HELP!!!

Oh my goodness!! Someone please help me. I have a 10 page paper due tomorrow and I just started typing it up. Of course this is my own stupid fault. I actually have a good thesis and a 2 1/2 page outline so I'm good, I think, but I just started trying to type. I'm sitting in the computer lab in Haley Center, which is distracting to begin with. And my head is killing me. And I have a friend's recital and Encounter tonight, which I am not missing, which means this has to get done this afternoon. So I'm sitting here and it took me freaking ten minutes to come up with three decent sentences. Where is my muse!?!?! Please come and save me!! Ok, I just had to rant for a moment. Ahh. I feel a little bit better. Ok, back to the drawing board. Word.

Rich Colors

The fall has been so beautiful in Auburn this year. I was sad to head home for Thanksgiving and leave all the beautiful colors behind. It's pretty at home, but hands down, Auburn wins. Apparently, when there is not a lot of rain, it causes a pretty fall. Don't hold me to that- it's just something I heard. So anyways, before I left the loveliest village on the plains, I went up to campus to take some pictures. This is just one of the many pictures I took. I had so much fun. I took nearly 100 photos. Oh how I love digital. I really love taking pictures, but I'm not that great at it. I have decided that the only way I will ever get better is to just practice. So, that's one of my new goals. But I digress.

Back to the leaves. All the colors-reds, yellows, greens, oranges- blend together against the bright blue sky and it just makes me happy. So I was driving the other day with the windows down, breathing in fresh air and just thanking the Lord for His beauty all around me, and that verse from Ecclesiastes came to me: "He has made everything beautiful in its time." For some reason I found so much hope in that. All these beautiful trees go through all these seasons. And they are beautiful in each season, but in different ways. So I went and looked up that verse. Here's what jumped out at me(it's Ecc. 3 from the amplified bible):

"TO EVERYTHING there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven....He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."

Just to hear that and certain things just be affirmed in my heart was so encouraging. And I also loved it because we are entering Christmastime, which ties in the season theme. It was just exactly what my heart needed to hear. Thank you Lord for Your word- thank you that it changes us and shapes us into who you created us to be.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and my heart is truly overflowing with gratitude for the blessings the Lord has poured out over the past few months and with humility simply because I don't deserve any of it. I'm so thankful to just truly be thankful, because it has been so so long. I didn't mean for this to become a cheesy "this is what i'm thankful for" post, but it did, sort of, so I'm just going to let it be. I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!! -lcg-

The Office

Ok. I hate to conform. But I really do not feel I am conforming. It's just that I am only now discovering this show (a little late). The show would be The Office. I had tried to watch it before, but I always caught it at the really really awkward moments and it just confused me. BUT I actually sat down and watched a whole episode last week and it was hilarious. I absolutely love it. There are moments when I die-out-loud laughing and that's just so great. So now, I can't get enough of it. My favorite part of the whole show are the pranks Jim and Pam pull on Dwight. It's histerical, seriously. You should check it out.

His Truth in Our Hearts

In my small group, we are reading the book You're God Is Too Safe. It's nothing what I expected, which has been great. One of the chapters we read was titled Saint Pride. The chapter was about pride and humility, but I also picked up something in this chapter that has just stuck with me.

Holiness is TRUTH in the inner parts.

Ok, let me explain how the author (Mark Buchanan) went from pride to truth in the inner parts. Basically he says that one of the manifestations of pride is self-deceit. But we are so "sophisticated" that we talk ourselves into believing whatever we want. Or ignoring whatever we want. He uses David-the man after God's own heart- as an example.

This is right after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then trying to fix it himself, he had her husband killed. I'm just going to quote Buchanan because I love the way he writes this part. "But for a year, David lived a self-imposed exile in a place far from the will of God. He was there because he coudn't be honest with himself. It was a refugee camp outside the presence of God. That's pride's land."

Ok, so I can definitely relate to David on some level here. I hid myself from the world for an entire year. This happened to me last year. Pride-->self-deceit was a serious factor in my life last year. It grabbed hold of my mind and twisted it. It told me I didn't need people or a community. It told me to just blame everyone else. It told me that I had a right to feel sorry for myself. It convinced me to build up my own little walls and stay behind them. BUT-
Praise the Lord!!! He broke down those walls. I have victory in Him.

But let me finish my point here. So the prophet Nathan confronts David after a year. David repents and this is where he writes Psalm 51. The whole chapter is great, but verse 6 says "Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart."

If I just sit and let that resonate- HIS TRUTH in my inmost part. In my heart, where I fall so short so many times every single day. His Truth can move in my heart. It can wash over it. It can change it. HIS TRUTH- that He died for me and I am covered in his blood- in the places that no one else can see but Him. Man, that is amazing. That is life changing.

Surely You desire TRUTH in the inner parts

Just let that phrase stick with you for a little while and see what it can mean for you.

The Writer's Strike

Even though this strike may mean that I only get 8 episodes of my favorite show this season, I fully support this strike. Everyone is very frustrated, but there is good reason behind this strike. Watch this video and it explains why they are striking. If you are really interested check out unitedhollywood.com. Also thefanunion.com has some really cool ways that fans can take an active role in this strike.

::Glory::

I was driving home the other day and took this picture. It's what I saw from my rearview mirror. I love this time of day when the sun is setting. Everything is just bathed in golden sunlight. For me, sunlight represents God's glory. So it is just amazing to see everything covered in His glory. "Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn." (Hosea 6:3) I love that thought. As sure as the dawn, He will come.
I've been just chewing on this one thought all week, trying to figure out what it means to me: the art of losing myself in bringing You praise. It's so beautiful. And I think there are several layers to what it means. But everything lately seems to be coming back to the amazing truth that Christ in me is my hope of Glory(Colossians 1:27). Dying to myself, complete surrender is the key. I am worthless. I am nothing. I am just so messed up. I have nothing to offer. But because Christ dwells in me- this is how I can bring Glory to His name. Bottom line: it's all about God's Glory. Everything. All of it. My life, yours. We were created to bring Him Glory. We are most satisfied when He is glorified in us. How amazing is that. Life seems to be so incredibly complicated when it's really not. " Your Name and Renown are the desires of our hearts." (Isaiah 26:8)