from faucet to fountain

There is only one proper response to Jesus and His death on the cross. Complete and utter surrender of our lives, really a life for a life. He laid down His life, so I can see no other reply. I don't find it gruesome or taxing to me though, I find that it's my joy to serve Him. How He turns around even my dying to myself to my own pleasure, to my good, for the fullness of joy and life I will never quite understand. I want to leave a legacy, I want to be a legend to the people that I have had the pleasure of doing life with. I want to leave a legend so rich and thick of faithfulness and obedience to Him that it is no question to what I lived for, or to whom. I want people to know that He is the most worthy thing that I could have spent my life on and that I took all pleasure in following Him. That I followed Him when there was no earthly reason to, that I followed Him into the darkness, into the pain and the brokenness in this world and into the dark ugly corners of my own lif

As we made the last leg of our trip, I could hold back tears no longer. My heart began to tear open shedding its bottled up feelings of conviction and exposing the raw, tender area being sifted by the Lord. I poured out all that was swirling around in my head, my heart to my friend and she patiently listened, giving me the room to express myself and be vulnerable. Allow me to rewind and give you the full picture though....  A couple of months ago it had popped up in my facebook that a friend of mine that I work out with was signing up to cross something off his bucket list, and was inviting others to sign up with him. I had seen these types of races in the past and was interested but never went through with actually signing up to do it, feeling rambunctious and a sense of camaraderie, I signed up and without too much effort convinced two of my other friends to sign up with me. Starting off the day of the race, the girls and I painted up our faces and with windows down and music b

  When I hear the word abandoned I think of those left out, forgotten, of the times I have felt all alone and it conjures up mental images of the orphaned, the outcast. The word itself seems to fit this dreary day, the grey skies continue to roll in with no notice of the fact that we could use some warmth, some sunshine to brighten our day.   The dictionary defines abandoned as "wholly free from restraint" and although this word seems to wear gloom like a thick heavy coat I have found quite the opposite when it comes to my walk with the Lord. At the fresh age of sixteen I acknowledged that my life was Gods, (after all isn't it His if we ever surrender to it or not?) but I took the title of my life that He had freely given me out of love and signed it over to Him. I recognized that although I had my dreams, my hopes and my desires that I could not even begin to swim in the deep end of all that He wanted to do in me and with me. He was and is the great Maker and He k

The winds of change are strong and steady in my life as they have been I feel since I met the Lord, really.  At times they have consisted of new jobs, new countries, new friends, and new experiences. Only this month, I have gotten a second job, told that job was going to close down, had very few hours at my cafe job and now about to be given a full time job there. I went from being a brunette, (the darkest color I had ever been in my life) back to a blonde, my hair that I was determined to grow out chopped back into a sassy bob-ish look. I went from thinking that I would be moving back in with my dad and feeling like I was recessing in my life to looking at being a roommate with a girl that I wasn't sure of to being landed in the middle of renting out a basement apartment and getting to pick out what colors I wanted my bathroom.  I went from a deeply broken and aching heart to feeling like the life is being pumped back inside of me and the essence of who He has made me to be beginn

Ever had a season change so quickly that it surprised you? You step outside all bundled up prepared to face the harsh biting cold that seeps through your clothes only to be met by a warmth that makes you immediately want to strip off all your outer layers? My life has suddenly changed seasons and I am quickly becoming aware of the thought processes, the habits that are making me as uncomfortable as wearing a thick wool coat accompanied by a beanie and scarf on a day that is relatively warm. I don't want to drag snow into spring, I don't want to be roaming around looking for things that are dead and gone while new life is bursting open around and in me. I am in the process of thawing out but I am quickly livening to it and loving every minute of it. I know that there is a season for everything and if winter wasn't so deep and dark, spring wouldn't be nearly as appreciated or even noticed. I know that some things have to die and be cut back and pruned to ever bear the

**I found this picture in a box from a long time ago. I had also penned some words down to sort of describe what my picture meant. I wish I had dated either one of them. They had to be probably 5 years ago give or take a little. They are so true. God is so good. So I decided to post them for all of your enjoyment. Please dismiss the fourth grade drawing, that's why I write a blog and don't draw pictures. :)  Penned some time ago: "There is a beauty in death in Christ because there is no death for the sake of dying, no meaningless agony, instead it is just the opposite much like night and day. If we can embrace the dying the stripping, the heartache, we only end up with much more in the end. We die so we can really live. We undergo deep heart-wrenching pain, we wade through the dark parts of ourselves, willing to own every nasty, broken thing we see in there only to have Jesus take it from us and replace it with beauty. No, He doesn't give us anything back improve