Plan B.

It’s time for another blog post!

I said I wanted to put a little more of the Bible into my blog, and I am definitely going to follow through on my word both now and hopefully as time goes on!

To give you an idea of what was going on when I read this passage, I just finished wrapping presents for the nursing home (we take presents up there to people with no family every year) and the tornado warning just ended. I was goofing off on my computer, checking out facebook and my email, and I decided to go visit Acclimate, which is something Passion is doing- they are scrolling the Bible 4 times as a lead up to Passion. So, I come to the page and right then it happened to be on the testing of Abraham.

The story is one we all know, God gives Abraham a son in his old age and then God tells Abraham to go sacrifice his son, Abraham is obedient and takes Issac to the alter on top of a mountain to be sacrificed and at the last minute, God saves the day and says, “Don’t sacrifice your son, here is a ram instead.” It’s a great story to show obedience and fear of God. But when I read it a few minutes ago, it was like reading a new story.

The faith of Abraham is pretty incredible- yeah, at the beginning of the story of Abraham, he screwed up a few times. But in the end, he had a rock solid faith, and he showed a lot of humility to some degree as well.

“Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’           

            ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied.

            ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’

            Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ And the two of them went on together.

            When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an alter there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the alter, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’

            ‘Here I am,’ he replied.

            ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’” (NIV).

I have to wonder what that walk up to that mountain must have been like for Abraham. To know that when you reached the top, you were going to have to personally sacrifice your only son, which in that time a son was a big deal. The son kept the family name going and got all of the inheritance, and without a son, your family name might have issues surviving. But yet, Abraham made the trek. One of his displays of humility is when he simply accepts what God instructed. We don’t have word of him fighting God on the topic. He didn’t say, “Look God, I deserve this son, and he’s the only one I have. God, it’s not fair. I DESERVE HIM; You OWE me Him.”

I wonder what was going through his mind as they made the journey to the top; I wonder if he was crying. I can’t imagine the painfulness of that conversation between Abraham and Isaac. I wonder if Isaac understood- did he understand that he was going to be the sacrifice? Overall, that conversation and that walk must have been agonizing if not for both parties, for sure for Abraham. And then right at the last minute, God goes “STOP!!!!!!!!! There’s a ram over there in those bushes, I was testing your obedience to know if you were the right person to be the father of many nations.”

            Now switch to the New Testament. When Jesus was about to be hung on the cross, there was no one to yell “STOP!” because He was the only way. There was no one to tell God, “Hey there is a substitute over in those bushes.” Father God had to watch his only begotten Son die an awful death, but more than that, He had to forsake His own Son, to pay the price for me. You know how we always say that God will never leave us or forsake us? That is only possibe because Jesus was forsaken in my place. Jesus had to be completely separated from God and go into the depths of Hell, all for me. There was no substitute that could do it for him, there was no plan C. Plan A was the Garden of Eden, but Adam and Eve ruined that when they ate the forbidden fruit (which was most likely not an apple- thank the Plants of the Bible class I took this semester!). Plan B was Jesus Christ. God paid the price for me; He ransomed me, and I had no right to be ransomed. There is nothing I can do for God to repay Him for saving me. Jesus got the pain that should have been mine. And this is truly why we celebrate Christmas- not necessarily that Jesus came into the world or that He hung on the cross, We celebrate Christmas for the same reason that we celebrate Easter, because He ROSE AGAIN. Jesus’ birth would mean nothing if He didn’t rise again, just like His death would mean nothing if there was no resurrection.  I, for one, am very thankful and blessed to be a child of God, and to celebrate Christmas! All because He ROSE AGAIN! 

"The Projects" Gingerbread House

I realized today that I really don't put a lot of actual stuff from the Bible in here, and I am actually okay with that. I would like to put a little more because the Word of God is very important and is a good basis for us all, but I guess, I want my blog to be more about how I see God in my everyday life. What stories I have that portray Him and what I've learned. It's also definitely important to see Him in our everyday life and look for His Hand and Smile!

Lesson for Today: Patience and Peace lessens Perfectionism. (Its a triple P- inside joke for myself haha)

Today, I made my first gingerbread house! Yes, that is correct, I am 18 and I have never made a gingerbread house. I don't actually like gingerbread, and my family has simply never made them. It's not been one of our traditions... But I made them with a group of 6 other people, and it was a blast. I had soooo much fun.

