Fall Break!

We have Fall Break this weekend which basically means that everyone at school leaves and gets to be with their family from thursday till tuesday; EXCEPT the swim team. :( SO, in order to rid ourselves of boredom, we always plan lots of fun things to do over this weekend. Friday night was a good night because I got to just kind of recoup from the week and let my brain be still for a while. :) Saturday, or last night was so much fun. We had a three hour practice in the morning and then straight after that, I was doing hair and makeup for five people all day! The team has a yearly event that takes place at this Cour d'alene resort where we all dress up and go to this fancy restaurant and eat GIGANTIC bowls of ice cream! It's amazing...I might have pictures up so you can see the incredible sizes of these things. Then, this morning I went to church and we talked about worship as a form of obedience to God. It was good. The pastor shared a story with us about a man who had been discussing with his friends at a bible study about whether or not God still spoke to people...after that meeting the man ended up asking God in the privacy of his car to tell him something if he still speaks to people...the man felt this sudden urge to go by a gallon of milk...which was a weird thing, but he was like, "well if this isn't something from God, I may as well get some for myself." Then after he got the milk, he kept driving, then he felt an urge to keep driving in circles around this one block that was kind of like a city/suburb area. He finally stopped somewhere and started walking around. He noticed a small apartment building shoved in between two stores, and felt a certain nudge to go and give the milk to whoever was in there..so he argued with God for a little while and finally ended with a bargain that if nobody came to the door after his first knock then he would leave and go home...so he went up and knocked, a man who sounded annoyed yelled, "who is it, what do you want?" But before the man could leave the door step the man on the other side opened the door. He did not look very happy, and it was morning and it looked like he had just woken up. So the man who had been carrying the milk without a word just stretched out his hands with the milk, and without saying a word the other man grabbed it from his hands and rushed back into the house yelling in spanish and crying. There was a woman's voice and a baby crying. The man in the house gave the milk to his wife who fed the baby with it. They told the man who had bought the milk that they had run out of money to pay for milk for their baby and that just before that, they had been praying for God to provide an angel to bring their baby milk. This man was their angel. ....This story really hit me hard, I have had numerous experiences like this where I have seen a need and not responded, or tried to convince myself out of doing something that I could tell was what God wanted me to do...It's so frusterating to me when I make poor decisions like that because I do know what it's like to also be on the receiving end of mercy. To be blessed by someone in action and in love. I remember how thankful and grateful I am towards those people for what they decided to take action on. I just hope that the next time I am pulled to do something, even though I may look rediculous doing it, like the man in the story carrying a gallon of milk everywhere, that I would do it and obey. Love is not all about feelings, but is DEFINITELY A LOT about action and how you behave. So often I base my actions off of how I "feel" and for the past couple of years I have really concentrated on this subject and trying to find a balance. The result that I have come up with so far is that if I love God, then I will obey and do the will of the Father. I thought about this verse in Mark (3:35),where Jesus asks the people around him who his brothers, and sisters and mother are, and he responds saying, "Whoever does God's will is my brothers and sister and mother." To me, it sounds like one major way of doing God's will is by obeying those nudges that God gives you. But anyway, that story led to those thoughts in my head and it really convicted me so I thought I'd share it with you too and see what y'all thought. :)
Late today I'm gonna do our first swim team bible study...I'm pretty nervous as there is no real set schedule and some of the people coming don't really know a whole lot about the bible. I'm planning on not scaring any of them off by doing anything super theological or anything, but rather having them ask questions, get a feel for where everyone is at, and see if they might be interested in learning more about this "Jesus" person that is so radical and different. :) Prayer for these girls and for our time together would be greatly appreciated since I know that nothing I say or anyone else says at this meeting will impact anyone else unless God wills it to and the girls hearts are opened to it.
So yeah, I've got that later today and then a Luau/bbq thing at Quinton's house later today for the team....then HW GALORE!!! It's a really busy weekend and I still have LOTS to do, so organizing my time and possibly sacrificing what I want to do for what needs to be done with be crucial decisions throughout this week. I hope everyone's week is thoughtful and restful and that you all can get lots done. That's my prayer for you guys. :) Have a good day. :)

Genuine Beauty

Today started out great...I got to have my one day of the week where we DON'T have morning practice, so I slept in till nine!! It was wonderful! :) Four extra hours does wonders to the mind and body. :) Then I went to practice and did weights and swam with Kyle. He's my study-buddy for international business on tuesdays and thursdays. Our teacher likes to give us random pop quizes so after practice, we study and review for that and I always order my one delight for the day, a "drumstick" ice cream cone....this makes my day after practice. Thankfully though, we didn't have a quiz so instead we talked about if Whitworth were to go abroad, how would we plan on expanding our school and giving our teacher more money haha! Walter Hutchins is my teacher and he's really funny, although his tests are completely rediculous and no one gets A's on them, he still seems to be a favorite among the business students at Whitworth.

