A Four-Lettered "H" Word

So, what word came to mind with the prompting of this post's title?

There are actually quite a few that it could be...Help, Hurt, Harm, Heal, Hair, Hunt, Hold, Hate, He**, Have, Held, Hand, Head...and so on.

Well, HERE is a HINT for the word I am looking for:

"Now, Faith is being sure of what we HOPE for..."

Hope...

I first came across this verse during a Lenten goal of memorizing a verse a week, and of course, I sought all of the meaningful, short verses that I could find. Hebrews 11:1 came up. It definitely didn't take long for me to realize that this verse may be a short one, but the message it carries is a deep and challenging one.

Starting with faith, there are only two things that we have been called to do by Jesus, and that is to have faith and love. If you love God, yourself, and others and have faith in God, yourself, and others, I truly believe that all other aspects of following Christ will fall in place. It is like Faith and Love are the Black and White of a shade spectrum, and everything else is just the gray in between, a combination of the two.

Faith is Black

Blind

Not Definite

Black=all color

Faith=all of you

Love is White

Pure

Bright

White=no color

Love=no ifs, ands, or buts

Faith is a very important discipline. So, let's explore it.

According to Heb 11:1, the first part of Faith is knowing what you hope for. I highly suggest that you take some time right now to just jot down any and everything that you hope for. In fact, it might be insightful and simply fun to make a list of what we hope for periodically and compare it to the ones in the past. Where did it stay the same? Where did it change? So, seriously, pull up a word document or grab a spare piece of paper right now and write what you hope for before you continue...

As you can see from the pictures, I got to enjoy the thrill of paragliding in New Zealand. What. An. Experience! We had a free day in Queenstown, the hometown of thrill. This is actually the town where bungee jumping was invented. Can you imagine what that guy was thinking?! Anyways, I desperately wanted to go skydiving, as it has been my lifetime dream to fly; however, skydiving was a little over my price range. I also thought that my parents would appreciate my staying away from free falls while I was on the other side of the world. So, I chose the next best, cheaper thing: paragliding.

The trip to the paragliding launch site required just a short walk through town (pretty much the entire town is pictured under me) and a beautiful ride up the nearest mountain in a gondola. We weren't on the tallest mountain nor on the peak of the mountain, but the view was more than magnificent, and we were still above the clouds. We could see the clouds being funneled into the town through a gap in the surrounding Southern Alps. We were a group of ten, five thrill seekers and their tandem pilots, sitting on a bald slant of the mountain waiting for the breeze to come our way for lift off.

Well, the breeze never came, and the pilots started to converse as to what we should do. One was adamant that the breeze would come, but the rest were giving up. They put the question to us thrill seekers, "Should we wait for the breeze that might not come or take a short hike up to the peak of the mountain where the breeze could be found on the other side?" We said that we had no idea of what we should do and put the decision in the pilots' hands, saying we were willing to do anything. The pilots decided to go to the peak.

Let me translate something of Kiwi terminology: walk=hike...hike=death

For about 15-20 minutes, we were scrambling on all fours in a determined effort to climb the steep trail that was earlier deemed a "short hike". We did reach the top, and despite being just a few hundred miles from Antarctica, all of us huffing and puffing foreigners were shedding gloves, scarves, ski coats, and rolling our sleeves up in an effort to cool down.

The gracious pilots gave us time to recover by unfolding the parachutes and discussing the wind. The breeze was still not coming up the original side we were on, and some were making fun of the one pilot who said it would. Three of the pilots unfolded their chutes on the other side of the peak, but the faithful pilot started unfolding his on the original side. My pilot was a student and friend of the faithful pilot, so he also unfolded his chute on the windless side.

The other three were ready to take off. The thrill seekers were strapped to the pilots, and the pilots were strapped to the chutes. We all watched as the first group took off, and we heard the remaining pilots exclaim, "[Shoot]! That was a fast drop!" I felt like I had just heard "Oops" in a surgery room. The pilots rushed to that side of the peak and breathed a sigh of relief as that pilot was seen gliding softly away.

My and the faithful pilot returned, and suddenly, the breeze rushed up our side of the peak. My pilot exclaimed happily how the faithful pilot had been right. We prepared to take off. Now to let you know how to paraglide.

As I fastened to my pilot, he instructed me to run with all of my might toward the edge of the peak. I shouldn't fall or slow down as I get closer to the cliff but run like something is chasing me. He was going to run beside me and pull the chute up, and we would both hope that it would catch air. On the count of three, we would go.