Recently, God has really been teaching me patience and peace and how important those are and how much I have lacked them. And PATIENCE has been a really hard one for me to learn, and it took God making me COMPLETELY dependent on Him to provide and do His Will in order for me to learn it and really understand what patience is. Am I perfect at patience? No, not at all. I still got mad today when I was out this afternoon and people evidently were not having a very good driving day, making me sit through a red light 3 times... But I'm working on it. I now understand what long term patience looks like and what it means to be dependent on God and trust that He will in fact provide. And it's still hard because having to wait is never fun, but I'm okay with the waiting because I know God has something amazing planned at the end of the waiting! And so through His work in me on patience and peace, He has lessened my perfectionism. I have been a complete perfectionist for as long as I can remember. Throughout my schooling career (elementary to high school/ when I went to Clayton) if I didn't get an A, that wasn't good enough for me. If my project was not top notch, then it wasn't good enough. I wouldn't do things if there was any chance of failure, because failure meant that I wasn't good enough and thus, if I was going to fail, then I wanted no part. I would beat myself up inside on not being good enough if my thing, whatever it might be, wasn't the best of the best. 

Well, back to me making a gingerbread house, mine was far from being the best of the best. Mine honestly looked like a 5 year old made it. My hands got COVERED in icing and my roof kept falling off. And my design wasn't super detailed. And I was COMPLETELY okay with it; in fact, I had fun making "The Projects" of our little gingerbread village. I had a lot of fun. Why? Because God has strongly lessened my need for perfectionism. Had I made a gingerbread house last year, I would have been sure to make it so detailed and neat and if it wasn't, inside, I would have gone away defeated and miserable. I wouldn't have had near as much fun as I did! I would have wanted it to look like a gingerbread house that came out of magazine, despite the fact that I had never made one before so I had no experience on how to build one. I would have still wanted it to be the best one there.

But now, I don't have to be the best of the best at everything because God did not make me to be the best of the best at everything. He made me to be me, who may be good at science, but awful at architecture. haha. Who may be pretty good at math, but not very good with English. When we become patient and peaceful, we learn that God is in control, but also that our worth in not found in our own efforts. Our worth in found in God and if He provides our worth, then we will be filled with joy and we will be able to accept the things we are not good at and have fun anyway! Patience and Peace will lessen perfectionism as long as you truly surrender to God! And Let Him give you worth and not the things you accomplish!

The Why Question.

Have you ever just asked youself, WHY?- that can be a very important question if there is a very important answer that reflects your motives... Why have I decided to move my blog to blogspot? Simply because it is a blog website more commonly used and honestly, it has cooler backgrounds :) I can promise you that the content will still be the same... still personal thoughts from my head that I decided to share with the rest of the world... I will place in personal stories and a lot of God connections because, well, that's what I do. I have transferred what I felt were the most important blog posts from the tumblr account, and if there was a story or message on there that I did not pick and you would like to see on here, please let me know and I will gladly move it to here! Please feel free to comment, ask questions, anything. And I will do my best to answer. I really don't have anything inspirational to say tonight sorry.... but I guess if I had to leave you with one thing, I will tell you what I constantly tell a good friend of mine, Be Happier Than A Bird With A French Fry, and make each and every day ridiculous amazing. Oh, and spread the light of Jesus!

Foot Baths, Ear Candles, and Peace.

Blog post time! I’m honestly really excited to write this post because I’m in a really creative mood! And so with that, I’m just going to jump into the story!

