Carried away for God

I love Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest. This is one of his devotionals.

“She hath wrought a good work on Me.” Mark 14:6

If human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it.

Have I ever been carried away to do something for God not because it was my duty, nor because it was useful, nor because there was anything in it at all beyond the fact that I love Him? Have I ever realized that I can bring to God things which are of value to Him, or am I mooning round the magnitude of His Redemption whilst there are any number of things I might be doing? Not Divine, colossal things which could be recorded as marvellous, but ordinary, simple human things which will give evidence to God that I am abandoned to Him? Have I ever produced in the heart of the Lord Jesus what Mary of Bethany produced?

There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion – “Am I of any use?” and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time.

Life for a Season

I love the fall! I always forget how much I like it, and then I walk into the woods on a misty fall day, and the beauty of it just tumbles over me. There’s something marvelous about each season, but autumn is just different.  As I was walking through our woods today, I was reminded of how we go through different seasons of life as well. I’m so thankful to God for the season I’m going through right now. It’s wonderful- just like fall! I don’t mean that everything is all fun and games, or that there aren’t hardships, quite the contrary. But you know, each season that you go through is wonderful because each season God has something new to teach you, something new to give you. He manifests Himself to you in a different way, or He lets one of His promises sprinkle over you like a spring rainfall.

It’s always exciting to find out more about yourself. To find out who you really are, deep down inside. How much more exciting it is to find out who you are in Christ! I think each season of our lives we not only find out more about God, but we also find out more about our identity in Christ.  Each season of our lives we are also given new opportunities to obey Christ, to surrender ourselves even more fully to Him. It’s exciting to be a warrior for Christ, and to be a servant to those around you. It’s exciting to answer Christ’s calling in our lives every day and through each season we come upon.

More Thanksgiving!

Yes, I know, I know! I didn’t blog yesterday or the day before, but don’t worry, I still am going to write about 30 thanksgivings in 30 days– I just have to play catch up a little bit. So here it goes:

Day 3: My home.

When I say “home,” I don’t even necessarily just mean my house; I mean my street, my town, my state. . . everything! It’s kind of funny because before I was born and I when I was just a wee lass, my family moved around a lot, but we moved here before I turned six, and we’ve lived here ever since. So I can truly say that I’ve grown up in this area. I’ve just recently started thinking about that because both of my siblings moved around for a lot of their childhood, and some of my friends moved here in middle school, but I’ve grown up here! I know the area very well; I love the feeling of being so familiar with where I am, and who lives in my town, and which places I go to. And then, there’s my actual house too. I’d never really thought about how I’d lived in this house most of my life, but it’s true. For that reason alone, I love my house! I’m so thankful to God for being able to live in one place for so long and to love it and love the area, and be able to grow up with the same friends, the same neighbors, the same stores, and the same parks. It’s really awesome! The only downside is I’ve developed into quite the homebody. I might love my town too much. But that’s okay because at some point I know that I’m going to have to move, and then I’ll be able to start a whole other adventure somewhere else.

Day 4: Trees

One thing I love about this area is all the tall trees. I love trees! I love the shade they give. I love the sound when the wind rushes through their leaves. I love the smell of fresh pine. I love the rich colors of the leaves in the fall. I also love the beauty of the trees when they’re bare and cold during the winter. I love the feel of smooth beech bark on my hands. I’m so glad God created trees. And I’m so so glad that they’re are trees where I live– and lots of them. One of the great things about this area is since there are so many pine and hemlocks, you’re always going to have some color, even during the winter. And oh how I love walking outside after a snowfall and seeing the branches heavy with snow!

Trees are strong. They’re fortresses of the forest. They’re sturdy and trustworthy. They don’t back down even during a storm; they keep standing. They provide a haven for birds and small critters. I guess you can learn a lot of lessons from trees. One of the trees next to our house got struck by lightning and a few days later the wind knocked top of the half down. It’s gone through trials, but it’s still there, tall and confident. Trees are courageous.

Just looking out my window, I can see dozens of trees stretching out to the horizon (the wonderful thing about living on the third floor). I wonder how I could live without my trees.

The Sun is Shining!

