Snapshots

It’s amazing how things that are so far-removed from your everyday life still have amazing power over you when you’re alone, it’s quiet, and the lights are out or when you’re just driving on the highway or just going about your day.

One of my ex-boyfriends just got engaged not too long ago. I was kind of expecting it, so I wasn’t too surprised. I felt prepared to log onto Facebook and see it (since that’s how everyone finds out anything about anyone). What I wasn’t prepared for was how it would affect me..

Lately, I’ve been having flashbacks of things that I’ve done in the past. Whenever an ex-boyfriend pops up in my head, memories–ones that sometimes I wish I could forget–come flooding into my head like a box full of snapshots being dumped on the ground. I know this is happening because they weren’t just boyfriends; they were my husbands in God’s eyes. But for some reason, finding out that he is engaged has been so difficult that it’s bringing all of this up. He was who I pictured my life with, who I began planning my life around, and who I cried and agonized over for months after we broke up. Although I’m grateful for the difficult experiences in my life because they were what brought me to God, I think a small part of me still misses him and what we had together. Most of my flashbacks are of memories that I have from our relationship–parts of our relationship that were meant only for marriage. I had another flashback tonight, but this one was a little different.

After I had the flashback, my mind flipped to something that my pastor Jim had told me a while ago, and I felt like a little piece of my heart broke.

I met with Jim almost 2 months ago to discuss some things I had been struggling with. I told him how I want to get married and have a family, that I know my life wouldn’t be happier or easier with a husband, and that I’m not sure why I have such a desire for a marriage. I told him I’m scared to be in a relationship. I told him that I’m still owning and identifying myself by the things I did in the past. I told him that I think I sometimes settle for guys who fit my old standard because I don’t feel like I’m “Christian” enough for a truly godly man. After I poured my heart out to him, he asked me a few questions..

Jim: “You have a long history of relationships? Starting at about the age of 15?”

Me: “13”

Jim: “Sexually active?”

I nodded.

Jim: “At what age?”

Me: “16”

From there, he went on to describe what he would say to his son if he wanted to marry me..

“Son, she’s a sweet girl.. a godly girl.. but you do need to know that she has a past. You can’t hold that against her because God has forgiven her, but it will be something that you’ll have to work through if you marry her. Don’t be surprised if someday you wake up beside her and feel resentment because someone else has been there before.”

Then, Jim told me that there are Christian guys who will only date girls who have never done anything “wrong,” but there are also more mature ones who will see what God has done in my life. He told me I don’t want someone who is going to hold my past against me, but I don’t want someone who will gloss over it either because that means “they don’t think much of sin.”

“You want whoever you marry to mourn over your past with you.”

But the main thing that sticks out from that conversation is Jim mimicking what my future husband might say to me as I’m looking down & crying, telling me to look at him, and saying,

“Sweetheart, you are white as snow.”

It was probably one of the most uncomfortable, humbling, amazing moments of my life. It also made it so much more clear what it would be like for Jesus to say that to me. That’s what my mind flipped to after my flashback tonight. Jesus. Crying with his face in his hands. Mourning over my lost purity. And my heart broke. I kept praying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”  And then I pictured Jesus telling me I’m white as snow. Washed. Pure. Clean.

I know who I am in God because of what Jesus has done for me. And I’m so tempted to say, “But…” and follow it with a million statements like, “I’ve messed up so bad,” “I still struggle with flashbacks of my past,” “I’m still a total screw-up,” etc. The reality is:

Yes, I’ve messed up.

Yes, I still struggle with flashbacks of my past.

Yes, I’m still a total screw-up.

…BUT…

I’ve got a Savior who’s sacrifice is bigger than all of it.

Renovation

This blog hasn’t exactly been what I hoped it would be. My plan for it was to be a place to reflect on things that I’m learning about God, Jesus, church, the Christian life, etc. I feel like it’s turned out to be a place where I mostly write about my own life, and not necessarily in the context of how God is working in it. My plan is to change that and figure out some way to renovate this blog and make it more about God. I’m thinking that I’ll start using it as a platform for reflecting during my quiet times, which would make the blog more Scripture-centered and hold me accountable at the same time. I’ll continue to write about books & sermons and post videos as well. Every now and then there may be a “Life Happenings” post if God was clearly working, but aside from those instances, I’m hoping to minimize these types of posts. I’m trusting that God will lead me in the right direction with this blog and that it will help someone, even if it’s just one person. I’m not too sure anyone really reads this anyway, but I feel like I need to write it 🙂

What is the G.O.S.P.E.L.?

