Schwoop Schwoop

In four days I leave for the white slopes of Crested Butte, CO. I'm somewhere between excited and nervous. See I've been skiing five times so you would think that I'm a fairly decent skier. And I am but it took some work to get there . . . oh about three years biding my time in ski school. I am what you call "accident prone", "clumsy", "uncoordinated", and any other adjectives to describe someone who has taken a ride DOWN the ski lift, hitched a ride with ski patrol after being stranded on the side or a run, and slid down an entire run on her bum.

Luckily the fifth time was the charm (oh I can't do it in just three, nope, that would be too predictable) and I had the best year of skiing, until the blizzard that is. See I had the perfect day of skiing our second day on the mountain: no fear, great speed and agility, I ROCKED the mountain. Then the blizzard struck before our third day of skiing and I messed up my knee going down a run with snow up to my thighs.

So I'm hoping after a 4 year break that I'll be able to pick it back up.

Tradition

This time of year seems to be filled with tradition. From how you celebrate Christmas, to how you decorate your home, the exact way in which you open presents, and how you spend time with loved ones, each day invokes things you have done many time before.

Well it looks like I will have my own little tradition in my speck of the internet and it becomes official this year. Two years ago I wrote the following post to mark the Christmas season. Since I said it best the first time around, let this now become Katie's official Christmas post.

Enjoy!

http://www.kpinion.net/2005/12/what-child-is-this.html

Under Pressure

The following is a comment I left over at Don't Call Me Veronica on a post he wrote. It made me think.

5/31: God has saved me not for anything I've done or will do but because of his grace and purpose. - Tony at Don't Call Me Veronica



For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:8-10

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

So after reading your journal entry for 5/31 my initial thought probably wasn't on line with what I assume you intended (that our salvation isn't based on our works) . . . instead I thought (and had to stop a moment to let my head really wrap around this thought) that God didn't save me for all the amazing things I might do for Him, or how I would fill this role in His body, or even for the ministry that I currently fill, but because of His grace (insert love for me as just me,not for what I bring to the table, even the big purposeful table of ministry or His church) and for His purposes (those that I can't see or know or even have a realization that I am accomplishing - purposefully invisible). Now this strikes me because instead of thinking we owe a debt to God and can work it off to get into heaven, I think a lot of believers come to God because of grace but then feel this burden of debt is owed to make up for what Christ did. And that isn't freedom, that isn't living in grace, that's putting back on the yoke of slavery and writing out own list of debts to be paid.

So all that to say, if I truly believe that God saved me not for what I can do for Him (even with Him in me) but because of His grace and His purpose than I'm freed up to be used by Him without a burden or pressure to pay back what I was freely given.

Sorry if that was a ramble or if it doesn't make sense, either way it was a good thing for me to understand today.

I want my two dollars*

At the moment I have the jaw line of a man, square and firm. I'm also out three teeth, wisdom teeth. Why three, you ask? Well because I had one pulled less than a year ago after passing out at Walmart. But that's a different story.

So I'm three teeth down, one and a half days of recovery done, no more pain pills needed, and a sqare jaw. Not bad.

But back to the post title. Do you think the Tooth Fairy makes deliveries to adults? And just how much is a wisdom tooth worth in the current exchange rate?

Re-learning old lessons

Friday, April 07, 2006


Collision


She hides.

She hides from the world, she hides from those closest to her, and she even hides from God.

She hides in plain sight. Diverting attention from the things she wants unseen. Masks, disguises, anything to conceal what she doesn’t want seen, doesn’t want known.

She hides behind an image of strength. Strength will hide her fear, her vulnerability, and her weaknesses. Strength is the answer.

And so strength begins to form, strength that has no power behind it. It is a façade, a charade, and yet she begins to believe it is true. The strength hardens her and she begins to think she knows best. The vulnerability and fear fade under the shadows that aren’t even real. Slowly she begins to believe this is her true self: the strong, the untouchable, the proud, and the self sufficient.

Strength is her answer, strength will hide the truth. All this just to hide. Believing in lies because admitting the truth, having it seen and known is unbearable.

But shadows fade, and charades falter.

So the One who made her comes. She stands so proud before Him, sure of who she is, strong in herself. And a great collision occurs, the strength of her against the strength of Him. One is shadow, the other is light.

And in that collision all those things she clung to, all those things she hid behind are torn away, pulled from her grasp. She fights with the strength that she has gained; she fights to remain in shadow, hidden from sight. She fights and she loses and she is left bare, weak, and vulnerable.

The very thing she feared is now the thing she must face.

Her strength became her weakness.

Broken and bare, weak and unworthy, she clings to the only One she can. She clings to the One that sees her for all she is, for everything she has tried to hide. Her tears begin to fall and shame fills her heart, for all that she wanted to keep from Him, He now sees.

And in His embrace she finds strength, not to hide her weakness but to fill it. How wrong she was in her thinking, seeing weakness as something to be ashamed of, as something to hide.

It was weakness that He wanted. It was her weakness that would lead to Him.

She finds that real strength is only really found in weakness and that is the product of surrender. So for her to be truly strong she had to be weak and to be fully weak she must surrender it all.

And so in the surrendering, she finds more than weakness but weakness filled with strength, His strength.

And so she stands once again strong,
not by her own strength,
not covered in shadows.

She stands filled with His strength.
She stands in the light of Him.
She stands because He holds her.


Your grace is sufficient for me
Your strength is made perfect
When I am weak
And all that I cling to
I lay at Your feet
Your grace is sufficient for me
Shane & Shane



But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

That's just wrong

Me: takes a sip of water and grimaces "Eeewww this tastes weird."

Eddie: takes a sip of water and scrunches head pondering "Yep, that tastes weird."

Jes: takes a sip of water "It tastes like bacon fat"

Me: dry heaving

the end