One...

Two...

Three...

I take off as if a monster is right on my heels. The cliff gets closer and closer, and I start to worry because we are still on the ground! I am less than ten steps away from thin air and still a firm acquaintance of the ground. Five steps, three steps...We reached the cliff, still on the ground, and I let the world know of my calm nature through a textbook girl-pitched scream that I am sure the whole of Queenstown could hear. I pumped my legs in a last desperate effort to gain flight before the ground disappeared beneath me, and the next thing I knew, my legs were wildly kicking air. The chute had lifted at the very last minute.

Our lives are adventures like this one all of the time. There is doubt, fear, thrill, hope, faith, and fun. If we don't hope that our chutes will open, we will never fly. If we never hope for the wind, what will carry us? Without hope, we will never move forward.

Hope is so important, I want to continue talking about it in another post, as you are probably ready for me to stop today. So, here is what I HOPE:

I hope you can join me again next week.

I hope you can join the discussion with the questions in a comment below (anyone should be able to comment)

I hope God blesses you profusely.

A Questioning Time

Good evening my friends. I certainly hope the holidays are treating you well.

It is amazing what time will do to us. Here I am, months after my last post, with many new stories and familiar feelings. If I thought that nothing could best the summer in business, this past semester strongly argued against such thoughts. I smile because I generally think that I can do a lot, but I may have bitten off more than would have been lady-like to chew. I definitely learned a lot, most importantly about myself and my relationship with God. Admitting my faults as a Christian can't be done enough. This year has done nothing but remind me of the dire need that we all have of God. Without Him, what is there?

Mainly, I have been asking a lot of questions this year. I hope to be better about blogging, but I am not called to be a minister and to stand in front of people lecturing (although, I gave my first full sermon this semester. Another new story). I prefer the bible study setting where we all join together in fellowship and support. So, may I ask one thing of you? Let's let this be a place of conversation. The next few posts will be on my favorite Bible verse, the one at the head of this blog, and I will end with a question. I want so much to know what you think. And please, if there is anything any of you would like to explore, please let the rest of us know. If I have written anything in the past that is curious, feel free to bring it into question and/or conversation.

So, standing on the brink of another new year and reflecting upon the past, my experiences swirl around me to create a storm of thoughts. There are so many wonderful experiences and joys from this past year; so very many new things that I got to do like study abroad, work hard-core full time, write a novel and thesis, give a sermon, meet new friends and get to better know old ones. There were also many trying struggles like exhaustion and stress on all levels: physical, mental, and emotional. My favorite bible verse is what I feel drawn to at the moment.

Hebrews 11:1 "Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Can we bring in the new year exploring this verse together?

WOW!

So, I have been an oober fail at blogging! I apologize tremendously for the long silence if there is anyone still out there following this. If there isn't, well, God is definitely enough of an audience.

Wow, so where do I begin?! The amount of adventures this summer have definitely stacked higher and higher than any three months in my life. It was definitely through the power of God that I made it through this past summer. I traveled abroad to New Zealand in May, took Genetics in June, and worked full time July through moving back to school, and took the PCAT the Saturday before moving back. I have learned so much and grown up some (I believe =P).

I think one reason I have done so horribly with this blog is because I want this to be the Lord's blog, and I admittedly grew apart from Him a little this summer. It is a difficult thing admitting, but I wish to declare it to myself, God, and everyone else out there to make a change. All summer, I could feel myself descending the Lord's mountain and a little while ago reached the bottom of the spiritual valley I am wondering. Going through these valleys is never fun, but as the Lord spots me while I start to ascend again, I am reminded that for everything there is an opposite:

For Life there is Death
For Light there is Dark
For Satiated there is Ravenous
For Joyfulness there is Depression
For a Spiritual High there is a Spiritual Low
For the Whispers of God there are the Billows of the Devil

One side of this list is God and the other is the World, the Devil, and we are the knot on the rope between these two forces. The good thing is that instead of a real tug-of-war knot that is at the mercy of the two forces, we have some power to dictate whose side we end up on: freewill.

We still have to contend with the war of these two sides, though. The World is such a persuasive side. It first throws dirt onto God's proposition. It points out all of the things that the strict Lord asks us not to do, how we become His servants, His slaves. Being a Christian is constant work, and we can be put in some pretty tough situations when our faith is tested. Next the World smears all of our shortcomings in our faces. When we fail God, when we give in to the World, the Devil throws his finger in our face and berates us with, "Look at what you did! How could you possibly be worth forgiveness? You failed again. You always fail. How could God possibly do anything with you because of your stubbornness and weakness? You are not a Christian; you are a fake, a hypocrite! And you know how much God detests hypocrites. You should just stop trying."

