People

This week I am so incredibly thankful for the people God has surrounded me with here at Biola. 

In the midst of going to class, working, and doing homework, I am blessed to be with my friends. 

Never feel like you are too busy for friendship. You are cheating yourself and those around you when you do. 

Just Ask

Well, I've been back at Biola for exactly one week now.

And what a week is has been.

Making new friends. Seeing old ones. Laughing. Crying. Reading. Sleeping. Working, Resting. Praying. Praising.

I'm exhausted, but it is such a rich exhaustion, developed as a result of doing good things all week long with good people.

I've officially decided to change my 'policy' from posting everyday (which I became very poor at near the end of the summer anyways), to once a week. This blog helped me so much this summer; when I felt that there wasn't much to be thankful for amidst the pain, God showed His face, and taught me to praise Him every day for His blessings, both big and small.

So, what am I thankful for today? So many things.

Today, at church, the pastor preached on prayer. He summarized his sermon by saying this:

"In light of God's promises, ask big. Despite disappointments, keep asking."

God used this one-liner to convict me of my lack of prayer about the big things in my life, and really challenge me to faithfully pray for those who I have not prayed for as much as I should. The promises that the preacher was referring to are found in the Gospel According to John, when Jesus is giving His last words to His disciples before His death on the cross. Jesus says,

"Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." - John 14:13-14 ESV

Did you catch that "anything"? I did. 'Anything' is a lot of things. This means that absolutely nothing is too big for God to handle, or too small. Sometimes, we don't want to 'bother' God with what we perceive to be trivial matters, but He cares for us and wants us to come to Him as a child goes to their father to ask them to open up the bottle they cannot. A simple request, yes, but an amazing picture of a child's dependence on their father, and our dependence on our Heavenly Father. The other side of the coin is true as well. Sometimes life's situations are so overwhelming, it's easy to not pray about them, because then you don't have to think about them. This is not what God wants. He wants us to take our problems to Him, tell Him we don't know what to do, and then wait for instructions. Today, the pastor shared a quote from his wife that said,

"Prayer is our declaration of dependence on God."

The 'power of prayer' isn't what is important. It's the power of the God who hears our prayers.

So, today I am thankful that I know and serve the God who not only created the universe, but sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for my sins, and allows me, by His amazing grace, to seek Him and His perfect will, day by day.

God listens to your prayers. All of them. Rest in that.

How to be Un-Dragoned

C.S. Lewis paints the most beautiful picture of the redeeming grace of Christ in his fifth installment of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when the pessimistic and sometimes downright mean boy, Eustace, is led by Aslan, the Great Lion and Son of the Emperor Beyond the Sea, cleansed of his wickedness, and transformed into a new boy with a completely different outlook on life.

In the story, Eustace has been transformed into a dragon, which coincidentally reflects his greedy and ugly-like behavior and attitude. After being a dragon for a few days, he is absolutely miserable and lonely as a result of it. One night, as he is away from the camp, he suddenly sees a lion coming toward him. He describes the event to his cousin, Edmund, as such:

"Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly toward me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it.”

There is just so much goodness in this one small quote! Aslan is producing light; He is  light to the dark and lonely Eustace. Also, Eustace recognizes the power of this lion, and even though he closes his eyes to try to ignore His presence, the voice of Aslan prevails.  Edmund and Eustace's conversation continues:

“You mean it spoke?" 

“I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden - trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well. 

“I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells - like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not. 

“I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe."

Eustace tries his darnedest to rid himself of his yucky outer layer; that which causes his dragon-ness. What I interpret C.S. Lewis to be portraying here is man's attempt to make himself presentable before going to God; man trying to make himself good enough. What man (and Eustace) find out, though, is that it is impossible on his own. Eustace continues:

“But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
“Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good."

