Songs I Play on Repeat 2012

1. You Got It Bad/Because of You - Justin Bieber
2. Payphone - Maroon 5
3. Come Wake Me Up - Rascal Flatts
4. We Are Young - Boyce Avenue
5. Wanted You More - Lady Antebellum
6. If I Die Young - Justin Robinett and Michael Henry
7. Never Gonna Leave This Bed - Justin Robinett and Michael Henry
8. Drunk - Ed Sheeran
9. Be Alright - Justin Bieber
10. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye - Luke Bryan
11. Drunk on You - Luke Bryan
12. All Too Well - Taylor Swift
13. Lego House - Ed Sheeran
14. Because of You - Ne-yo
15. Don't Wake Me Up - Chris Brown
16. Let Me Love You - Ne-yo
17. Your Hand in Mine - Explosions in the Sky
18. Angel with a Shotgun - The Cab
19. Pour Me Out - He is We
20. Thunder - Katy McAllister
21. Holocene - Bon Iver
22. Holocene - Kate McGill 
23. Small Bump - Ed Sheeran
24. Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran
25. Come Wake Me Up - Ed Sheeran
26. Shadows - David Crowder Band feat. Lecrae
27. American Secrets - Parachute
28. Here With You - Asher Monroe
29. Catch My Breath - Kelly Clarkson
30. 
    

Then and Now: Across the Years

Then...

Now...

Winter Break Bucket List

1. Go to the Festival of Lights and ride the Ferris wheel
2. Practice portion control and healthy eating
3. Have a quiet time everyday
4. Go to Davis's basketball games
5. Play basketball at Nottaway
6. Cook something for Christmas dinner
7. Go to the Eastern Market
8. See Skyfall
9. See Rise of the Guardians
10. Watch Batman Begins
11. Get new clothes
12. Go to Passion 2013
13. Go ice skating
14. Lose weight
15. See the lights at Meadowlark
16. Take a good picture of the four kids
17. Take lots of pictures
18. Apply to internships
19. Get my eyebrows waxed
20. Get a cute Christmas outfit
21. Get my hair cut
22. Enjoy everything that I eat
23. Love recklessly
24. Go to the chiropractor
25. Whiten my teeth
26. Call and write a letter to Grandma

Also from the past

Good Things:

1. Pink Starbursts
2. Shooting Stars
3. Twilight
4. Breezes that make long grasses ripple
5. Cornfields
6. Smores
7. Adrenaline rushes
8. Challenges
9. Balloons
10. Helium
11. Golden retriever or golden lab puppies
12. those moments when we’re singing in church and the instruments stop for a chorus and the congregation is singing acapella and it gives you just a taste of how great heaven is going to be
13. Sunsets
14. Lakes
15. Inside jokes
16. Vulnerability
17. Quoting movies
18. Driving with the music blaring and the windows down
19. The beach
20. Good novels
21. Red skittles
22. Looking through the church bulletin and seeing that there is good music in the service
23. Swimming at night
24. Honesty
25. City landscapes at night when they are lit up and you realize how much planning and effort it took to make the whole city
26. Bubble gum
27. Realizing your favorite TV either comes on tonight or that it came on last night and it’s waiting on tivo
28. Reading what people think about you
29. Turning in an assignment or exam that you feel really good about
30. Walking into the house and smelling that something delicious was made
31. The smell of freshly mowed grass
32. Hershey’s chocolate
33. The sound of frogs at night
34. Fireflies
35. Eating freshly picked berries
36. Coming home from a successful shopping trip
37. Finishing something that you have been dreading doing
38. The sound of a ball on a baseball bat
39. Ice cream cones
40. Handwritten letters
41. Getting a good grade back on a test or paper
42. Watching movies for the first time and not knowing what is going to happen
43. Modern Family
44. Acoustic music
45. The smell of a bookstore
46. Feeling good about your body and weight
47. Finishing a good book
48. Endorphins
49. Old pictures
50. Music

Wiser in the Past

Sometimes I think I was wiser in the past. I came across this list that I had written two years ago and am struck at how much I need to remind myself of these truths and encouragements daily:

Done

I’m done with viewing relationships in a selfish light.

