"pull"

i'm convinced God has a sense of humor. humans are funny, funny beings. this week has been long for so many reasons, many because i have felt really sick and quarantined myself to my apartment for the majority of the week. so today i decided i needed to get out and come sit at cambridge to get some of my school work done. i got here and it wasn't packed to the brim like it is during finals, but all of the good tables were occupied so i grabbed the table closest to the counter that i could.-which just happened to be closest to the door. i sat facing the door so i could watch people walk by. as i was sitting enjoying my chai, this older lady walked by me and tried to push the door open. her body went full force into the handle and the door, that was previously proped slightly open, jerked into the frame & made this awful loud metal-against-metal bang. she backed up a little alarmed and proceeded to pull the door open, walking confidently like nothing had happened. i have to say that i laughed out loud, only because i have done the same thing so many times. life is funny.

now tell me about this picture...

right before school started i went to go visit some of my dad's family in gulf shores. my main reason for visiting was to get to know my grandmother's sister, Doris Doar, affectionately known to us as "Nanan". my grandmother passed away from ovarian cancer when i was about 1 1/2 so i never had the chance to know her. both of my dad's parents were from the new orleans area. my great grandmother was actually an immigrant from france, so my papa spoke french and english fluently. . . needless to say i love learning about my family history. i think it's one of the most important things for me personally to understand if i truly want to know my family and where i came from. this photo is just a small portion of the box full of pictures that i got to bring back with me from my trip.

nanan, her daughter-in-law, and i spent almost all day saturday sorting through pictures and labeling family portraits. nanan said that one of her favorite memories growing up was looking at pictures and hearing stories with HER grandmother. i loved hearing about my grandmother and her personality. things that she loved. how much she loved my papa and how much they enjoyed living in new orleans. these pictures to me are just small glimpses into my sweet family. glimpses that encourage me to truly know my family, to invest fully into the people i love, to understand and appreciate my grandparents and my parents for that matter.

these glimpses are priceless.

i was in class today and my teacher said something more thought provoking than i think he even knew. he said "an individual's identity is highly correlated with their purpose." i had a conversation with biscuet this morning over breakfast about this very subject. it is something that is hard to articulate sometimes, but the truth is that if our identity is in Christ, it is constant. when we remove culture, people, normalcy-God is still constant, our identity is still constant. i began to think about how true that is for me as a believer. that my identity in Christ is/has to be highly correlated with the purpose of my life, which is to bring God glory and join Him in His vision to see His renown across the globe. i think it's crucial that we understand and discover our identity, for any identity apart from Him is a broken cistern.

the way i see it #186

by far my favorite coffee cup i've ever received from starbucks

awakening

This past Thursday was our first Encounter of the school year and it was absolutely wonderful to say the least. It's hard to articulate something like Encounter because it's not just another meeting or random group of students, it's the gathering of part of God's family here on Auburn's campus- gathered together for one purpose, in one room, with hearts all declaring the same song, with souls desiring one thing: for God to be glorified on our campus and around the world. We have relocated this year from Lakeview to the ballroom at the new Student Center. Honestly, before everyone got there I found myself staring into the room wondering how in the world we were all going to fit. Just as I suspected, the room was packed from wall-to-wall. It was beautiful. Even though I was sitting on the right side of the room with a huge column blocking my view of the stage, and had no chair to sit in, I was overwhelmed with joy to be in that room. My heart has missed this Auburn family for so long. I've anticipated this meeting all summer and it's finally here! Matt delivered such an encouraging message & Daniel and Jason did an amazing job of leading us to the cross of Jesus in song. During the middle of the last set of worship after I began to look around and felt an undeniable stirring of the Lord. My heart breaks for the nations and He is asking me to go. I don't know where or when or for how long, but I do know I'm going. He was present in that room on Thursday and I pray that He will continue to meet with us each week to break and mend hearts and bring hearts out of the deepest gloom and share the beautiful freedom that is promised in Jesus.

encounter family

snapshots from kt b's birthday at waffle house:

love these folks.

please take note of katie's beautiful coffee filter crown.

au bon pain

breakfast this morning with K: fantastic. pretending to work at auburn and playing on her compute: excellent. walking through the ballroom where encounter will be tonight: surreal. pretending like i know my way around lowder and doing 3 laps: embarassing.

