A major paradigm from a minor prophet

While reading in Zephaniah, I came across the following gem:

"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest you in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."

I had to stop and read this passage several times. How amazing is it, that the God who created everything from the most beautiful sight in nature to the lovliest music heard, would take joy in a mortal like me. 
He not only takes joy in us but he allows us to rest in him and take joy in HIM! 

What a thought.  

And He has put eternity in their hearts

Have you ever felt a surging loneliness that settles in the bottom of your being, even though you are surrounded by people you love? Or have you experienced an emptiness that hits you out of no-where and a longing for something that cannot be satiated, but you have no idea what you even long for? 

Do you ever see things that are so beautiful that they make you hurt achingly inside?

I have been reading through Ecclesiastes and this verse struck me.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Ecc 3:11

 Perhaps these feelings are the result of the longing for eternity. A homesickness for eternity. 

God has set eternity in our hearts... A pre-set love of eternity and longing for "home" placed there . 

And often the only consolation for the unidentified yearning, is found in the very God who set eternity in our hearts. 

Pictures compliments of the Hubble telescope

The Freshman Feeling.. Again?

 Two years after my freshman year, I did not think it quite possible to be faced with that same... jittery, excited, trepidatious.... Completely OVERWHELMED, and probably driving my sisters nuts...

Haha. Yes.. it is there again after Nursing school orientation.
Clinical Failures, Copious-coursework, and Careful assessment...
Bedding, bathing, blood pressure and blood-work... Diagnostics, Drugs and Dirty-work...

Readers... Can I do this and still pass with high grades?

I suppose that we shall have to see how the matter turns out, come this May.

However, as my best is all that I can do, then my best is what I shall heartily give.

"When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."Helen Keller 

The essence of the good life

This is a hymn that has been on my mind. Consider it a post scriptum to the "Gift of Pain" Oh that I might live this to the fullness for Christ! "Jesus Is All I Wish or Want For Him I pray, for Him I pant; Let others after earth aspire, Christ is the treasure I desire. 2. Possessed of Him, I ask no more; He is an all-sufficient store; To praise Him all my powers conspire Christ is the treasure I desire. 3. If He His smiling face but hide, My soul no comfort has beside; Distressed I after Him inquire Christ is the treasure I desire. 4. And while my heart is racked with pain, Jesus appears and smiles again. Why should my Savior thus retire? Christ is the treasure I desire. 5. Come, humble souls, and view His charms, Take refuge in His saving arms, And sing, while you his worth admire, Christ is the Savior I desire."

The Gift of Pain

Have you ever asked God to reveal Jesus to you? 
Have you ever wanted to see Jesus so badly that you just beg God to give you just a glimpse?

Over the last several days, I have come to realize that the face of Jesus can be seen in many different areas life... Pain not being the least of these areas. 

Deep searing, raw PAIN.. It is a glimpse of Jesus. 
Through pain I can feel a tiny fraction of what he felt. I can see Jesus, taking , carrying suffering through all of my pain and our pain and doing it because of love. It shows me the raw feeling he experienced and it gives me view of who he is. 

Pain allows me to be human and to feel love. It allows me follow Christ's example, and to see him more clearly. 

To have the ability to feel pain means that one has the ability to feel love. And it gives a small glimpse of my savior. 

Yes, I am thankful for pain. 

Reflection

"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn , and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."
~ Isaiah 51:1 

I have been thinking about this verse. And it seems fitting for the reflection upon a year past and a year to come. 
From a layman's perspective, this verse had a great deal of meaning brought into a very every day personal description.
Since the building that was done in the days above, came from handwork, and the digging of, and out of pits came from laborious efforts, this verse greets the people on their terms. 
The pits were muddy and rough and being pulled from a pit took manual labor as well as digging the pit. Ropes and muscle and mud. But before one digs a pit, it is a flat piece of earth. 
A stone that is carved in its beginnings is simply a shapeless hard piece of matter. Then as the long carving and chiseling process takes it course a person, a word, or even a scene might take form.... Stone mountain's famous civil war scene for instance. But it did not start out as anything special or nice to look at. 

That is how God tells us to view our lives and take reflection. We are seeking the Lord and righteousness, and sometimes that gets discouraging to see what we are compared to Jesus' righteous standards;however, He says... "Reflect. You start out as something shapeless and perhaps ugly or distasteful, but I am shaping you and you are becoming something that has form."
 It takes labor and struggle, but we can reflect and see what we started out as and what we are now, in Christ.
It has been an encouraging thought for me this day. 