Last night I was lying in bed and I was thinking, which is something I do quite a bit (haha), and I was thinking about a conversation I had with a dear friend of mine back in the middle of October. When I had that conversation, I had gotten back from a women’s retreat for SWAT a few hours earlier, and in the conversation, I said that I knew there were things that God still needed to fix within me. There are always things that God needs to fix within us because we are humans and we are imperfect. But after spending one-on-one time with God that weekend, I could see several areas that really, really needed work. That was all over a month and a half ago, and looking back from where I am at now, God has fixed and is continuing to fix those areas. God had to extract the bad out of me, and replace it with good. And I will honestly say that the extraction process has not been fun; it has definitely hurt at times, but the end result is so much better. And this concept last night made me think of this time that I had a spa certificate for several things and one of them was for this treatment that was footbath that was supposed to cleanse out impurities from your body through some special footbath machine. Somehow it extracts the bad out of your system through the pores in your feet. And then after thinking about that, and my speculation of if that even really works, it made me think about the ear candle craze from about 6 years ago. (Here is where we get to the main point haha and you are like WHAT?!) Around 6 years ago, I would guess, there was this craze on the whole ear candle thing and how they were supposed to draw all of the wax out of your ears and help you to hear better. My parents had found out about it from a friend of theirs (I don’t remember who) and I remember they had tried it and believed it. But then, they started to question the concept, and did a little investigation of their own by really looking at the candle and I think my dad may have cut one open. After that, they came to the conclusion that it really didn’t work. And as I was thinking about that, it made me think of how that concept could be applicable to real life. What I realized was that, the concept of believing, investigating, disproving was exactly the journey I went on to disprove Satan’s lies that I believed. At one point, I believed I wasn’t good enough for numerous reasons. I fully believed it. But then with God’s help (I could have NEVER done it on my own), I began to investigate those lies, and came to the conclusion that they were lies. I found the root of the weed and used a weed killer (called the Word of God) and then in the end, disproved the lies. I realized last night that this is a process that we need to continually go through in every area of our lives. Look at the things we believe and make sure that they are truly from God, otherwise we may find ourselves believing in something that is completely false and untrue. If I hadn’t gone through that year long process, I would still be in a boat of misery believing that I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t pretty enough, I wasn’t smart enough, I was incredibly flawed, etc. But in God I am good enough, and that’s all that matters. We need to continually go on the ear candle journey, but step 1 for all of us is that we MUST make God our number one priority. You may say, “But Morgan, I have made God my number one priority.” And you may be right, you may have, or you may be where I sat for so long, thinking that God was number one, but He wasn’t. I placed several things in from of Him, a big one being myself. You will know that God is your number one priority when you take your eyes off of God for a second, your whole world changes. I did that one Tuesday. Accidently, I took my eyes off of God, and I found myself in a boat of pain because the enemy saw that my defenses were down and that it was a perfect opportunity to attack. And the enemy knows us well; he knows what buttons to press and he knows what will inflict the most damage, and he did just that Tuesday night. He inflicted a lot of pain in ways that he knew would hurt me. And then Wednesday night, God got my attention and turned my eyes back to Him, and the second He did that, the pain went away and I could see again.

You will also know that God is your number one priority when He provides you with peace that can only be from Him. Back on that women’s retreat, the last morning during our last session time, everyone got a turn to be in the “Hotseat.” We didn’t really call it anything, but hopefully, that will help you to understand a little more. While a person was in the Hotseat, everyone asked God what they would have Him tell that person. The Holy Spirit came that morning and filled the room. A drenching downpour of the Holy Spirit came down. When it was my turn to be in the Hotseat (and if you know me well, I hate being the center of attention in that way), one sweet woman told me that God would bring me contentment and that would lead to peace and that would be a great journey for me. And I was like okay, that’s good stuff. I have all of the things people said written down in my journal, and I will occasionally read through them, and every time I would read that one, I saw that one as being a thing for the future. But I realized Thursday that the time is now. Without me realizing it, God has taken me on a journey to find contentment, which has lead to overwhelming peace, and it is all because I finally have placed Him truly as number one and placed my eyes on Him. I was writing a letter to someone Thursday night, and I said that I had suddenly received this overwhelming peace about the future. This is the end result of this particular extraction process. CONTENTMENT and PEACE.

So, I encourage you to go give the “ear candle” approach a try- look at what you have believed in all areas of your life and compare it to Jesus Christ and the Word of God, and also allow God to take you on a personal adventure to contentment and peace, but step one of that is to place your full focus on Him alone. 

This is One Exciting Blog Post that YOU should read!

Morgan’s Jargon (yes, it is jargon because all of it means truly absolutely nothing): 

It kinda funny to when I think about how many people actually read anything I write… I wonder how many people will actually read what I’m about to write (As a word of warning, don’t actually tell me that you read this because then I will know who is actually reading and that could potentially make me nervous and thus, hinder my writing ability… and that would be sad…) The funny thing is that I can potentially write anything and all of my banter up to this point may cause people to stop reading, but consider this the introduction and a part of my writing style and we’ll get to the good stuff right about now…

The Good Stuff (the stuff that isn’t jargon or banter… though a few side comments might be thrown in):

