Friday, December 22, 2006

That girl


That girl

She walks into a room
Bright eyes
Warm smile
She has it all together
She is loved
She is clam
Her world doesn't seem to be melting beneith her feet
Or perhaps it is
In the way that people feel her peace
They see her love

That girl

She walks in proud with a man by her side
She prays at night after he falls to sleep by her side
Then dreams of a wedding in black and white
Her heart on her sleeve
Her life in her hands
Broken she goes
A smile on her face

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Overwhelmed by grace


Today, as I walked through the rain I realized something...

While the rain may pour across this small rushed city
My heart can find shelter in the overhangs of your grace
Your grace that surpasses
All that is spoken
All that is done
All that is thought
So, while the rain may dampen my hair and clothes
It reminds me of your grace that flows from the heavens to quench my parched soul

Friday, December 1, 2006

Making a decision


There are many moments in life when you make the choice to put God first or others or even yourself
It's a conscious decision, whether we want to admit it at the time or not.
You feel it in your gut, and suddenly things of His nature start to hurt
They start to dig under your skin
At times it's hard to decipher one voice from another
The voice you want to hear, and the voice that won't be quiet

In life there are moments where I choose to follow God or ignore his quiet request
He waits patiently for me to come back to him
While I struggle to push away
It take more energy to push away yet it feels less vulnerable than letting go
There is a moment in my life where I need to make the steadfast decision that choosing to follow God is worth losing everything I feel that I have worked towards.

I am scared
I am angry
I am nervous

I want to bury my past but my mind is not deep enough
I want to walk toward God with a clear mind, but this mill stone is too heavy
I want to ignore every message, every study, every T.V. show I've seen

But most of all I want to grow and walk with my God who is so much bigger than I can comprehend.
A God that knows how scared I am to lose what I feel is a gift from Him
A God that knows that I am angry at Him, but mostly myself
A God that knows I am nervous to let Him work in my life

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Sunday morning thoughts



Oh, to be on my face
In your sweet embrace
To surrender the world
To find your peace
To be wholly yours
On my face, in your embrace

Monday, September 18, 2006

Puzzles


Life is so unexpected, yet it all ends up fitting.

When I was little my mom used to do puzzles. She had a few puzzles that had a picture on both sides of the piece, I think they were called the world's most difficult puzzles. They would be puzzels with the same picture on both sides, but turned 90 degrees. We would put them together on a glass table so we could look at both sides to make sure they matched.
It would always amaze me when we completed the puzzle because, in the beginning, it seemed so impossible. How could these 1000 pieces of cardboard so interically connect with each other to become this fantastic picture?
There is another puzzle that I made with my mom that I always think about. It's sitting in the spare room of my apartment because it doesn't seem to fit anywhere. This puzzle wasn't one that had a picture on both sides, but it was difficult. It had a black and white M.C. Escher drawing on it with lizards. When we were done with it we puzzel glued it together and mounted it and put it on her wall. I would stare at it in the morning if I slept in her room. One morning I noticed that, instead of two different coloured lizards there were three. I think it had taken me a year to notice that.

There are times in my life that I feel like my own personal world's most difficult puzzle. There is so much going on and I can't get the full picture until I fnish it and look back. With in that, there are pieces of the puzzle that I just have to set aside until I can find the right place for them. Those pieces are the pieces that don't make sense. I know they are there for a reason and that they fit somewhere I just don't have a specific place yet.

There are also times that my life becomes the Escher puzzle that sat on my mom's bedroom wall. I could stare at it for hours on end and still miss half of what is drawn. It could be a permenant memory that sits with me and until I look at it in the right way I'm not going to be able to see the whole picture with all the details.

I don't know why a lot of things are happening, or what I've learned from certain experiences. There are also pieces of my life that I'm not sure what to do with because they don't seem to fit. I'm ok with not knowing where everything goes (usually), and there are always going to be times that I try and jam something in the wrong spot.

I was just thinking about it this evening.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Not so poetic thoughts on distraction


I am easily distracted. Just incase I haven't mentioned that before. I'm the type of person that can be distracted by a shiney object that hits the light in the right way (sometimes the wrong way too).
Yet, I am not easily distracted when I am focused on a distraction. Go figure! This has caused issues in the past, and currently in the present.

If I could draw an illustration it would be of me walking along a path following God's will and suddenly a butterfly flutters by. Without a thought, or maybe one, I follow the butterfly. Meanwhile God's calling,"Leya, come back." As my surroundings get darker and darker my focus remains on the butterfly. I don't even notice that the path is rockier - I keep on going. There are times that the butterfly might even show me something amazing or try to redirect my path back to God. These are times where God has decided that He is going to use my distraction to get me back to where I should be. Of course I look up for a moment, but I think I say, "just a sec" to God. Because, you know, I'm smart like that. Suddenly the butterfly is snapped up by an equally beautiful bird. I can't be angry at the bird, but I'm sad that the butterfly is gone. Then I look up and see where I am - completely off the path. Then I'm upset at myself, because I know that I've disappointed God and that I've probably missed an amazing opportunity. I have to find my way back, or rather ask God to help me back, and say sorry.

