that my grandfather was able and willing to state that the day had had miserable weather and still thank God for it is amazing.  You see, pretending like it had been good when it wasn't would be a lie.  Instead he acknowledged that the day had been gross, but was still thankful for the day of life that God had given him, despite the circumstances.

It's easy to be thankful for a warm house when the electricity comes back on after being off for most of the day.  It's easy to be thankful for sunshine and rain with rainbows.  It's simple to be thankful for your food.  But am I thankful for life itself?  God created me for a purpose on this Earth.  He loves me and gives me a lifetime of grace.  Am I thankful for that?

Each and every day is a gift.

This is the day the Lord has made.

We will be glad and rejoice in it.

Psalm 118:24 (NLT)

What is this Season?

People who know me very well know that I do not enjoy Christmas.  This is for a variety of reasons.  The Christmas music can be a bit repetitive and annoying.  It is a holiday that is becoming increasingly consumeristic.  I don't enjoy the cold that comes with snow that many other people are so fond of.  Christmas socials and Christmas parties are exhausting for me.  And why have ugly Christmas sweaters become such a popular thing in recent years?  Isn't it counter-intuitive to go shopping to find the 'best' ugly sweater possible?  But I digress.

I have recently been using the Bible reading plans on my Bible app on my phone.  They are typically pretty short, but are a good way to begin my quiet time.  I recently finished one, and many of the suggested plans that popped up had to do with advent.  At first I was leery.  It's not that I don't like reading about the Biblical story behind Christmas.  I mean, the whole reason I don't like Christmas is because of how skewed the world has made it.  It's just hard, because frequently even church events can be overwhelming for me in this season.  I tend to go to Christmas events because it's the 'right thing to do,' instead of going to center myself.  In the end, it's just tiring and instead of learning or centering myself, I find myself exhausted.  (Life of the introvert.)  

  I finally decided that an advent devotional would be a good idea, and help me focus on what I really need to be focused on rather than being focused on how annoyed I get at the consumerism that surrounds me.  Through this I was reminded that the season of advent is not about awaiting Christmas.  It's hopefully waiting for Christ's birth.  But beyond that, I was reminded that advent is not just the season in our liturgical calendar that happens in the 4 Sundays before Christmas.  Advent is the season we are in at all times as we await Jesus' second coming.  

Advent is about remembering the hope we have in God.  Advent is about remembering God's perfect timing, both in sending his son for the first time and the second time.  Advent is about waiting, for God's perfect timing.  

For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.  Ecclesiastes 8:6

And here is just a fun video in case you need a 'new' Christmas song.

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo

One Night United

Purdue's Campus has an annual event called 'Unite.'  During that one night a year, all of the Christian groups, clubs, organizations, and churches in our area come together to worship.  In that one night it doesn't matter if you are Protestant or Catholic.  It doesn't matter if you're Baptist or Presbyterian.  In that one night, we all come together and worship God.  We pray together, that God would give us revival in our own lives so that we can spread revival with the rest of Purdue's campus, and to the rest of the World.

That night happened a few weeks ago.  While we were worshiping and singing praise songs, I stopped singing for a second and closed my eyes.  I let my ears be filled with the sound of hundreds of voices singing praise to our God.  I stood silently and opened my eyes and let myself bask in the presence of fellow-believers who had chosen to praise God on a Saturday night.  I let God's spirit engulf me and wrap itself around me and remind me that I am never alone.

While I stood there silently and the rest of the people sang, Psalm 133 came into my mind.

How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,

running down on the beard,

running down on Aaron's beard,

down on the collar of his robe.

It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the Lord bestows his blessing,

even life forevermore.

Psalm 133

I stood and sang, adding my voice to the hundreds of others, picturing us working together as one body to serve God.  I thought of literal muscles that contract and stretch to give us movement.  The sarcomere that has myosin and actin that use Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) to allow our muscles to contract or relax.  How our digestive system is used to acquire the nutrients to make ATP, which the rest of our body uses at a form of energy.  It's all extremely intricate.  

Every single little bit of our bodies has a purpose.  Without every single part working properly, the rest doesn't work either.  The same is true of the body of Christ.  We are all Children of God.  When we let the devil convince us that our particular denomination or local church is more important than God himself and the church as a whole, we're doing it wrong.  

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  Romans 12:4-5

I pray that Unite continues to happen in the following years.  But I also pray, that it makes an impact that is bigger than one night.  I pray that as a community of believers, we can come together outside of Unite and start the revival that was prayed for at the event.