Hip Hop Grannies

I love the Olympics. I was stunned by the opening ceremonies. This morning I saw one of my favorite things out of Beijing on the Today show: Hip Hop Grannies. They are priceless.

walk victoriously

... all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it

and who hold fast to my covenant- these I will bring to my holy

mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.

.isaiah 56:6-7

This morning I was reminded of the importance of starting the day in prayer.

Yesterday I was completely overwhelmed with life and this morning the Lord reminded me that I personally need to start my day with quality time with Him.

I love the mornings, but since I've been wearing myself thin with over-committing to things I have been absolutely exhausted and ignored the charming tune of my alarm clock on my phone. But this morning was different. I was actually excited to get up and get ready when my alarm went off- I know some people probably think that is a bizarre reaction to an alarm clock, but if you think about what the alarm is really signalling perhaps you can understand where I'm coming from. To me the alarm signals a new day, a fresh start, it's the beginning, a gift, a chance to make a difference, an opportunity to walk onto a campus with light and purpose, a chance to love people.

Here is the play-by-play of my morning:

[those of you still reading this must really love me haha, maybe too much detail, but I want you to understand my experience]

[6:50] I went to 21 Days of Prayer at Highlands this morning with Mary Reading and then had breakfast at Big Blue. MR was so encouraging. I love to hear people's hearts, so getting to catch up with her was fantastic.

[8:27ish] MR leaves for work and I stay in Big Blue with my journal, Breaking Free, and an hour in the meter.

[8:35ish] After plugging in my earphones and picking an appropriate song to drown out the background noise I opened my book to the chapter for today. What was the title you ask? It was The Obstacle of Prayerlessness.

[8:37] The Lord gently and very boldly pointed out why I have felt so overwhelmed and anxious lately: my lack of quality, un-timed, intimate time with Him in prayer.

When we walk with him, we walk in victory, but to walk with Him, to know Him we MUST communicate with Him. It was just a wonderful, humbling reminder of that this morning reading through this chapter. I won't continue on through my whole day...that'd be a little much...but I wanted to paint the picture for you of how He so beautifully orchestrated my morning and drew me back into His presence and love at Big Blue this morning.

Enjoy the day. It's a beautiful gift.

Senior: ah!

Tomorrow is the first day of my senior year. I'm thrilled, but still baffled by the fact that 3 years here has already gone by so fast. I'm scared to death. I have no idea where I will be a year from now, but I do know that the Lord has a plan so I've got to chose to rest in that promise [Jeremiah 29:11-13]. Lately nothing as gone according to plan and everything I've know as a comfort at school as changed. So these first few months are going to be beautifully chaotic. I want to soak up every minute and enjoy all the surprises. Everything is just so different this year. Why is life constantly changing? [That's rhetorical. No answer is needed in my comment box] Time for reading and sleep before the first day. Here we go...

Vanilla Chai and Meg

Monday morning I had the chance to sit with my big sister Meghan and talk through how our time at home had been [we were both there for a weekend]. Breakfast with her was really fantastic. I had a huge cup of vanilla chai at my new favorite coffee shop in Huntsville: Stern's Coffee, and I had an hour of uninterrupted genuine time with Meg. The only set back of that morning was when I walked into Stern's the people working there thought I was a complete moron. Part of being in coffee shops for long periods of time is that you begin to watch people come in and how they interact with the people there. Well, Monday morning it was very obvious that I was the newbie. My first brilliant move was when I walked in and completely missed the menu which was about 3 feet x 4 feet plastered on the wall behind me. So in my most brilliant moment I looked at the kind woman taking my order and asked to see a menu, she didn't say a word and just pointed behind me. I slowly turned around feeling like I was shrinking as I turned. My eyes jumped around the 8000 options of coffee and syrups and special drinks they offered till I found the chai section. My heart was so happy! [Mind you: there are about 5 'regulars' standing behind me in line giving me the "would you please just kick it into gear and order please" look] After ordering my drink I decided to find a table in hopes that I would handicap my genius self from making everyone aware that I had no clue how to navigate my way around Stern's. Shortly after my grand entrance Megs showed up so our breakfast could begin.