I’m done with approaching relationships in a consumeristic manner - weighing the pros and cons as to what it will cost be in return for what I can gain.

I’m done with not loving because love is not always reciprocated.

I’m done with thinking about what I deserve and how I should be treated.

I’m done dwelling on the past. It is a part of who I am. It will shape who I am today. The past is in the past. It is over and unchangeable. I will no longer allow it to have that power over me of controlling my actions in the present.

I’m done holding onto the idol of what my relationship with a boy was. That was a relationship - there will never be a relationship like that again, but there doesn’t need to be one like that again. Each relationship takes a different form.

I will:

Love recklessly because Jesus’ love is sufficient.

Invest in people because Jesus has saved me.

View relationships in light of how I can serve and how I can be selfless.

Rest in the fact that I don’t really need others. Jesus is enough.

Thanksgiving List as a 20 year old

1. Who God is - a good God, full of love and compassion and mercy and sovereignty and grace
2. My family
3. My apartment
4. The basketball team
5. Reformed University Fellowship
6. The city of Charlottesville
7. The interaction between the siblings now that Davis is 13 and Ryan is 22 - we are all moving towards being friends as well as siblings
8. Adults and older people who have poured into my life (Coach Priester, teachers, AC and Derrick, other MPC volunteers, Saranell, Molly, Libbie, etc.)
9. Friends, new and old, UVA and nova
10. Good health for those I love
11. My bed
12. The luxury of having a car at school
13. The opportunity to be invested and welcomed into the Lewis family this summer
14. Good things to be enjoyed - movies, tv shows, good food, novels, etc. 
15. The opportunity to attend the University of Virginia
16. The freedom to choose what I study
17. Greg Thompson, Shawn Slate, James Forsyth
18. God's evident power and creativity in nature
19. Technology allowing me to keep up with people
20. The ability to exercise

Have you ever read something and felt like the author was speaking to you? That they had somehow crawled into your brain and read your thoughts and come up with a response? Is that what the Holy Spirit is doing? Guiding me to these places where I feel my heart thirst is satisfied?

Here is what I read in my devotions this morning from Sarah Young's Jesus Lives:

"I understand you perfectly and love you eternally. It is your soul I love, rather than your appearance or performance. Sometimes you are so dissatisfied with both of these that they become your focus. To break free from this self-preoccupation, relax in My loving Presence and let the Light of My Love soak into your entire being. Rest deeply while I massage your thoughts and feelings, helping you change your focus from yourself to Me. Remember that I created you to know Me: to enjoy Me and center your life in Me. Cease striving and know that I am God.

The world abounds with idols - things you turn to when you want to feel better about yourself: eating, entertainment, exercise, mastery of something or someone. However, none of these things can slake the thirst of your soul, which yearns for Me alone. Idolatrous substitutes may suppress your appetite for Me, mainly by distracting you, but they provide no satisfaction. When you get that gnawing sensation around the edges of your soul, return to Me. Your soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods."

Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." - Psalm 46:10

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. - Psalm 63: 3-5

Encouragement from St. Augustine

Alas for me! Through your own merciful dealings with me, O Lord my God,  tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation.  Say it so that I can hear it. My heart is listening, Lord;  open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, I am your salvation.  Let me run towards this voice and seize hold of you.  Do not hide your face from me: let me die so that I may see it,  for not to see it would be death to me indeed.

This, friends, is perspective. 

⁸ Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
⁹ Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.

- Psalm 34: 7-8

Those who fear the Lord lack nothing...NOTHING. All we need is found in Him. And in order to see the Lord's goodness, we need to TASTE and see that He is good. Tasting is personal. It is something that only you can experience yourself. You must experience and take the dare to taste the Lord to fully experience His goodness. How good is our God!