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo

A Semester of Thoughts and Struggles and a Tribute

This semester has been chaotic and crazy.  All of the classes I'm enrolled in are intense classes.  There is no way around that.  My grades are worst they've ever been, but this semester I've chosen to not make school my top priority.  It's not that I don't want to do my best.  It's not that I don't like my classes.  There are simply more important things to me than my grades.  

After a ten year battle with cancer, my aunt died partway through this semester.  She taught me how to paint and I spent numerous hours in her basement and art studio with her and my grandma with both of them teaching me.

When I told my church that I could help out with some of their artistic needs, I didn't realize how it would effect me.  I helped decorate a chalkboard with chalkboard markers for their coffee shop.  The Maple leaf, apple, and pumpkin were done by me.  While I used the chalk markers, I couldn't help but think back on my Aunt who had worked with me to show me how to paint with her.

This past week, I did a quick painting at a creative station at a service at church and someone told me that it was really cool that I knew how to use a spatula.  I wasn't using the spatula correctly and explained how I had seen my aunt use one in her paintings.  

My aunt taught me much more than how to paint.  She showed me what it looked like to not give up.  She showed me how to be joyful in circumstances.  Even as her body failed as a result of its own mutations, she kept trusting God.  

The last project that I painted with her was a few years ago.  We each painted  our own chair.  The legs of the chair are covered in my favorite Bible verses.  Each time I use my chair, I think back to her.  I think of her telling me to 'keep my tail up' as a reminder to keep my paint brush vertical.  I think of her giving me my giant stuffed frog on my thirteenth birthday, to remind me to 'Fully Rely On God.'  

This semester I have been unfocused as exams flew my way and I thought about my grandfather and cousin going through surgery while other social drama with friends slapped me in the face.  This semester has been insane while I try to be involved at church, do volunteer work, and keep writing papers and analyzing lab results for class.  This semester has been crazy while I run to work and class and complete math assignments and pre-labs.  This semester has been ludicrous, as I attempt to decide if becoming a doctor is really what I want to do with my life, since I now know that I don't want to study Biology.

This past week, I have been up until somewhere between 1am-3am every night doing homework, and had still made it to my 8:30 classes.  Last night, I went grocery shopping, came home and watched a movie while I crocheted.  I went to bed at midnight and rolled out of bed at 11:30 this morning.  It feels amazing to let my body take a much needed break.  I even took some time to cook while listening to praise music this morning. 

 

This morning, I have relished in taking the time to pray.  While I have tried to take the time to spend with God this semester, it has not been a simple task.  This morning, as I watched the chocolate melt on my stove and the snow fall outside my window, I realized that I don't know where God is going to lead me in life.  I know that He is calling me to Latin America when I finish my education.  But I don't know where precisely.  I don't know what I'm going to be doing.  I don't know if I'm going to be working with an organization or starting my own.  And this morning, I realized that I'm okay with that.  If this semester and my aunt have taught me anything, it's that trusting and finding my joy in God is the only thing that I can do in this world of chaos.  I don't get to control a lot of what happens to me, my family, or my friends, but I do get to decide how to react to it.  Today, I'm trusting God, with the faith and knowledge that He has the best plan for my life.

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors serve beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

Joshua 24:15

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo

Krystal's Testimony

This week, I have a guest blogger.  Meet Krystal, a friend of mine.  She has recently felt lead to share her testimony with the world.  I know that reading through it blessed my heart and I trust that it will bless you as well.  Here it is:

When I was in 3rd grade,  I wasn't a popular kid.  I didn't really even fit in at all. I was 
called names from kindergarten. They started with four eyes, then led to stupid and retard. 
Third grade was the worse. The other kids in my class was making fun of the way I read. 
They never stopped putting me down. Even some of my so called friends joined in. It never 
stopped, on the bus ride to school, at school, and on the bus ride home. I felt lost and had 
no confidence, and I had no self esteem. My reading problem wasn't the start, but it made 
it worse. I wanted to fit in so bad. I told myself I would do anything. 

Well by the end of the year, my parents had talked to my 3rd grade teacher. She told them 
what was going on. She told them to see about this private school. It was called Phillips 
Christian Academy (PCA). We checked it out. I was so excited about this school. My parents 
enrolled me that next school year. But the only thing was I had to take 3rd grade again. Yes 
this was my parents' and teacher's idea. I wasn't very happy, but I got over it.  

