"heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss"

I was teaching in Flipt yesterday for the first time in... what feels like forever. We were talking about encouraging other people and a bit about fellowship in the early church. During both services I got a bit caught up in the drama of the day (the kiddos have spring fever in a bad way) and didn’t really stop and think about some of the things I learned through talking.


You see, for some reason, I feel like God talks to me when my lips are moving sometimes. It’s odd. I’ll be having a conversation with someone and words, thoughts, insights will leave my mouth never having entered my brain before. It’s an odd phenomena, but I love it.

So, yesterday the kiddos had an opportunity to share what they liked best about fellowshipping (or as I said “hanging out”) with their friends in Flipt. The answers varied, but a number said “playing/talking/seeing my friends. One time I responded “I know, isn’t it so cool that God wants to hang out with our friends?

Today, I was thinking about that. How it really is “cool” how God wants us to value our relationship with people. That while loving Him were loving Them; listening to their stories, sharing their joys, listening to their sorrows.

I’ve been thinking a lot about love; what it means to “love your neighbor as yourself,” the “right” way to love someone, the cost of love, the difference between love and “wish the best for,” the list goes on…

But today, just for a moment, I thought about how “cool” love is. How great it is to have someone to play with, someone to laugh with, someone to just do life with.

And how awesome it is that God just wants me to “hang out” with people. I think I can do that.


(title is a quote from John Mark McMillan's song "How He Loves")

for tonight.

"now you go back to raising kids and waging peace and craving candy"
-rives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu_PQBmk-6c&feature=related

perhaps there is nothing new under the sun, but I haven't experienced it all anyways

I've been trying hard to "educate myself" recently. Read better books, spend more time looking at the news and less time watching T.V. Remembering that the beauty in people far surpasses anything I could dream up during a nap and that while the sun will come out tomorrow it’s out today and I should enjoy it.

I’m working to not overwhelm myself with all I don’t know, and instead focus on the new things I learn each day (today, for instance, I learned that Uganda’s New Vision newspaper has a website, that Brittany has a friend Elsa to pray for, that I can go 3 miles on an elliptical machine and about how mustard was viewed in Jesus’ time and exactly how revolutionary the idea of the kingdom of heaven being like a mustard seed really was… I really want to take a class on Jewish culture during the early church). I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate true community into my life and remembering that the people in my family are a pretty cool bunch to hang out with.

It’s pretty exciting. How huge the world is, how much there is to see and do, how many things there are to learn, people there are to love, moments there are to shape you.

And even though the “future” seems scarily vague and I’m not looking forward to 8 hours of data entry tomorrow… I’m very excited to see exactly what the day holds.

I've always been better in spurts

somehow through the whirling dervish that is my mind, God still manages to remind me to stop. Smell the roses. Listen to someone else. And breathe.

It’s all quiet transitory anyways.

Home

n.
A place where one lives; a residence.
American Heritage Dictionary

It seems so simple. "a place...a residence." Strip away emotion, and all that is left is a building. A few rooms, some floors, hopefully a roof.

But, I know home is so much more than that. It's a sense of belonging. Of togetherness. Of doing life alongside people. A place of refuge, a place of purpose, of opportunity.

I've thought more about this idea of "Home" in the past few months than I ever thought possible. Is "home" a location, as american heritage dictionary would have me believe, or is it simply a feeling? Can I be home at more than one place? Can someone never be home at all? Where is my home?

That last one is the hardest for me now. Because I do belong where I am, in Alta Loma, in some ways. There are people here who love and support me, a job that provides my neccesities, a church I adore. And God, obviously, is everywhere.

In other ways, however, I feel like I don't belong. A bit out of step with the world around me, either a few steps ahead or lagging behind. People around me are moving forward towards dreams, goals and ambitions, and I've been spinning my wheels for the past 6 weeks.

I don't know if I need a change of scenery, a change of perspective, a change of pace, a change of heart. But I know I need some sort of change. Because I am convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that life is meant to be lived not just survived. That there is purpose in everyday, an opportunity to love, a chance to be loved. That we have gifts and talents we can use to bless others, communities that we can be a part of, people that we can let into our hearts.

A place to call home.

And I feel like I'm just searching for the path that will take me to mine.


I've decided to be a but more public with what I'm currently going through in my heart and mind, in hopes that people will enter into this journey with me and pray as I look to see what God has next for me. I feel so blessed to do life with the people God has given me, and I'm so thankful for you all. I just know that where I am now isn't where I'm supposed to be forever, and I'm a bit impatient to get onto the next step... whatever that is.

I love you all. God Bless,
Betsy

Thoughts I'm Pondering

While in UG I was introduced to one of my new favorite authors: Paulo Coelho. And as I struggle to figure out what the next step in my own journey is, here are some amazing quotes from his work "The Alchemist." I hope they bless you as they bless me...

It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

What's the world's greatest lie? It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.

People learn early in their lives what is their reason for being.

When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living now.

When you are in love, things make even more sense

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You've got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense.

"There is only one way to learn," the alchemist answered. "It's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.

People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.
Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him.

When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you.