One of our assignments for Advanced Excel was to come up with a list of ten things we wanted to be able to say about ourselves when we died. The flip side was that we also had to have a list of ten things we didn't want to say about ourselves when we died. It was a challenging assignment.
I want to challenge you to make your own lists. Examine your life. Live your life in such a way that you are ready to die.
10 things I want to say...
1. I lived passionately
2. I loved others above myself
3. I brought glory to God in all that I did
4. I visited New Zealand
5. I understood and lived out who I am in Christ
6. I found and fulfilled my life purpose through Christ
7. I was an encouragement to those around me
8. I influenced at least one life for the better
9. I was a true and loyal friend
10. I was not a blind follower (not a lemming jumping off the cliff)
10 things I don't want to say...
1. I never felt God’s love
2. I lived selfishly
3. I put myself above others needs
4. I failed Advanced Excel
5. I lived in fear
6. I never went to New Zealand
7. I missed God’s purpose for my life
8. I never sought the answers to my questions, merely accepting what I heard
9. I gave up
10. I discouraged those around me
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Photo Scavenger Hunt
Funny pose
Vanishing point 
"Tools, not toys."
A favorite thing(need I say any more?)
Music
Shamrock Green
Broken
Weather
Memory
Making a statement
Self portrait
Police
Date(don't settle for the jerk in the tin suit!)
White trash
Squirrel
The passage of time
My "coffee"(who needs coffee when you have DP?)
Fears
Leap
Reflections on my computer
StaplerThursday, May 14, 2009
What is the top priority in life?
What do you think the most important thing in life is? What should be the top priority? The answer may surprise you. It surprised me, although already I knew it. Our priority is to Love God.
We have all read Matthew 22:37-38 where it tells us the greatest commandment, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
But do we ever stop and actually think about what this means? It says nothing about doing great things for the glory of God. It does not tell us to go evangelize a third-world country. It does not tell us to care for the homeless. It does not tell us to go to church and tithe. These are good and important things, but what does the verse actually say?
It tells us that loving God is the most important thing. Nothing more, nothing less. This is not a love that rushes around doing things for the person while ignoring them. This is a love that focuses on that person. All that God asks of us is that we love Him. And the love He gives us for Himself will spill out and touch the lives of everyone around us.
All that I am, all that I ever will be is wrapped up in that. In 2007, I dedicated 6 years of my life to serve God. I thought this meant I would go and do great things for God. Go to New Zealand and minister to young people there. Maybe cause a revival to break out in the political world. Do something big and glorious for God to change the world.
But now I realize, if I do nothing else in these six years, I have done enough. I have learned that all God wants from me is my love. Not for me to do mighty things, but to simply be in His presence. To love Him. To bask in the presence of my Father and to experience His love.
Ephesians 1:12a says “That we should be to the praise of his glory,” it is not about doing, it is about being. And God has shown me that all I need to do, to be, is love Him. Once I am able to simply “be” and love Him, then, if He wills, I can “do” for Him because my priorities are right. But if nothing else happens during these years, it is enough that I know this.
Advanced Excel has changed my life. It has taught me how to be. It has shown me who God says I am. It has shown me the truth. The truth is a person, Jesus Christ. And I love Him with everything that is in me.
We have all read Matthew 22:37-38 where it tells us the greatest commandment, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
But do we ever stop and actually think about what this means? It says nothing about doing great things for the glory of God. It does not tell us to go evangelize a third-world country. It does not tell us to care for the homeless. It does not tell us to go to church and tithe. These are good and important things, but what does the verse actually say?
It tells us that loving God is the most important thing. Nothing more, nothing less. This is not a love that rushes around doing things for the person while ignoring them. This is a love that focuses on that person. All that God asks of us is that we love Him. And the love He gives us for Himself will spill out and touch the lives of everyone around us.
All that I am, all that I ever will be is wrapped up in that. In 2007, I dedicated 6 years of my life to serve God. I thought this meant I would go and do great things for God. Go to New Zealand and minister to young people there. Maybe cause a revival to break out in the political world. Do something big and glorious for God to change the world.
But now I realize, if I do nothing else in these six years, I have done enough. I have learned that all God wants from me is my love. Not for me to do mighty things, but to simply be in His presence. To love Him. To bask in the presence of my Father and to experience His love.
Ephesians 1:12a says “That we should be to the praise of his glory,” it is not about doing, it is about being. And God has shown me that all I need to do, to be, is love Him. Once I am able to simply “be” and love Him, then, if He wills, I can “do” for Him because my priorities are right. But if nothing else happens during these years, it is enough that I know this.
Advanced Excel has changed my life. It has taught me how to be. It has shown me who God says I am. It has shown me the truth. The truth is a person, Jesus Christ. And I love Him with everything that is in me.
Monday, May 11, 2009
My word of the week...
Honorificabilitudinitatibus
Honorificabilitudinitatibus: the state of being able to achieve honours.
Pronunciation guide: Hono-rifica-bili-tudi-nita-tibus
(It's from Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost.")
I love this word, its super cool. Try using it on your family at the supper table and see what happens. :)
Honorificabilitudinitatibus: the state of being able to achieve honours.
Pronunciation guide: Hono-rifica-bili-tudi-nita-tibus
(It's from Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost.")
I love this word, its super cool. Try using it on your family at the supper table and see what happens. :)
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Look at Your Life through Heaven's Eyes
This song was a timely reminder that I must look at myself through God's eyes, not through my own. (This song is from "The Prince of Egypt", words by Stephen Schwartz.)
Through Heaven’s eyes
A single thread in a tapestry
Though its color brightly shine
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design
And the stone that sits on the very top
Of the mountain’s mighty face
Does it think it’s more important
Than the stones that form the base?
So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven’s eyes.
Lai-la-lai….
A lake of gold in the desert sand
is less than a cool fresh spring
And to one lost sheep, a shepherded boy
Is greater than the richest king.
If a man lose ev’rything he owns,
Has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning
Of a new and brighter birth?
So how do you measure the worth of a man
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come,
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven’s eyes
And that’s why we share all we have with you,
Though there’s little to be found.
When all you’ve got is nothing,
There’s a lot to go around.
No life can escape being blown about
By the winds of change and chance,
And though you never know all the steps,
You must learn to join the dance
You must learn to join the dance.
Lai-la-lai…
So how do you judge what a man is worth?
By what he builds or buys?
You can never see with your eyes on earth
Look through heaven’s eyes.
Look at your life,
Look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven’s eyes!
A single thread in a tapestry
Though its color brightly shine
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design
And the stone that sits on the very top
Of the mountain’s mighty face
Does it think it’s more important
Than the stones that form the base?
So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven’s eyes.
Lai-la-lai….
A lake of gold in the desert sand
is less than a cool fresh spring
And to one lost sheep, a shepherded boy
Is greater than the richest king.
If a man lose ev’rything he owns,
Has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning
Of a new and brighter birth?
So how do you measure the worth of a man
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come,
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven’s eyes
And that’s why we share all we have with you,
Though there’s little to be found.
When all you’ve got is nothing,
There’s a lot to go around.
No life can escape being blown about
By the winds of change and chance,
And though you never know all the steps,
You must learn to join the dance
You must learn to join the dance.
Lai-la-lai…
So how do you judge what a man is worth?
By what he builds or buys?
You can never see with your eyes on earth
Look through heaven’s eyes.
Look at your life,
Look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven’s eyes!
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