What Will Your Story Be?

The truth is everyone has a story.
Everyone is going to leave the earth with a story.
You choose exactly how that story turns out.
So what is your story going to be?
You decide.

Imperfection is Beauty.

I am finding that imperfection truly is the most beautiful thing.
In a culture where we are told that being skinnier, tanner, or essentially just flawless to be beautiful...I venture to say it's not true.

I find myself finding people's imperfections the most beautiful thing about them.
I guess for me it's this illustration of loving who God made us, and knowing HE loves that flaw, how dare I not love it.

I truly believe without a doubt that someone who is so in love with their Abba, those are the people I look at and goo ohh jeeeez they are gorgeous! It's this inner light, inner glow that just shines through into everything they do.

Believe you're beautiful simply because He thinks you're beautiful!
Mind Boggling.

Although, I have never been a huge Jessica Simpson fan she just did a show called The Price of Beauty and she goes all over the world to see what every people and culture define as beautiful. It was really incredible to watch. I love cultures in general, so I was intrigued :-)

Here is the trailer, you can go to Hulu.com to loook at the full episodes. My favorites was he Uganda, Thailand, and L.A. one :-)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

I just finished a book called "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and it was absolutely amazing! Her story seriously leaves me dumb founded. How a girl, from Somalia, who has been isolated for most of her life escapes an arranged marriage and moves to Holland and eventually is apart of the parliament of The Netherlands. Sheeeesh. I can't imagine doing all that and actually living in a free world where I am encouraged to fulfill dreams and none of my abilites or talents are supressed. She does this, knowing pretty much nothing about the world encompassing her.

Her whole campaign is to see the opression of Muslim Women over with. I am totally for this. The stories she tells of her childhood are absolutely horrid, I can't even imagine living in that kind of world. She no longer is apart of the Islamic religion due to her not being able to understand the Quaran and the horrible things within it. She is now an athiest. I am going to pray, pray, pray for her every day; that she comes to know Jesus and His love that nothing on this earth can transcend.

Here is the short film she made about the opression of women. I am warning you it is a very detailed and has vivid imagery, and it's not for people who can't handle intense things.

Mumford and Sons.

My lovely artsy sister, Caitlin, turned me on to these guys! :-) I hope you enjoy!

Nicaragua.

Nicaragua.

I feel as if it's pumping through my veins.
The people, the air, the culture.
I am simply in love.

I have been there 9 times in my life,
since I was 8 years old.
But, I never fell hopelessly in love with the country until last summer.
Now, in a month, going on my tenth trip there, I feel as if I may leap out of my skin.

I find myself constantly being drawn to the faces.
The faces who have nothing, yet there eyes dance so brilliantly.
I find myself smelling the scent of the streets, causing my mind to travel back and place myself on those very streets, looking upon those very people.

The Nicaraguan people are beautiful, precious, passionate, and alive.

So, here's to a month countdown until my eyes are once again privileged to look upon such a beautiful people.

Peace. Love. Joy.

Brilliant artists.

I have had the opporunity of meeting these guys and getting to know them a bit...they are some of the must humble, relevant artists I know! So enjoy these videos, and buy their music! It's the bombbbb :-)

How He Loves : A Song Story from john mark mcmillan on Vimeo.

Peace. Love. Joy.

Queen Victoria.

Last night our electricity in our home went out, and stayed off the whole night. Literally the electricians were working on bringing it back to our neighborhood all night. Therefore, we got some candles. I went to my room, with my little candle giving me light, and began to write in my journal like I often do. I found myself having glimpses of the Victorian Age. Where they always had their little candles to bring light when they would write or read in the dark, since as we all know there was no electricity at the time.

For some reason I have always been drawn to that time period. If I could live in any different time, it would be then. There's something so honorable and beautiful to me about that time (not to mention, I think I would have loved the fashion! :]). Of course the longing is just rekindled every time I watch a movie from the era. I recently watched, Young Victoria, and boy did I just long to be living then. I think more then anything it was Victoria's character that really inspried me. She was so young when she took the throne, and barely knew anything, yet ruled with complete confidence. To me, it was a perfect example of someone who knew exactly who they were and exactly where they came from; their legacy, their inheritance. She sarted out knowing nothing about how to run a country, yet today she is remembered as one of the greatest Queens ever. When I look at her, I see perseverance, and an underlying knowing of who she was. I think without that, she would have failed all together. Of course she had her doubts about herself, but she would never give up or dwell on those things, she would just keep doing what she knew best to do.

Queen Victoria makes me want to be someone who rises above even what other people say I can do. One who knows her inheritance, her legacy; therefore allows nothing to stop her from succeeding.

If you haven't seen this movie, you totally should, as well as read a little about what Queen Victoria accomplished...it's quite amazing! For now, though, I leave you with the trailer!


Peace. Love. Joy.

"I want to see beauty from the ashes around me."

"Yes, I have my dragons to fight. Yes, I have my fears. But I still have breath in my lungs, I still have blood in my veins. I cannot sit idly by. I refuse to just let the village burn. I'd rather side with the illiterate farm girl who hears things than the cynics who hear nothing. I want to see beauty come from the ashes around me. Even if I fail, I will burn at the stake knowing that my fumes supported a good cause. Far better to fail at building a magnificent world than to succeed in monochromatic survival." Jon Foreman

Risk.

The question I find myself asking is,
"how much am I willing to risk to make my dreams come true?"

I will be honest, sometimes it's hard to take risk even when I believe 100% in my dreams. This little thing called fear creeps in and says, "don't risk it, stay safe."

It's so much easier to live life comfortable. Your dreams will never come true, but you'll be comfortable.

My constant battle is do you want to live a mediocre life and thus sacrifice destiny, or are you willing to step out into the unknown. To face what you do not know.

It involves risk. Am I willing?

My hearts say, "well, of course. These are my dreams!"
But, it's a constant leaning on Jesus, trusting Him as I jump out into that unknown, fearful place.

One day, I hope I look back and say, "Thank God I jumped! Look how much Jesus has done with my jump!"
I believe I will say that.

Dream guys. Jump into the unknown. Make those dreams become a reality.

Peace. Love. Joy.

Relevance.

Relevance. What does it mean to you?
To me, being relevant has become something it is not.
We have turned relevance into trendiness.

There are so many in the church who try to be "relevant" to the culture, the world around them. But, in the pursuit of this relevance they bascially kill any and all revlevance.

See...Jesus is the essence really of the relevance we wish to relate to the world.
We try so hard, racking our brains with how we are going to manuver with every kind of person. We really end up losing truth in the midst of trying to be relevant. We end up being trendy. Our black and white turns to gray before we can even blink.

I have spent considerable amounts of time thinking about the best ways to reach people, how to act most like Jesus with so and so. But, it's stupid. The truth has always been and it remains. The truth is if you want to be relevant, love Jesus with every fiber in your being, gaze on Him constantly, have an obsessive love affair with Him; that will bring light, truth, and relevance to the culture around you.

Friends, don't try so hard to be relevant that you come to a place where you turn around and say, "where is God?"

Pursue His heart.
That to me, is relevance.
That to me is how Hollywood will get radically saved.
That to me is how the prostitute on the street will have a 360 life change and become one of the world's most ambitious, accomplished person.
That to me is how the world will truly see Jesus.

Peace. Love. Joy.