This one is for you Bonnie!

Lately I have had the ultimate privilege of picking four wonderful friends to stand by my side on my wedding day! I can't say it was an easy pick, which has caused me to be so frikin' thankful that I have multiple quality, wholesome, loyal and brilliant friends. It is a prayer I have prayed so many times, "Lord, bring me alongside people who will be life long friends".  I severely love my friends, like seriously. I have a select, small group of close friends whom I share with (and often over share!) but everyone else, I don't bother with! Haha.  I'm not a half hearted person with relationships. I either love you hard, or not at all. I often boast in the fact that I don't bother with surface friends. Seriously, what the eff is the point in surface friends? Facebook is the biggest community for surface friends. Yes, I'd say most  people share their entire life of Facebook, whether explicitly via 'status updates' or implicitly via a photo update here and there,  a change of 'relationship status' or  change in your 'workplace'. I can tell you many things about 500 of my "friends" because its blasted over the internet. But do I know them? Can I call them at home? (ace ventura reference). No. It saddens me that many people might not experience real friendship. The "Jonathan and David" kind of friendship, the "best-friendship" friendship, the "lets bare our souls" kind of friendship.  I'm often prompted to consider how many people are living without a "Jonathan".  It is not uncommon for people to be serving and involved in their community, yet lead lonely lives. What a tragedy! Seriously, without being terribly overdramatic, it is a real tragedy! I have taken it upon myself (yes you can call me a mega-christian or just holy) to look out for those who no one talk to, befriend those who don't know people, and direct those who are a little lost or those who look a little afraid. Yes, to just be there can often be enough. I'm not saying I'm an expert and that I do it everyday, but it wasn't that long ago when I was that person who felt a little lost in a room full of thousands of people. And even me, a person who enjoys being alone, felt out of place. So I've committed myself to not be so busy and just help someone out. Its a simple thing, "Hi my name is Sarah, are you new?" or "Hi my name is Sarah, what's yours?". The hard part is stepping out of our comfort zone, in order to help SOMEONE ELSE feel comfortable (ooop, she went there, word play).  So there you have it, the challenge of todays blog, open your eyes, see need, do what you can.

I love you my oldest friends. I love you my present friends. I love you my future friends. Hopefully you'll fit into all three categories, if not right now, then someday :)

Something I read in my readings for uni this week!

It seems that love and loss provide the point and counterpoint of a symphony

whose first movement sets the colour and feeling tone of all that is to come.

Succeeding movements introduce new themes, which may challenge, replace or

develop the earlier themes, but cannot wipe them out. Order alternates with

chaos as the music of life progresses and the whole moves towards some kind of

resolution that, in great music is always unexpected, subtle and deeply moving.

The greatest music… is the saddest, and its greatness stems from the emergence

of meaning out of discord, loss and pain. The sublime, in music as in life, reflects

the human search for meaning, the grasping at eternity, the transcendence of the

littleness of I (Parks, 2009, p. 278) 

So why don't we go, Somewhere only we know..

Been listening to a song from Glee soundtrack called " Somewhere only we know"...and in the tv show, its a song about a gay couple, and one guy sings it to the other.

I love the song and I had it on repeat but I kept picturing the two gay guys in that particular scene of glee. So i turned it off...then I realised that the words of the song really reflect how God would speak to us, be intimate with us and want to be with us. I can often forget that God is not just the Almighty.

Is this the place?

We used to love?

Is this the place that I've been dreaming of us?

Oh simple thing...

Where have you gone?

Im getting old and i need something to rely on

Yet He doesn't. He is constant love. Many speak about  1 corinthians 13 at weddings and I guess that's ok, but it not a passage about marriage. This passage is not about a man and a woman, it's about God's perfect and intimate  love towards us.  He is not just Lord of Lords, he is my friend, my love. And He loves us so "initmately"....not the way we "love" maccas or marc jacobs or whatever.  And the song reflects His heart in the chorus....

If you have a minute why don't we go,

Talk about it somewhere only we know,

This could be the end of everything...

So why don't we go,

Somewhere only we know....

Have you been in love? Can you imagine what being in love feels like? Do you have that intimacy with someone? That same feeling is what the Almighty feels all the time for you...

Reading this amazing book by Rita Snowden....old book first published in 1933. This quote coincides well with my previous blog...

