Putting down the net.

So I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day (Y-Chomosome Bearing Version of Myself in case you were wondering). Y-Chromosome me has this unique ability to speak utter amounts of peace into my life (and for some reason I tend to listen to dude voices better than I listen to girl voices. No offense to the females in my life, but I feel like it's because I think God's voice is manly). So I was sharing with him that I have a desire to do a certain thing. Being the patient, kind friend that he is, he listened to my dilemma, my concerns, and my confusion without saying much. Then, of course, I said, 'What do you think?'

"Matthew 4."

"Que?" (i turn Hispanic when I'm confused sometimes)

'Go read Matthew 4'

'Oh. Okay.'

*Whitney goes and reads the portion of Matthew 4 that YCM was talking about, verses 18-22*

¹⁸ While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.¹⁹And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

See, Jesus called the disciples when they were working. When they were taking care of their lives, their families, etc. But when Jesus called, they left it all aside. I'm kind of sad we don't get the backstory here, because I'd like to know how Zebedee reacted when James and John left. I'd kind of like to know how Peter's wife (they mention him having a mother-in-law in other accounts of Jesus's miracles, so I'm assuming there was a Mrs. Peter somewhere along the line) took him running off with a crazy person. But the fact of the matter is this: they left their boats and followed him. They put down their nets and followed him.

Why DON'T we do that? I'm just as guilty of it as well. 'Well, Jesus, I know that you called me to do this...but see there's this boy that I kinda want to marry, and yeah...sorry. it' ain't happening right now.' or 'So Jesus, know you've asked this of me, but I can't leave my job!' or 'Jesus, school is kinda important right now, I know you've asked me to do this, but don't you want me to finish my education?' What kind of crap do we give Jesus?

Here's the thing. When Jesus calls you, he doesn't want to hear your excuses. What we'll call our 'NETS'. He wants us to surrender all of it to Him. We're to SURRENDER. Just say YES. We spend so much time saying no to things that we forget how to say YES to Jesus. He doesn't want our crap reasons. Don't get me wrong, he cares about them. He really does. But HE CAN HANDLE IT. Surrender means we have to surrender it all to Him. Our fears, our futures, our families, our cares, our relationships, everything. We have to surrender it to Him. And He's completely sovereign and can handle our issues. We just screw it up when we try to take control.

So, if there's any encouragement I have to anyone...put down the net. Let Jesus handle it. Unashamedly and unabashedly follow your Savior with all your heart.

While you're at it, pray that I can do the same.

God Just Loves You! :-)

SO, one day, probably 2 weeks ago now, I was walking back to the BCM, wrapped up in my own little world and my own little problems. Until I passed a most curious man.

'HI' the man said with a little dance.
'Oh...um, hi!' said an unexpected me. Not unexpected because he popped out of nowhere, but slightly unexpected because he said hello, and people on sidewalks don't typically speak.
'God...He just loves you!' he said with a smile.

So, let's talk about all the things right with this completely random exchange. I've learned that while it's VERY easy to say 'GOD LOVES ME' that it's sometimes hard to live life like we believe it. I mean, honestly, sickness, heartache, confusion, depression, all of these things strike. It's very easy to feel unloved by God when you think about it. Natural human intuition says that someone who loves you does not, or does there best not to allow bad things to happen to you.

But that's the cool thing about God. He allows things to happen to us so we'll lean closer to Him. He allows things to happen.
But often times, we forget that. And then we get wrapped up in our own personal feelings. Feelings of worthlessness, feelings of being unlovable, feelings of not being worthy of anything.

So God, since He is totally crazy about us, sends us reminders.

For me, it was a bald man who reminded me that God just loves me.

I ran into him 3 days in a row. The 2nd and 3rd time, we shared a smile and a nod, like we both knew what he was saying.

So thank you, random man, for reminding me of something I needed to remember.

and if you've happened to stumble upon this silly little blog, let me remind you of something.

God...He just loves you!

argh

Love this picture from SanFran.

And sorry, I almost forgot the promise to blog every day for a month. No one's holding me accountable to it.
So in interest of privacy of my INSANE friends (because as you will eventually learn, they are insane), I'm nicknaming them.
So far, we have River Song (my bff/girl that lets me live on her floor),
WhiteLecrae (blond boy best friend),
Moses (best-dude-friend),
Tigger (8 year old trapped in a 24 year old's body),
The Doctor (he'll figure out who he is...he's a smart one),
Uncle (campus minister, inside joke sort of),
Daredevil (WhiteLecrae's dad),
Pink Ranger (one of my lit professors),
Roo (brother from another mother),
Anelle (nicknamed after Steel Magnolias)
Y-Chromosome Me (he's me with a y chromosome)
Woody (because he says 'there's a snake in my boot!' a lot)
Jessie (since she's engaged to Woody, i feel it fitting)
SnowWhite (she kinda looks like her)

More to come.
Take guesses on who's who.
if you dare.

