as I plow through a huge to-do list

. . .I am realizing again the effect that music has upon one's soul.
Today and tomorrow I am fitting in two weeks of work into two days.  It truly is amazing the effect that music has on my productivity!  iTunes is playing on shuffle in the background.

This is no time for Chopin's Intermezzos.   

thank you Lord for the gift of music

This Fathomless Love

a meditation on 1 John 4:7-9

There are some times when the absolute inadequacy of the soul to see and comprehend the things of God comes to the forefront of one’s thoughts.  And as I have pondered the immensity and impossibility of God’s love it has struck me again and again how far above the comprehension of man are the ways and thoughts of God. 

 God is love.  That simple sentence, those three short words, is a mystery in itself.  He is love; love in it’s true and pure form, Love the way it was designed to be.  Who can hope to ever understand God?  Yet it has been told unto us that God has manifested His love towards mankind through His Son Christ Jesus.  It is through the sending of Christ into the world to live and die that sinful man may be justified that we can discern what true love is. 

God’s love is purely selfless.  There was and is no neediness in God’s soul that needed to be filled by mortal love or acceptance.  He was, is and always will remain the great, eternal, unchanging I AM.  There was no merit in our souls that in any sense deserved such a sacrifice.   Yet it was at this juncture, with a High and Holy God reaching down to a lowly and lost people that true love was demonstrated to the universe.  “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. . .” 

It is this nature of love that we are called to shine forth throughout the world.  Because God sent, because Christ died, we are commissioned to go throughout life with that same love marking and defining our lives.  We are to love – not those who are worthy and deserving but to all without distinction.  We are to love - not just to those who will accept it but without thought of the response of others.  We are to love - not in hopes that our love will be returned; not in any need of our own soul; not simply once but continually and constantly and fervently.   We are to love, that we may be a living testimony to a lost world of a God who is love. 

{today}

today I am delighting in the simple things of life. . .

looking around the table at lunch and seeing the faces of dear friends

the calm of reading outside under a tree after long hours working on my computer

watering flowers (even though it always seems that I end up being almost as wet as the plants)

the hilarity of teaching myself Greek :)

quiet evenings where you can just stand and watch the sun set over the lake.

and today I am thankful for special memories. . .

like Saturday morning when all the men on campus made breakfast for the ladies, treating and serving us royally while keeping us laughing

going for a bike ride with a friend to the town library and each of us finding a cozy and quiet corner to study and work for a couple of hours


and today I am expectant for what lies ahead!   Our God is our Creator and Sustainer.  He has promised that He will continue the work that He has begun.  "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:1-2

I think having a blog would be easier. . .

. . .if I knew how to take pictures. 

If one knows how to take pictures, one can grab a quick shot that perfectly captures their mood or what is happening with life, stick a quote under it and 'voila!'

You have a blog post.

If one does not know how to take such pictures, it is infinitely harder. 

First: something noteworthy must happen in life. 

Second: one must feel inspired to share that with the world 

     Third: one must somehow find the time to capture that memory or event in words 

(I tend to struggle somewhere around this point) 

Fourth: the internet must have a constant, consistent connection during the small window of time that one managed to find

 (I also struggle with this step) 

See how much easier it would be to have a blog if one was a photographer?! 

twice in twenty-four hours

Yesterday morning, I received the email that I had been expecting.

Room checks.

Thursday morning.

It still feels a little strange to be on the 'checking' side of the room checks.

Anyhow, I read the email, tweaked my schedule a little and then forgot about the room checks.

Or so I thought.

Do you ever get those dreams where you dream about the upcoming day?

Well, I had one of those.

And in my dream, I literally checked all the girls dorm rooms on campus.

every. single. one.

Before waking up and doing the same thing all over again in real life.

It was actually a lot more interesting checking the rooms in my dream. I remember walking into one in particular and noticing that they had painted all the walls different colours. Wheras in real life, there tends to be a constant adrenaline rush trying to get through all the rooms in less than an hour and a half and tediously trying to decide if that straightener left on the sink counter brings the score from a '4' to a '3'.

So yes, the rooms on campus have been checked twice in twenty-four hours.

consider the lilies

. . .how they neither toil nor spin yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.