Go big or go home

Week 18
Welp. Christmas break is over and the Ranch thrives with interns once again!
It has been reunion week here. First was the TNT reunion of a bunch of high school kids who work during the summer. This reunion included 80's dodgeball, hay ride, dance party, football, ice skating, and tons of fun. Next was the staff reunion! more dodgeball! more dancing! more football... a lot more football! and a trip to Baltimore for New Years Eve.
Phew. Tiring. But I loved every minute of it.
It's the best when you do things 100%. go big or go home is what I always say. yup.

But remember that the energy to do everything to the fullest comes only from God.
"Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13 (The Message)
The energy that God gives us is for HIS pleasure. So please him with the things you do.
What do the things you invest your time and energy in say about your life?
Does it bring God pleasure?
Maybe ice skating and dodgeball and football don't seem like the most productive uses of energy. But its not the activity. It is the people.
I am thankful to be in this place where we play football to build community within God's church. I will not waste a single moment of it. And will continue to pour out every ounce of my energy, trusting that God will fill me up again.
Mean what you do. Do it with the energy that God gives. And do it together.

It's hard to take pictures while you're skating :-).

O come all ye faithful... every day

Week 17

My favorite Christmas song is O, Come All Ye Faithful. Hands down.

Lets just talk about this for a minute.

O come all ye faithful. That's us. I think... are we? Are we faithful?

I know you all know the refrain... O come let us adore him.

Over and over we sing this. It is plea to let us come. We are so unworthy of his love and his presence on earth that we find ourselves begging to adore him. Other renditions include additional refrains... I like to combine all of them:

O come let us adore him. We'll praise his name forever. For he alone is worthy. They all fit so seamlessly together. Once we decide to adore him, we realize our necessity to praise his name forever because he alone is worthy. Isn't that the truth? Forever. Every day of our lives... not just on Christmas or Christmas Eve.

And then there's this verse:

Child, for us sinners poor and in the manger,

we would embrace thee with love and awe

Who would not love thee, loving us so dearly? O come let us adore him...

Poor and in the manger. THAT'S US! At least I can say for certain that that's me. He came to save us sinners. Who wouldn't love the one who loved us enough to save us? Christmas is not about snow, it is not about giving, and it is not even about family. It is about the birth of the fulfillment of God's promise to his people... Jesus. poor and in the manger. Through this promise we can know true love and true life. It all starts with HIM. It all starts Today. But it only just starts today. 

That is something to celebrate. This glorious day is only the beginning. How lucky is that! If we lived every day of our lives begging to adore Christ, I think our lives would look different. Mine would.

That's what O come all ye faithful means.

Jesus fulfills the promise of truth, love, and redemption. We need to be faithful, adore him, and praise him forever.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever and love me I pray. 

Merry Christmas!

This only do I seek

Week 16

In the last few weeks, in my desire for discipline, I have been quietly encouraged.

By friends, by scripture, but most importantly by God.

Yes. Really.

Let me tell you a story:

A few summers ago, while trying to find my way through life and the streets of Aix-en-Provence, I found myself alone.  But lucky for me, I was met in that brokenness by the Lord and creator of life. As I stood at the base of Mount St Victoire, with a paintbrush in my hand and my toes in the grass, He met me. Right there. He showed me who He was and who I was meant to be. He loved me and saved me. That's where I first met God.

My final semester of Truman, when life was running me down, I found myself alone. Alone in the quiet creepiness of my art studio. He met me. Right there. In Kirksville. Paint spattered on my clothes, brush in hand. He told me who He wanted me to be and showed me how. He loved me so quietly, but so perfectly.

This week, when stresses of life and future had me uneasy and anxious, you guessed it... He met me. Right there, in my room in Manchester, MD all spread out on the floor, paint brush in hand.

It never fails to comfort me when I realize how well God knows me. He made me to love painting. He knew that painting is where I can be reached every single time. He created me to love the thing that brings me nearest to Him! Thankful for that.

No matter the circumstances of your life or of your heart, no matter where you are physically or spiritually, God will meet you right there. If you slow down long enough to let him.

Figure out where God waits to meet you. And go there.

You will be amazed by His encouragement. In that place you will feel complete. If that isn't worth it, I don't know what is.

"One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: 

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,

 to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple." Psalm 27:4

Once you find it, go back there. ALL the days of your life.

This place will always be so special to me (Mount St Victoire, Aix-en-Provence, France).
Now you know why.

Discipline part II

Week 15
Since we last talked, I have been all about having quiet time every day and its been going well.
I love when God is teaching you something. It is everywhere. Everywhere you go, every conversation you have, everything you read spells out what he means until you finally get it. So here we are talking about discipline again... I opened up a daily devotional that I hadn't read in a while and this is the first page I saw:

"...present [our] bodies a living sacrifice... (Romans 12:1). Sanctification means more than being freed from sin. It means the deliberate commitment of myself to the God of my salvation, and being willing to pay whatever it may cost.

If we do not sacrifice the natural to the spiritual, the natural life will resist and defy the life of the Son of God in us and will produce continual turmoil. This is always the result of an undisciplined spiritual nature. We go wrong because we stubbornly refuse to discipline ourselves physically, morally, or mentally. We excuse ourselves by saying, “Well, I wasn’t taught to be disciplined when I was a child.” Then discipline yourself now! If you don’t, you will ruin your entire personal life for God."

-Oswald Chambers

You hear that? Not just mentally, but morally and physically too?
I feel as though all this discipline talk is preparing me for something.
I don't know what it is but I'm excited to find out. Okay, and a little scared.

Deliberate commitment of myself to the God of my salvation, and willing to pay whatever it may cost.

Whatever it may cost.

I am willing.

These are old photos because both of my cameras are currently out of order :-/

Discipline

Week 14
High energy. That is something true of me. But what happens when that high level of energy starts to get in the way? Then it is called restlessness. I looked that word up just now and this is the definition: marked by a lack of quiet, repose, or rest.
So whats going on Aubs?
Rest? Repose? Quiet? Uh oh. when was the last time I was truly quiet? ...why won't the word never leave my mind?


Because being quiet requires discipline. I'm not talking about the kind of quiet that you are during a movie, or when someone is sleeping. I mean absolutely and peacefully quiet. Quiet to hear the Lord. Quiet to spend time in the word. Quiet to pray. Quiet to breathe, think, and live apart from the busy, scattered, self centered, mixed up world we live in.
But I lack discipline. And I lack quiet.


Proverbs 5:23 says, "He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray." Hello! He dies for lack of discipline. Dies. This is for real.
A good friend of mine honestly reminded me that this sort of discipline requires sacrifice. 
Sacrifice.
This discipline is worth it. To live. "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11). Discipline is worth it. To not sin against the Lord who loves and gives abundantly. Who am I to not sacrifice a single minute of my day for the God who sacrificed his only son?
That is absurd.
I'm not perfect. But I will try.
Will you help me?

Thankful to live at the Ranch. Where true beauty can be found every day.