Today, I am thankful for: 

1. My family - I have gotten to see someone in my family for the past three weekends while still being involved and engaged at school. I don't know why I thought that I had to choose between being an integral part of things at home and being fully engaged at school. It is totally possible and doable to be present in both. For this I am thankful.
2. My apartment - these girls have made me feel so loved and cared for this semester. We have fun together and have good conversation. They are so easy to live with and they encourage me daily. When I come to the apartment, it truly feels like a home away from home. I think this feeling of belonging has really shaped my semester thus far. As these friendships continue to grow and strengthen, I am overwhelmed by how the Lord has blessed me with these three lovely young ladies. 
3. My friends at UVA
4. RUF
5. My friends from home
6. The beautiful fall weather
7. My basketball team

You are my home. 

“But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in you." - Psalm 39:7

I fall on my knees before you, O Lord. Acknowledging that I feel homeless, I long to be in the place which you are preparing for me. I feel homeless here. The Christian story is the story of homeless. Adam and Eve wandering. Moses and the Israelites wandering. Prophets wandering. John the Baptist wandering. Jesus wandering. Jesus dying. Jesus rising again. Jesus ascending to His home to be with You, God. You are showing me that you are my home. My hope is in you. So why do I continue to run in the other directions, chasing all things that will never satisfy. "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you." More homelessness in the lyrics, "Just when I thought that I'd remain in the wasteland of my shame, that was the moment Jesus came." He sees my homelessness and He enters into this homelessness. 

"I dwell with you as a foreigner,
    a stranger, as all my ancestors were." - Psalm 39:12b 

I want to journey with you today and always, God. 

For You are my home. 

Vamos a la Playa

The beach in my place of solitude. I am leaving tomorrow for my favorite week of the year. It is isolated despite the constant ambiance of tourism. There are two important aspects of this week that I love the most:

1. It is a week of self-forgetfulness. One of my favorite quotes of all-times comes from John Piper when he states, "The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness." At the beach, there is so much beauty, so much grandeur, so much vastness that it is seemless task to become overwhelmed at my insignificance. This is worship. God is great and the maker of all the things that I find lovely. The beach is teeming with those things that I find beautiful in this life: the laughter of my little brother symphonizing with the seagulls cries, the feeling of the blazing sun evaporating the droplets of salt water from my back, the array of colors across the sky against the water as the sun begins to set, the view from the top of Jockey's Ridge with the bay to one side and the endless ocean to the other, exhaustion after a day of sun and smiles, being present with my family, noticing the little things that make them all so important to me, looking into the bleakness of the ocean at night and failing to differentiate where the sky meets the sea. There is so much beauty, driving me to worship the Giver of them all.

2. It is a week of fellowship. I feel so close to my family here because we only have each other. It forces things to go back to the way that there once were, free of the complications of suburban networks and commitments and obligations. I can revel in the good relationships that God has given me.

I love this.

This is what needs to be told. This is what kids these days should believe. Most importantly, they should be taught about Jesus. Secondly, they should also realize that it is the small things in life that matter. Watching  the sunset. Stopping to chat with a friend and see their smile. Showing kindness and patience in a time when it is costly and would be easier to just keep walking.

I also love this speech. It has good thought done justice by good words.

Take the time to watch it.

I'm all about the youtube artists

First, we have the cover of Never Gonna Leave This Bed by Justin Robinett and Michael Henry. They are phenomenal.

And their cover of If I Die Young. uhmazing. 

Also, Boyce Avenue's cover of We are Young makes me melt. His falsetto. Mmm. I will never get over it.

I am in awe of how sovereign our God is. He is orchestrating the perfect redemption of this world. I was re-reading some of my old sermon notes and I came across one sermon from Slate that was encouraging to me. Our story as Christians is not over. It looks forward. It is working for the redemption of His kingdom.