I was having coffee a couple of days ago with a very good and dear friend of mine, and we were having a really good conversation (it was nice to get to talk to her in person instead of on the phone- if she is reading this, she should really consider coming up to Athens for a visit sometime soon- we have lots of coffee places up there :) ) and we talking and at one point into the conversation- probably around the time when we were finished hour 1.5 of the 2 and half hour conversation- we were talking about truth and she said in relation to part of our conversation, “Is that person speaking truth about God or they speaking flattery?” And I was like “Oh, that’s a really good point, I hadn’t thought about that.” And I was thinking about that last night…  I will use my roommate Sarah as an example (hopefully, she doesn’t mind me pulling in her name here :P). I can tell you two different types of info about Sarah. Sarah is kind, sweet, sarcastic (oh she’s just as sarcastic as me- that must be why we get along so well :P), she’s funny, she’s dedicated, she likes to read, she likes coffee…. etc. or I can tell you that Sarah is kind and sweet because she so desperately wants to volunteer at the animal shelter, Sarah is sarcastic because of the conversations I’ve had with her where we’ve both poked fun at each other, Sarah likes to read because she read the book Redeeming Love in 2 days and it took me 4 and she flies through books and will spend a lot of time doing that, she’s dedicated because she will spend hours in the library doing school work and I don’t do that often or well, Sarah likes coffee because I got her addicted to it and because she will get it at OHouse (one of the dining places on campus) when we’re eating together or when we are eating a cookie in the room. And if you notice when I just list the traits of Sarah, you really don’t get to know anything about her. But if I tell you the truths of why those traits make up Sarah, then you actually get to know something about her. And God is the same way- I can speak a ton of flattery of God, but 1) God doesn’t need my flattery 2) my flattery of God does not bring other people to believe. I can say all day long that God is good, and He is, but anyone can say God is good. But it’s the truths that make the difference. God is good because He sent His One and Only Son to die for me on a cross, the most embarrassing, degrading, painful way possible both in the Roman world and probably still today (though thankfully, society has gotten past crucifying criminals…), God is good because He will never leave me or forsake me and He has proven that to me, God is good because of the miracles I’ve seen him do both within my life and the lives of others. There is such a difference between truth and flattery! So in your own life, what are you doing- are you simply speaking truth or are you speaking flattery? What about your friends, are they speaking truth about God or they just flattering Him? I’m not saying that me or anyone else should go around telling people that they should stop flattering- Im just saying examine your life and don’t judge your friends, but remember people you are around WILL affect you, there is no might affect you or they may affect you, they will. Note the affect I’ve had on my roommate, she’s gotten into drinking coffee, watching NCIS, and running because she’s around me and in the same way she’s affected me (but its gonna take me a minute to think of how… :P) hahaha but what are you doing? I am fully guilty of flattering God instead of pouring out truth to other people. 

I like stories, you like stories, we all like stories :)

Here we go… This summer at Encounter the topic is stories and telling your story and such, and if you know me well, you know that I LOVE stories. You also know: I love to tell stories, read stories, write stories, etc. I lead the Bible Story time at VBS because I love to tell stories because that’s what I get to do. If you knew me when I helped with Cubbies (3 and 4 year olds at AWANA), you know that I love to tell stories to little kids and use different voices and emotions and such because after all, that’s what makes a story rememberable. Overall, I just love stories! 

Last night, the topic was the creation story- where it all began. I love the creation story, not gonna lie. I love it because it shows us God’s paintbrush and how the Grand Artist created the world. Just think about it: God starts with the blackness of nothing- the blank canvass, and then he makes light, stars, skies, days, nights, birds, fish, plants, animals, oceans, lands, and then most of all, he creates mankind. He creates man in his image; breathes his breath into him; he is HIS. Mankind was made to be in constant relationship with his creator, GOD. 

But then, there is something in the story we tend to miss because usually we are so focused on looking at the order of creation or the fall of man. Something in the garden WASN’T good (and I don’t mean the serpent, though he is not good either). A book called The Story of God, the Story of Us brings up this very point that something was amiss.

“Then the Lord God said, ’ It is not good for ha-adam [Adam] to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for ha-adam.’

“Did you hear that? ‘It is not good.’ Something in God’s creation wasnot good! And that is for the human to be alone. We were indeed created for community, for relationship, and not just with God-which ha-adam experienced- but also with each other. This is central to our identity: to be human, to be made in God’s image, means ‘to not be alone.’”

Mankind was made for relationships; we were not made to live this life alone. One of the biggest reasons that I love the creation story is because it shows us God’s “hesed” love for us, which means that it shows us the way thing were intended to be. We were intended to be in a garden living perfect lives, which something none of us can actually fully imagine. We were meant to live with a constant connection to God; we were meant to live a constant connection with each other. The story shows us what God had intended. Sure, God could have easily created human beings to be robotic creatures that just do what God wants, but instead, he gave us free will: freedom. “Only when we can say ‘no’ is our ‘yes’ meaningful.” 

I will be quite honest that I am not great at relationships. I tend to get in the mindset that I can do everything myself, that I need help from no one. When I get hurt by someone, I like to close myself off so no one else can do the same. When in all actuality, that is not the case. I cannot do everything myself; I cannot live “alone”. I was not intended to live alone and be a solitary human being. We always have to remember that yes, people will hurt us, people will make us cry, people will break our trust, but the key to living life to the fullest, is to pick yourself back up and continue living in relationsh

Bon Jovi and God- might there be a connection?