The Christmas Virus

Christmas in the Grey Submarine was quite the epic masterpiece.
To begin the saga, there were 31 adults and three adorable toddlers trotting round the Grey Submarine. Daddy and mamma were delighted to have three little ones running around all week. I believe it was an experience worth having for all of us. We girls have become so used to our own ages that we have forgotten the delight of such little ones.
Then we had the three illustrious  "beaus" to grace us with their presence. They somehow responded very amiably to the great eccentricities of the family traditions.
 The stomach virus swept through and the septic system had a break-down...But we we were able to laugh through it all for even the chaos had its own sweetness. To see different family members nurse others and to see the spouses helping each other and serving each other, made a deep impression on my mind's eye.

This Christmas set the last scene for a closing era in the Fulmer family lives. Wedding bells will come, sisters will be gone, little girls no longer girls but growing young women, and houses more silent.
It is interesting to view an era in the last of its stages and to see at the same time the birthing of another. Change is very like birth. It is painful, yet the actual product after the pain yields even more joy.

Furthermore, change allows us to experience a greater joy in Christ because we can better appreciate his changeless nature.

 Therefore, we will greet change with a smile as we did the christmas virus with laughter.

The FINAL FOUR...

 Friday, The Final Four ... or technically the "REMAINING Three" (Milly, Molly and yours truly) ALSO Proudly known as the "SINGLE LADIES"took a little shopping trip to finish / start the Christmas Shopping..( a leetle late ? yes.. perhaps..) 

Although there are still five girls left in the Grey Submarine... Those who have Remained steadfast and singleminded.... ahem.. have banded together under the banner of the .... The Single Ladies Anti-Sappy Society.

We had a lovely shopping spree.. We were absolutely reckless.. We shopped ALL of the clearance Isles in each store... And topped it off with a small trot to the local Starbucks where we read the newspaper headlines about  the release of the Hobbit.  To our pleasure , we found several plush chairs across from two stalwart old gents who had newspapers piled up to the ears... Yes we all smiled at each other pleasantly and enjoyed a few minutes of calm in the rushed day. 

Then we roamed the halls of Michaels and Hobby Lobby entranced by the smell of the floral section and Christmas scents. We bought all the materials needed for magnolia wreathes. We finished the day off with a nifty looking cuffed jacket for Milly's teen pact conference. She is a doll in black and pin-stripes. 

A good day's work and a happy date with the remaining three Single ladies. 

The Sun has set on the Fantastic Five .....

And the Remaining Three must continue the banner of... The Single Ladies Anti-Sappy Society

Molliere`

Milly (aka:Moltree)

                                      

 Yours Truly

~ The S.L.A.S. Society 

A day in the life of "benign"

After a mammothly endless day last week, I found myself waiting in the midst many cars in a two lane turning line. 

As often happens, I had not much time to eat that day, and still had two rather large stalks of celery, a carrot stick and some cauliflower bunches. The line being so long and the wait seeming even longer, I delved into the bag of vittles. 

 Being in somewhat of another world, my mind miles away, I munched away... Still sitting in line... While happily chomping away on one of the extraordinary stalks of celery, I come back to reality for a moment and look at the car next to me.... Inside that car sat a lady.... a stunned looking lady.... gawking.. at ME??.. .. of all the???? I catch her eye, smile pleasantly... then look at my celery stalk... the light turned green. 

Needless to say, I laughed heartily.

Anna in Storyland: A Room With a View

On the fourth floor of Atkinson Hall, there can be found a small room which faces north, and overlooks one of the main traffic walkways. The residents themselves are burly forms.

I happen to be a frequent occupier of this very room, and I work closely with the residents of this northward room of Atkinson Hall.... the residents being the humming copier and the bubbly shredding machine.

Although an unpretentious looking little room, the happenings upon entrance have not ceased to keep my mind a'tumbling. Often, it feels as if I have stepped into the "story room", for I can take a peek out the of the 4th story window onto the walkway, and view the many events unfolding below.
Whether it be the joyful reuniting of friends( that probably have not seen each other since the day before), the tiff between lovers, the lonely human, the crowd of greek life that all look the same, or the distinctly, stalwart individual.....Each tells a story.


Furthermore, the traffic flow in and out of the copy room keeps my mind on a constant flow of subjects.
Through out my several hours in this little room topics are discussed including business law, chinese trade laws, indian markets, cultural appreciation, Asian culture, sororities and fraternities, Milledgville Vs. D.C., accents, creating software using java language, ecological law, hinduism vs. christianity, and my newest favorite from one of the teachers "Sometimes I ask myself.. HOW in the world did this student make it into this  program!!!?.. " 
At the end of my time in the little room, I bid my adieu to the "residents" and feel my head spinning from from the whirr of much subject matter... For by this time, I have traveled to Thailand , I have seen the story of many lives, I have learned how china has cheated or not cheated us out of screen doors , and I have settled upon the fact that cash is very fluid..... And then I return to the reality of congestive heart failure and lower respiratory diseases......