I have been reading Isaiah through my quiet time. I have always shied away from the Old Testament because it lacks the bluntness of the New Testament. At the beginning of summer break, the Lord blessed me with a a sweet friend who asked me if I would like to go through a book of the Bible together. God-stop. I had been worried about my accountability and growth this summer because last summer was a spiritually dry time. It was disappointing after all I had learned during the first year of college. Together, we decided to go through Isaiah. God-stop. I wouldn't have gone through this book if I did not go through it with my dear friend. We decided to read 6 chapters a week and then go through and discuss it. On Sunday, I read the passage of Isaiah 25:8-9 which states, "he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people's disgrace form all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, 'Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.'" I then sent this verse to a family that has been on my heart in hopes of encouraging. Then, in church this passage was part of the passage on which our pastor spoke. "'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' ' Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'" This is found in 1 Corinthians 15: 54b-55. So many things and events had to line up in order for that to line up. How crazy is that?

Monday Musings

1. Friends are such a gift. I have been blessed this summer by such a diversity of friendships. I have felt close to friends from Charlottesville and at home. I feel like the Lord has blessed me with friendships that stemmed from high school. I especially appreciate and feel blessed by two high school friends whom I have gotten much closer with this summer and who have become some of my dearest friends. I would not have anticipated these friendships at all, which makes me appreciate them that much more. I also have felt an increased closeness with my long-time best friends. I have been able to see how the Lord is working in their lives and I have been challenged and encouraged by the steadfastness with which they are walking with the Lord. I feel so honored to call them my friends because they are women of the Lord. I also have gotten to reflect on how the Lord has grown my friendships that began in Charlottesville. I feel so much freer in UVA relationships. I keep up with friends because I miss them and want to know what's going on in their lives this summer. This is such a change from last summer, where I felt the pressure to keep in contact with everyone and know about everyone's life. In doing so, I put unrealistic pressure on myself and did not really get to love them well. The Lord is good. He has blessed my friendships. Thank You, Lord!
2. The life of a nanny never fails to be entertaining. This is a comment I overheard at the pool today: "Wait, is it practices or practici?" Sheesh. Kids these days.
3. If you have not yet seen Brave, you must go do so. I'm not kidding. I may or may not be seeing it on Friday...after going on the opening day! I thought it was so cute!
4. Pinkberry.is.addicting. nom
5. I am not sure whether this love of music has been enhanced by being best friends with a girl who has always been in love with music. Regardless, I have been playing some certain songs on repeat as of late. The first is "Come Wake Me Up" by Rascal Flatts. 

Secondly, I love "Wanted You More" by Lady Antebellum. 

Lastly, "Come Back Down" by Greg Laswell featuring Sara Bareilles.

Thoughts

1. I have the absolute BEST summer job. If you want to take me up on this argument, please see below.

I just can't get over how stinkin' cute she is!

2. I "house-sat" overnight for the first time last night. I slept in a love sac. I want one. 

3. I fell off a bike today and scrapped my elbow up. Typically. I am really living like a kid this summer. I was flung to the ground because I was messing with something in my hand while I was starting out on the bike. I pumped the brake a little too hard which flung me forward a little bit. Instinctively, I grasped the handle harder. Problem being that my hand was wrapped around the handle AND the hand brake so the bike basically came to a halt and I kept going. That, ladies and gents, is called inertia. I caught myself on my elbow and my phone. It could have been worse. 