My Advocate

Tonight was the third week that our college-age group met for a Bible study over 1 John. Each lesson so far has required us to tear apart the text by looking at the original meaning of the Scriptures in Greek, looking for different connections and repeated words, etc. For Lesson 3, the homework was over 1 John 2:1-17. Last night, I met with my friend Jenny and her roommates Vikki and Emily to go over our observations and discuss the questions. Right away, our conversation turned to the use of the word “advocate” in verse 1:

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” – 1 John 2:1 (ESV)

The word “advocate” in the Greek is “paraklētos,” which is used only 5 times in the NT, all by John. Other than in 1 John 2:1, it’s found in John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, and 16:7. However, in the latter 4 verses , “paraklētos” is translated as “counselor” (in the ESV) rather than “advocate” and is in reference to the Holy Spirit rather than Jesus. This was really interesting to me because I typically think of the Holy Spirit guiding or counseling me, but I don’t apply this concept to Jesus. For me, Jesus’s sacrifice has never seemed so personal; of course I believe He died for my sins, but I’ve seen it as more of an all-inclusive act rather than Him advocating specifically for me. Vikki said it best when she said, “It just sounds so much more personal, like Jesus is saying to God, ‘I’ve got that one; she’s mine.'” It’s like Jesus is fighting for each and every one of us individually. It’s very humbling  and makes me even more thankful to be His.

In other versions of the Bible, “paraklētos” is translated as “intercessor,” “helper,” “comforter,” “pleader,” “counsel of defense,” and “Priest-Friend.” All of these words describe who Jesus is or can be for us if we let Him, but so often I don’t feel like I’m completely accepting the fact that Jesus has advocated on my behalf, interceded for me, helped me, comforted me, pleaded for me, and defended me; the significance of what He’s done for me doesn’t seem like it’s ever fully sank in. I don’t know if it ever fully sinks in, but I so desperately want it to. I want to feel the love that Jesus has for me and live my life out of that love. But I wonder if I’m just chasing the feeling of being loved rather than chasing Him; I want to truly chase Him. I want to feel as if Jesus is all that matters and that if everything else were to fall away, I would still be joyful because I am His. I feel like I need Him now more than ever because I don’t love Him as much as I want to. To anyone who happens to read this, please pray that God will strengthen my desire for Him. He is truly all that matters.

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In case you ever wondered…

1. I believe God created everything.

2. I believe Jesus is both human & divine.

3. I believe Jesus died in our place for our sin.

4. I believe there is nothing we can do to impress God or to make Him love us more.

5. I believe we are saved by God’s grace by believing in Jesus’s sacrifice.

6. I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

7. I believe the Bible is the final authority in all matters.

8. I believe in the Holy Spirit.

9. I believe God sends His Spirit to convict people of their sin.

10. I believe God gives His Spirit to those who believe in Him.

11. I believe Jesus is coming back for His followers.

12. I believe the Church will spend eternity with God.

13. I believe God will judge the world through Jesus (Acts 17).

14. I believe the Church is the hope of the world.

15. I believe God’s glory is the greatest thing.

16. I believe God is about being glorified above everything else.

17. I believe the followers of Jesus regularly repent of sin.

18. I believe we should forgive one another in the same way Jesus forgives us.

19. I believe we are called to live holy lives.

20. I believe God is holy.

21. I believe we should care for the poor.

22. I believe truth is not relative.

23. I believe giving is natural for the followers of Jesus.

24. I believe the cost of following Jesus is worth it.

25. I believe worship is really important; it’s more than singing–it’s a heart & mind devoted to the things of God.

26. I believe we should be on guard against religious righteousness.

27. I believe discipleship happens best at home.

28. I believe we are called to share our faith in Jesus with others; the story you are called to share is the story of what God is doing in your life.

29. I believe people who don’t believe in Jesus will spend eternity in Hell.

30. I believe missions happen because worship doesn’t.

31. I believe God humbles the proud and gives grace to the humble.

32. I believe in submitting to one another.

33. I believe in reading the Scripture.

34. I believe in memorizing the Scripture.

35. I believe in taking all of our anxiety to God in prayer.

36. I believe in sharing one another’s burdens.

37. I believe in living life together.

38. I believe the followers of Jesus are new creations.

39. I believe the mission of Jesus is worth any sacrifice.

What do YOU believe?

