The Way I See It #76

"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating-- in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational histation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."

--Anne Morriss
Starbucks customer from New York City. She describes herself as an "organization builder, restless American citizen, optimist."

Engaged!

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/daynawallen&colinbates

New Life in Spring

Life is sweet. Even on days like today, the middle of the week in Spring just waiting for Summer and change, there are moments of goodness.  Like right now I'm listening to the kind of music that's mellow in all the right ways, sitting in my living room with my roommates while the sun pours in through the sliding door.  Just finished a Diet Dr. Pepper that Colin brought me just because he's like that.  Realizing that God won't stop loving me because I'm moody and inconsistent. Knowing that life is full and that God is big and nothing can mess it up-- not death or tears or the unknown.  Knowing that everyone is a person with a heart and a story.  Sweet delicious lingering moments like this remind me not to worry and just to enjoy.  Happy Easter-- He is risen and alive!

Helpful or Heartless?

"It is Christ. . . who also makes intercession for us. . . the Spirit. . . makes intercession for the saints. . .  (Romans 8:34, 27)

'. . .Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don't worship God, and we fail to intercede.  If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them.  We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go.  A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord.

'Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit?"

-Chambers, Oswald. "Helpful or Heartless Toward Others?" April 1.  My Utmost for His Highest.

This slapped me in the face this morning.