4. I need sleep. 

Nannying 101

My job this summer is playing "mom" to a 10-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl. I go to their house 4 days a week while their mother works. Now, I have had various babysitting jobs, but nothing this long or regular. These kids are great, but there has been much I have learned in the past week about kids and being in charge of a household, even for a little bit:

1. The recorder is without a doubt the worst instrument created. I am seeking vengeance on whoever created the recorder, whoever decided it was a good idea to give it to elementary aged kids, and whoever taught these kids how to play it. Mom, I'm sorry for all those years. I now know how you must have felt.
2. Kids are M-E-S-S-Y. Keeping the kitchen clean is next to impossible. Kids like to snack. Maybe they have a snack impulse that is triggered by a clean kitchen. Seriously.
3. Kids have no filter. They say what's on their mind. It is hilarious, great, and refreshing.
4. Kids are innocent. It's awesome to watch kids who love the Lord. One day this week, I was driving the kids to go see Madagascar 3. Matt Redman was serenading us with "10,000 Reasons." I was singing along when I heard a little voice pipe up and start to sing from the back seat. Before you knew it, I had two kids in the car singing their little hearts out to the Lord. A mundane task of driving to the movies became a sweet moment of praise to the Lord.
5. Safety becomes an issue for most activities. I worry about them when we bike places. I become hypervigilant.
6. I am not ready for kids as much as I love em.

I am a nomad. 

I am a nomad. I live for half of the year in Charlottesville where I pop into different churches, different fellowships, and different seminars. I hear speaker after speaker on a variety of topics. I spend the other half of the year in Oakton, where I have experienced more dearth of variety in my church attendance. My parents settled on our current church quite soon after we settled down here. I have been going there ever since. It was the perfect place for me to grow up and grow in my faith walk. Some of the relationships I formed through this church are the relationships that will last my life time. 

Recently, I have been struggling with the extreme desire and tendency to church-hop. In every church, there are aspects that are valuable and tools of building. At the same time, there are also those areas which need improvement. I recognize this. But I am draw to the ability to go into a church and worship unanimously - just me and God - and to hear a new speaker with his or her quirks and personality. 

New services are full of surprises - they are not comfortable, but they keep me on my toes. 

Getting honest. I think my feelings of nomadicity (I know it's not a word. Let it slide this time) are rooted in three aspects 

1. I think a lot of my dissatisfaction with the church services were due to my experience at Passion. Passion was the wonderful combination of theology and worship. A perfect harmony of heart and head. It is an experience like no other (if you are a young adult and haven't been to Passion - get to the dome...seriously). But the facts come down to this: Passion may not exist in a church body. I cannot keep leaving church after church looking for something that embodies the experience I had over winter break. Something amazing happened in Atlanta when 40,000 young people who love Jesus gathered in one place. That may not be the experience of any one church body. I need to release my expectation on a church to embody Passion.
2. I find it hard to get plugged deeply into a church family and body when I am a physical nomad, dissecting the year by spending it in two different places. I am moved to paralysis for fear that my time in any one place is too short to contribute. 
3. Lastly, most importantly, the root of by nomadicity: "I find in myself desires which nothing in this earth can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." Thanks, Lewis. Sometimes it's nice to be understood. 

I am a nomad.

Books on my summer reading list...

1. The Help - Kathryn Stockett 451 pages
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling  870 pages
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling 672 pages
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling 759 pages
5. Freakeconomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
6. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
7. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
8. The King's Cross - Tim Keller
9. Super Freakeconomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
10. Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell 285 pages
11. A Praying Life - Paul Miller 269 pages

Other books:
The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Left Neglected - Lisa Genova

Bikram

Photo taken from this link

This morning I went and completed my first Bikram yoga class! Bikram yoga is a 90 minute yoga session of 26 poses in 105 degree heat. I went this morning with one of my teammates from club basketball. She is a pro and has gone tons of times before, so I was really nervous to go! It was my first time and I was scared that I was going to feel nauseous, dizzy, or light-headed. I read lots of horror stories online of people feeling like they were going to die and having to lay down because they thought they were going to throw up or pass out. I was drinking obsessively last night and this morning in order to avoid dehydration and fatigue! The room was hot, but I was surprised at how quickly I embraced the heat. I really enjoyed it! I sweat more than I ever have before in my life. My spandex and sports bra, not to mention by towel that was covering my yoga mat, were drenched in sweat. It is definitely a form of exercise that is mentally intense and physically taxing, but relaxing and freeing at the same time. I really enjoyed my "practice" this morning and I definitely want to look into more yoga and various forms of exercise! By the end, I felt like the room was just a normal temperature and it felt a little bit like there was a breeze waving over me.