Hopelessness. This is what I imagine Eustace to be feeling right about now. He has taken off three layers of dead skin, and is still not clean enough for a bath. He's tired. He's lonely. He's trying with all of his might, but it's still not enough. This is what life must be like for those who don't know the grace of Jesus Christ. For those who work so hard each and every day to be 'good people', and constantly fall short. For those who want to believe in God, but can't bring themselves to do it because they can't bear to look at the sin in their life, let alone show it all to God. Amazingly enough, it isn't up to us, just like it wasn't up to Eustace, for he continues his story saying:

“Then the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke – ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” said Edmund.

I find this part to be absolutely and astonishingly beautiful. Here, Eustace makes himself completely vulnerable to the un-tame but good, Aslan, by laying down on his back and letting him peel off his filthy dragon skin. That is what we need to do with Jesus. We need to be vulnerable with Him and ourselves. We need to lay back and let Christ go down deep into our hearts and cleanse us, no matter how much it may hurt us. Like Eustace said, it's a good kind of pain. Eustace finishes up his story by saying:

“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
“After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me –“
“Dressed you. With his paws?”
“Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream.”
“No. It wasn't a dream,” said Edmund.
“Why not?”
“Well, there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been - well, un-dragoned, for another.”
“What do you think it was, then?” asked Eustace.
“I think you've seen Aslan,” said Edmund.

Eustace is a boy again. But notice how he is not the same pessimistic and hate filled boy he was before. He has seen Aslan, and his whole life is changed. He is dressed in new clothes, and I like to think this represents our being covered with Christ's righteousness when we give our lives to Him and accept His free gift of salvation and redemption. Even Edmund notices the change Aslan has brought to Eustace.

There's just so much about this story that amazes and inspires me.
Aslan is Jesus.
Aslan redeemed Eustace.
Jesus redeemed me.
Both Eustace and I are new creations.
And you can be a new creation, too. You just need to be 'un-dragoned'.

Peace is Possible

I know that I haven't posted in a few days, and it's not that I can't find things to be thankful for, it's just that life gets crazy and exhausting and it's hard to sit down and write amidst it all.

But, here I am, sitting and writing. Life is still crazy and exhausting, but I'm writing.

This morning my dad, sister, and I went for a walk through a park near our apartment. The sun was shining, baseball teams composed of middle-aged men were playing, and the ducks were waddling. There was a park bench at the top of a grassy hill that you could sit on and see the tippy-top of the mountains in the distance. There was a playground with a tire swing that my dad swung my sister on, and swings that she and I competed to see who could swing the highest on.

I was at peace. Even in the midst of a crazy and exhausting life, this morning in the park was proof that peace is possible.

Blogging and Dancing

Right now, as I'm blogging, my sister is dancing.

I love how different we are, and how much we love, accept, and encourage each other, even in our differences.

I'm going to miss Colie so much when I go back to school. Thank you, Lord, so much, for this summer we have spent together. She is growing up into such a wonderful young lady.

Father Daughter Date

Tonight I went on a date...with my Dad. :)

We went down to  Edmonds and visited the Waterfront Coffee Company, got our delicious drinks (I ordered a Mexican Mocha and Dad had an Iced Coffee), talked with the Barista for a bit, and then headed down to the water to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Since my summer is about to close, I wanted to spend some quality time with my dad before I headed back to school. And quality time we had. We spoke of our summers, our thoughts on C.S. Lewis' many books, and more. We had great conversation, and I am just so so glad he is my dad, and not anyone else.

I wanted to take a picture of the two of us in front of the water, but lucky for us there was a nice man near us who was willing to take our picture, so it didn't have to be all 'myspace-ey' haha.

Thank you, Lord, for this fun time I had with my dad. Let us continue to grow in our relationship with each other and with You.

Jeep!

"Are you saying that I get to go test drive a Jeep, while getting paid to work, and   I get a gift card to the mall for driving the Jeep?" 

I asked this question to my manager after he told me I could do exactly what my question posed. 

"Yeah, I'll just say it was your ten", my manager responded. 

"OK! I'll be back, then!" I said with a smile. I was so excited! 