Anyways, tomorrow will be strange, since I won't be seeing WhiteLecrae tomorrow night, and I tend to like my little schedule I get. Ehh, I'm a creature of habit.
RiverSong is probably missing me.
Spent a lot of time talking to Tigger and The Doctor last night. Tigger surprised me with some of his life insight. He finally declared that he had morals. I was impressed, as was The Doctor.
Speaking at the home church tomorrow night. Grouchy old lady code is METAMUCIL if I have to deal with one of them (it's likely, apparently homosexuals and hippies are less deserving of the love of Christ than they are, according to them). If I text in METAMUCIL tomorrow to my FB, you all know what's going on.
I'm evil, I know.
Hopefully getting to see Roo and his yet-t0-be-nickenamed girlfriend soon. Saw Roo last night and remembered why I dubbed him my brother from another mother. (he's only Roo b/c sometimes, Tigger negatively influences him)

that's about it for tonight.
oh, The Doctor linked me to this show called 'Lost in Austen'....I've wasted so much life watching this show...but let me tell you....IT IS AWESOME AND I FLIPPIN' LOVE IT. But I still blame The Doctor if my Beowulf paper for the Pink Ranger's class is sub-par. But as a closing, check out Lost in Austen. It's on Youtube, and if you love Pride and Prejudice, you'll like the theory behind this show.

and i'm done.
-Whit

New challenge

So I'm challenging myself. I'm going to venture to do a blog post at least every day for the next month. I may talk about San Francisco, I may talk about my classes, I may talk about football, I may talk about my incessant creeping of the TMZ page (it's my guilty pleasure and tragic flaw, but if I ever get on a game show with pop culture questions, I'm gonna be a total beast at it). You never know. But this much I can promise you. 30 blog posts. 30 days.


Today's soundtrack comes to you courtesy of The Civil Wars, one of my favorite bands. I'm on a country/bluegrass kick here lately. If you want to check them out...here ya go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfzRlcnq_c0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooTyuRd9zSg&feature=related

They're also fantastic live, if you ever get the chance to see them.

Anyways, I'm waiting on a ministry team meeting to start (only about an hour away) and waiting on my BFF to get out of class. Maybe soon I'll get as fancy as my mommy and learn to post fun pictures and links that aren't super long and stuff like that. Who knows? If i keep this up, it could become something pretty dang cool.

Whitney

Just in one of those moods....

I'm just in a very strange mood. but this kind of describes my thoughts about a certain something. Those that know me best can probably take a guess as to what/who this pertains to.

"Love Is Waiting"

In the autumn on the ground,
between the traffic and the ordinary sounds
I am thinking signs and seasons while a north wind blows through
I watch as lovers pass me by
Walking stories - whos and hows and whys
Musing lazily on love
Pondering you
I'll give it time, give it space and be still for a spell
When it's time to walk that way we wanna walk it well

[CHORUS:]
I'll be waiting for you baby
I'll be holding back the darkest night
Love is waiting til we're ready, til it's right
Love is waiting

It's my caution not the cold
there's no other hand that i would rather hold
the climate changes, I'm singing for the strangers about you
don't keep time, slow the pace
Honey hold on if you can
the bets are getting surer now that you're my man

[CHORUS]

[BRIDGE:]
I could write a million songs about the way you say my name
I could live a lifetime with you and then do it all again
and like I can't force the sun to rise or hasten summer's start,
neither should I rush my way into your heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QmQK0jFvlk&feature=related

Looking past.

Who's a blogger fail? ehh, that'd be this girl.
But it's all good. We'll spend about 3 or so weeks playing a massive amount of catch up when I get home.

Did want to bring something out today...
How often do we look the other way when we see someone in need?
Today, part of my team and I went to Chinatown (cheapest souvenirs ever, btw). Right before we got to the gate, I noticed a man begging for money/food in front of Starbucks. I'm gonna call him David, because like King David in the Bible, I'm sure that he's a lot more than any earthly person thinks he is. He had a sign that said 'Sick with AIDS. Need money/food. Every little bit helps. God bless.

Some people have given him change.

Some people had given him food (one of my teammates gave him a sandwich).

