Divine Romance

I'm a new fan of Phil Wickham. If you don't know who I am talking about you should really think about checking him out (http://www.philwickham.com/). His music is awesome and filled with scripture and truth. One song in particular has capture my attention over the last couple of weeks (which is about how long I've been a fan). This song is called Divine Romance. It talks about the beauty of our relationship with Christ and is an offering of ourselves to Him. This song has really been my praise and prayer these past couple of weeks and each time I play it I become more captivated by the beauty of Christ and His love for me.

I love that the title of this song is called Divine Romance because that truly is what our relationship with Christ is--a Divine Romance. As girls, our thoughts are usually romanticized no matter if a guy is in them or not. (One of my friends use to say that if we were in a moment that we would consider to be romantic but there wasn't a man in that moment with us, then it was a "rotic" moment. Get it, "man" taken out of roMANtic ="rotic"....I digress) ....how amazing is it that the God of this universe who created you and me wants to romance us. But it's not the kind of romance we see in movies and tv. It's a different kind of romance-a divine romance. It's the type of romance that can only happen from the Divine One. It's special and beautiful and I stand in awe of everything that it is!






lyrics:

The fullness of Your grace is here with me
The richness of Your beauty’s all I see
The brightness of Your glory has arrived
In Your presence God, I’m completely satisfied

For You I sing I dance
Rejoice in this divine romance
Lift my heart and my hands
To show my love, to show my love

A deep deep flood, an Ocean flows from You
Of deep deep love, yeah it’s filling up the room
Your innocent blood, has washed my guilty life
In Your presence God I’m completely satisfied

For You I sing I dance
Rejoice in this divine romance
Lift my heart and my hands
To show my love, to show my love

my mother's groundhog

For the past few months my mom has been stalking a groundhog. Yes, a groundhog. On her route to work there is a specific exit that she takes. This exit has a ramp that goes down and on the side has a big grassy hill. A while back she noticed a few burrows on this grassy hill. Now if you know my mother or have heard me talk about my mother then you know that she is interested in EVERYTHING! So of course, these lovely burrows interested her little mind and on her way to work she continued to watch these burrows for anything living in them. Finally one day she was sitting at the light on the exit ramp and saw, what she thought at the time, a hedgehog sitting at the top of the grassy hill. She flipped out! Seriously, my mother was fascinated by this creature and couldn't wait to get home and spend endless hours researching what she had just seen. My dad, my sister and I heard all about it--"it's just so cute!"--"I can't believe I found it!"--"I'm gonna get me a picture of it." She even had me drive to the exit for her so that she could get a picture of it!

After some extensive research on the ever faithful internet, my mom discovered that hedgehogs don't live in this area. So she ruled out that it was a hedgehog and decided it must be a groundhog. She looked up picture after picture of groundhogs and decided that this creature living the burrows off exit 12 was a groundhog. She continued to "visit" it hoping that she could catch a photo of it here and there. She even had people honking at her because she would stop in the middle of the road while the light was green just trying to get a picture of this groundhog.

So then I was home the other week and my mom told me that she had something to show me. So she gets out her computer and pulls up this picture of the groundhog that she has been stalking. She had took a photo of it but to me, this photo was blurry and not even zoomed in so in reality you couldn't really tell if there was a groundhog in it or not. She swore to me that it was there and even pointed to some blurry spot claiming that it was the groundhog. I just laughed and told her that she was funny.

Well, my mother ended up buying a new camera. (I think so she could get a better picture of this groundhog. But seriously, she got a new camera that has so many more megapixels so she can get a good picture of her groundhog. And yesterday, she sent it to me. This is the picture she took the other day of her little friend. Enjoy!

work, church, bethany d., philippines!

Good Morning!! (or good afternoon and good evening depending on when you read this :) ) There has been a lot going on so I hadn't really had time to post a new blog. After I came back from my mini vacation con mi familia, I had to work--booooo! Although it got interesting at the end of work that Wednesday. Someone in the house across the street from the church I work at died unexpectedly and so there was an ambulance, 2 police cars, a fire truck, and then the investigator people came to do their job. It was pretty intense because the whole neighborhood came out to see what was going on. All I found out though was that a thirty something man died unexpectedly. Made the work day interesting but was very sad at the same time...