That's right, my friends. While I was at work today (I work at Brookstone), the Jeep company was doing a promo where people could test drive their vehicles, answer a couple of questions about the car they drove, and then receive a gift card to the mall where I work! I got to drive a super nice 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee around the block and have a great conversation with Chase, a pre-med student at the University of Washington, who was working at the promo event this weekend. He was there to make sure I didn't run away with the vehicle haha. It was so much fun!

It sure was nice to do something out of the ordinary and not stressful. Thank you, Lord, for this random excursion of fun. :)

Tonight's Plan

- I drink a delicious mug of hot cocoa
- Nicole drinks a delicious mug of chocolate milk
- We sit together and finish reading Lewis' Prince Caspian

Thank you, Lord, for this fun night of yummy drinks and great literature.

Support

This week has been beyond exhausting, which is reflected in my sparse and short posts.

But, amidst the madness, I am so thankful for the people God has put in my life to support me through it all.

What a Day

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. 2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV

My Daddy is alive. Satan tried to take him away, but Jesus reigns, and my Dad is alive. :)

As Easy as Breathing

Tonight was the first night of my church's Vacation Bible School (VBS, for short), and I am one of the teachers for the 5th and 6th grade class. I absolutely LOVE my students. :)

It's so much fun to teach kids about Jesus. Especially if the kid is receptive to what I'm saying. It's encouraging that my students like me and that teaching them comes naturally...just like breathing. I love teaching. I love helping people figure things out. I love it when the light bulb above their heads turns on...when they finally get it, and a big smile reaches across their face.

Thank you, Lord, for VBS. Thank you for my students. Thank you for giving me the gift of teaching.

You've Caught Me Deep in Thought...

Two years ago, I graduated from high school.

Two years from now, I will graduate from college.

As of right now, I'm stuck right smack dab in the middle of two milestones.

And it's weird.

I'm growing up, you see, and it's strange.

Today's post isn't necessarily an offering of praise; if anything, it's an offering of thought and reflection.

Time fascinates me. It moves quickly, yet so much can happen in such little time. I need to take advantage of the time God has given me, and use it to His advantage and not my own.

Sorry, you've caught me deep in thought...please leave a message after the beep. :)

TPW

Sometimes he drives me absolutely insane. But deep down, I know that I love him like a brother. Which would explain why sometimes he drives me absolutely insane; brothers do that.

I've known Truman since he was six years old. I was eight when we met. Our dad's knew each other from work, and our families moved to Washington from Kentucky together to plant a church. We have, for all intensive purposes, grown up together.

Why am I thankful for Truman? Great question. I'm thankful for him because I know that I can be myself around him. I can talk about the things in my life that cause me pain and those things which make me rejoice. I don't have to act like anyone but myself around him, and sometimes 'myself' can be tired and cranky. I'm sure, at times, I've bothered him with my attitude just as much as he has bothered me with his, but I know that we care for each other like family, and that bond can never break, no matter how annoying the other gets at times.

I feel very blessed to have the friendship God has given me with Truman. He is my oldest friend. Having moved around a lot growing up, I've never had friendships last longer than just a couple to few years. But, with Truman, we have been friends for 12 years, and for that I am truly thankful.

Thank you, Lord, for Truman P. Whitaker. Thank you that we are friends, and that even though through our friendship we have come to know each other's flaws, we have also come to truly know and appreciate the other's wonderful qualities. Truman loves his country (he recently enlisted himself for the United States Marine Corps), his family (even though sometimes he picks on his siblings haha), and God. Thank you for that.

My Short Trip Down Memory Lane

Tonight I had a splendid evening with one of my absolute favorite people and best friends from high school, Elena. We went to our favorite hang out spot, Cutters Point, grabbed some delicious beverages, sat down, and with our conversation traveled down memory lane together. 

After that, we mozied on over to Best Buy to just walk around and look at cameras. Little did we know that three people that we went to high school with worked there! So, we walk in, and the reunions begin. Slightly awkward at times, funny at others, but all around awesome to see how people are doing since high school. Not much time has passed, but a whole mess of life has happened in the past two years. 

So, that was my trek down memory lane. Thank you, Lord, for fun, awkward moments. :)

Cheryl

Today was a wonderful day with my wonderful friend, Cheryl Whitaker.

