Wow. It's been quite a long time since I've been here. A lot of changes have been going on but that's not what I am here to write about today. I am being pulled. My heart has been slowly melting back into hearing what God is saying to me. I am still a long way off but I can hear Him. I want to go. I want to be global and see His work in the nations. I have an idea and I need to see if it will work. Who knows maybe I will be back in Africa for another trip by this time next year. One can only pray and watch God work.

"holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die."

    ~ Felice Dunas

So true! Just let go

Deep breath in and let it out slooow. A lot has been going on in this little corner of the world. Time has just been flying by and I have barely gotten the time to just take it all in. I have goals again. And I am in love with the direction life is going : )

summer reading

It's summer. Every summer I tend to put away thoughts of going through new books and read through my old favourites. This is mainly because I am usually running around biking or hiking or doing other random adventures that don't leave a lot of time to fully delve into a new story. Reading the same old fav's lets me leave them sitting on the shelf for a few weeks before having time to pick them up again and still know exactly what is going on. 

This summer I decided to read through them a bit differently. As I read through instead of re-underlining or highlighting again, I kept a notepad beside me and I wrote down any thoughts that really stuck out to me. These thoughts are what made these books become my favourites that I read through at least once a year.

I just finished reading The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborn again for the who-knows-how-many time. This book has changed my worldview so many times and has helped shape who I am. If I could copy almost the entire book down as my favourite thoughts I would but you might as well just go out and buy the book to read yourself (or just ask me and I could lend you my copy.) Although this list of quotes from this book are not exclusively the only parts of the book I recommend you to read, here is a selection of why I read through this book so often and how it has impacted my life:

• "Don't let the world steal your soul. Being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something incredibly daring with your life."
• "Most good things have been said far too many times and just need to be lived." -p.32
• "If we had enough fait to depend on God like the lilies and teh sparrows do, we would see miracles. For is it not a miracle that the birds find enough worms each day?" -p.49
• "Referring to the church as a building is like referring to people as two-by-fours." - Don Everts
• "Stop complaining about the church you see, and set your heart on becoming the church you dream of."
• "It looked like sometime back we had stopped living Christianity and just started studying it." p.71
• "We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minutes we understand we are obligated to act accordingly." - Soren Kierkgaard

• "Rather than waiting around for God's special plan for your life, you should just go find where God is at work and join in." -p.93
• "Even if there were no heaven and there was no hell, would you still follow Jesus" - Tony Campolo -p.117
• "Christendom seems very unprepared for people who take the gospel seriously." -p. 130
• "We've just fallen in love with God and our neighbours, and that is transforming our lives." -p.133
• "When the first human was made, things were not good until there were two, helping one another." -p.134
• "Following Jesus is simple, but now easy. Love until it hurts, and then love more." - Mother Teresa
• "Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer." - Dorothy Day
• "This love is not sentimental but heartwrenching, the most difficult and the most beautiful thing in the world." -p.136 

• "What the world really needs is not more churches but a Church." -p.146
• "Belief is only the beginning. What really matter is how we live, how what we believe gets flushed out." -p.147-148
• "Simplicity is meaningful only inasmuch as it is grounded in love, authentic relationships, and interdependence." -p.163
• "True generosity is not measured by how much we give away but by how much we have left." -p.164
• "The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away." -p.167
• "The Scriptures say that we should not fear those things which can destroy the body, but we are to fear that which can destroy the soul (Mt. 10:28) While the ghettos may have their share of violence and crime, the suburbs are the home of the more subtel demonic forces - numbness, complacency, comfort - and it is these that can eat away at our souls." -p.227
• "We Christians are not called to safety, but we are promised that God will be with us when we are in danger." -p.227
• "It's not hell that makes me shudder but God, because I have no idea what in the world God's going to dare me to do next." -p.229
• "The greatest cause of atheism is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny Him with their lifestyle." - Brennan Manning -p.270

I hope you find these thoughts so provoking that you read this book as well and let it become one of your top choices. I believe if we had more people who lived the life this book dares to live our world would be so amazingly passionate. If you have any questions or thoughts about these points, please let me know. I would love to talk about it :)

 

Another great article:
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/features/25956-11-things-to-know-at-25ish 

where does your passion lie?