Joy & Condemnation

Last weekend, the Brook went to the Passion conference in Dallas. Overall, it was a pretty good weekend, and I learned a lot. The thing that stuck with me the most was something that John Piper said. His sermon was on joy. He asked us, “What is the bottom of your joy?” and gave us an illustration; there is a college student who is majoring in psychology and is happy that she did well on an exam. If someone were to ask her, “Why are you happy about that?” she would said, “Because I want to do well in this class.” If someone were to keep asking that same question for each answer that she gave, she would eventually end up with, “Because I like helping people.” According to Piper, if she can’t answer the question “What are you happy about that?” at this point, it is where her joy stops, and she isn’t a Christian. However, if she can go past that and go on to say, “Because that is what God has made me to do and how He’s called me to glorify Him,” she is a Christian. This really got me thinking. Is Christ really the bottom or the foundation of everything that I do? Overall, Piper’s message was wonderful, but it led to a lot of questions and anxiety for me. I kept asking myself questions…

…What if God’s glory isn’t at the bottom of my joy?

…How do I even know what’s at the bottom of my joy?

…How can I change the bottom of my joy?

…Am I really saved if God’s glory isn’t at the bottom of my joy?

On Monday, Scot texted everyone who went to the conference to let either him or Drew know if we wanted to get together to discuss anything from the conference, especially John Piper’s message. Of course, I said I wanted to so we met today. During our conversation about the conference, Scot said I reminded him a lot of himself.

He gave me the following two verses to consider:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” – Romans 8:1 (ESV)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

I had heard these verses before, but I hadn’t thought about the fact that what I’ve been doing is considered self-condemnation. I have so much anxiety about a lot of things, and I’m so hard on myself  instead of giving my worries to God and letting Him take care of them. That is really something that I need to work on; instead of being upset and dwelling on something, I need to ask God for help and ask Him to work in my life so that His will is done. I have a feeling that is much easier said than done..

Colossians 1:13-20

In Sunday school today, we covered Colossians 1:13-20. We talked about the supremacy of Christ and went through 15 characteristics of Jesus. (Keep in mind these are talking specifically about Jesus, not God.)

1. He brought redemption (v. 14); Jesus paid for our sins and died our death.

2. He is the image of the invisible God (v. 15); Jesus IS God.

3. He’s the firstborn over all creation (v. 15); in Jewish culture, the word for “firstborn” reflected importance rather than order. This verse is saying that Jesus was considered the most important man out of all creation.

4. By him, all things were created (v. 16); please don’t miss the enormity of “all things.” This includes all physical matter, all people, all immeasurable things such as love and pain, and even Satan.

5. All things were created through him (v. 16)

6. All things were created for him (v. 16)

7. He is before all things (v. 17)

8. In him, all things hold together (v.17); this is probably the most significant one for me. Jesus holds all things together, which means he held together the wood and the nails of the cross from which he was hung. He willed the executioners to carry out his killing. Think about that for a second. He could have stopped it at any point, but he loves people so much that, regardless of our sin and rebellion, he willingly held all things together while he was being beaten, dragged, whipped, kicked, spit on, and finally pierced and hung on the cross.

9. He is the head of the body/church (v. 18)

10. He is the beginning (v. 18)

11. He is the firstborn from among the dead (v. 18); keep in mind the Jewish meaning of the word “firstborn” (importance vs. order).

12. In everything, he has supremacy (v. 18)

13. In him, all the fullness of God dwells (v. 19)

14. He reconciles all things (v. 20); by offering himself as a sacrifice, he brings all people who accept him as their Savior back to God.

15. He makes peace through his blood, shed on the cross (v. 20); he satisfied the wrath that God had because of humanity’s sin and disobedience to Him. 

After going over those 15 characteristics, we concluded with 3 reflections:

1. Jesus is God; therefore, we exist to worship him.

2. Jesus is who he is regardless of whether or not you believe it. In a world full of ideas about relative truth, it’s hard to believe, but there is absolute Truth.

3. Satan & his demons were created for Jesus and by him; if Jesus can handle Satan, he can handle your problems if you give them to him.

YouthQuake 2010

I just got back from YouthQuake in Camp Como, CO. It was awesome 🙂 It was great to see so many kids’ lives changing as they grew closer to God. The theme of YQ this year was “The Message.” Since I like lists, here’s a timeline of what we did:

Sunday: We split into our family groups and went around to different speakers who gave scripted monologues. Each monologue represented a worldview (or “message”) that people buy into. Some of the worldviews covered were agnosticism, karma, the devil doesn’t exist, “live it up” (the one most people buy into), only looking out for yourself, the prosperity gospel, etc.