Okay, so for most of you reading this, chances are there are plenty of things you don’t know about me, which is fine (I like being the mysterious person that you think you know but maybe you don’t- I’m kidding or am I :P *place the spooky, mysterious voice in for full effect*). My guess is that many people don’t know that I really like 70’s and 80’s music a WHOLE lot more than I do than stuff that comes out now… After all, I run to Bon Jovi and Journey. I’m a crime show person (if my plans don’t work out, we will just have to go be a special agent, homicide detective, something with lots of danger and adrenaline… For a specific person reading this, I’ll just go be the female version of Oden (without the Sparta)!!! haha), I like sour over sweet and honestly I don’t much care for ice cream…. but none of that really matters except for the music part for this post… So, also, there is only 1 video game that I play- Guitar Hero… I’m not much of video game person, but I do quite enjoy Guitar Hero/Band Hero… Well, the other day, I decided I was going to play a game because I was kinda bored and was procrastinating, so I went to actually play Beatles Rock Band but couldn’t find it… but in the search I discovered that we had Guitar Hero 5 (didn’t know that we did… until right then) so I looked a the cover and the list of featured artists and decided that it would work for my gaming purposes that day. I put it in and played a couple of songs and then discovered that it had You Give Love A Bad Name by none other than Bon Jovi! (I’m actually listening to Runaway right now not that it actually matters :) ) And the beginning is kinda slow on the guitar part (if I remember correctly) and I was thinking about the title as I waited for it to pick up (when I would have to focus on hitting buttons and belting the song at the top of my lungs)… and as I sat there it just hit me… You give love a bad name… What hit me was the theme, thesis, moral, whatever you wanna call it, of this wonderful music filled blog post (We’ve moved on to Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers now for those of you following along haha)…. But I wonder how many times we’ve given love a bad name…And I’m not saying love as in general love…I wonder how many times we’ve given LOVE (God) a bad name… Now, please note that this post is not directed specifically toward any one person… I remember talking to a very dear friend of mine about God and they said that they didn’t believe because people didn’t show them God they heard about… they saw people that called themselves Christians but acted like the rest of the secular world; other people slammed them over the head with the Bible… they got both extremes in a way… I wonder if at one time or another we’ve given LOVE a bad name? I’ve actually given this a lot of thought lately… I looked around lately everywhere I was at… and I saw lots of different things… I saw people that said they were doing what they did to show Love but in actuality it was all probably more for attention and pride, I saw people that showed limited love- they love some people but if you aren’t in the group then you’re just out of luck, I saw people that said they were Christians but sure don’t act like it, but then I also saw Real love. I saw Love in the way an old man talked about his wife who had died 5 years prior, I saw Love in the coming together to be the hands and feet of Jesus, I saw Love in the care and compassion of certain people, I saw Love in just God himself…. And all of this made me think about how I show love… what love am I showing? Am I showing Real Love? And I hope that I’m showing God’s true love, but I also am me, so I can’t exactly see outside of myself… but it still got me thinking… how am I showing love and am I doing it for the right reasons? So, as a closing thought, what love are you showing- are you showing the Real, selfless love of Jesus Christ? 

The End. No...scratch that... The Beginning.

The beginning.

That looks kinda weird to you doesn’t it. It looks like a title. You might even be thinking, “Well obviously Morgan that is the beginning. What else would it be?” You know I could like write a post backwards- start at the end and go to the beginning, but that would take a lot of work and I’m not up for a lot of work. The beginning. 

I was sitting in between classes with my friend Kimberlee who comes and hangs out with me, and we were working on our English study guides for our test in a couple of weeks. We were working on the essay question that had to do with Thoreau’s Walden (you can probably expect another quote from that work soon- I’ve fallen in love with different parts of it.) and at the end of the work, there are the words “The End.” Kimberlee looked at me and said, “Why do people feel like they have to put The End? They never put The Beginning.” 

And it’s so true. The end is obviously the end. Why do we have to put The End? Honestly, I don’t know that I much like endings- I like beginnings, I like things that continue. If it ends, then it is no more. So, when I finish a really good book or a good movie and I reach the end, I’m kind of sad. It’s over. It’s the end. It is no more. I won’t get to find out what happens next in the lives of the characters. But beginnings are great. At the beginning, there is so much potential, so much excitement of what’s going to happen. I like beginnings, and I find each day to be a new beginning. Its new day to begin, something with so much potential and sometimes a bit of excitement. Beginnings are fun. So, as a challenge for the day (maybe even the rest of the week) is to find some beginnings and look at it positively with potential and excitement. Each day is a new beginning. Here’s  short story just to start you off… 

The Beginning. 