These are the poses: I really like the standing bow, the balance stick, the triangle poses, and the full locust pose.  

Studying without outside communications has forced me to have many thoughts and so instead of tweeting obsessively, I will pour them out here:

1. I'm obsessed with the song payphone by Maroon 5. I have probably listened to it 30 times today. This is not an exaggeration. That's the sad part. I'm definitely that type that will play the song over and over and over until my obsession abates.
2. As you can tell by the previous post, I think I get obsessed with entertainment easily. I go through strong phases of where I get really attached to something and it's all I think about. The objects of my obsessions has evolved as I have matured. Here are some of my obsessions from the past: Spy Kids, spying in general, The Cheetah girls, Boyce Avenue, Justin Bieber, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Lost, Parachute, and many more.
3. There have been various songs that I have been addicted to this year alone just to mention a few. This list could stretch on forever
1. Little Bird - Ed Sheehan
2. Next 2 U - Chris Brown Featuring Justin Bieber
3. Mistletoe - Justin Bieber
4. Resist - Katy McAllister
5. Briane - Boyce Avenue
6. I Can't Make You Love Me - Clef Hangers
7. Bad - the Cab
8. American Honey - Lady Antebellum
9. Wanted You More - Lady Antebellum
10. It Girl - Jason Derulo
11. Heartbeat - the Fray
4. There was a girl in the library earlier who was skyping with a shirtless guy... There are so many things wrong with this picture. There is absolutely no point to skyping in the library. How fun is it to just listen to someone talk and look at each other? Also, I don't want to look up from my notes on Bertrand equilibria and see a shirtless guy on the computer screen in front of me. Weird.
5. I am going to Bikram yoga for the first time tomorrow with my friend from Club Basketball. She goes on the reg and I asked her to go with me. I am scared that I might die. 90 minutes in a 105 degree room. Can I handle it? I will be sure to update later, but I am terrified of passing out so I have guzzling water like it's my job. I think I have drunk at least 5 liters of water today. 
6. Drinking all that water has made me go to the bathroom like a grandma. Not that there is anything wrong with that. You know what I mean.
7. I need to post later about my adventures in the law school.
8. I need to post later about why I like exam time. 
9. The temperatures in Clark are whack. The bathrooms are freezing! I can't handle it with all the trips I have had to make there tonight. 
10. Also, coming soon: Summer bucket list!! 

Study Music Part 1

I know that I have been posting quite a bit of music on this blog, especially as of late. In my defense, I am a college student. I spend much of my time in the library, and if I am in the library, you can bet your bottom dollar that I am going to be listening to some sweet tunes to get me through my study grind. So in honor of finals week (and as a form of procrastination) here is some of what I have been listening to!

1. The song I have been playing the most is the one that I already posted on my last post. So I will spare you the re-posting of this song.

2. Unsung - Katy McAllister. I'm actually obsessed with her music. I hope she makes it big-time because she writes all of her own stuff and it's phenomenal, lyrically and musically.

3. Wanna Believe - Katy McAllister

4. Slow - Andy Grammer. I have been so into the Andy Grammer, Ben  Rector, Mat Kearney, Dave Barnes, Jimmy Needham type of acoustic/pop/singer/songwriter stuff of later. I just can't get enough. But this song is one of my recent faves. 

5. Payphone - Maroon 5. What can I say? I love the falsetto. 

More to come later... Time to hit the books, again.

Where can I find this soloist and why aren't we married yet?