Monday: Monday was Family Day. We hung out in our family groups all day. Our family group went down to the little town of Como (population: approximately 22.. not joking) and hung out. The mini-theme for Monday was “Competing Messages.” The devotional & sermon basically went over what we all heard on Sunday night. It was basically to get the kids (and adults) to start thinking about which messages they might be buying into or which messages would be tempting to believe. (Colossians 2:8; 1 Timothy 6:20-21; 1 John 2:15-17)

Tuesday: We went white water rafting at Noah’s Ark. It was the first time I had ever been white water rafting, and it was awesome! Our raft got stuck twice–once between 2 rocks and once on top of a rock. We almost flipped over twice.. That was probably the most fun part of the rafting trip 🙂 The mini-theme for Tuesday was “The Message in the Flesh.” The sermon talked about why Jesus chose to come to earth to spread God’s Word — we needed something to relate to; we needed something concrete. We needed to see God in the Flesh. (Hebrews 2:14-15, 17-18; Hebrews 5; Hebrews 6)

Wednesday: It was Stress Day. We climbed up Old Baldy, one of the mountains in Como. At the top, the elevation was 12,000 feet, and our hike was about 2,000 feet up (The trail was about 3 miles one way). I can definitely say I’ve never done anything like that before. It was REALLY difficult. There were times that I didn’t think I was going to make it, but God gave me the strength to be encouraged by the people around me, push myself, and keep going. It was really cool to see the kids encouraging each other too. The mini-theme for Wednesday was “The Point of the Message.” This was all about Jesus’s death and resurrection and what he did for us by dying on the cross. Jesus took all of our sin and sacrificed himself to cover us so that we could be free to let him live through us.  (1 Corinthians 15:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15:12-23, 29-34, 58)

Thursday: Thursday was our free day. We went to Breckenridge for the day to hang out, shop, shower (haha), and enjoy the city. Breckenridge is a really neat, quaint town. I absolutely loved it. The main point of Thursday’s sermon was that we are the messengers of God’s Word. It’s our responsibility to spread the Gospel. There are so many people around the world, some of them right in our neighborhoods, who don’t know the Truth. The fact that some people have never even heard of Jesus blows me away. How will these people hear about the Gospel unless someone takes the time to tell them? All Christians have a personal responsibility to share the Gospel with those who haven’t heard and to remove any obstacles that prevent us from doing so. (Romans 10:13-15; Acts 1:1-9; Acts 2)

Overall, the week was a really good experience. I’ve been having some personal trouble with anxiety, doubting, etc., and I ended up having a break-down the last night we were there. Regardless of all that, I’m really glad I went. It was a good opportunity to get back to the basics of the Gospel, concentrate on that, and help the high schoolers learn and study it as well. As for my own issues, I’m keeping strong and trusting that God will take care of them 🙂

..and by His wounds, we are healed.

Easter is tomorrow!! It’s amazing how much more Easter means to me this year. I went to the Good Friday service last night and watched The Passion of the Christ. It was so much more meaningful than it was the first time I watched it (7th grade.. about 10 years ago). I understood so much more, and seeing it all played out on screen made me grasp the events in the story of Jesus a lot better. It also made me much more aware and humbled of what Jesus did. I am so grateful. Our head pastor, Jim, read an excerpt from a book that really drove the message home for me. It also takes some issues of the present day into account. I’ve posted it below. For anyone who is a follower, I hope this will touch your heart and renew your faith. For anyone who is not a believer or who is unsure, I hope that this will also touch your heart, but even more than that, I hope that your heart will be changed. You have already been given the ultimate form of grace. Jesus placed the weight of all of the sin in the world–including yours–on Himself. He willingly received the punishment that all of mankind deserves. I know of no greater love. You need only to accept it. God bless everyone & HAPPY EASTER!!

From When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada…

“The Savior was now thrown to men quite different from the eleven. The face that Moses had begged to see—was forbidden to see—was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his own brow…

“On your back with you!” One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier’s heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the solider live on—he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.

As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm—the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless—the nerves perform exquisitely. “Up you go!” They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breathe.

But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being—the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot.

His Father! He must face his Father like this!

From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.

“Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped—murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed overspent, overeaten—fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk—you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp—buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves—relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?”

Of course, the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.

The Father watches as his heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.

“Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!” (Mark 15:34)

But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.

The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished.”

