Look At That View

"Scattered winds blow me cross the ocean,
Turns and spins, leaves me breathless, but with
No sense of my direction,
Or where the main land sits,
that's where I find my soul."

So, I know for a fact that when people tell you to look at the lyrics, you just pretend to read them (hey, I do it too) but before you read this, READ THE LYRICS!! come on, suck it up, it's only four lines....okay five.

This is from Joshua James (i've noticed i like lots of guys with alliterations, ex: Jack Johnson, Patrick Park, Joshua James.....that's kinda weird) but anyways, it blows me away. God gives you revelations in STRANGE places sometimes, but when I was in West Virginia, I couldn't stop myself from running outside and standing on the grass looking at everything around me....IT WAS AMAZING! I took pictures, but they don't nearly do that view justice.

When I get caught up with all the things my friends are doing and I get disconnected from God, I feel a difference in my soul. More than anything in the world, I want to be back on top of that hill for the rest of my life. But that's not god's plan. He reveals himself to us so that we can help others experience the kind of joy that I and I'm sure you, have felt. Those moments strengthen us, and I feel blessed to be entrusted with this mission. Sometimes we get off course and lose our focus....but I NEVER can stop thinking about that hill, that view and the God that I serve.

"Commit everything to the Lord, trust him! He will make your INNOCENCE RADIATE LIKE THE DAWN and the JUSTICE OF YOUR CAUSE WILL SHINE LIKE THE NOONDAY SUN!" - Psalm 36:5-6

Perceptions

Love is a word like no other. People have so many different interpretations and it has different meanings to so many people. For me, love is something that I don't completely understand. I say "I love you" to my family, and I used to say it to a certain someone but something that I have learned is that there is more about love that I don't understand, than what I do. Love is so much more than just a word. If you've ever heard the song, (Love is a verb!) alrite, so, 1 John 4:16 says, "God is love." I've learned that the way we love people says so much about who we are as a person and something that has hit me in the past year is that if how we love says a lot about who we are than, I am absolutely 100% screwed. God So loved the world that He gave one and only son. What does that even say about how God loves us and who He is. I honestly can't even imagine what that must have been like to love someone so much to give up your own son. It kind of boggles my mind but its just really amazing to see the sacrifice that God made for each of us. So you're probably wondering how I connect this to music so here ya go. A little while ago, I had to work on a poetry project for school so a couple of the poems that I wrote were about Love so I'm just gonna give you guys a sample of what I wrote and you give me your feedback!!!



A Love


I've been falling
Falling in and out of love with you
Here you are, here with me
And I'm just falling in and out of love with you

Do I know what love is
To honestly love a person
What does that even mean
I'm looking outside and trying to look in
But I'm just falling in and out of love with You

Each and every day seems to be a new ride
Without a guide, where am I to turn
Love seems to be something so legendary
Something I might have not even grasped
What does it mean to be in love

I've been there, done that
But this, I can't quite seem to understand this
Love is a mystery to me
You seem to know what you're talking about
How do you keep something so alive, so vibrant


People talk about Jesus
And how God sent His son
I cant even fathom what that must have been like
To give Your son's life because of love

Here I am just falling
Falling in and out of love with You
I'm sorry I'm not better
I'm sorry I haven't learned yet
Maybe someday I'll learn how to love

100 Years

Life goes by waaaaaay to fast. Has anyone else noticed this? I certaintly have. It seems like yesterday I was running around playing "army" in the woods in my backyard with my friends. It scares me sometimes. Who am I kidding, it scares me all the time!!! I mean, I only have one more year in high school then i'm off to college and then it's the real world. YIKES!!! The real world. Soon i'll be in charge of my own life. Sometimes I think we all take our high school years for granted. I mean think about it. Your high school years are the best!!! You live with your parents so you don't have to worry about paying for much. Sure you have school but when you think about school is alot better than a year round 9 to 5 job. Soon before you know it you'll be 67 years old and wondering were all those years went to. The song 100 years describes it best:

15 there's still time for you
Time to buy, Time to lose yourself
Within a morning star
15 I'm all right with you
15, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got 100 years to live
Half time goes by
Suddenly you‚re wise
Another blink of an eye
67 is gone
The sun is getting high
We're moving on...
So i've come upon a revalation. Our lives are way to short to do nothing but worry about the future. Matthew 6:34 says, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." So, from now on I'm gonna live for the moment. You should too. Enjoy life, go skydiving, take a roadtrip, do something crazy everyday. It's the only way to make life fun.

Surrender

"At the most I’m a glare,
I’m the hopeless son who’s hardly there.
I’m the open sign that’s always busted.
I’m the friend you need, but can’t be trusted."

Seem kinda emo? Well too bad, it's not. This is a guy named Patrick Park, someone I've just recently discovered now that I'm full swing into my "acoustic" phase of music. This is the chorus to his song "Something Pretty" and for me, it was one of those "WAKE UP I'M A METAPHOR" songs.

It seems that sometimes I treat God like a vending machine, whenever I get a craving or if I have some spare change. But that's not how it works. God is a constant, something that's always there FOREVER AND EVER. We should never use God as "a friend you need, but can't be trusted" because that's not how he sees us. For some reason that none of us will ever be able to imagine, God chose to love us and be with us forever. Surrendering ourselves to him is a small price to be close to him.....think about it, we're chillin with the God of the UNIVERSE!!!!!!!

