Today, I came to realize just how much I love being led.
The opportunity to have someone else be in charge, to guide your steps, it's blissful.
When you are led, you are allowed to not know. You are allowed to be blissfully unaware of what is happening, where you're going and what needs to be done. You don't have to do anything, you just have to follow.
When you are led, you are not held responsible for what happens. You don't have the burden of worry and you have no reason for concerns.
When you are led, you are not the one who has to plan out your future, it is planned for you. You don't have to be preoccupied over whether or not you're doing the right thing for you or for those around you. Because when you are led, the one you are following knows what you need.
Considering all of these thouroughly enticing qualities of the state of being led, why is it that it is so hard for us to allow God to lead us? I know, speaking for myself, there have been many times when I wished I could just let go of whatever matter I was clenching with white knuckles and give it up to God, and allow Him to lead me, but I just can't. At times I have a compulsive desire for control, a desire to be the one who leads. But (for lack of better phrasing) that's just so stupid! I know a shockingly small amount of what is good for me, what I need, what path I'm supposed to be on, and what my future will be like, and yet I still feel that I have the qualifications to be the one at the steering wheel.
I want to merely recline, and go through life as God directs. I want to let Him take me where I need to go. I want Him to bear the burden of my future, because He can handle it so much more gracefully than I ever could. During those few times when I give up my compulsive desire for control, when I let Him take me by the hand and lead me, I feel all the peace and freedom of being led. And I want it more often.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
America's Pride and Joy
Now, I know this is a bit behind the times, but in my personal opinion, the Super Bowl is never out of date. Sooo...
Could there be anything more American? An entire day devoted to football. I love it! Love it love it love it. Now, I don't know about ya'll but neither the Packers or the Steelers are my team. I support the Cowboys through and through. True, their year was less than decent, but they're still my team. To endure a season wreaked by an injured quarter back, and a fired coach, they still managed to hold their own at times. Props for that. Point being, that even though the illustrious Cowboys did not make it to the Super Bowl this year, I still felt obligated to watch it. Didn't you? I mean, honestly, the Super Bowl is a momentous occasion, a football game of epic proportions, and that is simply something that is too big to miss!Aaaaand, you have those wonderfully unique and flat out funny commercials. It seems that this is the one time a year that advertisers really do put their best foot forward.
And speaking of epic proportions, can I draw your attention to the mega-stadium that the team of yours truly felt the need to construct? True, everything is bigger in Texas, but this threatens to claim that everything is excessive in Texas. Sadly, I have never had the honor of seeing this glorious feat of architecture, but boy, I would give my left arm to do so. Of course, I'm sure you've heard of the larger than life, 60 yard long mega-screen. On top of that, there's the mongo retractable roof, the giant glass panes that rotate to open up the ends of the stadium, the (less than tasteful) dancer areas amongst the seats, and the 80,000 seating capacity in addition to the 110,000 standing room capacity. This is one for the history books.
Anyway, being in North Carolina, where basketball reigns and football is a pathetic joke, there are few things that assuage my homesickness more than a good game of football. Thankfully, my roommate (from Miami) is an avid NFL follower as well, which makes the fact that one of us always have a game on tv thoroughly enjoyable. And I will say, fortunately for the sake of our safety, I was out of town during the Miami v Dallas game.
Being away from dear old Texas, it makes me smile and giggle like a little girl inside any time somebody mentions southern football, because it is always accompanied by the statement "cause football really is like religion down there." It's so true, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll be sitting on the sidelines and yelling at the referee until my dying day.
Could there be anything more American? An entire day devoted to football. I love it! Love it love it love it. Now, I don't know about ya'll but neither the Packers or the Steelers are my team. I support the Cowboys through and through. True, their year was less than decent, but they're still my team. To endure a season wreaked by an injured quarter back, and a fired coach, they still managed to hold their own at times. Props for that. Point being, that even though the illustrious Cowboys did not make it to the Super Bowl this year, I still felt obligated to watch it. Didn't you? I mean, honestly, the Super Bowl is a momentous occasion, a football game of epic proportions, and that is simply something that is too big to miss!Aaaaand, you have those wonderfully unique and flat out funny commercials. It seems that this is the one time a year that advertisers really do put their best foot forward.
And speaking of epic proportions, can I draw your attention to the mega-stadium that the team of yours truly felt the need to construct? True, everything is bigger in Texas, but this threatens to claim that everything is excessive in Texas. Sadly, I have never had the honor of seeing this glorious feat of architecture, but boy, I would give my left arm to do so. Of course, I'm sure you've heard of the larger than life, 60 yard long mega-screen. On top of that, there's the mongo retractable roof, the giant glass panes that rotate to open up the ends of the stadium, the (less than tasteful) dancer areas amongst the seats, and the 80,000 seating capacity in addition to the 110,000 standing room capacity. This is one for the history books.