It is so tough at times, but we must realize that these thoughts are nothing but poison. The crazy thing about God is that we can go to Him for the 5,000th time, aching and bawling on our hands and knees declaring our shame from the failure, and He will get down on the ground, help our sniveling selves up with His scarred hands, and while embracing us in His loving arms, declare, "what failure, my beloved child?"

No matter where we've gone over the summer, I hope we can start afresh together.

When the Theater is Empty, What Are You Going to Do?

I love movies! It is a past-time of my family that I have come to fully enjoy. I really don't watch a lot of TV, but movies...o that is my weakness. You see, TV shows don't seem to cut it as much for me as movies do. I like deep plots, dynamic characters, and watching a story develop completely, and TV shows just don't seem to have enough time or material to satisfy. Don't get me wrong, there are times when I just want to veg. in front of the TV after a long day, but I am never as content as watching a full movie.

It is also fun to sit back and see the trends of movies. I think it would make an interesting study to look at the movie trends and compare them to the societal situations of the time. A while back, we had superheroes, next are vampires and werewolves (monsters), and now there seem to be a lot of apocalyptic/god movies coming out. Recently, we have seen The Day the Earth Stood Still, Terminator: Salvation, 2012, Zombieland, The Book of Eli, Legion, Clash of the Titans, Percy Jackson, Knowing...and I am sure I am missing some. Movie after movie is resonating with an end of times (or humanity) theme.

How is our movie playing out? Are we sensing an end? We have had a catastrophic amount of natural disasters, the tension of international and local political clashing is all around us, the economy is giving us troubles...we are basically going through some really really tough and scary times. On the Discovery and History channels, there are more and more shows about surviving end-of-the-world disasters, what the earth will be like after humans, studies on Revelations, and a search for the Antichrist. People seem to be focusing more and more on the end times...and this bothers me.

I keep hearing about people trying to predict the end. I have a quote for that: " ³⁶No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,^f]">[f] but only the Father...If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Jesus, Matthew 24:36-44). If Jesus doesn't even know when the end is, how in the world do we?! I personally like the idea that 2012 is the biggest prank pulled on the world, or the poor Mayan who was calculating all of that got tired.

And the search for the Antichrist, what will you do once he/she is found? If you believe that the Antichrist is coming, then you've got to believe in everything else in Revelation, which means that there is nothing you can do.

The biggest thing that is troubling me is the reason behind our calculating and searching of the end (and I understand that I am being very brutal here): we don't want to follow God until we have to.

Why else would we want to know when He is coming? I think people are consumed by the end of times notion because they want to do their own thing until it is time to get saved and get it right. This idea breaks my heart! The best way to not worry about the end times is to live like they are here right now, to realize that it isn't like jumping on a train last minute as it is leaving the station. Following Jesus is a life change, not the type of decision where you are deciding to have Devil's Food Cake or Ange'sl Food Cake. Jesus even told us to live a Christian life NOW, "⁴⁵Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns." (Matthew 24:45-46) We don't know and will never know the exact time that the world will end.

Look at Revelation and the description of the end times as a test. If you believe that it will happen, that the world will end at some point, then I urge you to not leave the King in the shadows because the shadows and He will catch up with you. The predictions are warnings, and you should heed them now instead of waiting for them to happen. I know, I struggle with the curiosity as well, but I really think that we need to leave this end of the world business with God and God alone. We have no power to change what has been set down by the Creator, all we can do is just follow Him. And I know that if we follow the script, our movie will have the happiest of endings!

The Olympian Spirit

Do you know what I see?
I see Unity
of People
of a Nation
of a World
I see Celebration
of Culture
of Athletes
of People
I see Barriers
break down
I see Connections
indurate
I see Five Rings
bound together
everlasting
enduring
I see a Flame
upon a torch
in all hearts
passed on
I see the Olympian Spirit
That is what I see.

There is almost nothing more inspiring than the Olympics. It is the one place where borders, language, and culture melt away to reveal our common love for games, team work, and the challenge of being the best that we can be. Nothing about the Olympics is easy. The host country spends years of preparation, unbelievable amounts of money on it, and unmeasurable man hours. The athletes devote nearly their entire lives to their sport. But with all of the costs and challenges of the Olympics, it is all worth it.