Blue Like Jazz

The last few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. I was having a really difficult time with my faith, or a “crisis of belief,” if you will. (Hence, the post on Feb. 10th). I felt very disconnected from God; I couldn’t “feel it” anymore. I felt guilty, somewhat lost, and extremely discontent. When I prayed, I felt like I was talking to myself, like God was maybe screening my prayers or something. I was still going to Sunday school, church, Bible study, and a theology class, so why didn’t I still feel it?! Isn’t that how it was supposed to work? I couldn’t bring myself to pray very often or read my Bible on my own. It was a very weird feeling, and I’m still not completely sure how to describe it. One night, I picked up Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I had never read it before, but I had heard really good things about it. Not wanting to work on anything for school, I began reading Miller’s book. While reading it over the last couple of weeks, I’ve come across numerous passages that seem to be speaking directly to me. Reading this book did amazing things for my sense of spiritual security and seemed to restore my faith and ease the anxieties that I had been experiencing. Here are some of the passages that really stood out:

“I don’t think you can explain how Christian faith works. It is a mystery. And I love this about Christian spirituality. It cannot be explained, and yet it is beautiful and true. It is something you feel, and it comes from the soul.”

“I am too prideful to accept the grace of God. It isn’t that I want to earn my own way to give something to God, it’s that I want to earn my own way so I won’t be charity… Who am I to think myself above God’s charity? And why would I forsake the riches of God’s righteousness for the dung of my own ego?”

“Every Christian knows they will deal with doubt. And they will. But when it comes it seems so very real and frightening, as if your entire universe is going to fall apart.”

“Don’t complain about the way God answers your prayers. You are still living on an earth that is run by the devil. God has promised us a new land, and we will get there. Your problem is not that God is not fulfilling, your problem is that you are spoiled.”

“God is not here to worship me, to mold Himself into something that will help me fulfill my level of comfort. I think part of my problem is that I want spirituality to be more close and more real.”

“I suppose what I wanted back then is what every Christian wants, whether they understand themselves or not. What I wanted was God. I wanted tangible interaction. But even more than that, to be honest, I wanted to know who I was.”

“God is up there somewhere. Of course, I had always know He was, but this time I felt it, I realized it, the way a person realizes they are hungry or thirsty. The knowledge of God seeped out of my brain and into my heart. I imagined Him looking down on this earth, half angry because His beloved mankind had cheated on Him, had committed adultery, and yet hopelessly in love with her, drunk with love for her.”

“I am a human because God made me. I experience suffering and temptation because mankind chose to follow Satan. God is reaching out to me to rescue me. I am learning to trust Him, learning to live by His precepts that I might be preserved.”

“Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is like making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon.”

“People hardly care what you believe, as long as you believe something. If you are passionate about something, people will follow you because they think you know something they don’t, some clue to the meaning of the universe.”

“What I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do.”

“Marriage is amazing because it is the closest two people can get, but they can’t get all the way to that place of absolute knowing.”

“I no longer think being in love is the polar opposite of being alone, however. I say this because I used to want to be in love again as I assumed this was the opposite of loneliness. I think being in love is an opposite of loneliness, but not the opposite. There are other things I now crave when I am lonely, like community, like friendship, like family. I think our society puts too much pressure on romantic love, and that is why so many romances fail. Romance can’t possibly carry all that we want it to.”

“The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: Life is a story about me.”

“There is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction.”

“If we are not willing to wake up in the morning and die to ourselves, perhaps we should ask ourselves whether or not we are really following Jesus.”

“We don’t need as much money as we have. Hardly any of us need as much money as we have. It’s true what they say about the best things in life being free.”

“When we worship God we worship a Being our life experience does not give us the tools with which to understand. If we could, God would not inspire awe.”

“The little we do understand, that grain of sand our minds are capable of grasping, those ideas such as God is good, God feels, God loves, God knows all, are enough to keep our hearts dwelling on His majesty and otherness forever.”

“We are too proud to feel awe and too fearful to feel terror. We reduce Him to math so we don’t have to fear Him, and yet the Bible tells us fear is the appropriate response, that it is the beginning of wisdom.”

“Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder.”

“I need something mysterious to happen after I die. I need to be somewhere else after I die, somewhere with God, somewhere that wouldn’t make any sense if it were explained to me right now.”

“It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.”

“I used to love like money. The church used love like money. With love, we withheld affirmation from the people who did not agree with us, but we lavishly financed the ones who did.”

“I hoped that love would work like a magnet, pulling people from the mire and toward healing. I knew this was the way God loved me. God had never withheld love to teach me a lesson.”

“Nobody will listen to you unless they sense that you like them.”

“I loved the fact that it wasn’t my responsibility to change somebody, that it was God’s, that my part was just to communicate love and approval.”

“We have the power to bring a little of heaven into the lives of others every day.”

“Your value has come from God. And God wants you to receive His love and to love yourself too.”

“God’s love will never change us if we don’t accept it.”