Hope

There is something inside all of us that awakens our soul every morning.

Something that gives us a reason to keep going.

I have realized that every morning I awake hoping for something.

And even when the day passes and what I hoped for never happened,

I fall back asleep dreaming for tomorrow.

And in the morning, I awake again with a renewed sense of hope.

Something about the changing of days gives us inspiration.

Another chance. Another moment. Another day to keep us going.

Even after months and months of unfulfilled expectations, we continue to hope.

Sometimes we see our desires fulfilled and sometimes they never come to fruition.

Sometimes we want to give up. But mostly we want to keep going.

Because we believe in something bigger than ourselves.

We know that life is not about our desires being fulfilled.

And it is this knowledge that helps us to rejoice even during storms of disappointments.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

The Lord answers with yes and the Lord answers with no.

It is His privilege to do so. The Lord does not owe us anything.

Yet He alone knows what will satisfy our souls.

So when our hope is in the Lord, even during the “no”s, even when He takes away, our hope remains.

Sometimes it takes a while for us to find it. Sometimes we want to pretend it isn't there.

But nevertheless, it is within us.

Christ in me, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27

My hope is built on nothing less

than Jesus' blood an righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

but wholly trust in Jesus's name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,

all other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,

I rest on His unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale,

my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,

Support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way,

he then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,

Oh may I then in Him be found.

Dressed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

Perception

This is a video I made during my 2nd year of college.
It's titled "Perception" and it deals with all of the appearance issues women face.

I wanted to make a video that shows a woman struggling with these issues.
Then I wanted to show her literally running away from all of the lies that the world has told her.

I know so many of us struggle with this, myself included.
I hope you girls enjoy this and that it meets you right where you are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pSdESBYOW0

Boxes or Swirls

One of my favorite things about being in an airplane thousands of feet in the air, is looking out the window. I have always been intrigued by the way things look from up above.

I love to see the "big picture" it reminds me of how small I am.

It also reminds me of how things can appear so differently, depending on your perspective.

About a month ago, I was flying back from Wisconsin.

I was looking out the window as we flew over a city.

I noticed that we as humans put everything in perfectly shaped patches and squares.

Everything is measured so accurately with lines and expected patterns. The freeways and the streets all intersect at foreseeable times. Even the grass fields are purposely cut off at designated areas. Everything is controlled with the human mindset of parallel lines and boxes.

And then we flew over a river... something humans had no control over.

Its pattern was wild and unpredictable. There were beautiful swirls and squiggles.

There was no rhyme or reason to any of it.

With all of the human tools and reasoning in the world, the pattern of that river will never make logical sense to us.

As I was comparing our workmanship to Gods, I realized this was a picture He had been painting for me.

We as humans have spent our lives trying to put Him into boxes of our understanding and reasoning.

Why? Because we are more comfortable with Him there.

We squeeze Him into places He isn't meant to fit into and then wonder why our relationship with Him is dull and lifeless.

We long for Him to romance us with beauty and mystery... but then we get scared because we can't wrap our minds around it.

And so we try to find reasons and answers for everything.

We shove Him into spaces He will simply never fit.

And little by little, we create a world without mountains and rivers.

And although the flatland is boring, we prefer it because it makes sense to us.

Because we can draw lines around it and live in the comfort of our circles and squares.

Seeing this was a huge reminder to me that the Lord desires more for us.

That is why He takes us to places we don't understand.

Sometimes it requires patience on our end.

Sometimes getting us there is the most confusing part.

We don't understand the twists and the turns of His plan.

In our realm of understanding we go from point A to point B.

But God is not confined by our numbers and our systematic thinking.

And we wouldn't be ready for what He has for us if we walked in straight lines.

Every corner we turn is preparing us for something.

He works outside the realm of our understanding to grow our faith and to teach us to trust.

Because His ways are not our ways.

He wants to take us to the unfathomable, intangible places and show us the splendor of His glory.

The only problem is... we are afraid.

So we have to ask ourselves this question ... what is scarier?

Following God outside the realm of my understanding.

Or following a God who fits inside a box that I created.

I think we all know the answer to that one.

Lets be bold. Lets follow Him into the unknown.

It may seem risky... but that is where our faith comes in.

Boxes or swirls. What will you chose?