When the world turns into nothing but one big game, I think God smiles. When people from 82 different countries can celebrate (or mourn the passing of a great young athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili) as one spirit, God's creation is shining with His glory.

REsolution

Well, it's been a while! I hope you are all doing well. Christmas and New Years brought excitement, rest, goodies, loved ones, and enough food to keep me occupied through the spring...haha, thank goodness for holidays, right?

Last year's end was definitely different for me. Tragedy dealt my family a pretty hard hand in the fall, and to be honest, I struggled with my holiday spirit. It seems like everyone has gladly said good riddance to 2009.

I hate to deem it a completely bad year, though. I can definitely say that I have learned a few lessons from last year, and perhaps the best thing that happened was that I became closer to
God.

And now, we are sitting at the beginning of a new year, and resolutions are made...

We always talk about our New Year's Resolutions in a joking and secretly dreading manner. It seems that most people see resolutions as daunting, impossible goals that have to be set at too high of a par. We then psyche ourselves up for the ultimate failure of these resolutions by February. What a bummer! To add to this tsunami of guilt, there are all of the diet programs, fitness programs, and self-help programs that claim to offer a new and easy way to survive your resolutions, but really they are just looking for a profit. It is so funny to count how many resolutions are commercialized on TV right now! I'd have to say that my favorite is still the button-busting Subway commercial from last year.

Have you ever looked up "resolution" on Dictionary.com? I was surprised to get 12 definitions for the word! There is the legal resolution, like the president being declared...there is the goal resolution, like New Year's Resolution...and there is the optical resolution, like clarity. Also, most of the definitions were related to a state of mind, to resolve. Thinking back on my resolutions, I don't think that I had the resolve to complete them. I also thought of my resolutions as goals instead of a mentality.

So, I invite you to join me on my resolution experiment ("and, if you try this method, I'll throw in an ULTIMATE SUPER SECRET CHEAT to keeping your resolution!" haha) To start with, there are two parts to our resolutions; the "resolute" part and the "tion" part

Let's start with the "tion" part, the action...

Before you make any resolutions this year, take what you want to change and find out WHY you want to change it. How about that cliche resolution to get in better shape? Ultimately, we just want to be happier with ourselves, right? And in a society that is completely physical, outward appearances seem like the best thing to change. Now, don't think that I am suggesting that we not take care of our God given bodies! Goodness no! I still have the resolution to get in better shape. The only difference this year is that I don't have a size or weight goal; I just want to be proud of the person in the mirror. (I am also using the ULTIMATE SUPER SECRET CHEAT)

Another thing to realize is that most of the resolutions we make, no matter how much we wish they weren't, are really long-term and don't have a quick fix. I think that what really trips us up in February is that we are tired and not seeing any improvement. Boy, wouldn't it be nice if we had that model's body on the commercial after only a month of work! Sadly, that body of theirs came from years of work and continuous maintenance. Sorry, but getting in shape is a life-time resolution. Don't be discouraged by this, though! Do you throw your morals in the air and just give up after every sin? No. You ask for forgiveness and then continue trying to be a good child of God. It ties back to the first point of knowing why you are following the resolution. Another of my resolutions is to have a "now" attitude in that I will really try to not procrastinate and also enjoy the moment. Now, if I am to be practical, I know that I will procrastinate some this year and complain about having to do something, but I hope to look back and be able to say, "Well, Amanda, you didn't procrastinate as much this year, and it was a good year, huh. Good job! Keep up the good work!"

So, know the what and the why of our resolutions. Know our resolutions like the back of our hands. Know our motivations and fears. When he was asked what we should study for the test, my old Physics professor would answer, "know everything." Knowing is a very important half of the battle and will drastically help with living our resolutions. Let's try to see our resolutions as a new beginning and adventure instead of the latest way to torture ourselves.

Now, what about the other half of the battle, the resolute?

Here is the ULTIMATE SUPER SECRET CHEAT that will give you the boost, confidence, and strength that you need to live your resolutions: God. That's right! God, Jesus, Holy Spirit...He created you, so who would be a better person to help change you? He offers 24/7 support, unfathomable love, and a great desire for you to be happy. He is also the best accountability buddy because He always has time. My number one resolution is to be a better listener and follower of God. When I devote everything, even my resolutions, to Him, nothing seems impossible! I know that Jesus, the guy who defeated death, can definitely help me defeat a few extra pounds or patience issues. God and I sat down before the new year and developed what looks like a great game plan. Pray about your resolutions, and I know that you and God can work it out. As I said, it is the ultimate cheat. And it's free!