My Good Samaritan

You never know just how much your day and actions impact someone else. Last fall, I was in my second week of classes. I was sitting down waiting for lecture to begin for How Things Work - the easy physics class when my nose started bleeding profusely. I was wearing new shorts, which I had now ruined. I ran out of lecture to find a bathroom. I found a bathroom on that floor and approached the janitor who was cleaning it. I asked if I could use it and she replied that I had to go downstairs because it was a boys' bathroom. UGH! Then she asked what was wrong. I told her that I had gotten a nosebleed. I had not been in my current house very long and I wasn't adjusted to the lack of humidity from the air conditioner or the dust was irritating me or something. She was so sweet. She got me a wet paper towel and then just sat with me and asked me if I was stressed. She talked to me and told me that I needed to stop rushing around and relax a little bit. She was so sweet and sacrificial. She sat with me until I was better to go back into class and she sent me off with some paper towels, just in case.

That made my day. She was a complete stranger, yet she took such good care of me. I don't even know her name. I would occasionally run into her before or after class sometimes. We would always hug. I will not forget her for a long, long time. I was struck by her generosity and ability to care so well for a stranger. Her little actions have made a lasting impression on me. She told me that she looks for me around. I told her that she was an angel sent to me. I really feel like she was.

The point is that small and seemingly insignificant actions can mean the world to someone else. People notice when one are selfless and sacrificial in the little things. I think that these can often mean more than the big things.  They are small, but so often over looked. What little things can you do to help others out today? You might just make someone's day, or inspire a blog post, or change the world, one small act of selflessness and change at a time.

Proud Sister

Things to note:

1. This punk, also know as my little brother (who is not so little anymore), hit his first home run in a little league game. He is definitely the veteran of the team this year. He was the only 10 year old to play on the Orioles back in the spring of 2010. Now he is the biggest and the best on his team. He would never tell you that, but I'm his sister. I'm allowed to brag. I'm proud of you, little brother. Keep on doing your thing. 

Ladies, stay away. Please, I am not ready for girls in his life. Let his loves be Jesus and baseball for right now.

**This was back from last spring. Hopefully, I will get some pictures of his games when I go home. He is too awesome.**

2. My sister broke a six-minute mile this week. Holy smokes. Who does she think she is? First of all, she is insane because this season she has been fighting through an injury of her IT band. It's crazy that she runs that fast despite the wear and tear on her body. Also, can we talk about how she improved by 22 seconds in one week? Last week she was complaining about a 6:20 minute mile. I will have you know that this is faster than I have ever run the mile in my life. So poor thing... but then for her to go and break a six minute mile, while injured, while improving by 22 seconds in one week. That girl is crazy. And I'm crazy proud. She's a gem.

She is light into my life.

3. The first-born of our family is about to finish his second to last week of undergraduate higher education. When did I blink? I remember it like yesterday. We were heading out to the creek, or throwing acorns at passing cars from the bushes (they may or may not have stopped the car, found us in the bushes, lectured us on how the acorn could have broken their windshield...yeah, right... you were going 25 mph... and then told us to go home and tell our parents...which I never did), or playing Sega - lion king style, or painting the swingset with water, or starting a bead war, rollerblading around with our hockey sticks in the garage, playing in the flooded basement, getting up after we were put to bed and sleeping on the floor, or jumping on the trampoline with all the neighborhood kids. Or that time when I was six and sprained my ankle and his eight-year-old self carried me home on his back. Well, thanks for going down memory lane with me for a bit. I cannot believe Ryan is old enough to be graduating in a few short weeks. I am so proud of the man he is becoming. He has emerged: working hard, achieving so much, growing in relationships. He is a stud for getting all the internships that he gets. In a year he will be heading out into the real world at the ripe age of 22 with his master's degree in accounting. I am so thankful for how I see the Lord repairing and restoring our relationship. This summer should be a time of growth and continuing reconciliation for us.

I'm thankful.

Could they be any more good-looking? Seriously.

This boy is crazy.

I am blessed.

