On the way!

Well, we made it to Foggy Hong Kong in one piece! I am so joyful, peaceful, and excited in the Lord to be on this trip. Our group is awesome and I can already tell that we are going to be family. Logan's dad gave us a bit of parting advice that I just loved, and I'm hoping it becomes a theme of our trip. He said, "Be safe. Wait, no. Don't be safe. Be courageous and take risks. That's much better than safe."
Love and miss everyone... You are in my thoughts and prayers. Keep us in yours!

Meeting the Healer.

"I was a thorn rushing to be with a rose,

vinegar blending with honey, a pot of 

poison turning to healing salve, pasty

wine dregs thrown in the millrace.  I was 

a diseased eye reaching for Jesus' robe,

raw meat cooking in the fire.  Then I found

some dirt to make an ointment that would

honor my soul, and in mixing that, I found

poetry.  Love says, 'You are right, but 

don't claim those changes.  Remember, I 

am wind.  You are an ember I ignite.''

- Rumi

I have known God as many names... Constant, Provider, Comforter, Father, Lover, Friend, Strength, Song.  But the name "Healer" has never truly hit home with me, mostly because I never knew I needed one.  I've been blessed with health and strength, so I've never needed to rely in faith on the Healer for my physical needs.  And until recently, I've been unaware of the festering sores deep within my soul that desperately need salve.

But by the goodness and grace of God, He's showing me my wounds.

We all walk with a limp.  We are all the man outside of the gates called "Beautiful."  For sin is the ultimate injurer and distance from God the ultimate salt on our wound.  And subconsciously, we lean on other things - earthly things - for support.  For me, it's been pride, anxiety, fear, and the approval of others that I have chosen to rely on as crutches for my limping, weakened soul. They've been my security blanket.  But while I resorted to my sinful, earthly support systems, I was unaware that they only injured me further so that I always needed them more.  They are the cast that stays for years without any results.  The Father opened my eyes recently to my condition: I am a woman with polio, stints and crutches and bandages on all limbs, and I'm immobilized.  When He showed me that He could remove these crutches, I was overjoyed.  But He does more than that.  He can heal the injury that led me to those vices in the first place.  He can not only take off the stints, but He can restore my body so that I may run, jump, dance, leap!

Our Healer, though He may not always choose to heal our physical wounds, always chooses to heal our spiritual wounds - the things that keep us limping and immobile.  And in doing so, He removes our need for the vices of the flesh so that we may truly live, walk, dance in freedom. 

Oh, praise Him. 

Such a beautiful life.

Every single moment.
That's where I'm learning (failing, and learning) to see Him.
The present... it's so powerful. The time, right now. There's so much beauty here.

This past week in Nashville have been more than overwhelmingly beautiful. From kisses to nature to laughs to tears to crazy-busy days to curled-up-on-the-couch nights, it's been so great. I can't think of a better way to start this new, 3-month phase in my life.

And even throughout my shortcomings, God is teaching me about grace. He's showing me how to steep myself in it... to inhale and exhale it, so that it filters everything I see.

Grace... mercy... love... grace.

I pray it finds you where you are, washes over you like the tide, changes the way you think and live and see.

Filled to bursting.

I am one blessed girl.
I got to spend (almost) an entire summer with my family... the ones with whom I've never spent more than a week or two. I thought it would be awkward, different... but now I'm sitting in a still house and I love them so comfortably.  And they me.
I got to babysit 7 adorable kids who aren't spoiled and listen when you tell them to do something. And they accepted me, even though I have a funny tattoo on my leg and a ring in my nose.
I got to witness two best friends pledge their lives to the men of their dreams.
And I got to spend hours upon hours upon hours talking and laughing with the man of mine.
I discovered that I actually may have a domestic side, after all.
And I met Jesus. For real.
My heart feels so full, it just might burst.
God is so good.

He might not have.

From Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts


"When I realize that it is not God who is in my debt but I who am in His great debt, then doesn't all become gift?  For He might not have."

He might not have.


God never owed me health, family, joy, peace, friends, education.  I owe Him... everything.

And who am I to demand with clenched fists the favor of the Lord?

Just an update.

I know it's been a while.  Blogging hasn't necessarily been my priority lately.  And that's probably a good thing.
Meanwhile, summer in Indiana is glorious.  I've been able to spend a lot of time learning, reading, and a LOT of family time.  I'm so grateful.  Plus I babysit the best kids in the WORLD: Ellie, Charlotte, Hadley, Sam, Josh, Maddie, and Noah.  They're wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Since I'll be heading across the world in the fall, it's been so nice to have some down time.  I'll be ready to put my full energy into seeing the world and learning about culture in the fall.  Hopefully I'll get to blog some then, or at least journal and then transfer to blog later.
This is a big time in my life... I really feel like things are all culminating, building for something good.  I have to continually remind myself that I am filled to be poured.  So I hope to be in a position where I can pour, pour, pour sometime soon.


If anyone reading this has been struggling with feeling pointless, useless, purposeless or empty in their life or their faith, allow me to offer you a bit of advice that has helped me tremendously over the past week or so.  It's simple: thankfulness.  Ann Voskamp, in her book One Thousand Gifts, talks about ingratitude as the first and gateway sin.  Thus thanksgiving is one of the most beautiful, fragrant offerings we can give to God.  It makes our lives full, even when they're not, and it slows down our time so we may enjoy each beautiful, sacred moment.  So I'm learning to live thankful.  Join me, if you'd like.

Hope all is going well for any readers out there in blog limbo.

Make Haste.

"This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

'In repentance and rest is your salvation, 

in quietness and trust is your strength, 

but you would have none of it.'"

- Isaiah 30:15

"But you must return to your God; maintain 

love and justice, and wait for your God always." 

- Hosea 12:6

"Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. 

We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, 

for in You the fatherless find compassion."

- Hosea 14:3

"Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. 

It is close at hand...

'Even now,' declares the Lord, 

'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.'

Rend your heart and not your garments. 

Return to the Lord your God,

for He is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

and He relents form sending calamity."

- Joel 2:1, 12-13

The day of the Lord is near. 

Make haste to prepare yourself, bride of Christ. 

He is coming.