Life is not monotonous. Life is full of a hidden beauty; a hidden glory-indeed of a hidden God.

Love it.

Get off the Street Corners!

I have a few Facebook and twitter friends who deem it appropriate to tell their world of their so called “private” revelations and “quite” time with God. And I cannot stand them! I hate them (not them, the statuses)! I hate statuses which name drop churches, which sound like “ Had an awesome prayer sesh in car this morning” or  “ my heart longs for Him, I want more of You” or  “Love God so much!” or  “Making a bible reading plan, cant wait to bask in his awesomeness”  “totes got baptised in the holy spirit tonight shindalirahbalalahabshendarah boughtahondashouldofboughtayamaha”  (haha-totes made up that last one)….. I hate it!  For one simple reason-the statuses are not about God, they’re about the individual trying to prove some sort of righteous living. I guess its not always like that, but why, WHY OH WHY would you write  a status like that unless you wanted people to perceive you in a certain way.  God is not going to read your status?!  Who actually needs to know those details of your life?..... God and maybe best friend and/or husband/wife, but not 850 of your closest friends!  “oh but umm, I’m trying to evangelise and show the world that I’m different. I’m trying to be salt in the world” ...Well you are failing! If someone like me, who is a committed and passionate disciple of Christ hates those statuses, how much more will the world find you annoying and weird?

I bet that is what the Pharisees thought they were doing-being salt and light. But in fact they totally missed the fact that God was among them and near them. Jesus was never on the stage, never in the limelight, the KING OF KINGS born in a stable surrounded by hay and sheep poo.  Jesus is not about attention seeking.  If he were in a boy band, he’d be the one everyone over looked. He’d be the black jellybean in a packet of jellybeans. Jesus was like the brown pencil in the coloured pencil box or the green apple on sale next to the chocolate bar. He was an underdog. He (Jesus) was never about fame or glory for himself, and neither should we. He wanted to glorify, the Father. God is a private, very intimate God, he works with us individually and on a personal level.  Hence, all his works must be done in that same spirit.

Jesus has warned about this issue.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ...

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6)

Get off the 21^st Century streets corners (facebook and twitter) and hit the bedroom!

Cheers to Big Ears aka Jesus Christ

Hi so this is my first blog. First of many I hope. I’m not really new to writing stuff…I write stuff all the time, but mainly the old fashioned way (paper and pen). The one thing I have started to write in my computer are my prayers. I have notebooks full of old prayers but recently have started typing up prayers in my Macbook Pro (heck yes!)  I bet you are wondering why it is I type up my prayers instead of saying them to God. Well I’m sure talking is a much quicker way of communicating with God, its more direct etc. That is true, talking is fast and direct and some people are gifted to be able to talk eloquently too, unfortunately I’m not one of them.  Writing comes very naturally for me, especially when its something important like talking to God and there are some seriously awesome benefits that tag along with having your prayer life in writing.  Here are two of them;

Numero Uno-  When you start writing or typing asking for something of God that is stupid/immature/selfish/out of line you realise VERY quickly. And you are constantly challenged and reminded to re-align your life with what God wants and everything else will be added unto you.

Numero Dos – When you have a crap day and you start to pray (no rhyme intended), you can open up your notebook/macbook and begin to look over all your old prayers. Funnily enough you are reminded of how God has looked after you, and how He loves you and how He has provided for you and how He’s never left your side. In time it becomes more than a prayer book it becomes a diary of your life with God and it serves to stir faith and bring comfort. 

Its UNBELIEVABLE the amount of times I have gone to say/write my prayers to God and end up in tears realising and reflecting on the fact that He’s come through for me every time. He’s NEVER failed. He’s always been faithful. And yet I forget all the time that God hears me, we all do at some point or another and when we do, that’s when doubt and insecurity takes over.  In 1 John 5:14 it says

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us.

I’m not saying that everyone should go out and buy a cool Christian notebook from Koorong with a picture of flowers on the front with some scripture like “ THE LORD IS MY SHEPARD” on the cover and use it to write down your prayers! What I’m saying is that whichever way you pray, know that He hears you and He cares about the things you care about. And if you’re not sure that He does, or haven’t received any “answers” to your prayers, how bout you give the whole “write down your prayers” a go. Trust me, you’ll be surprised at all the silly little details of your life that God cares about. He’s a relationship kind of guy, hey. He wants to be involved in your life, all of it!