Dorothy Sayers and Francis Chan

"To do them justice, the people who crucified Jesus did not do so because he was a bore. Quite the contrary; he was too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have declawed the lion of Judah and made him a housecat for pale priests and pious old ladies."

“But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through."

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son! 

Matthew 11:28-30

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”


I believe every heart needs a healer. If you are weary and burdened today, there is one who is waiting to heal you.

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Acapella Addiction

This past weekend I went to the Hullabahoos concert. I loved every minute of it. It's amazing what those boys can do with only their vocal cords. It blows my mind every time. So in honor of my current acapella obsession, I complied some of my favorite tracks to share! Here is my countdown!!

10. The Twelves Day of Christmas - Straight No Chaser (Indiana University)

9. Fix You - Exit 245 (JMU)

8. The Blower's Daughter - Exit 245 (JMU)

7. Put You In A Song - Hullabahoos (UVA)

6. Come On Get Higher - Hullabahoos (UVA)






5. Not Over You - Hullabahoos (UVA)





4. Wonderwall - Noteworthy (UGA)





3. Collide - Fundamentally Sound

2. Breakeven - The Hullabahoos (UVA)

1. Stay With Me (Brass Bed) - The Madison Project (JMU)

This is my all-time favorite. During my senior year, they were performing at a local high school. I think I went for three years straight, but once I met the soloist, Drew Brittle. I.about.died. the end.

Hunger Games

Last Friday night at midnight, Suzanne Collin's best-selling novel, The Hunger Games, unveiled itself as a cinema flick drawing the world into the opening of the epic trilogy. As a faithful reader, I went to the movie on Friday. 

Flashback, when I first picked up the first novel, it was the first day of classes in the spring semester. My friends were all busy with rush for their sororities. I had no classes because my lab had not yet begun. It was a Wednesday. I was feeling a tad bit lonely, so I decided that in order to pass the time I would check out these books that everyone was talking about. Let's just say that this decision turned me into a mix between a monk and a book worm. I read the book in an afternoon. I could not work out. I could not even walk downstairs to put my produce from lunch back in the refrigerator after I had forgotten to do so. I kept saying I would stop at the next chapter. But it's funny how the next chapter turned into the next chapter and so on and so forth until I had just finished. 

But I digress from the real reason I started this post. I was just thinking about why I love these books. For one, the do not idolize the romantic relationship. I think that this is my biggest frustration with Hollywood, the media, and our culture at large. It is easy for women, especially women around my age and younger, to idolize love and the perfect relationship. It is easy to feel that if love was alive and present in my life, then all my other problems would dissolve. This is flawed thinking. Now, you may be asking what I mean by this. The Hunger Games trilogy is really one big love triangle, right? 1984 meets Twilight? I confess that the Hunger Games highlights Katniss's struggles through her feelings. However, the important difference is the ranking of her relationships. Family comes first. Now, I don't ever wish that I would kill someone in cold blood. But I resonate with Katniss. I feel the liquidation of her internal organs when she realizes that Prim is reaped. I sense the anguish in her voice when she volunteers to take her sister's place. Trading life for death. This is how I hope I would respond for my siblings. Not only would I want to spare them from a tragic end, but I also know for sure that I do not want to do life without them. The sibling relationships is usually the longest relationship one has in life. It is also one that is marked by selflessness that is not found in many other relationships. I find myself looking out for my siblings in ways that I don't usually look for my friends. 

There is also significant literature and art dedicated to the exploration of the sibling relationship. The two works that pop into my mind are My Sister's Keeper and A River Runs Through It. They are interesting perspectives through some tumultuous sibling interactions.

I am thankful for my three wonderful siblings. I believe in the quote, "Missing someone isn't about how long it has been since you have seen them or the amount of time since you've talked. It's about that very moment when you're doing something and you wish that they were right there with you." I've been missing those three lately. I'm looking forward to summer when we all be together.