But most looked the other way.

Now, I'm aware. Not every person who's homeless and begging on the street is completely helpless. I've met plenty of hippies and others who have chosen the homeless life for themselves. But the look on this man's face, and the way that his body looked suggested that he was fighting a losing battle with a disease that's struck so many of San Francisco's citizens. He looked lost and confused. I'm pretty sure that he was nearly asleep while he was sitting up as well.

He struggled to open the bag that the sandwich came in. I heard someone laugh as they watched him, and anger stirred up inside of me. I watched him eat only have of it, and put the other half back to save for later.
What kind of existence is that? You have to save half of a turkey sandwich from a stranger, just because you don't know where your next meal is gonna come from.
But that's the existence of a lot of people that we've come in contact with.

So, why do we ignore it? Have we become so accustomed to it that we turn an eye, because it's a 'normal' site for us?

Or have we put ourselves on a pedestal, that we think that we're better than the ones like him?

Or have we become to self-absorbed that we forget to notice the need of those around us?

Let me give you a different spin on James 1:27 (the whole chapter is worth memorizing in my book, but we'll just go with this verse for now). It says 'Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.' Basically, the people James was writing to were really caught up in themselves. So part one, James told them to go look after the widows and orphans, who, back then, were considered the most helpless people around. Application for today: True religion is looking after those who can't look after themselves. INCLUDING homeless Aids victims. Part 2: He tells the Christians he's writing to to keep themselves unstained from the world.
The attitudes of self-righteousness and self absorption are stains of the world. They're sin, because both of these attitudes keep us from following what Christ has asked us to do, regardless of the situation. I know this is hard to stomach (it's hard for me to remind myself of this), but sometimes, we have to get off of our high horses to be able to minister to others.

So when you see a homeless person, remember: That could be you. Every one of us has a story, and our stories could've led us down very different paths. If you're worried how they'll spend the money you give them, buy them a sandwich. I'm to the point that I'd rather spend 4 bucks on a sandwich for someone that may/may not be hungry that pass up my chance to show someone the love of Christ.

(I'll post pictures and happy stories later. This just won't escape my heart for some reason).

I knew.

I knew it.
I knew it was bound to happen.

I knew that Satan was going to attack me harder than he's ever attacked before.
See, this whole entire crazy journey to San Francisco hasn't been without hang-ups and battles against it.
It'd be SO much more comfortable for me to just chill out here all summer.
But no. That's not what God's called me to do.
He's called me out of my comfort zone. And I decided that, this time, it'd be a good idea to listen (because I haven't always been so good at this).
Well, now, this jerk keeps deciding to throw kinks in everything that I do.
Who is this jerk?
It'd be Satan.
He's been a jerk for the past 2 weeks or so.
And to be honest, Satan, I AM SICK OF YOUR MESS.
I've questioned a lot of things. Like, for instance, am I even supposed to be going to San Francisco?
But I know that God has called me there. I have no clue why He's done it. But I have to trust Him.
Why the heck have I been through half the crap I've been through this year?
I don't know. I know sin led to part of it. but still, why did it have to happen like it did? it hurt more than anything I've ever known.
I know God's gonna use it. I have no clue how. But I have to trust Him.

You see, when someone violates your trust, it becomes increasingly hard to trust someone else. It even becomes hard to trust God. Christians have a tendency to thrust their negative emotions onto God. It's not pretty and it's not something most Christians will 'fess up to, but it's the truth.
So, sometimes, it's really hard for me to trust God. REALLY hard.
To be honest, sometime I think God is kinda crazy. Of course, this tends to be when I don't have on my God-goggles (stole this from Parker Hayden, who stole it from his mama) strapped onto my eyes, but still. When I'm not looking at everything through the eyes of my Abba, things just look a little bit insane.

So where am I going with this? I'm not 100% sure (and unless I'm writing about a specific event, I never am sure with what I'm saying). But here's my prayer:

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

(I actually wrote this post a week or 2 ago...things have still been rough, but thank the Savior for sweet encouragement from Godly friends!)

Oh, how I'd loved to have been here when this happened!

I've been reading through Joshua...and last night I got to this...I would've loved to have been there. Occasionally, I think God likes to just do really cool stuff, just so we remember that HE is AWESOME!!!!

Joshua 10

The Sun Stands Still

¹As soon as Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction,^[a](A) doing to Ai and its king^(B) as he had done to Jericho and its king, and^(C) how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, ^2(D) he^[b] feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were warriors. ³So Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying, ⁴"Come up to me and help me, and let us strike Gibeon. For^(E) it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel." ⁵Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon,^(F) gathered their forces and went up with all their armies and encamped against Gibeon and made war against it.