A Greater Thing

OK so I have been thinking, do people see God in me? In
how I interact with people at school, and with my family, and in my
schoolwork, and in swim, and well in everything I do. Can people tell that
I love God? Is what I do showing other people light? And I guess the
answer for the majority of all these questions∑ is no. I have really been
having a hard time in school and all just keeping up with work cause school
has always been my weak point, and am I pleasing God in what I do with
school work? No I‚m not. My family situation∑ has been a really rough one
this year for those you who don‚t really know me all that well∑ my dads
still living in Florida trying to sell our house down there, so I‚m up here
with my mom. Which for you girls... know can be a bit of a struggle, just
because of all the fights and disagreements of growing up and growing apart
from your mom. But am I pleasing God in how I‚m treating the situation? No∑
I‚m not. I mean that‚s just two example of how I‚m not living my WHOLE life
out for God∑. to show his love∑ and to show his character.

So my dad just got back for a visit from Florida, and my
sister was coming back from college so we were on out way to pick her up
from her boyfriend‚s. And I‚m just kinda sitting there listening to my ipod
and the song that I'm listening to is called Beautiful Love- The Afters.
And as I'm thinking about all this stuff and listening to this song, it hits
me. Wow∑ why am I so selfish. What could happen if I just show God in my
life∑ in ALL that I do? And right then this part of the song starts to
play∑.

The secret of the world is written in the stars
I'm carrying your heart in mine

What a beautiful smile
Can I stay for a while
On this beautiful night
We'll make everything right
My beautiful love

Maybe a greater thing will happen
Maybe all will see
Maybe our love will catch like fire
As it burns through me

Wow. The first part of that∑ God talking right into my heart. Yall ever had
that feeling? Ugh well it‚s an amazing feeling!! I mean when I needed
encouragement the most. I hear these words. „I'm carrying your heart in
mine.‰
And it‚s like∑ he saying. „Lauren∑ let me stay. I can make everything right.
My Beautiful Love.‰

And then when I heard the next part∑ its like∑ the answer to my questions.
What if I showed God in everything I do? What If I stopped trying to fix
everything on my own. What I Let God take it and lived it all out for HIS
glory, and not my own. „Maybe a greater thing will happen∑. Maybe all
will see∑ maybe HIS love will catch like fire∑ as it burns through ME.‰
Maybe if I change myself, maybe if I show who God really is, then his love
will catch life fire, from person to person to person to person. Think
about how many people would then know Christ‚s love. The number∑ is
unthinkable!!! So I guess ill just end it with a question to you all that
read this∑ and feel God tugging at your heart to do the same.

Are you willing to let it go, and to Live and to spread the burning love of
Christ?

Valley of Vision

My big sister made a CD for me with this song on it and I just fell in love with it. The words create a powerful paradox. I have begun to really embrace the paradoxes of Christianity. I think the more you walk with Christ, the more you get to experience the reality of the paradoxes and the more you have to praise God for.

The part that convicts me and encourages me most is: "although my humbling wouldn't be my decision, it‚s here Your glory shines so bright." I think humility is one of the hardest things about being a Christian yet one of the most attractive things about a person. I tell God that I want Him to be glorified, but in order to really mean it, I need to walk humbly.

When I was searching for the lyrics to this song on the internet, I found out that it comes from a collection of Puritan poems written by John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, and others. Some of them never even meant for their prayers to be published. They wrote them just to share their innermost thoughts with God. How wise their words are!

Whenever I‚m in the valley, I‚m always encouraged to know that God is molding me and making me more like Him. Even little valleys, like the whole college visiting/applying/deciding business has taught me to trust Him more. As annoying as it is to not know exactly where I‚m supposed to go or what I‚m supposed to study, God has helped me find joy in the process, joy in not knowing, and joy in just trusting.

"Valley of Vision" (Sovereign Grace Ministries)

When You lead me to the valley of vision
I can see You in the heights
And though my humbling wouldn't be my decision
It‚s here Your glory shines so bright
So let me learn that the cross precedes the crown
To be low is to be high
That the valley's where You make me more like Christ

Let me find Your grace in the valley
Let me find Your life in my death
Let me find Your joy in my sorrow
Your wealth in my need
That You're near with every breath
In the valley

In the daytime there are stars in the heavens
But they only shine at night
And the deeper that I go into darkness
The more I see their radiant light
So let me learn that my losses are my gain
To be broken is to heal
That the valley's where Your power is revealed

Oh, To Be Tested

I love Jack Johnson. His music is so relaxing and cool. His little known best friend is Donovan Frankenreiter. Yes, funny name. But amazing music. This is his song "What'cha Know About":

"Sometimes your life can crumble
sometimes your soul might make a stumble
but you can't drown in your sorrow
cause you might be found
you might be found tomorrow"

Sometimes it seems that the hard times will never end. I know that it has been that way for me in the past. One day when I was reading my bible, God gave me a verse for my needs after a year of trials and tests.

Paul is speaking: "..to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh...three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, "MY GRACE IS ALL YOU NEED. MY POWER WORKS BEST IN WEAKNESS." So now I am lad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." - 2 Corinthians 12:7-8

Hard times are...well...hard. They test us mentally, physically and spiritually. Sometimes you just feel drained and you want to give up, wallow in your misery. But as Donovan Frankenreiter writes, "we might be found tomorrow', and that gives me hope for the day to come. God has an amazing plan for me and I will grow and run through all the trials that I face to further glorify him and his children. STAY STRONG!

No Regrets

"I can't believe that we would lie in our graves
Wondering if we had spent our living days well

I can't believe that we would lie in our graves
Wondering what might have been"

These lines are from the king himself, Dave Matthews. It pretty much sums it all up. Sometimes when I run, I get revelations about my life. We get one shot. To be the best that we can be. For God. We have to live him, breathe him and preach him. Because when we do, our reward will be more than we can fathom....life with him for eternity.......ETERNITY.

Life is meant to be lived all out. 110%. Till the whistle blows. No regrets. All for Him.

"I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrected power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself." - Philippines 3:10 (The Message)