I really cherish the one on one time I get to have with her because those opportunities are usually few and far between. She is one of the few people that have always been constant in my life. She is one of the people I can be completely honest and vulnerable with and trust her to do the same with me. All that to say: Monday started off beautifully because of Vanilla Chai and Meg.

Here are some snapshots of my time at home:

Life is funny. Sometimes you just have to embrace the humor.

Airplane: the roles are reversing.

MC: I'm kind of obessesed with her.

Peaches.

Lots of driving.

the roar

A beautiful picture of what is to come...

...I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count,

from every nation, tribe, people and language,

standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.

They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

.Revelation 7:9

Olympics

I'm watching the opening ceremony.

My jaw is about to hit the floor.

Wishing I could be there.

Desperate to experience the roar in all different languages.

The next week:

This week has been just fantastic: Christi came home from HK and I convinced my teacher to let me take my final late so I could go hang out with her for a few days- she's an amazing friend, I hope you have the chance to know her someday, school is over for the summer (aka: one week break till school starts again), SYTYCD Finals ...Katee and Joshua's lyrical piece was my dance of the year. I'm kind of sad the show is over, but I guess that's the beauty of YouTube, I can re-watch dances over and over again the whole year. I didn't realize how crazy busy the next couple of weeks are going to be until I was telling one of my friends about my plans. There are definitely pros and cons to my out of town adventures, one of the great things is that I am going to be able to spend lots of time with my immediate and extended family. I haven't seen my immediate family in what seems like forever so I am looking forward to some time to be able to sit and talk with them and then I get to travel down to the beach to visit my dad's side of the family. They have an abundance of family photos that I am itching to look through and copy. My dad's mom passed away when I was a baby so I have only known her through my dad's stories and the few pictures we have of her. I am looking forward to hearing more stories about her and my grandfather. The down side to all my traveling is that I have so many wonderful friends that are about to move that will still be in Auburn and I will be missing some quality time with them. But hopefully I'll get some good time with them when I'm back in town. Another exciting thing about being home is being able to talk to my family about Japan!!! I absolutely can not wait. The entire process was just undeniably of the Lord and I'm baffled by how He works through the details of my life and just weaves them beautifully together when I least expect it. I really need to sit down and write the story down, but that will need to be on a day when I have some time to think and process through everything. Now I need to go enjoy the gorgeous day outside.

it's a new day.

It's going to be a beautiful day.

I'm so thankful for a fresh start today.

To be able to walk to class and soak up the sun.

To laugh in a class full of new friends.

To pick up one of my best friends at the airport after a 5 week trip to Hong Kong.

It's going to be a beautiful day.

truth conquers hearts.

I appologize in advance for the poor resolution of this picture, but it had to be taken without a flash to prevent glare from the top coat of this painting...

This is a piece I painted right after I got back to Auburn

this summer from working with Kenny & the amazing students of

HaU [my youth group in Huntsville].

The vision that is being placed and prayed over the students is one of growth. Hence the inspiration behind the painting.

The vision is that we, as leaders, would be committed to meeting students where they are, guiding them and encouraging them to fall deeper in love with the one and only God who is Love.

[And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:16]

Today was a wonderful day because of a great conversation I got to have with a friend in the parking lot of Sonic. It started out as a simple run to McDonalds for some dinner and a McFlurry. Well, I should have taken Bek's words of wisdom that haven proven true the past 2 times I've been there: the ice cream machine at McDonalds in Auburn 'breaks' every night at 9:00- just in case you are ever craving a delicious treat, go before then. So since the machine was 'broken' we resorted to Sonic where we talked a lot about how God is growing his global family and what it looks like to be his children and to understand the privlege that we have to be a part of His story. My friend lives in China told me a few stories of his friends there, but one in particular just spoke straight to my heart and astounded me with the power of truth.

Do you ever have those moments when someone is speaking to you and you know that their words are flowing straight from their heart? Just the honest, vulnerable, real truth of where they are and what is going on in their life.

Tonight I got to hear a small glimpse of that from a great friend.

It is so amazing to me how God orchestrates our lives.

I am so thankful for friends who love me and invest in me, I'm so undeserving and have been given so much.