Cheryl has been a student of the New York Institute of Photography for the past couple of years, and today I was her model for her last photo project. We went all around Tacoma looking for rustic backgrounds to take pictures of with me in front of.

Brick walls. Graffiti. Ivy. Old barn. We felt so artsy.

I don't have pictures to put up yet from today (Cheryl is loading all 375 of them on her computer right now), but that's not what I am exceptionally thankful for today. Today, I am thankful for Cheryl and her friendship.

We are able to talk about life, love, and loss. We are able to laugh together, be sad together, and talk about God together. She's such a blessing to me.

Thank you, Lord, for Cheryl Whitaker. :)

My Favorite 5 Year Old

It was almost five years ago that my family and I went to the airport to meet the little baby we had been looking forward to meeting for months and months. 

That little baby was the lovely Miss Catherine Le Whitaker, and now she is five years old. 

Her family adopted her from China five years ago, this Sunday. They usually celebrate her Adoption Day with a cute little cake commemorating her becoming the part of their family. I am so excited to be with them this Sunday as they celebrate their 5th Adoption Day. 

Catherine is sweet, with a little bit of sass. She's funny, energetic, and loves to snuggle. I love her so much; she's like a little sister to me. 

Thank you, Lord, for Catherine. :) 

The Whitakers

Today has been the day that I have been looking forward to all summer long; the day I would go to my home away from home: DuPont, WA.

DuPont is home to the family I have known since I was eight years old. They are basically my second family. I feel at home when I am with them. I can be myself with them. And they can be themselves when they are with me. It's fantastic, and I wouldn't trade my relationship with the Whitaker family for the world.

I'll be with them for about a week, and I am just so excited about living life with them during this time. Playing imagination with five year old Catherine. Watching movies with my buddy, Truman. Sharing stories and playing card games with my good friend, Cheryl. Laughing with Andrew. Sharing the work of Christ in my life with Rich.

I am so incredibly thankful for the Whitaker family, and the immense blessing they are in my life.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with their love and friendship.

Fuel on the Flame

I just love Jesus...a lot.

Tonight I had a great conversation with a friend about how much we both love Jesus and how thankful we are for the amazing grace that comes with having a saving relationship with him. We both know people trapped in religion, bound by rules and regulations, trapped by man-made mandates, all which turn a personal relationship with Jesus into a regimented, rigid, and frankly, religious life. My friend and I were just so joyful about our relationship with Christ, and the freedom that comes with serving Him.

Now, yes, a life dedicated to Jesus has its hardships, of course. But when one thinks eternally, and of the amazing future one will have in heaven, praising God and having perpetual joy, the trials of this life pale in comparison.

I'm just so thankful that God called me into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm also very thankful for my friend who put fuel on the flame of my love for Jesus tonight.

Fun in Seattle

For those of you who live and breathe this blog, and become very sad when I don't post everyday, I'm sorry. (Actually, I doubt any such person exists haha). But, I do apologize for not posting yesterday; I was at a place with no internet service, so blogging was not a viable option.

This is what I did last night, instead of blogging:

Yogurtland at Capitol Hill in Seattle! :)

Foot-popping with Atia.

standing in front of vandalized property. :)

sitting in Pikes Place Market...after hours. :)

Ah! Elena and I! And Atia took the picture! Fun!

So, yeah, I had a fun time with my lovely friends in Seattle. Thank you, Lord, for the adventure you gave us. :)

Icecream

Cookies and Cream.

I had some when I got home from a Bible Study I went to tonight. I got out a small, red, Christmas coffee mug  with a happy penguin on it (my select choice for holding ice cream instead of a bowl), got a couple of scoops of delicious ice cream, added some crunchy peanut butter (my staple mix-in for most flavors of ice cream), and then stirred away.

It was yummy. Sweet and yummy.

Now I'm watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on the t.v. It's awesome. I'm so excited to go see the last movie when it comes out!

So, thank you, Lord, for the yummy ice cream. :)