Blast from the Past

This Christmas when I visited Alicia in the North of Spain, I got the opportunity to scan her bookshelves and borrow a few adolescent novels.  I know it sounds pretty ridiculous...but, you start where you can, right?  J

One of the books I borrowed was Pippi Longstocking (or Pippi Calzaslargas, as it's called in Spanish).  I had started the book during holiday siestas at her house, but sadly I had only arrived at the first few chapters before today.  Since my nanny job is on hold for a little bit, I have more time to devote to different things - in this case being language study.

This afternoon I was able to read about half the book out loud (but quietly enough as not to disturb my flatmates..ha, ha) and finished it this evening!!  It definitely brought to mind the movie I saw so long ago - red braids, little monkey, and all.  

I know it can seem perhaps trivial, but for me it's a big deal.  I was thinking back to my high school Spanish classes where I only remember "reading" parts of Don Quijote and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as well as some short stories.  "Reading" because it was more akin to work: looking up every word, translating, conjugating...thinking, thinking, thinking.

This book, at least what I read today, I was able to just read (though not to imply that I understood every word).  It was pretty great!  God is good all the time.

Tonight I'm going to bed encouraged, as well as estimating just how long my next juvenile book might take.  J 

And with some anticipated chagrin, I will show you why this book might have hit even closer to home...

P.S.  In case you were wondering, no, I don't dress like this everyday.  

Halloween my junior year of college?  Perhaps.  

Surrender to Forgiveness: Our Own and Others

"Why can’t I just let go of my selfish pride?

Why can’t I lose control and stand by Your side?

When I turn within I’m just consumed with my sin, My eyes must remain fixed on You.

Redeem me, LORD;

Oh, be gracious.

Take my heart, make it Yours,

Help me to surrender. 

When my eyes look to You instead of on me, I’m not consumed anymore.

You will pluck my feet out of the net, all sin and shame You’ll transform. 

So help me look to You – the Author, Perfector – Forward, not behind. 

Redeem me, LORD;

Oh, be gracious. 

Take my heart, make it Yours,

Help me to surrender.

You see the depths and You love me the same,

Even when I turn to live in my shame. 

Jesus, You died to make the broken whole.

So here am I, please change me;

How I need You more and more.  

Redeem me, LORD;

Oh, be gracious. 

Take my heart, make it Yours,

Help me to surrender."

This is a song the Lord gave me when being confronted with my sin.  He is gracious to show us our sin, but graciously contrasted with His immense pursuit of restoration.  This morning as I was dwelling on forgiveness, both towards others and God's forgiveness towards me, this seemed quite appropriate.  

God sees everything of me; I'm much worse than I think I am.  Because of His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness, I can turn and offer these to those around me.  I need help to surrender to the Lord so that I can offer forgiveness - so that I can release the feeling of others deserving justice.  

I don't want justice for myself from the Lord.  I need not want it for others either.  

May my eyes stay on Christ so that I can remember how much I've been forgiven and how much I'm called to forgive.  The Lord is my strength and my righteousness.  

In the Midst of Pain and Joy

It seems like my 100th post has been a long time coming.  It doesn't help that this past week or so has left my mind full of thoughts, my heart full of emotions, and my body physically tired.

It never ceases to amaze me, at least in looking back, how present and majestic the Lord is.  We not only can see it in the lives of biblical characters, but I am under the impression that He is evidently at work today in our hearts and lives.

Last Wednesday morning, US time, one of my grandmas passed on to heaven to be with the Lord.

Grandma Bonnie and I shared a love for music (specifically worship and "Sixteen Going on Seventeen"), international friends learning English (ESL), Chicken Divan, and most importantly, Jesus.  Through her fight with cancer, she continuously found her strength and comfort in the Lord above from whom comes everything we truly need.

I came in to my house after just finishing a conversation with a new friend about how thankful I am to have an external hope, a God who I can look to in the midst of the awful things of this world.  After coming in and seeing a message from my mom, I called home and found out about my grandma's passing.

In the connection of these two conversations was a question for me: Do I really believe what I said?  Do I really believe I have an external hope - an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God in whom I can trust?

Death is never a bad thing for a believer in Jesus...it's only difficult for those who are left behind, even for those who do indeed trust in God but dearly love those who pass on before them.

I ended that night with preparing some worship for a meeting I had the next morning.  Through tears I listened to several songs that God used to touch my heart - of the pain of this world, the plea for Jesus to come, the worthiness of the Lord to be praised, and the amazing hope found in Christ alone.  There is much comfort to be found through the Holy Spirit's touch while worshiping the Lord amidst pain and sadness.  His grace is sufficient.

As I continue with my life here is Spain, I am comforted by the fact that Jesus is enough.  The tears still come, but I know without a doubt that my grandma is in a much better place with no pain or sorrow.  As He wipes away her tears, He can wipe away mine here on earth too.

Even when I struggle to believe it, Jesus is enough.  He is our All in All.  

Cats, Dogs, and Rainbows

There were some crazy things that I believed as a kid....for example:

All cats are girls, and all dogs are boys. Hmmm.

Then there was my confusion about how one could literally walk from rain to not rain within a step.  How could it be true that there was a line marking the edge of rainfall?

One of the things that continues to get me even today is how it can be incredibly sunny, yet rain at the same time.  During a few hours this morning there was an almost unbelievable mix of rain, clouds, blue sky, side-pelting rain, cold, and wind.

As I walked home a few minutes ago though, I was walking through more typical Spanish sun - to the extent of feeling hot - while the steady rain came down around my umbrella.  It just blows my mind.

During my walk I got stopped by a red light and proceeded to look around, where I saw God's gift of a beautiful, full rainbow spreading from behind the climbing rows of distant houses.  My second in two days!!

All of this filled my mind as I trekked home, with a smile and a laugh.

And just to reminisce, a blast from the past: Niagara Falls (2008).

What a Glorious Day

Easter Sunday was an especially glorious day at my church in Granada, Spain.  

Flowers.  Baptisms.  Celebration.  Joy.  Resurrection.  

"For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:16-17, emphasis added).

Jesus died a terrible death on the cross, taking on Himself the sins of all the world, cut off from communion with the Father...and we put Him there.   

Like the verses say, if that was the end, we have no hope.  Paul continues on to say that if there is no resurrection, we are to be the most pitied - our faith comes to nothing!  It is only a temporary hope that cannot hold up when faced by death.  

The celebration of Easter holds within its grasp this idea of mourning the death of Christ, but it is shortly overcome.  The grave could not hold Jesus down.  HE IS RISEN!!  This is the hope that followers share.  

Jesus is alive.  

His resurrection is the foundation of our hope, joy, freedom, life.  Because He died and rose again, we are new creations with a reason to live on this earth.  With our eyes on the Lord, who has conquered sin once and for all, we await His supreme reign in the better world to come.  

The Sunday service was full of people, hearing the news of that glorious day, tasting a piece of the eternal worship and communion that is to come.  "...so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). 

What a day that will be.  All through one Spirit - to the glory of God our Father - praising the name of Jesus.