17 July 2011

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
[-Galatians 5:18,25, Romans 8:14]
He leadeth me! O blessed thought! 
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where-e'er I be,
Still 'tis God's hand leadeth me.

Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,
By waters still, o'er troubled sea,
Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me!

Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine,
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since 'tis my God that leadeth me!

And when my task on earth is done,
When by Thy grace the victory's won,
E'en death's cold wave I will not flee,
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me,
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

God is redirecting my path which once seemed fairly clear to my eyes.
I know not where He's leading, but I do know that I am His.
And when I cannot see from His perspective, I trust that indeed He leadeth me.
For we walk by faith and not by sight.

08 July 2011

story of my life.


so yeah, it's been busy. i keep saying that. here are my reasons:
the first half of fourth of july weekend was spent up north with relatives; the rest was spent cleaning up trees from a huge storm that swept through our area. we have one big tree down and it's still kind of on our deck, sort of like an arbor, you know?
i've been working.
my nephews had a sleepover at our house. f-u-n for 3 days straight!
making jam.
riding bikes.
thinking about music.
reading about amy carmichael.
enjoying the new bon iver.
talking to friends in finland. germany. ireland. you know. good places like that. nbd. 
there must have been other things..?

i've also been getting ready for a busy couple of weeks:
living education retreat, speaking and leading worship
teen camp, being a cabin leader and worship leader

and one of my friends passed away this week. she was 27 and her name was jessica. she was one of the most fun people i ever knew. i'm gonna miss her. i'll be doing some music at her memorial service. please pray for her family.

and i've been applying for my visa. you can pray for that too! everything but a few papers are ready. we'll see what the Lord has in store..

ps i really went on a weekend trip with that little blue suitcase as my luggage! ha! it's time to try defying gravity..

the parable of the strawberries.


once there was a little stone house in a little city on a big prairie. in that house lived a family. the mother and daughter of the family loved to make nice things to eat. the rest of the family liked to eat nice things, you see. one very nice thing they enjoyed was homemade strawberry jam.

every summer the mother and the daughter would go strawberry picking at a nice little berry farm up the road. even when the daughter was gone, the mother would pick berries. always they would make lots of jars of delicious jam. one time the father even helped!

then one summer came when so many things happened that the garden hardly got planted in time... but it did get planted. eyes searched the prairie landscape for a glimpse of the berry farm sign upon every trip up and down the road. finally, it appeared. it was the friday before the fourth of july. it was morning time and the family was off to see the relatives. plans were made to pick berries very soon.

that afternoon, a tremendous storm swept across the prairie, and pulled up trees by the roots, and broke down groves, and tore roofs and doors off barns, and collapsed huge tin bins, and brought down power lines and light poles, and blew away signs. and it brought hail.

the days went by, the hundreds of trees were gradually sawed up and hauled away. and no time for berry picking. finally the mother called the berry farm, to find that every last strawberry had been destroyed by the hail. only a few precious raspberries remained.

so they didn't know what to do. they needed jam for the winter, but there was no other nearby place. so they prayed.
and God took care of them.

later that week, they found strawberries on sale for a fraction of the normal price. they spent $9. they made 33 jars of jam.

and they all enjoyed strawberry jam quite happily and thankfully.
because God took care of them.

it was just one more story to add to their collection of how faithful their God truly was; it helped them to trust Him even more.

the end.