Copper Mountain

Ski village.

Lovely. The mountains across from Copper Mountain.

Cozy.

Before the big day.

Sunrise from our window.

Our super cool snow gear.

Best seat in the house. :)

Just before the big plunge.

My brother and me.

Snow Patrol.

Commemorating our hard work on the slopes with a cup of joe.

Thanksgiving in Colorado

Together again.

Josh and Amber. :)

A little too close to the lens.

Sisters.

Happy Thanksgiving :)

We missed you mom and dad. :)

My Glove Compartment

So I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic today on Blanding Boulevard and decided to take a look through my glove compartment. I had not looked through it since moving here about a year and half ago...weird but true.

Anyways, it was like opening a treasure chest I had forgotten was there. I found an old bottle of ibuprofen, the earphones I had been looking for, first aid items from the cpr/first aid class I had taken in Tulsa, a straw, and of course my title and registration. But the best part of the contents was three tape cassettes I had totally forgotten about. The first was my grandfather's testimony. The second was an incredible sermon about vision. And the third, a part of my song journal that I had lost track of.

A theme began to emerge. I listed to my grandfather's testimony. The sound was so old school that I thought about one day attaching it to the end of one of my music albums. He told of when God brought him through a terrible nervous breakdown and showed him that there was more to his faith than he had been taught as a Baptist preacher in seminary. Healing. Deliverance. Lives set free. I wish he was still alive today, so I could call him up and ask him more. But I also think that God has a reason for awakening these questions inside of me only now after grandpa is gone. He wants ME to search the scriptures. He wants me to know because I have searched for Him. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings." (Proverbs 25:2)

And the song journal. Wow. Confidence began to arise in my heart as I listened. The bits and pieces. The sounds of worship. All the songs came through like fresh air. I began to remember, even more, the vision God has placed in my heart.

As for the third cassette, the vision sermon, I haven't listened yet. That one is set up for tomorrow's driving entertainment. It promises to be good.

Happy Veteran's Day

Thank you, Josh, Joe, John, friends, uncles, cousins, grandpa and everyone I don't know. You face death all day long and yet you stand. You walk a path that is greater than yourself. You bring freedom wherever you go. You make me want to stand. Thank you.

Hope

Hope.

Letting go of what should have been for the chance that what is still to come offers a better outcome.

I've been trying to think of some profound story of hope today, in lieu of pip's new site. I know hope has recently raised it's hand in my life. I know that it's my turn to grab ahold and not let go.

I didn't start writing until today as I visited a friend from the past. I saw my past, in the midst of my present state. I saw where I had come from. I saw the state of my heart then and now.

Hope came quietly. It did not interrupt this healing. It did not bang upon my door. It came as desperation gave way to trust. It came as trust turned into faith.

Hope stayed safely hidden, when I thought I had lost it for good. In its own wise ambition, hope stayed away so that, when I was ready, it would have the strength to rise again.

There are moments, like this moment right now, where I wish I could carry this hope back and place it in the times I needed it most. It might have protected me better from the choices I made. There are moments, when I want so badly to go back and touch the heart of this friend with the same hope I now know.

But hope was there. Safely hidden. Safely whispering. Safely carrying me to another shore; the one I now stand on, looking back today through a window.

Hope.

Letting go of what should have been. Knowing that what is still to come will bring a better outcome.

http://findhope.wordpress.com/

Check it out.

Colossians

So this passage was so personal as I went home last weekend. I got to see so many people...my grandparents, aunts, uncles, second and third cousins, friends from highschool, church, ministry, etc., etc. And with each encounter God brought life. He used me to refresh others and, in turn, he used many of them to bring refreshment to me. On Sunday morning, before I went to see a very close friend and talk to her about the Lord, I flipped open to the first chapter of Colossians.

3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. 7You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our[c] behalf, 8and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[d] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption,[e] the forgiveness of sins.

Going With God

What a season of change this has been. God is picking up the pieces of my broken heart. He is mending and healing. He is vindicating and redeeming. And He is sending me out to spread the message. I am not even sure if I can keep track of all the pieces that have been so recently put together. But I know He is. There are things that only He knew about and yet they are coming to light. My dark corners are being lit up and swept clean. My fears and inhibitions are being challenged. My weaknesses are being covered by His grace.

I went to NY last weekend. NY is a land that I so desperately want to see changed by God. I went because I heard God's call to share His love with a friend of mine. The trip ended up being so much more than just what I had planned. I still get teared up talking about it. For so long I have wanted to tell my friends back home about the Lord. I have wanted to tell them about the change that He brings. But I did not know how. I did not even know if I was being changed. And then just recently, I began to see it. I began to see God working in my life in such a fresh way. I began to realiz His call on my life and to be confident about it. I began to step out of my questions and into this faith that He has asked me to live my life by.

It is amazing to see what God can do when we step out of the boat. It is amazing to feel the burden lifted, to let go and know that He is God. The details of my life are being so rearranged. Even in the natural, I am cleaning and budgeting and reorganizing my belongings. I don't know what is next. But I do know He is there. And I know that I want to go where He is. Life is so exciting when God is in the lead.