Anyway, being in North Carolina, where basketball reigns and football is a pathetic joke, there are few things that assuage my homesickness more than a good game of football. Thankfully, my roommate (from Miami) is an avid NFL follower as well, which makes the fact that one of us always have a game on tv thoroughly enjoyable. And I will say, fortunately for the sake of our safety, I was out of town during the Miami v Dallas game.
Being away from dear old Texas, it makes me smile and giggle like a little girl inside any time somebody mentions southern football, because it is always accompanied by the statement "cause football really is like religion down there." It's so true, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll be sitting on the sidelines and yelling at the referee until my dying day.
Friday, January 14, 2011
What Happened to Loving Books for Being Books?
So, I'm sure you've all heard plenty about the Nook and the Kindle and all this e-reader hooplah. And, as I'm sure all of you do, I've got an opinion about it. I'm one of those girls who takes four or five books on my long trips, and yes, I will admit, it's inconvenient. For that reason, I think these e-readers are absolutely wonderful!
But, I cannot deny the obvious deficiency of the classic element of books. One of the reasons I love books so much is because they are.....well, BOOKS! I love their smell, I love the feel of the pages, the feel of the binding. I love the way a well loved book becomes so flexible and malleable. It's wonderful! and obviously, that element is missing with this new wave of technology.
However, the biggest qualm I have with this new fad is that I want to build a library. When I'm 80 and old and can't even walk down the stairs, I want to have a library that can take me anywhere. And if I purchase books on an e-reader, I won't have a permanent physical book to add to my library. Now, being my innovative self, I've come up with a solution. I'm just waiting for Barnes and Noble or Amazon to realize my genius and snatch up the idea. ; ) But honestly, I would love it if these e-readers had a feature where you could, say, scan the barcode on a book that I already own, and it would automatically upload to the e-reader. This makes the best of both worlds!
But, of course, this doesn't exist right now. So, for now, I'm satisfied lugging around all my books and reading and smelling them to my hearts content. This is one book-lover that has not been converted to the fad.
But, I cannot deny the obvious deficiency of the classic element of books. One of the reasons I love books so much is because they are.....well, BOOKS! I love their smell, I love the feel of the pages, the feel of the binding. I love the way a well loved book becomes so flexible and malleable. It's wonderful! and obviously, that element is missing with this new wave of technology.
However, the biggest qualm I have with this new fad is that I want to build a library. When I'm 80 and old and can't even walk down the stairs, I want to have a library that can take me anywhere. And if I purchase books on an e-reader, I won't have a permanent physical book to add to my library. Now, being my innovative self, I've come up with a solution. I'm just waiting for Barnes and Noble or Amazon to realize my genius and snatch up the idea. ; ) But honestly, I would love it if these e-readers had a feature where you could, say, scan the barcode on a book that I already own, and it would automatically upload to the e-reader. This makes the best of both worlds!
But, of course, this doesn't exist right now. So, for now, I'm satisfied lugging around all my books and reading and smelling them to my hearts content. This is one book-lover that has not been converted to the fad.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
First Day of Winter...Maybe?
There are many many things I love about Texas. Just to name a few, there's the cowboy boots, the southern hospitality, and, of course, the Texans themselves. However, the weather here is insane. And I mean that quite literally. Texas is known for it's unpredictable and fickle weather. On top of that, there's the lack of seasons, specifically winter. Tomorrow is the first day of winter, and the forecasted weather is a high of 78 degrees. 78 degrees! In what world is winter defined by 78 degrees? I often take pride in enduring many Texas summers, but i will admit, snowy winters would sure be nice.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Chesnuts and Fire
December, oh how I love it. As it is officially December, I have let Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and Christmas shopping swarm into my life. I live for the holiday season. It's one month of pure magic. Being away at college and living in a dorm room I can't exactly cuddle up next to the fire and read a book by the light of the Christmas tree. So, to make up for that, during the majority of my study time, I listen to fauxfire.com.
And as a wonderful introduction to the most wonderful month of the year, we experienced our first snow of the season yesterday! It started coming down at about noon, with surprisingly large flakes and impressive quantities. By 1:30 pm everything except for the roads and some of the pathways were covered in a pure blanket of white. I LOVED it. Being from Texas, I have seen snow on occasion. Last year we even had a white Christmas! (And let me say that no, this was not a pathetic white Christmas with a bit of slush on the ground and 50% of the grass still showing. This was a white Christmas where you couldn't see anything but snow. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S.) So, i've seen snow, but it typically is slush. So this was a special treat to have powdery snow, and to even have the first snow so early and have it stick! Sadly, my afternoon and evening were spent in the top floor of the library watching the snow through the window. But all the same, it was rather nice.