I'm sorry for getting so easily distracted! Help me follow you more closely and keep my blinders on. Let me focus on only you. Please forgive me and help me forgive myself. Lord let me stand in awe of you instead of the distractions in my life, big and small.

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

A past note from my alter ego


Why can faith in perfection be so flawed? My high expectations set for "Godly purpose" mentally raped of any value. Distored by the image of man fallen. My will versus His, when the winner is named I will be nursing my pride. Can't fall back on ignorance. High stress anxious worry. Be Still And Know That I Am God! Abba Father sill causes me to question His unconditional love for me.

The words are at the bridge of my nose causing pressure behind my eyes. What do you want me to say? Where do you want me to Go?
Be Prepared to go or stay


Woah, ok honestly, that scares me that I wrote that. Usually I date things, but this didn't have a date in it, it was just on a piece of notebook paper. I am a very different person from the person who wrote that. It's kind of hard to look back on who I was in that period of my life. I am so thankful that I'm no longer held so tightly in bondage to my anxiety and fear.

Sermon Notes from Last October


To live like Jesus
To live for Jesus
Why can it feel so hard?
Isn't it easier to live without the responsibility of being in control?
Yet when we sacrifice our control it feels like we have so much more responsibility to do what is right!
I feel like I need to be a perfect example of who I follow, and when I fall short of that I taint the image of whom I follow.

I found this while I was unpacking a box of random stuff. I wrote it sometime in the end of october because it was scribbled on the back of my church bulletin. I'm sure I'll run across more of these, but it felt fitting to post it here.

Friday, September 1, 2006


I’ve never prayed that my past will fall into my future
But, Lord, you know my heart

I’ve realized that my summer has affected me more than I want to admit. I know I said it was hard coming back to the city but ‘hard’ doesn’t really describe the battle I’ve had to fight, both spiritually and mentally. I would wake up in the morning sad that I wasn’t in a sleeping bag. The first thing I would grab was my bible and pray that God would show me where to be. When people spoke to me I would relate everything back to my experiences of the summer. I would daydream about the waterfront or my walk to Charlie. I still do many of these things. My heart hurt for the experiences and relationships that I had and built. I know they are still there but they are so far away.

This week I came to the realization I wasn’t living in the present, but instead, I was lost in my past and the hope of a possible future. My heart was not where God has me, but where God had me. Recognizing this brought me to another conclusion, which, quite honestly scared me: If I don’t surrender this to God I won’t be going back. If I don’t allow myself to willingly fall back in love with San Francisco, this year is going to be more difficult than necessary. More importantly I would be fighting God’s plan for my present. So I had to surrender and admit that God knows better.

I am letting go of Echo Grove, but this doesn’t mean I’m not coming back, nor does it mean I am forgetting about the relationships I have built. It means that I’m letting God make the call; it means I’m going to live in the present. It means I’m going to seize the day in San Francisco and put my heart into it. I will not be afraid of falling in love with this city. I will not be afraid of the opportunities it may hold for my future. I will remember that I am not. I am not in control of my life, I am not able to see my future, and I am not the biggest part of the story (I am not, but I know I am).

Saturday, August 26, 2006

sometime in mid July



When I fall you pick me up,
I can't do this on my own
and I'm beginning to understand that I am made
to fall and be picked back up

My pride does not belong to
the selfishness that so desires it
Let my pride be only in you
For you made me
Not to be prideful in the things I do
but in the amazing grace that you gave to me on the cross

It is not often that I consider you on the cross. Not that I don't talk about it, but that it is not something I feel like I let sink in. It is so easy to displace myself in the trials and pain that you endured. David was not afraid to call the pain out and he didn't even experience life after the Messiah.

May I call upon your pain when my pride swells
let me focus on your hands when I am distracted by unholy thoughts
Show me your side when my actions do not magnify your name
Uncover your feet when I am too tired to show your love

Thursday, August 24, 2006

So I believe

I fell through a hole that had no bottom
Without you I would have kept falling
You grabbed my arm and vowed to never let go
All you asked is that I believe
I was in no position to disagree
So I believed You pulled me to solid ground
Gave me shelter from my internal storm
Held me as I cried
So I believed
I believe in you because you pulled me through my pain
Because you make everything for good
You open my eyes to the beauty of tears
The glory of being on my face and my knees

So I believe
It doesn’t take the pain away
It doesn’t stop the rain
But it gives me a place to rest
And an umbrella to keep me dry