So I was looking at my own profile and I realized that I never explained the meaning of my title, "Genuine Beauty." So this is the title that I would "like" to call my own beauty salon if I ever get there. :) I think it explains perfectly what I love to see in others. Genuine beauty from the heart is always SO transparent and especially in a woman, can only result from being loved so fully and completely that the beauty just overwhelms the people who encounter her. She will radiate love when she is genuinely loved. Personally, I feel that the best representation of Genuine Beauty in a person is given from having a personal relationship with and recieving love from Christ. Others may challenge me about this who don't know Christ and say that there is still people who have beautiful hearts who are not Christ-followers....this is true, there are definitely many people out there who have incredible hearts of beauty.....but I have to stick to the fact that God's love is the only perfect love around. Jesus died for us even though we did NOTHING to deserve it.......In our world, there is practically no such thing as an altruisitc deed. Our sinful nature does not allow for us to want anything that doesn't in some way benefit ourselves. I think that when you are loved by someone who would die for you no matter WHAT you did, or where you were in life, I think that that is genuine love....if you were to accept that love and be the recipient of genuine love, it produces a special kind of genuine beauty in a person... A beauty that is thankful to her creator, and radiates itself by praising Him in her smile, action, and speech. I love and so enjoy making others feel good about themselves and I feel like this opportunity to do hair and be able to do that for people has just been handed to me, so I'm taking it! I'm really excited to meet new people and hear their life stories...basically what this all comes down to is that I love God and I love people. Normally though, I would say that without Christ in my life, I would not grant such love to some people in my life, nor would I try to make an effort to love those who I have a hard time being around or contradict everything that I might stand for...but the more I learn about God, love God, and learn how ugly my heart is without his presence in it, the more I love the people that He loves so much. Even though I still am in awe and wonderment WHY he would ever love messed up people like us, He always changes my heart towards people when I read about Jesus' ministry. I serve such a wonderful God....so humble, yet deserves all Glory....WOW. Cool stuff.

Greek Orthodox Church

So I'm in a "History and Theology of Worship" class and the teacher has various planned visits to different churches organized for us throughout the semster....this morning I went to the Greek Orthodox church! It was very aesthetic with stained glass pictures in all of the windows, portraying martyrs, there was the this very pretty chair that the bishop (when he visits) is supposed to sit in in the right hand side, it's called the "Cathedra." There was a huuuuge binder with all the litanies, hymns, songs, chants, scriptures, and sayings contained within it. Half of every page was written in Greek so it was hard to follow, but it was very cool to hear the words being spoken in a different language....I actually hoped that they would say something in Hebrew so that I could hear how it would have sounded in Jesus' day....but alas, we had to stick with Greek. :/ There was a very small choir that sang in both Latin, Greek, and English throughout the WHOLE time!! This service had been going on for at least an hour before we even got there, and they sang through the rest of the time which was two more hours! I was amazed specifically by this one old lady who was belting it out in the choir the whole time....it's quite the lung capacity that God gave her! :) One thing I was intruiged by during the service was that for most of the service, the priest had his back turned to the congregation and would only turn around for a few seconds at a time...he was doing his own prayer thing in the front while the congregation was doing a seperate thing behind him. This was kind of strange to me at first, but then I realized that the main focus was supposed to be on God, not the priest, and that having everyone facing forward, you couldn't help but look at all of the "icons" that were placed around the building showing martyrs (or saints), to the apostles, to Jesus....all in a hierarchical setup. There was a massive portrait of Jesus painted on the ceiling to show how everything points to and should direct your attention to God....a pretty novel idea I thought. I got to talk to the priest guy afterward and we had a pretty good discussion about how for the Orthodox Christian, worship should be an all-enveloping experience. He said that for the Orthodox Christian, everyone (both men and women)are involved in participating in the liturgy and that worship should be something that consumes you, which is kinda the purpose of the "icons" which are supposed to be reminders of Christ and should help lead you in your thoughts to thinking about Christ....pretty interesting stuff...I enjoyed it although there were a few things that I didn't really have a preference for during the service, but I could see that there were some positives too.

