wow,

*opinionated and probably not politically correct rambles below.. you've been warned!*



so i just finished reading this book called 'under the overpass' by mike yankoski... do yourself a favor and get a copy. its like $4 on amazon. it might change your life and view of comfort - questioning 'whats so great about the 'american dream' anyway'? the way i see it, it hasn't brought much contentment. there are broken people all over longing for something real... and this book, a journey through the life of a homeless man might wake you up. it woke me up and in a great way... it is stoking the flames of my burden that God is already birthing in my heart to reach out to the world. you'll see in this book how even churches turn a blind eye to the needs of the hungry, hurting and needy. i am realizing more and more how far the church of america has strayed from the true foundations that Christ laid down. what is the point of being Christian if you don't follow Christ? If you don't act out your faith? to be cozy in a church room once a week and wear your best outfit and show everyone how holy you are? then walk out the door and have your mind emptied of what you learned like someone shaking an etch-a-sketch drawing back to nothing? NO! I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the lazy church, the complacent church, the lukewarm church. where are the real followers of Jesus? they are fighting a battle, with "weapons of righteousness in both hands..." (2 corinthians 6:7), swimming upstream.. they are the rebels these days, that where the counter-culture is; and i am not ashamed (romans 1:16) to counted as one of them. you bet i'm ashamed of what people have done in this world and to eachother under that name, under the large banner of 'christianity'... though what i see being so prevalent in our society is 'church-ianity'. Lame, who wants that? the 'church' was never meant to be a building with thousands of people and one preacher (don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good churches like that, reality being one of those, i attend there and and respect it as a whole) but we (the church) have missed the point. if you read the bible, you will see plainly that we ARE THE CHURCH. we are the temple of God, that is why Jesus said that 'he would destroy this temple and raise it again in three days..." (john 2:19) he was talking about him being the temple (and was referring to the crucifixion), the church, God's dwelling place. and when we accept his sacrifice for us and new life in him we welcome the holy spirit to breathe that life into us and he dwells there and never leaves us. so i say all this not to condemn any readers... but to propose a few questions that i've been wrestling with lately... is injustice concerning you? what does Jesus REALLY mean in matthew 10:9 when he said "whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it"? one of my favorite parts of the book was a quote in the beginning of a chapter by G.K. Chesterton's book 'Orthodoxy', "We don't want anger and joy to neutralize each other and produce a surely contentment. We want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent,", that about fits the bill. so i suppose that a lot of you reading this are fellow blog friends, or my family. maybe some of you are prospective clients... wondering "where the heck is this coming from? this is a little TMI?" but i think to myself of vendors i will hire for my wedding someday (Lord willing if someone wants to marry me, LOL!). yes there are many options- for cake bakers, for caterers, for djs and photographers... so what separates them? what makes any of them stand out? if everyone basically does the same thing... then it has to be one thing that sets you apart; your character. i am going to hire people in the future because i believe in them as a person, that i appreciate not just what they do but with how much passion they do it... looking deeper to see what drives them. so whoever you are reading this, if you haven't already seen it a million times in my posts, this is what drives me: the needs of people, the hunger inside them, whether it be physical hunger for food, emotional hunger for compassion, or spiritual hunger for a savior... i want to be available, in season and out of season (2 timothy 4:2) to drop whatever i'm doing- to get down at heart level with someone in their time of need and say 'how can i help you?". this could simply be me serving my wonderful clients and delivering to them a beautiful end product from their wedding- being dependable and helpful, or it could be having a good attitude when someone rips me off or hurts me and offering grace to them, or it could be buying food for someone who's hungry. yes my heart's desire is to be out on the missionary field in another country, in a place that is throbbing with brokeness, bringing them to the Healer who heals me. but sometimes when you tell Jesus you want to give your whole life to him, He tells you to 'stay' when all you want to do is run away and start fresh. there are ways everywhere and in every part of my day (and anyone can do this!) that I either have the opportunity to share the love of Jesus, or repel them from him by my actions or unconcerned heart. Jesus wasn't ever in a hurry. even when he was on the way to heal Jarius' daughter who was about to die, he stopped to heal the woman with internal bleeding... he was so unconcerned with an 'agenda' that he just noticed her touch his cloak, and he stopped to help her. (and yes if you know the story, Jarius' daughter died because Jesus stopped to heal this woman, but then he had an opportunity to even more display his power and love by raising her from the dead!) if the king and ruler of the universe isn't too busy for people, and i know that he isn't too busy for me, than my day should never be to busy for Him or what he wants to use me for, and the people he can bless through me. so anyway... you're probably all afraid to read this book now, hah! these are thoughts that have been developing in me for quite some time and this book was just a catalyst to move me to action. if you do read it though, i'm sure that the Lord will encounter you in a way that is applicable to your own life, and wake you up from 'comfortability' like he has for me.


p.s. the eleventyseven show turned out to be really fun, even though it was a small crowd (ranging from 5 years old to like 55?). i finally got to meet the crew from rockforlife.org, and i am excited to get more involved with them this summer :) anyways, they played a mean cover of backstreet boys amongst a ton of other great songs, and yeah, i totally bought their CD!

theres a video HERE about myspace that made me rofl (it wont let me embed it here so you have to go watch it)

and heres that song 'its beautiful', too bad its a super cheesey picture-slideshow and not a cool video but oh well get over it and listen to it anyway:




<33annajoy