I've been leading a small group of high school girls at church on Wednesdays and I am really enjoying it! This group of girls I have are so energetic and talkative. It's great! I thought I would have to pull stuff out of them. They're really asking questions too and soaking up what we're learning about. I do believe they're challenging me more than I'm challenging them. Love how God works like that :)

On Saturday night a group of us went to a Bethany Dillon concert for my friend's birthday. When I say concert, it was more like a little show. Acoustic Jeremiah in Canton, GA gets people to come and play in their historic chapel. Never heard of it, neither had I. Much less did I really know where Canton, GA was. Well we thought we were going to be late since we had stopped to eat on the way in Atlanta, but as Atlanta goes, there's always traffic you run into. So we were short on time plus we didn't really know where we were going. We finally get there (on time I might add) and find out we have front row, center seats. The guy in charge of this thing told me to tell him how many tickets I wanted and he'd hold them for me. And he did! Front row, center seats! Now, this chapel is really old (historic) and small. So basically we were sitting in Bethany's lap. She was that close. It was amazing! She played some new music, some old, some really old and then she played a few hymns. It was a great time of worship. Wish I had pictures to capture the moment but I don't. We also got stopped on the way back because someone, who will remain nameless, didn't have their seatbelt on. Good times!

In July I am going on a mission trip to the Philippines. I'm really excited about this opportunity God has given me and kind of surprised, yet not really cause it's God. I guess I'm just honored to be a part of His work. God has truly called me to this trip and it's been a blessing to see Him work already. A friend of mine is going to Ireland about the same time I'm going on my trip and we've been meeting to go through our guide packets together, share thoughts and fears and pray for one another. It's been good to be able to prepare for our trips and have that accountability and encouragement as God gets our hearts ready to be the light to others. I'm also very thankful for this friend. We haven't really been friends that long and so it's been a good opportunity to get to know her better. God's already used her in my life and I'm thankful for that. Please be in prayer for me as I get ready for this trip.

a life of complacency

I spent this past weekend and these past couple of days at home with my dad. I can't remember the last time my dad and I, just the two of us, spent time together. The past few years have been crazy with school, work and being 3 hours away that I haven't had as much time with my parents as I would have liked. Summers have usually been filled with trips, school and work, so this "mini-vacation" with my dad was great. My mom had a friend come in town and they went up to the mountains this week thus giving me time well spent with my father.

During my time at home, I remembered how simple things were when I was living there. No worries, cares, all my needs were met in the blink of an eye. Life was great and simple. To me, it was an abundant life. But as each year passes, I feel like things (life) become more complicated. I feel like I have more things to worry about and I care more about different things in life. Even meeting my own needs is sometimes a hassle in ways. Don't misunderstand me, all my needs have always been met and I have had worries before and deal with them as they come. It's just that now I'm in charge of these things when my parents use to take care of basically everything for me. I would rely on them and always knew they would take care of all aspects of my life.

Now, as I experience all that life has to offer, God has reminded me that I can still feel this same kind of simplicity and worry-free life that I once knew. But do I embrace it? Not always. You see, God has given me something that I can find rest in and be at peace with. Him. He allows me to put my trust in Him and let him be ruler over my life. This sounds easy, but I haven't mastered it at all. I don't even come close. As a child it was easy to let my parents take care of me and allow them to lead me and guide me. It was easy and almost natural. Why? Because they had proven their love to me and for me. They had proven that they would take care of me and always be there. In the same way, Christ has already proven his love for me and to me and has promised He will always be there and he continues to do this daily. So why is it sometimes so difficult for me to fully give up my life over to him so that I can experience this abundant life that I long for? I know all He is, is good. All He does is good.

The life that I once knew, the simple, worry-free, fully trusting life, isn't far from me or out of my reach. It is a choice. A daily, on my knees, offering of myself to God. It is only there that I will find rest and contentment.

Psalm 73:26
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

i did it!

I did it! That's right, I created a blog. Do I really know what I'm doing? No, I don't. But I figured I had some time this summer to try it out and see what it's all about. I love reading my friends blogs and learning about the things that are going on in their lives or the insight they give through a verse or a mini-sermon. It's been a great tool for keeping up with what people are doing these days and a good source of encouragement if it's the right blog! I've also found that they are so eloquent in their writing--a skill I obviously don't posses. Even right down to the name of their blogs--so creative! Some of you might know the meaning or reason behind the name of my blog. If you're wondering why I chose it, it's because this is my Indian name. "Dun-dush-ka" is the name that was given to me when I was born and it means Easter Lily. Yes, I am Native American. (So dramatic right!?) My father is a full-blooded indian and my mother, is well, "white" as we say here in the South. (ok, go ahead with the jokes or comments) My friends pick on me a lot about this--all in fun though! So this is it! My blog. Currently my life isn't all that interesting to write about but I'm giving it a go. We'll see what happens...