Two weeks ago I went to a Jesuit House Chapel at Gonzaga which was quite interesting as well! It followed much like a Catholic service with the sacraments and smoke and what-not...it was interesting how they proceeded through the worship...there was a row of boys and a row of girls who sat across from each other, all in robes, and did the chants for the service....there was an organ that played and for most of the service, the pastor guy read his scripture in "chant-mode"- so to speak. :) I was wondering if he was ever going to say anything without singing it, and eventually he did, but not for very long. I took from this service an appreciation for "chanting" scripture. When scripture is chanted, it really can make you focus on trying to really hear the words that the pastor is saying and let it speak to you....but at the same time, I've noticed that with some Christian songs, they can be sung so beautifully, but because they have such a nice sound, we just think about the rhythm and not the actual praise we are singing to God....it was an interesting thought. I would say that how I view music in worship is a lot like how Augustine viewed it. Music can be a spiritual model. (in other words, he liked music a lot, but also had some reservations because anything can be distorted.) Ambrose of Milan LOVED music in worship although for some reason he didn't feel that instruments were needed in worship. He felt that singing was like "waves crashing in." Pambo on the other hand was the head of a monastery in Egypt and felt that there should be no music in worship...it's distracting...he also had a more repentent view of worship than most churches I think because he said, "How can we feel bad for our sins if you are caught up in music?" This was an interesting thought to me because I have definitely noticed within myself that I am a lot more quiet in my worship time at church...I get distracted easily with some songs, so I just end up closing my eyes and listening to the words sung instead of singing them myself...when I sing it myself, often I will start thinking about how bad I sound or how I'm totally off key and self-conscious haha! But anyways, sometimes I get more out of worship by just listening...other days I feel the call to participate and confess with my MOUTH, my thanks to God. :)

Anyways, that was my theological experience for the morning...:) Today I get to do a bible study with Ashly, a very special friend of mine who became a Christian last summer and was on the team with me the past two years and graduated last year. She's possibly the most loving girl I know...totally not judgemental, loves to give you hugs, and just has such a gentle spirit. I have a lot I can learn from her... She's got an AWESOME "coming to Christ" story and it's been an HONOR watching her and seeing her grow more and more in the Lord. She's amazing, and I love her. :) So we are gonna go over the gospel of Mark and I'm gonna tell her what I'm learning from my gospel of Mark class which is totally an amazing class. I'm excited to see what conversations will come about! Then later today, I'm gonna meet with a girl to figure out a project for my international business class...we might do our presentation on the Phillippines! That would be sweeet. And then after that, I'm gonna cut Bryan's hair and then meet with another group for Operation's Management because there's this simulation thing we gotta do...it's a hard project....so prayer for that would be nice. :) Then I eat, then I get whatever else needs to be done, done, and then its BED TIME!!! YESSS!!! That's my favorite. :)

Friday!

Ohhh man, thank goodness it is friday. So this past week Gary, my swim coach has been pounding us like nobody's business. On wednesday at 5 am we had to do twenty, 200's freestyle with only five-ten seconds rest in between each set, then had recovery practice that evening; thursday morning we did dry land and weights for two hours which were killer, then that same evening we had a main set of ten 100's blasting all out, whatever energy you had left. It's pretty incredible what goes through your head when you look at a set like the ones previously mentioned. You are suddenly aware of every single muscle in your body and just how tired and fatigued they are....and then I try to strategize how I might go about swimming this thing....should I save my legs for the end? Should I focus on using my arms more or will they die towards the end of the set? Who's in the lane next to me? Would they be good for me to pace off of, or should I do my own thing and see how far and fast I can get? --soooo many things to think about before and while I'm swimming. So many thoughts can consume my head but it was amazing because although I repeat words to myself while I swim to keep my focus on what I am doing, I pray! I pray that God can help me and keep me going even when my arms and legs are stiff from lactic acid pumping all throughout my body. I thank God for the priviledge that it is to swim, to be able to work hard, push my body to it's limits, and for the fact that I can use this ability to celebrate God! To my suprise, on those two sets, I was going at a one minute pace, meaning it took me one minute to complete four laps at the feet! This is pretty good for how beat up I felt! -I think God was giving me a little bit of grace on those sets...I think he knew that I needed a mental uplift. :) But my connection between swimming and God can be summed up in a quote by good ole' Prefontaine, "to do less than your best is to sacrifice the gift!" --I agree. I will probably be mentioning swimming in quite a few of my blogs here for this year, but this is only because it has been such a big, and impactful part of my collegiate career/life, that it's kind of unavoidable I think. In fact, if it weren't for swimming, I probably wouldn't even be going to a University...I'd probably be at Bellevue Community College or something...there's a long story behind my whole acceptance into Whitworth, but maybe I'll share that another time...or maybe in person with you...but it's a great story nevertheless, and God was DEFINITELY glorified through it. :) So anyway, I've chatted long enough I think so I'll let ya'll go now. :) Have a great Friday everyone!

Hi Friends!

So my best friends all have these blogging thingies, and I didn't know how to set one up for the longest time, so I didn't even try making one. But I now realize that it was actually quite easy and so now I've given in. :) This will be a blog about my thoughts, my passions, my life....etc. I'm excited! I hope you guys find this interesting or makes you think....Life's full of many gloriously hard and wonderful things....maybe through this blog you guys can join me as I learn my way through life about loving God and loving people. :)