Encouraging Words

I got home from Young Life on Sunday night around 9:45 and caught the last hour and a half of the Oscars.  I usually don't want them, but that night I felt like watching them was a good choice.  So I did, and I really enjoyed them.  I thought they were really entertaining (although I had to watch the funniest part on YouTube).  But my favorite part was watching and listening to former Oscar award winners speak to each nominee for the Supporting Actor/actress and Lead Actor/actress awards.  Since I work for Young Life and therefore am a not professional film or television actor, I don't really know what it's like to be one; however, I imagine that those personal words shared by their peers (and perhaps in many cases, heroes and role models) will be cherished as much as actually winning the award.  Okay probably not, but I could tell by each nominee's face that hearing those words meant A LOT.  Bravo to whoever thought of that idea.  They figured out how to send everyone home a winner that night.

Take a minute and tell someone why you love them today.  And if you can, take 10 minutes.  I guarantee it'll be among the highlights, if not THE highlight, of that person's day.

A Lesson from Bob Ross

If you've ever watched "The Joy of Painting" hosted by the late Bob Ross, you'll know what I'm talking about.  If you haven't, check him out here.  My sophomore year, my friends and I would always try to watch his show at 3 in the afternoon before class.  He'd spend 20 minutes creating a beautiful landscape, and then suddenly, and seemingly inexplicably, make some huge mark with his paintbrush in the middle of the canvas.  My friend Tom and I would always yell at the screen as if he could hear us, wondering what in the world he was doing to his painting.  But after a few more minutes, this ugly and unexplained stroke of his brush would turn into a tree, path in the woods, or cabin that made the painting that much better.

Some friends and I were talking about this idea yesterday.  We're aware that God is in control of our lives, and we're even okay with that after years of knowing that we have no idea what we want or need.  We see the picture of our lives that God has been creating and then suddenly...that ugly, pointless, out of left field mark is placed somewhere in our lives.  Then we wonder what in the world God is doing.  And now we're angry and upset, and once again question our trust for our Creator.

However...

The truth is that God knows what He's doing and we don't.  The truth is that He is in control and we are not, and that is actually the best thing that could ever happen.  And the reality is that I need to be reminded of this.  These marks that God makes in our lives shouldn't make us angry and cause us to doubt, but rather remind us that we are loved and in communion with the God of the universe.  How cool?  If we wait long enough, the events and circumstances of our lives that seem random and hurtful will begin to make sense as we view our lives from a bigger perspective.  Obviously this requires a lot of patience and trust, two things that I feel like aren't in my bag right now.  But I know that God is good.  And I know that He loves me.  And I know that those two truths are really all I need to know.

Thanks be to God that He is not done with me yet.  

Spring is just around the...window sill?

For the last week or so, I've woken up to a group of birds that sit outside my windows and chirp.  I don't really know what they're chirping about...maybe the fact that it's actually been sunny most days lately, or maybe that Lebron put up 52, 11, and 10 last night at Madison Square Garden.  All these chirps make me think that it's spring...that somehow, overnight, winter left and it's now June, which is when "spring" usually hits in Michigan.  But alas, it's currently -2 outside (wind chill).  But at least it's sunny!