Finally, I want to give you a taste of my Christmas season. Every year, my inaugural Christmas song is "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!" by Sufjan Stevens due to a special Christmas morning memory that it holds. It's one of those songs that just makes me undeniably happy. It's quirky but really fun. Have a listen!
"Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!"
And as a wonderful introduction to the most wonderful month of the year, we experienced our first snow of the season yesterday! It started coming down at about noon, with surprisingly large flakes and impressive quantities. By 1:30 pm everything except for the roads and some of the pathways were covered in a pure blanket of white. I LOVED it. Being from Texas, I have seen snow on occasion. Last year we even had a white Christmas! (And let me say that no, this was not a pathetic white Christmas with a bit of slush on the ground and 50% of the grass still showing. This was a white Christmas where you couldn't see anything but snow. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S.) So, i've seen snow, but it typically is slush. So this was a special treat to have powdery snow, and to even have the first snow so early and have it stick! Sadly, my afternoon and evening were spent in the top floor of the library watching the snow through the window. But all the same, it was rather nice.
Finally, I want to give you a taste of my Christmas season. Every year, my inaugural Christmas song is "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!" by Sufjan Stevens due to a special Christmas morning memory that it holds. It's one of those songs that just makes me undeniably happy. It's quirky but really fun. Have a listen!
"Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!"
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Irresistible
Today has been absolutely packed with good things. I'm currently in the library (good), eating cold pomegranate seeds (good), watching the rain (good), and drinking a hot cup of coffee (REALLY good). This is the type of day that simply inspires writing.
There are few things I enjoy more than walking through the rain and the wind with fresh coffee in my hands. One of those few things is sitting curled up on a porch swing, watching the rain, holding the coffee, and cracking open a good book. Sadly, there aren't a plethora of porch swings on campus, however I did just check out the first Harry Potter book. After seeing the latest movie, I've decided to re-read the series over Christmas break....which means I'll probably finish the last book come May.
Anyway, if you've read this far, you deserve a little nugget of thought. I follow the C.S. Lewis page on Twitter and love all the quotes. One that came up recently was
There are few things I enjoy more than walking through the rain and the wind with fresh coffee in my hands. One of those few things is sitting curled up on a porch swing, watching the rain, holding the coffee, and cracking open a good book. Sadly, there aren't a plethora of porch swings on campus, however I did just check out the first Harry Potter book. After seeing the latest movie, I've decided to re-read the series over Christmas break....which means I'll probably finish the last book come May.
Anyway, if you've read this far, you deserve a little nugget of thought. I follow the C.S. Lewis page on Twitter and love all the quotes. One that came up recently was
"How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible."It simply makes me smile to read this. Irresistibility is such a wonderful thing. The fact that something could be so wonderful, so awesome that you have no choice but to draw near to it...well, that's lovely.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Round One
So....I've mulled over doing a blog for quite some time, and quite honestly, it's not a big deal to me how many of ya'll out there on the web follow me, or even show any interest in me. I hope this blog will become a way for me to simply write and share my thoughts. I'm an English major, and sometimes writing all those papers will just get me really wound up and I wish I had a place to just write for the beauty of it. So I guess that's what this is.
Speaking of papers, it's the last week of classes right now and I have a big English paper due in 4 days that I haven't started yet. Oops. It's over home and exile (actually the whole course was over home and exile), but it's planted some interesting ideas in my head. Does anyone out there think it's as unbelievable as I do that each and every one of us has a place we call home, and in our minds, that's the center of it all? I mean, there are 6 billion people on this earth and we each think our little home is smack dab in the middle. As much as I'd like to think everyone agrees with me that Texas is the best place in the world, I doubt they would. It just absolutely incredible how much our origins warp our perspectives. Crazy.
Anywho, that's my thought for the day.
Speaking of papers, it's the last week of classes right now and I have a big English paper due in 4 days that I haven't started yet. Oops. It's over home and exile (actually the whole course was over home and exile), but it's planted some interesting ideas in my head. Does anyone out there think it's as unbelievable as I do that each and every one of us has a place we call home, and in our minds, that's the center of it all? I mean, there are 6 billion people on this earth and we each think our little home is smack dab in the middle. As much as I'd like to think everyone agrees with me that Texas is the best place in the world, I doubt they would. It just absolutely incredible how much our origins warp our perspectives. Crazy.
Anywho, that's my thought for the day.
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