I was reading through some articles on one of my favourite sites to peruse while surfing the net: www.rejectapathy.com and came across this article: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/worldview/blogs/2660-becoming-everyday-adventurers
it is very well written and is an interesting read. I have copied my two favourite paragraphs below:

"Passion is huge. We should consider passion to be the steam that drives the engine that is our mobility for serving as anything in this world. You could have an amazing passion to spend the rest of your life picking blueberries on a hillside in Alabama. If you invest enough into that passion, it is almost undebatable that you will someday achieve your goal. On the other hand, investing nothing into this passion will leave you with cold desire, and no blueberries. If people will rise up with a passion for serving God and to see His goodness spread throughout the earth, and will invest enough into that passion diligently, then there is no reason not to believe they will see that passion be revealed.

"Changing the world around you doesn't necessarily have to start in changing the world abroad. If God has given you a passion for sharing His love with people, there is no formula that insists you make a missions trip to a distant sea board. Perhaps we've become too hyper-critical of ourselves to reach out to our own community. Too many times we compare ourselves with those who are receiving national or international acclaim or recognition for their achievements. The celebrity-style spotlight often leaves us feeling inadequate or inefficient in our own efforts to serve God. Instead, we should funnel the inspiration that comes from that attention into our own hearts and what God is doing through us to change the world around us."

 

"Don't let the world steal your soul. Being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something incredibly daring with your life."

   ~ Shane Claiborne's professor as quoted in Irresistible Revolution

I've realized my need to return to the simplicity of life, hence my post about mugs below. I've gotten a few questions about it from some of you so there you go, that's the reason. I have gotten caught up in a lot of things and just needed to get back to basics.

Also my writing has gone down. I've posted so few times this year! Yep, this year! It is June already and I only have a few posts on here. I apologize for my lack of thought provoking material...but just you wait. I have a fantastic, somewhat controversial topic on the go right now...So there is my teaser for you all!

mugs

I love coffee mugs and tea cups. I have quite a collection of them growing on my shelves in my room. I don't just buy random mugs though. I pick them up when I travel places. I have some Starbucks mugs from Dublin and Whistler as well as a Caribou Coffee mug from Washington, D.C. I have some from Nairobi as well as Uganda. The other mugs I have come out of certain landmarks, chapter endings/beginnings in my life. People gave them to me for university graduations, new jobs and even some coming out of beautiful relationships with people I love having in my life. My mugs all have stories attached to them. Some are preferred tea cups and there is one fantastic hot chocolate mug as well. When I go to someone's house and they offer me a cup of coffee, I always look at the mugs they own. There are sets from Canadian Tire or Sears. Not too many are conversation pieces on themselves. I think this is one main reason why I love my collection so much. They don't match, they do not follow any design rule, they are themselves the reason to sit and relax with a cup of tea on a rainy afternoon. As I sit here drinking some earl grey tea out of my Whistler mug, I can't help but reminisce on all the great times during that vacation. I never understood the concept of just having things. Everything I own has a story. It might be part of minimalist living, but I like that the things I own are not just things. I don't think it makes me a better person, I think it just makes these rainy Saturdays more interesting to drink tea from a mug that has travelled through adventures with me.

Sometimes in life things happen that make you hurt...a lot...and cry all the time. But you have to make the decision to not waste life being sad. You need to push past it and be happy. Being sad is just wasting a beautiful life. Yes, the hurt is still there. Yes, the sadness is still around. But don't dwell on them. The tears will come and let them fall. You enjoyed a beautiful time and had so much fun and it needs to be appreciated and remembered. Don't dwell on it being over. Just remember how much fun it was. Just embrace the many warm and fun memories and know that life is beautiful and can be enjoyed still. You made mistakes but now is the time to learn from them. You were used to fill a void but you have amazing memories from that time. Just remember the fun and the good times and don't dwell on the hurt or life will disappear from you.