Intrigued.

A few nights ago I was talking with a friend about a great nursing placement she did in Nepal recently. I asked her a bunch of questions and found out some pretty cool facts that I want to share with you all in this post...
In Nepal people eat 2 meals a day which mainly consist of rice and lentils. The main religion there is Hinduism and a few areas practice Buddhism. In the Hindu religion there are many festivals for their gods and that is when they sacrifice and eat their meats. Apparently a  lot of the population is quite short so my friend who is as tall as me, got asked on a few occasions why she was so tall! I thought that was funny.

One thing that I found most intriguing was a photo I saw from her travels. Here below is that photo.

I thought it was some kind of festive decoration, but it was much more then stringed fabric. On each piece is a prayer that someone had written and attached to the string line. The people there believe that when the wind blew, their prayers would be sent out to whichever god. The wind is their carrier. I thought that was absolutely beautiful.

I love learning about other religious practices because I can often more then not, take some of the basic ways they connect to a god and reflect it back on how I interact and practice my faith with my god. (I used the lowercase form "god", because mine is just that to anyone who is not a Christian, and in this post I want to be in equal respect to all religious views.)

Can you image the joy & serenity a person in Nepal would feel when the wind blew, just after hanging up their fabric prayer?! They may be working in the rice fields or stepping off a bus, hanging some laundry out on a line and a gust of wind ----- interrupts whatever had been happening before in their day and all they can think of in that moment is their fabric prayer being sent off. Most incredible.
I find I get a lot of my big ideas of ways to draw closer to my god by learning about other religions or from other people. It is so amazing some of the ways people go before their god or celebrate their god or bring things before their god. Some to this day I don't agree with, but a few are so captivating, I think to myself, "Why don't I do that with my god?" And why not?! I'm intrigued & I think my god is too.
I am glad my friend went to Nepal.

Who wears the pants?

All my life I have gone to school lectures and heard, "Be a leader of the school." "Lead your own life, don't let others lead it for you!" It gives the role of "following" such a stigma. Especially being a young woman of God, I find myself confused when I'm asked to control my path in life. The Son of God spent His life asking people to follow Him. To give up that control. Story to story, He calls upon people to follow, to leave their lives, leave their plans and go.

There's a short story in the book of Matthew; of Jesus walking up to a guy named Matthew (go figure) who was a tax collector, and called to him, "Follow me". So what does Matthew do, he leaves his booth, leaves it all and follows Jesus. Bam, another disciple of Jesus. I wish it was that simple now! But today we question too much and trust too little. Maybe not all the time, maybe only part-time, but it happens. Whether we say it out loud or think it in our deepest thoughts. Doubt happens. 

A word Jesus uttered to the people he encountered was akolouthei which means "come and follow". This word beckoned men and women to leave it all to follow. Another word for a disciple is a mathetais, meaning "learner". I don't always want to teach and lead like society wants, I want to learn and follow. This little while that has passed, I have felt Holy Spirit asking me to enter into a new relational context. 

I have entered into my final year of high school and for all my life I wanted to be this one thing, then God shook everything up and called me to something different. For me this involved a lot of adjustments and many extra-strength Tylenols. I was so tempted to take back the control on my life and lead it for myself, to go through with my old plans. It was easier and a safer plan, but then I thought about it a little more... I am not my own! I am a temple built by my Father and I am His, so surely my plans are not my own, but are His also. *Light bulb * when I follow Christ, He honors that submission. I want to be more like Matthew and I dream of a time when everyone will be like him. Be as willing, submissive to Holy Spirit, humble in following, because I think all Christian spirituality is, is letting God wear the pants in the relationship. 

Don't listen to what the world asks of you, but listen and ask for God to tell you what He wants with you! He will use you for His great works. Listen for Him calling, akolouthei, akolouthei. 
Who is wearing the pants in your relationship?

a new season afoot !

The passage that has been on my heart this summer is in the book of Ecclesiastes and in the month I was away from home, God brought it to life.

My summer was spent up north on the shores of Lake Clearwater. There I was a chalet leader for the first time. I was filled with incredible experiences, some more bizarre then others, like, getting concussed, eating about 5 apples a day (and still getting sick), playing some hardcore manhunt, teaching archery, painting myself head-to-toe red, walking up to a camper in the dark (who I thought was a staff member) and telling her my feet really stink, and other fun things. 

I also saw Jesus pushing me right out of my comfort zone and into His light. Into a better way of living and being with Him. Not lingering on each experience or pondering the next, but being willing to enter a new at the close of an old. 
Some other things that happened... being asked by one of my campers if I could pray for her as I helped her down to the nurse's station, asking a dozen people a day if they could pray for me (whether they knew me or not), seeing The Messiah in worship and rejoicing fully without wondering who may look at me, sprinting down to the dining hall to save a table for my chalet no matter how ridiculous I looked with my arms flailing, being honest with people, being so honest in situations and how I felt, putting myself last, surrendering to Abba, reaffirming each day my true identity, seeking guidance, letting Abba be seen more then myself, struggling but still finding hope, being in pain but still choosing to trust, being vulnerable for Christ to work in me while being very broken, and allowing love to consume me.

SO many amazing and life altering things and they all had their own time.
I have a deeper instinct for Spirit and where He calls me next. He called me to this camp, He also called me to a church in Huntsville when I was on my day off, He called me to go home for a day, He called me back to the camp again, and now He calls me back into school.
I've learnt that all things have their season and if we try to extend it, they just fade and wither and lose they`re beauty. Staying at camp and playing manhunt every night would be so much fun at first, but after a while it would become boring. Being in worship with that community wouldn't ever lose it`s power, but I would never have the same longing for it because I wouldn't of had a chance to miss it. 

"There`s a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven."