oasis

i love writing.  blogs, short stories, poems, comments on facebook; you name it, i'll write it.  i almost always have some piece that i'm working on.  the following is a...well, i don't really know what you would call it, but it's just a reflection of some feelings i was meditating on in april. 

i think the idea was prompted by the fact that i had been on a water binge and had been drinking buckets and buckets of water everyday, but i still felt so thirsty all the time.  i had also been really dry (ironic, no?) in my relationship with God during that time and i desperately needed an oasis, both for my physical body and for my spirit.  the Lord in his mercy showed himself to me in a way that slapped me in the face!  duh!  the LORD is my oasis, forever and always.  God is so cool in the way that he uses the seemingly insignificant events in my life to reveal more of his character to me.  i love that!  so, without furthur ado...oasis:

where is my oasis?  certainly not in water.  there is darkness even in the shallowest of waters.  depth only increases the darkness that begins directly below the surface.  sometimes it feels safer to just keep my distance.  but sometimes i get thirsty.  like really, really thirsty.  so thirsty that i forget about the danger.  i drink and i drink and i drink but i can never quench the horrible thirst.  endless glasses of water meet my lips to no avail.  in a sea of dryness water is supposed to be a cool oasis, but it isn't always for me.  instead of quenching my thirst and providing sanctuary, it becomes the ocean i drown in; an unforgiving prison, devoid of air and comfort.  this elixir of life can make life hell.  one wrong move and i could easily be sputtering and struggling for breath.  it baffles me to think that the substance that keeps me living and breathing could also just as easily take away that life and breath.

so where is my oasis?  certainly not in air.  the air is fickle as a child.  ever changing, ever moving, never sitting still.  it's relentless blowing whips the world at its whim.  there can be no peace when air is around.  there can be no relief.  even my deepest of breaths cannot provide strength.  the wind carries with it the secrets of each town it blows through, each lonely cry, each shameful event.  there is no escape from the air.

so where is my oasis?  certainly not in people.  people let you down.  people are imperfect. people ruin beautiful things.  it is at the hands of many people that nations crumble and innocent are left for dead.  the meek are trampled by the prideful, the gentle are overpowered by the rough.  i will most definitely not find my oasis in people.

so where is my oasis?  certainly, in my Lord.  his people are made perfect in his image and their deepest stains are washed as white as snow.  his breath of life fills my lungs.  his fountain provides sustaining water, water that will becomes in me a spring welling up to eternal life.  he fills me so that i overflow.  the Lord is certainly my oasis.

sloppy wet kisses

play this song as you're reading!

i think it's probably pretty safe to assume that when most people imagine a perfect kiss it isn't sloppy and wet.  it doesn't leave them wiping the residual slobber and germs from their mouths.  it's probably a little more neat; more respectful and thoughtful.  the perfect kiss leaves you loving the kisser even more than before.


well what about a kiss from a baby?  those kisses certainly aren't neat and clean.  they are uncontrolled, sloppy, and usually pretty wet.  the baby who has just learned to kiss isn't concerned with form or technique, but that kiss, the only way they know to express love, is still so beautiful and perfect.


our lives are nowhere close to neat and tidy.  i know that my live is a testament to that.  we stumble and fall over our own shortcomings and we let ourselves be led down the wrong path.  but you wanna know what's great about that?  God loves us anyway.  he chooses to meet us where we are in our lives.  his heavenly kingdom meets our world with such reckeless abandon.  he so greatly desires to be intimately involved in the lives of his children.  how awesome is that?!


so why do we care so much about keeping up these appearances?!  so often i see others, and most often myself, faking my faith, and not only so others will think i'm great, but so God will think i'm great too.  that's about the stupidest thing i could do.  who the corn do i think i am?!  he knows every inch of my being.  he sees my greatest faults.  he knows the darkest parts of my heart.  how could i fake who i am to him?

 
this blog is a culmination of thoughts that i've been meditating on for a while that came together perfectly when i heard this song in church this morning.  i've know and loved this song for quite some time, but i felt a definite pull of the spirit today that prompted all this.  i also know that the original lyrics for this song in the bridge do not say "when heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss" they actually say "sloppy wet kiss".  i'm not so much interested in the reasons behind why the lyrics were changed, although if you are you can read this blog post by the songwriter.  i'm more interested in how beautiful and pure that thought is.  how great is it that despite how aweful and sinful our world is, heaven and earth can still meet in a wonderful, albeit sloppy, way that brings us redemption.  i'd take a million heartfelt, pure, genuine sloppy wet kisses over one "perfect" kiss any day!  bring em on!

"i want to be the first dog!"

ohhhhhh summer staff training.  i had no idea what i was getting myself into when i took this job, but i can confidently say that i love, love, love being here.  i've been busy out of my mind learnin' thangs and filling out forms and printing endless amounts of pages and going on scavenger hunts in georgia, but i wouldn't trade this experience or the people i've met for the world.  the spirit of God is so alive in everyone here and i know that he'll be doing awesome things through us this summer!

i've been priiiiiiiiiiitty diligent about taking a photo (or 2 or 5) a day so ill just post those and then talk about each one.  i'm thinking that this is how my blogs will be this summer with the occasional supplemental blog here and there.

may 27, 2011 - this was my room the night before i left for training.  messy, messy, messy!

may 28, 2011 - waiting to board the plane from dallas, tx to atlanta, ga!!!

may 29, 2011 - our team building activity was world changer's version of "the amazing race", which basically amounted to a huge scavenger hunt around our area of georgia.  my lovely music leader, candace, had to persuade some people who were tubing this river to let her sit in their tube and get a picture of it.  she's a good sport!

i also think it's important to let you know that the first challenge in our amazing race was to shoot a bow and arrow at a target.  you had to hit the target within 5 tries or your team had 10 minutes added to their total time.  i was the archer that day and i got a bull's eye after 2 shots that completely missed the target.  i didn't get a picture of it, but i promise that it happened.  the arrow was like a centimeter from the center!

may 30, 2011 - monday was packing day for all of our projects in the world changers warehouse.  it took us from 8 in the morning until around 4 in the afternoon the get everything packed.  i made the mistake of wearing jeans that day.  needless to say, it was hot.

may 31, 2011 - we packed medical supplies and did driving school that day.  i was on a team of people packing band aids for each individual first aid kit for the summer.  thats close to 500 first aid kits.  lots and lots and lots of counting.  lots and lots and lots of band aids.

the picture below is of my team leader/av, matt.  he was in the middle of explaining how he used to pretend that the salt and pepper shakers were a bride and groom.  how cute!

oh, and driving school?  i was hack awesome.  we learned how to pull a trailer behind an expedition.  before this week i had never had to pull anything behind a vehicle, and i had never driven anything bigger than a small truck.  i'm pretty pro at both now.  too bad i'm considered a "secondary driver" cause of my age.

june 1, 2011 - wednesday was the lovely jillian's 22nd birthday!  she's also and office manager and we all had cake (decorated with pink and yellow frosting, of course) and homemade cookies and cream ice cream.  y.u.m.  she's been such a great friend and blessing to me while i've been here!  i couldn't have asked for a sweeter person to help me through this time of training!

june 2, 2011 - some of the real work began that day.  we learned about our central information system and how to use it. we also had some "homework" to complete.  it was tough and a little overwhelming, but i got through it and i think i'm gonna be fine!  most of the work isn't that hard, it's just time consuming or tedious.  nbd.

i also got my official staff badge!!!  i was so excited to get it!  too bad i look like a 12 year old boy in the picture!

june 3, 2011 - friday gets 3 pictures!  the first is of some of the office managers playing catch phrase during one of our breaks.  we play lots of games, but catch phrase is definitely the favorite and we all get so competetive!

candace and i did laundry that day!  this is us in the teeny tiny little laundry room in the dorm.  the washer i was sitting on would visibly shake.  i was a little afraid it would esssplode...it didn't.

and the last is a picture of the "north pole girls".  aren't we cute?!  jillian, in the red, and caroline, in the grey, were 2 of my summer staffers for the north pole, alaska trip that i went on last summer.  they are both so sweet!



well thats all of the pictures that i have for now.  hope you enjoyed them!