What I learned over the next 6 years is why I'm still standing here. Yes, I thought of 
ending my life because I felt like no one cared. I felt there was no way out. But a small voice 
came and said, "Don't! I love you, and you know it. You don't know what plans I have for 
your life. You are loved more than you will ever know."   I believe that voice I heard that day 
was God. See, I learned that Jesus was made fun of, and He didn't fit in either. People hated 
Him. I couldn't believe it. Why didn't He do something about it?  He was God's son.  Why
didn't He just prove who He was? But He didn't do anything.  He just let them make fun, bet 
on Him, and even kill Him. He died on the cross for me. He didn't do it just for me.  He did it 
for you.  He loves me and you so much He died for us. Wow!  I was on fire for God then.  I 
was baptized and accepted Christ in my life on September  13, 2002. It was a Friday, the 
thirteenth.  I gave my life to Him. 

 But my story didn't stop there. Freshmen year I decided it was time for me to go 
back to Pioneer.  I was afraid, but I remember I wasn't the same person anymore. God was 
right there with me. I found some pretty awesome friends, and most of them loved God. 
Wow!  Things were going better than planned.  But then I put God behind for what I 
wanted. See, like every teenager girl, I wanted a boyfriend more than anything. But I 
wanted to do it right.  I wanted him to have respect for me, good looking, of course, and 
love God.  Well, I went the opposite way. I dated someone that didn't believe in God.  It 
didn't seem like a problem, but it was. Summer happened, and we drifted.  We never saw 
each other.  We broke up a few months into the school year.  Yes, I was upset, but I 
remembered  what I asked God for.  I prayed my heart out so many times for my heart not 
to get broken, but it did because I was selfish and couldn't wait any longer.  That was a 
mistake, but God did protect my heart.  He was there through it all.  I didn't have to wait 
much longer.  Within a week, I was dating a guy that not only loved the Lord, but me.  

Why I'm telling you this part of my life is so you don't make the same mistakes.  Put 
God first in your life.  It might not be fun at times, but it will be worth it. Not everyone will 
find the one when they are 16.  Not everyone will marry their first kiss.  Yes, I did marry my 
high school sweetheart, my first kiss, and my best friend.  But I prayed and trusted God with 
it.  Also if you let God take the wheel, it will be amazing.  Just trust Him.  It is really hard. 
Trust me.  I have failed Him more than I ever thought I would.  I have fail so many time, but 
don't give up because you don't get what you want because God has some awesome plans, 
big plans, and way better than ours.  

Also my senior year, an English teacher told me if I would see my file, I would just 
laugh.  She said she read it so many times over and over again.  She couldn't believe I was 
the same girl.  She told me that little girl that is in your file is gone.  God did that.  He has 
changed me.   If you told me that I would be sharing my story of how God has worked in my 
life with others, I would have laughed at you and told you I couldn't do that.  But like I said, 
He has big plans for you.  Don't be scared.  Be on fire for Him!  Give all the glory to Him 
because I know I'm nothing without Him.  Plus God is still changing me. He will never stop. My story is still on going. Just know that He loves you and cares for you more than you know. He will never leave you or forsake you. 

Shinning His light in this dark world,
Krystal Shaffer

Finding a New Perspective

I recently stumbled across a some cool photo opportunities.

There is something interesting here.  Both of these pictures are of the same area.  In fact, I was standing in the exact same place for both pictures.  But for one of them, I chose to look up.  I then put the photo in sepia and added a spotlight effect to draw your focus to the most attractive part of the photo.

 In this picture, I made it black and white and did some cropping as well as some adjustment of the lighting.  Again, I was standing in the same exact spot for both of these photos.

In the first one here, you see the sun shining through the leaves.  In the other, you see the same thing, but the big white spot of light (the sun) is distracting and the colors are not nearly as vibrant because the shadows because of the light is making them appear darker because of where I'm standing in relationship to the source of the light. The leaves are casting shadows on each other from this perspective.  I had to move where I was standing to capture the true and most beautiful effect of the sun shining through the trees.

All of this is pretty cool to me.  There is beauty everywhere, which can be seen in a lot of these photos.  However, all of that depends on your perspective and your lighting.  This has made me think about my perspective on life.  Do I need to move to experience something in a better and beautiful way?  What is my source of light? Am I letting Him shine in all areas of my life or am I casting a shadow on some parts?  Do I just need to look up and focus on the right thing?

Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.  All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.  Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  

2 Corinthians 4: 14-18

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo