Don Miller

Don Miller at the DNC.





I love Don Miller, he was someone whose book Blue Like Jazz changed a lot of my thinking, made me see God in a new light... a book I always have an extra copy of in case I need to give it away.

How about Obama? I'm so curious to see where his campaign goes, where this election goes, where the sovereign Lord takes it...

I just want to do Hoodrat stuff with my friends...

Me too.. I want to things because they are fun, because it's fun to do bad things, right?

Thanks for your honesty, Laterian.

I want to do hoodrat stuff with my friends, bad things are fun, aren't they? I want to party all night, I want to rebel, I want to do what I want, when I want.. just like Laterian.

But... it's not going to get me where I want, is it?

What is it about doing hoodrat stuff with our friends? Is it really about what we do? Or is it about who we are with? Hoodrat stuff wouldn't be that fun alone... do you think Laterian would have wanted to drive so bad if his friend that smoked cigarettes wasn't there? I don't personally want to do things like keg stands alone...

I tell you, I've done hoodrat things with my friends, been out all night to tell absurd stories upon waking in the morning and savored each moment my friends and I say remember that night... but I've wanted to take a few back as well.

I have also done hilarious things that would not necessarily fall under the category for hoodrat... like camping in sketchy spots in the woods, driving around all night until the sun came up, making sweet jorts, driving home 12 hours in just one-piece swimsuits... all because I was with friends. And these glimpses, though not quite hoodrat or rebellious, were just as satisfying if not more (because of the moral hangover perhaps) than the others.

It's all about fellowship, being with people, doing things together. We long for people to share life with... to rejoice with, to mourn with. God has given us friends not to tear us down but to lift us up, to spur one another on, and to straight up enjoy life.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

OOh baby, here I am,

SIGNED

SEALED

DELIVERED

i'm yours...

I can't help it, I'm that girl who relates everything back to God. Sure it's cool sometimes, other times its down right cheesy. So when I hear these lyrics ( this is a top song on my playlist for whatever reason right now..) I can't help but think of Jesus.

Me shouting at the top of my lungs...

Here I am Lord. Signed. Sealed. Delivered. I'm yours.

But do I? Do I walk that way? Do I act like I am His?

He has signed me with his name, my name is written in the Book of Life.
He has sealed me with his Holy Spirit, ensuring me a ticket into eternity.
He has delivered me from the evil of this world.

Ephesians 1:13-14
13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

And as I look up the version of the message, I coincidentally find this gem...
13-14It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

Maybe Stevie is prophetic!

So... do I live as though I have an inheritance with God? That's kind of mind blowing! Do I live as though I am home free? That the Holy Spirit has already secured eternal life for me...

We are free, once we have called on Jesus, and believed... we are sealed for a lifetime. Nothing we do can earn us salvation... it has already been done. There was a contract signed with our name, and God's next to it... declaring we are righteous simply by His signature.

I don't. I wake up in the morning after I have been out late with the carousers... and immediately need to do something to re-earn my salvation. To make sure God knows I still love him, to justify my moral hangover. I try and do something to ensure that I am still a good Christian.
It's a sickness. I don't believe the words Stevie sings, I don't believe that God continues to save us daily, that God does not seek perfection from me, but all of me.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I am yours.

I pray, each day, the words I utter upon waking are simply, I'm yours.

Sun Always Shining.

With an I heart Jesus lanyard wrapped around his neck, Kenny enchanted the audience that sat to watch his documentary, Sun Always Shining. Kenny is an artist. He paints the city of Chicago by memory. He is also most likely diagnosed with autism. He had this thing with throwing a drumstick up and down while he was walking. Everywhere he went, the drumstick was with him, twirling over the Chicago skyline.

When commenting about his stick, he said, "Some find it immature, but I don't care, I do it anyways." He laughed after everything he said and was completely engaging with one hint of a smile.

He was a janitor on the side, and when speaking about his work, he said " The Lord gives me the energy" to do his job daily. He was apparently always lifting people up, and they called him the encourager in his art studio. It was a beautiful picture of the holy spirit who had captivated a man to do his business on earth.

Kenny would walk the streets of Chicago, ride the train, and observe the empty parking lots in sight. Instead of painting what he saw, and what was real, Kenny was constantly fixing up the city through his art. He dreamed of a better Chicago, taking those empty lots and placing buildings where people could "work and live." He always paints blue skies, and stars... and the sun is always shining.

Is Kenny hoping for the New Kingdom? I think so. I think he is working with God to rebuild what is to come. He has a hope for Chicago, a new vision. Kenny gets it.

"What you do in the present--by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself--will last into God's future... they are part of what we may call building for God's Kingdom." From.. Suprised by Hope

If this is true.. if this is what the resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Spirit are all about... then we are agents of the transformation of this earth, anticipating the day when Jesus comes andhis new kingdom reigns forever!

Kenny is an agent, working for the Lord, building the new kingdom here on earth! Kenny himself said, " To me, the in crowd is the out crowd, I am not apart of this world."

How simply profound, right? How cool that we are here on earth to help God.. that are lives have purpose and meaning... that we aren't here just to die and go to heaven!

I pray I could be as real as Kenny, as devoted, and so absolutely loved.