Well, there once was a little girl who was given a special book one day. She was told that the book was exciting, so she couldn’t wait to open it up. She sat down on her bed, and carefully turned the front cover so that she could get to the first page. She was shocked to see two words on the first page. “The Beginning.” She quickly flipped over the get the story going, but all she found was a blank page, and then another blank page, and then another, and another, and the whole book besides the first page was full of blank pages. She was kind of let down, there was nothing exciting in this book. After all, what exactly is “The Beginning” supposed to mean? She took the book and went to find her grandfather who gave her the book. “Grandpa, this book is not very exciting. There is no story; its blank.” “Did you look closely? There’s a story in there; you must have just missed it.” “No, I looked there is no story; you must have given me the wrong book. “It’s the right book, look for the story and you’ll find it.” 

Now, you, the reader, can place your own meaning to the story. Sure, it has a meaning to me in my head (and no, it’s not a true story- I just made it up), but maybe it has a different meaning to you. You decide; the meaning of the story is in your hand.

Running Against the Wind

So Saturday afternoon I went running. For those of you that don’t know, I’m training for a 5k. About a year and a half ago, I was in pretty good running shape and made my best 5k running time, but then a few months later I got lazy and then some other things got in the way and the running disappeared for the bit. Well, back and January, I decided that I really needed to get back out there running, but it wasn’t really until this month that I actually kicked myself in full force 5k mode… (Nike Plus is a HUGE help at the moment) So, Saturday I knew I needed to run since I didn’t run on Friday, so I laced up my shoes, stretched so that I could run at the current maximum capacity, planned my route in my head, and headed out. See, I didn’t know though that it windy outside. I knew it was cooler out (which was one of the reasons I definitely convinced myself to go), but I didn’t know that there was a wind factor going on… so I had been running for probably about half a mile or so, and suddenly, I found myself completely running against a very strong gust of wind. If you have never run against wind before, let me tell you, it is not an easy thing especially when you are going up a slight hill and the wind is strong… I heard about running against the wind in physics last year and how runners liked running with the wind and not against it, but at the time, I didn’t take that little message to heart. But, man running against the wind is really hard… (for those of you wondering before I move onto my point of this story, I finished the run with my best EVER outside run time and finished very very strong, I was very very proud of myself and my poor dog who was tired and was lagging behind a bit but she finished too) haha. 

The thing with running against the wind though is that it’s a force that you can’t see. You can feel it and it makes your run a whole lot harder, but you can’t actually see it. When I was running against the wind, a thought came to me (which is unusual because usually when I run, I’m completely in the running zone where I don’t think about much at all other than the beat of the music that is playing through my headphones to keep me going). Running against the wind is a lot like when we run against God. I’ve learned this personally on several different occasions, but one I remember specifically was back during the summer. I went on a trip with church this last summer to a camp at the beach down in Florida. Part of me was really excited to go on the trip, but part of me wasn’t so much because I knew none of the people that I really hung out with were going. But I felt pretty confident though- going to camp earlier that summer and having to make a bunch of new friends empowered me some to make some more new friends… but I’ll admit that I wasn’t so certain. 

But I remember that the first morning we were there, I was sitting out on the balcony because everyone else was still sleeping (as it’s usual for me to wake up way before everyone else) and I was enjoying the sunrise and just spending time with God, and God was laying out some things on my heart that I knew I needed to deal with eventually and I wrote God a letter that morning saying that EVENTUALLY I would get around to fixing some problems in my life. But that time was not going to be right now. 

A little bit later that day, maybe even a bit into the next day, I could feel God saying, you could fix some of this now; go take the first step. “No, God, I don’t think it’s a good time. I said I will fix it eventually- probably sometime when I get home. There’s really no rush on things.” “

“Morgan, go work on this. If you don’t start now, you probably won’t ever start fixing things.”

“No. I’m just fine. Thanks though.” 

That night we were sitting in small group time and God placed a complete weight on my heart. It literally felt like on my heart was a massive weight that was not going to go away unless I did something about it. I was completely fighting God, and in the end, I gave in. I honestly, at the time, wanted the weight to go away more than I wanted to fix what needed to be fixed. I was running against the wind. I can’t see God, but I can feel his effects and sometimes they can be a little painful. Things go much easier when you don’t fight God, and you follow his plan. I would end up fighting God a few more times, but I can honestly say that in the end, I’ve given in every time because I run out of strength to keep fighting. And now, I look around and things are so much better because it’s all fixed. Life is beautiful, truly beautiful. So, what are you going to do: fight the wind or take the easier way and follow God’s plan from the beginning?

And the train goes Choo Choo!