So, good luck, and happy new year!

Anodyne

Words are such complex things.

I have a marvelous friend with whom I can discuss the most pointless, answer-less topics. It is great. For instance, a while back we were discussing cuss words, and the power of a word. Suppose you asked someone from another country to teach you a word. As a joke, they teach you a terrible cuss word and tell you that it means something else. Well, every time you use that word, you are speaking a cuss word, but are you cussing? This takes us deeper into the subject: is it the word or the intent? I say intent. Haha, a word means nothing until meaning is put upon it, and that is done by using more words! (I can't help but smile; I love this stuff!) But to follow up on the cussing: if the intent is what makes the word unspeakable, does it matter that we substitute these words with lesser ones? Isn't our intention for the word the same?

So, let's go deeper. I was also mulling over the idea of what makes us, humans, different from animals. There seems to be a lot of answers to that question like morals, principles, intelligence, and the ability to speak. However, if you watch Animal Planet, you can find many examples of families, communities, rules, problem solving, team work, and communication that animals follow as well. I remember this show called "Meerkat Manor". No lie, it was a show solely devoted to the soap opera of a meerkat colony. I challenge you to go past the "superior human" complex and really think about the authenticity of this superiority. Are we really that different from animals?








"LOVE, Amanda, love! We've got love!" you argue.

"Oh yes, love." I reply. "So your dog doesn't get ecstatic at your return? Your cat doesn't purr and rub against you when you enter the room? Does your pet act completely normal after the death of a fellow pet? Do eagles, swans, wolves, and some penguins not mate for life?"

Now, please don't get upset. The purpose of this isn't to make you feel animalistic. There is something special about us. However, I still don't think that we can make ourselves superior to animals; it is the One who made us that does that.

Hebrews 8:10 (which is a reference to Jeremiah 31:33) says, "I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Wow! My favorite part is the last one: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." That makes me excited and comforted. God has declared himself our God! He will be our Guide, our Creator, our Mentor, the Guy Taking Care of Us.

He has also declared us as his people! THIS is what makes us special, God's special attention to us. He will teach us how to act human, the creation made after His own image. He will put into our minds and hearts His wishes. He could have easily declared the meerkats as his people, but instead, He chose us.

Sometimes I feel as if we Christians get too involved with ourselves. We worry about representing God correctly, about doing what He wants, about acting Christian, and about how our actions affect others. Philippians 4:13 is often referenced as a source of encouragement for us during our struggle: "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." I have a funny story to go along with this. Before I went off to college, the pottery painting shop where I worked let me pick out anything and paint it as a graduation gift. I chose a cross and painted it with a colorful floral design to match my bright, tropical room. I wanted to put my favorite verse at the time, Phil. 4:13, on the cross, but my handwriting is as neat as a second grader's. I asked my boss, an amazing artist, if he could please paint this inspirational verse in the center before he fired it. Well, he painted EXACTLY what I wrote down, which was "Phillippians 4:13". Yes, my spelling is as good as my handwriting. So now I have a cross referencing all that we can do through Christ along with an extra "l" in "Philippians". Oh the irony!

I realized that the way we use this verse is actually backwards. It isn't about what I can do through Christ; it is what HE can do through me. It isn't me who leads others to our Lord; it is Christ in me and in them that leads them to Himself. I have changed this verse: "Christ can do all things through me, if He chooses." I am reminded that Jesus is on my side, and He will empower me for whatever He wants me to do. I am also reminded that I am Amanda, and He is God. Suppose I decide to be a Christian singer who spreads the Word of God through her music, but it isn't what God wants. Well, I can sing with all of my heart and repeat Phil 4:13 over and over again, but I won't be able to woo anyone over to the Lord with my tone-deaf voice. God has a plan for all of us, and we have to be willing to let Him work in and through us as He wants to.

Every week, I try to learn a new, fun word. This week's is "anodyne": something that soothes or comforts. God is my anodyne, and "Christ can do all things through me, if He chooses" reminds me of that. God is in control. There is something in us humans that God loves. You could say that we are the favorite child. We have to remember that we are only children, and we have to remember who our Father is. Remember that He DID choose. He chose to be our God, our Father, our Savior, our Helper, our Friend. He chose us as His children.

To me, that choice is such an anodyne...