So, I bet you all have been wondering what I’m thankful for today. Don’t worry– I won’t hold you in suspense any longer. I’m thankful for the cooler weather and the smell of autumn in the air. I love the fall! It’s full of new beginnings, apples, butternut squash, crunchy leaves, beautiful colors, windy days, Thanksgiving (!), sweaters, and pSATS. Yeah, I’m not so sure that I love the pSATS, but I love the rest of those things!

I love starting school again. I like how excited everyone is at the beginning of a new school year. It’s fun to be learning and having productive days again. It’s fun to start seeing what your new classes are all about. It’s fun because you’re still well rested and not behind. Later in the year, school sometimes doesn’t always seem as fun because I’m trying to catch up on assignments, or I’m not getting enough sleep, or every class suddenly gets ten times harder at the same time. But in the fall, school is wonderful, just like it should be.

Another thing I love about autumn is cross-country. If you know me, you know how much I love cross-country, or at least you kind of have a sense of it. And cross-country is a fall sport, so it makes the whole fall seem awesome. I’m usually pretty good about time management during the fall because I know that I have to get things done before xc practice, and I know that I have to be well rested for my meet on Saturday. The weather during the fall is perfect for running. I love those crisp days when your cheeks get rosy from being outside. You don’t get too warm running, but it’s not too cold either. And there’s leaves to catch while you run.

I really do love every season, but there’s something about autumn that sets it apart. I mean, come on, it has two names for Pete’s sake! That means it’s two times as awesome. Today, on this sunny day, I can feel autumn in the air, and just breathe in its richness, and thank God that He created NH falls.

Filled with Thanksgiving

I thought with the new school year, I should start something new, like a blog. But I also wanted some structure to my blog, so. . . for the next 30 days, I decided that I’m going to write about 30 things that I’m thankful for. This should be fun!

Actually, it already is fun because as I started thinking about what my first thing would be, I started realizing just how blessed I am. I don’t think there’s anyone in the world who’s as blessed as I am. But God blesses different people in different ways. What might be the most wonderful thing ever for one person might not be for another. So I think we’re all filled to the brim with blessings, and, therefore, should all be filled to the brim with thanksgiving to our gracious Lord. It reminds me of the line in “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” where the poet writes, “Blessings all mine and ten thousand besides!” Ten Thousand! Now that’s a lot of blessings! Thirty seems like such a pitiful number now. Well, enough of an introduction– on to the first blessing. Actually, one more thing I have to say, the list of 30 blessings that will follow in the next 30 days are in no certain order at all.

The first thing I want to say I’m thankful to God for is my family. Now I know people are always saying that, but I really had to include it in my list because I would be absolutely nowhere without them. I love my family very dearly. We laugh, talk, and learn together. We pray together and for each other. God certainly knew what He was doing when He created the family. And He certainly knew what He was doing when He created my family. It never ceases to astonish me how God creates the perfect family for each person. He has a reason why each member is in a family. I want to thank my family for all the sacrifices they’ve made for me, all the prayers they’ve prayed for me, all the things they’ve taught an unwilling listener (me), and all the laughs and love we’ve shared. I could go on and on talking about each member of the family, but . . . I won’t. I’ll just say that I love you guys! I don’t think I could ever thank God enough for you all!

Why a blog? Why me?

I’ve always been told to keep a journal, and I’ve always wanted to. Somehow, though, it hasn’t worked out so well. A few years ago I got a journal for Christmas. At first I wrote in it every day, then slowly (or rather quickly actually) I started to only write in it occasionally. There never seemed to be anything interesting to write. For a while I kept on “re-starting” my journal. But that didn’t work either. In fact, I tell you no lie, I actually have a journal entry that only says “Ok.” No joke. I’m serious. I either just couldn’t think of anything to write, or I got distracted. Both very plausible reasons why I didn’t write anything else.

Anyway, for some reason, a blog sounds more inviting to me. Maybe because I know that I have to write something that might somehow be remotely interesting to someone. Maybe it’s because it isn’t as tiring to type as it is to hand-write. Maybe it’s because you can choose pretty backgrounds. I don’t know. But don’t blame me if you find that I never make any posts because that’s exactly how my journal was, and, in all seriousness, what would make me be any better with updating a blog?