I’ve only told (actually I wrote it) this story once, but I had thought about it recently and decided to share. Maybe it will inspire some people like it has me. So here we go…

There was one Wednesday night back in February at church that was absolutely mind blowing to me. God showed up in a massive way and took my breath away. It was amazing and honestly, life changing. That night I went back home and I spent some more time with God, taking it all in. I have a journal entry from that night that I’ve referred back to so many times as a reminder of what an awesome God I serve. But it’s what came next that provided hope. 

I went to bed like always and expected to sleep very very well. I got myself comfy and drifted away to the world of dreams where absolutely anything is possible. But God had a specific dream this night. I remember that I dreamt that I was in the crowd of people listening to Jesus teach, and we were all sitting and he was half sitting, kinda squatting down so that he was a little higher than the people. We were in somewhere that had a dirt floor and it was kinda like a big open barn type building. I remember touching the edge of his robe and kinda playing with it because he moved my hand away from it. His robe was a maroon color by the way, not that it actually matters… but it was what happened next. Jesus stopped talking, and when he stopped, everyone I guess assumed he was done, so they began to talk amongst themselves, but I was still sitting in front of the Messiah. I caught his gaze at one point as he was kinda staring off, staring into the crowd of people and at me. But his gaze was one of compassion and I remember that his gaze said “You don’t realize what I’m about to do for you, the pain I’m about to suffer, but I love you sooo much that I’m willing to do it. for you.” and I woke up literally right after the gaze, but as I laid in bed in the dark, I heard a train in the distance, and in the middle of the night, a train whistle almost has a trumpet kind of sound. And I was already laying in wonder at the dream I just had, but the train reminded me that Jesus is coming back. The train whistle reminded me that one day trumpets are going to sound the return of the KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS. I was filled with soooo much hope right then, that Jesus is really going to be coming back, and the pain of this life is nothing in the joy and hope of Jesus. And when he gathers all of his people, nothing else will matter. 

Revelation 3:11-13

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

He’s coming again. He promises and He doesn’t break a promise. His word is better than gold. 

Every time I hear a train whistle now, I think back to that night, back to that hope to which I now cling, because I know he’s coming again to take his bride. He will return. 

"I do not like them, Sam-I-Am, I do not like green eggs and ham."

So, now that we are on like blog post number 4, I can now kinda get a feel for this whole blog thing… A little serious but yet a little fun all at the same time :D hahahaha It’s rather humorous because I will be doing something and then I will get a revelation and then I will be thinking Hey I could put that in my blog haha- I mean I had those thoughts before but they never ended up anywhere unless they ended up in a letter to my best friend… and I guess I just find it all rather fascinating… 

Real quick before we go any further I am going to place in a couple of disclaimers… 1) this post contains a story which makes it rather long, I’m sorry in advance…so get comfy… 2) I added a bunch of little random thoughts that came to me along the way, so sorry if sentences get kinda broken up by a set of parentheses…just hang on for the ride…

So, a couple of nights ago, my sister wanted to watch the movie Tangled that just came out of DVD. She had just gotten it that day, and it was like 8pm and she wanted to watch it before she went to bed. Well, I knew she was sleeping in my bed with me because my cousin was spending the night so the boys were going to be all over the place and such, and I knew that I did not particularly want to watch Tangled right then. It held very little appeal though I heard it was a decent movie… but then I had an idea… I went up into my brother’s closet and there they were like I knew they would be, the 3 crates of VHSs. I had the bright idea that I was going to show Caitlin some “old” movies that I liked when I was about her age, so I pulled several and told her that she could pick whichever one she wanted and that if she picked a short one, she could watch more than one. While she was picking, I hooked up the VHS player, and then by the time I was done, she had picked out Mary Kate and Ashley’s sleepover movie. I remember being around her age and loving Mary Kate and Ashley, they’re movies were mesmerizing when I was like 6 (and now look where the stars end up…so sad… haha). Caitlin is holding the tape and goes “How does this work?” as she is beginning to twist the little white turny things on the back to which I suddenly slightly yell “Don’t do that, you’re going to break it.” and after a short explanation, I put the tape in, and we watch the movie. It is absolutely amazing at how our opinions and likes and stuff change over time. I was watching the movie thinking “I really liked this? They can’t sing at all and the acting is rather cheesy and the 90’s clothing is just awful…”  Caitlin at least found it funny and seemed to enjoy like I did around that age (I just hope she doesn’t ask to watch it again anytime soon- I don’t know how my mom put up with me watching movies over and over haha) and then because it was a short movie, she got to pick another one, which she picked Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham (it also included the Sneetchs and the Zax). I’ve always like Dr. Seuss and still enjoy picking one up every now and then- the man was a genius, who else can create a cool story about feet (The Foot Book- it was always my favorite for some reason and still is), a cat wearing a super tall hat with a talking goldfish, or I don’t know (put your favorite Dr. Seuss Book title and subject here)… He has written books that have become classics… 

I read Caitlin Green Eggs and Ham recently and then I found myself laying in my bed watching the 90’s sing along version (it’s some pretty darn good singing if you know what I mean)… and it was all good and then we watch another movie that had to do with the Easter bunny…

You are probably wondering what on earth is Morgan’s connection here (I told you in post uno, I don’t tell short stories…just go ask my mom, she has to listen to all my stories… it’s amazing she still listens at all :P ) So, tonight I was continuing on with my current Bible study and it involved looking at Psalms 34. I’m reading it and processing as I go along, and then I came to verse 8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good…” it keeps going but that first part caught my eye… Taste and see that the Lord is good…almost instantly my mind jumps to Green Eggs and Ham… George’s(I don’t think we are ever told his name, so I am going to name him George) whole thing throughout the book until the end (hopefully I don’t ruin the story for anyone…so if you haven’t read it you need to stop reading, cover your eyes, turn around, uncover your eyes, and walk away and read the book- in that order) is that he doesn’t like Green Eggs and Ham. He does not like them Sam I am. But at the end of the story after going on his little adventure, George tastes Green eggs and Ham (how exactly do you make ham that size green?) and he likes them. George sees that they are good. I wonder how often we play that game with God. Taste and see that the Lord is good. We know God is good; we are taught that since preschool sunday school, and if you weren’t brought up in the church, then I bet you heard that God was good from the start. I mean after all, He must be pretty darn good if he gave up his only begotten Son. I wonder how often God holds out something good to us, and we automatically tell him we don’t like that. (God: Hey, I’ve got this cool trip all planned out for you. It’s in the middle of the Slovakia- you are going to bring my good news to some people out there.   Person: You know God, I’m not feeling Slovakia- I haven’t really been there before and it’s in the middle of Europe… can’t we do somewhere cool like, I don’t know, somewhere in the Caribbean, where it’s warm?) God holds out a super cool opportunity, not necessarily in Slovakia (I just pulled up a map of Europe and picked a country in the center), but anywhere or anything, and we just say No, sorry God, that’s not it; you know I haven’t done that or tried that before and I just don’t think it’s gonna work. Sorry. Try again with something else, kay? 

I wonder how much we miss when we hold God kinda at bay and don’t fully soak in all of his blessings and opportunities. We get an opportunity to share our faith with a friend yet we hold out because we don’t know if it’s going to work or not. We get an opportunity to show God’s love to a random person, but we decide not to because the outcome is uncertain. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Maybe we should be like George, and try the Green Eggs and Ham, and most likely almost 99% of the time if God is in it, we are going to like it in the end, just like George. So, maybe we need to change our words from “I do not like them” to “Wow those are pretty good, can I get some more?” 

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

*Alarm Clock Buzzes*-What if we didn't hit the snooze button?

So, on Monday night after I posted my little post (I don’t know what else to call it), I posed a quote, and it’s a quote that has been buzzing around my head all week, and won’t leave me alone…. which means I’m going to share some more :D- expound upon the quote…

“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.” -Thoreau.

If you know me well, you know that I am very much a morning person. I don’t like sleeping in (even if I could). When I say that I slept in, that means that I made it to 8:30 and maybe even 9am but no later. I guess I just don’t quite understand wasting day away by sleeping (now, I will occasionally take a nap- well, if you ask my mom it’s more like an everyday occurrence to find me sleeping on the couch in the living room with some tv show on that I recorded purely to take a nap on- some people just have good sleeping voices… but that’s not the point even though naps are great). But, morning is such a special time of day; it’s the time when everything wakes up. The birds wake up and begin singing, the flower reopen, the sun rises. Everything comes to life. What if we actually woke up, and I don’t mean physically awake. I mean what if we spiritually woke up, and say “Hey, I’m actually going to get something accomplished today. Today, I’m going to live for God and bring a bit of heaven down here on earth.” Think about that thought. Maybe what Thoreau was saying, as he watched the dawn in his little cabin in the woods, was that we need to wake up- each morning should be a time of revival for us, each and every morning. Each morning we should wake up a new, wake up fresh and ready to head out the door with a smile on our face. We shouldn’t need a “mechanical aid”, an alarm clock, to wake us up; we should awaken because we have decided to wake up and stay awake. Dawn will still come all around you if you’re asleep, but then you miss the incredible sunrise, the sweet singing of the birds; you miss the revival. We should live with an infinite expectation for a revival every single day. So, are you going to be a morning person? I am.