⁶And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua^(G) at the camp in Gilgal, saying, "Do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us." ⁷So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and^(H) all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. ⁸And the LORD said to Joshua,^(I) "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands.^(J) Not a man of them shall stand before you." ⁹So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. ^10(K) And the LORD threw them into a panic before Israel, who^[c] struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them by the way of^(L) the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. ¹¹And as they fled before Israel, while they were^(M) going down the ascent of Beth-horon,^(N) the LORD threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

¹²At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

^(O) "Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."
¹³And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. ^14(P) There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for^(Q) the LORD fought for Israel.

Orientation, New stuff...

Our orientation weekend has come and gone. I've met my team (the ones I didn't know already) and we did some quality bonding time. I'm sure we'll get plenty of it later on when we're together ALL SUMMER LONG.
We emailed Christ our questions about what we'll be doing over the summer, so instead of just leaving everyone in the dark, I'll post it here.

• Where will we be staying?
I’ll help you brace yourself by trying to describe it accurately to you :-) You will be living in a church/ the association office in Brisbane, CA (this skirts the south side of San Francisco, right across from Candle Stick Park where the 49ers play). We have a bunk room for most of you, but each week a couple of you will have to rotate staying in the conference room. Neal, you’ll be in the cry room. There will be cots and each of you will have a shelf. We will be using a shower trailer and there is a kitchen in the facility. Get ready to rough it!

• Are the 5 of us going to stay together the entire summer?
The 8 of you will be together pretty much the whole summer. Sometimes during the day we will split up. There are 5 SM’s from GA, 2 from MS, and one native.

• What exactly will we be doing?
This question is still being worked out, but there is already a lot on your agenda. We have 4 teams coming that you will lead in doing service projects, outreaches, and prayer walking. A couple of churches have asked for you to lead their VBS or help with their youth. We have a few weekend events, one at the Raceway and the other is a festival type thing. One week you will spend helping begin a church plant. When we are not responsible for something, we will be doing lots of evangelism, service and prayer (trying to reach this city you are going to LOVE!).

• How much money should we think about bringing?
The association is going to cover your meals and transportation. But each week you will have at least one day off and we are trying to arrange some special outings for you. San Francisco has a lot to do and a lot to eat! Alcatraz cost about $30 and the museums are about $20 (these of course are totally optional). Your average cost at a restaurant is about $14. It is kind of an expensive place, but there is a lot to do free too. I am the queen of free in SF and can help you out with that.

• Is there anything specific that we should bring?
Please bring flip flops, if you have a shower caddy you’d want it, and it is always cool hear so bring sweatshirts and jeans, ect. We are working on a packing list for you.

• What kind of clothing will we need?
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”- Mark Twain
Also, bring some clothes you can work outside or with paint in. I don’t forsee you needing nice clothes, b/c our churches are casual but I’d pack one outfit just in case.

• Is there anything specific that we can be praying for? For you? Or for a certain ministry?

Thank you for this question. Please pray for success in finding enough places to serve for all the teams coming this summer. Pray that this summer God would appoint connections for us with people in the city and we would see His kingdom advanced. Also, if you want to start praying for yourselves that God would teach and grow you through the summer and make your heart ready and willing to serve. I’d appreciate prayer to be led by the Spirit in leading you guys.

To say the least, I am RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED NOW!!!!!

Wait.

I'm pretty sure this song was meant for me.

Everlasting God-Chris Tomlin
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord (repeat)

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles

How hard is it when God tells us to wait? It's almost like a 4-letter word to Christians.
But sometimes, God asks us to wait. and that's what we should do. We grow, we learn, and we pray. And when the promise is fulfilled, it's that much sweeter, because we know what we went through while we were waiting.
³More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)

Absolute Cute-ness

Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'GIVE THEM UP!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back'. Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. -Isaiah 43:5-6

Meet my baby brothers, Drew and Zeke. We're in the middle of being gathered from the west so they can be brought from the east. :-)
God is so faithful!

New-ness

I didn't like my other blog.
It didn't seem very Jesus-glorifying.
I've changed (a lot) in the past year. A WHOLE lot.
And I'm going on a mission trip all summer.
WHOA.
Life is getting SO very different for me. I'm excited to see where God's going to take me on this road.
So mostly, I set this up so I could keep everyone updated on what's going on over the summer. But y'all get some super amazing insight into my lovely little brain. You've been warned. :-)