Trust; Dancing or Piano?

I've been going to a church since Valentine's Day. It was the first time I'd ever set foot in a church, EVER. Sound strange? Anyhow, I wanted to share with you a thought I had one Sunday.

I was sitting on one of the benches (they have padded seats - nice!) and was watching Pastor Jeff play the piano. Because it's a grand piano, the size of the instrument blocked him out almost entirely, in my line of sight. So all I saw was a guy's head moving around. The thought struck me that anybody who couldn't hear the piano music would think he was just dancing. I had to laugh to myself.

And then I realized something.

"Hey, that's like God's work in our lives."

Do you ever have times in your life where it seems like God is being silly? An "Okay, what'd You do that for? It doesn't make sense." moment? When we don't listen for God's voice or trust His ways, a lot of the things He does in our lives can seem pointless or perplexing. It's like God's putting together a puzzle and He won't give us the picture on the box. But He doesn't need the picture. See, He's omniscient, omnipotent, and a whole bunch of other omni-things we're not.


8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:8-11 NIV)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 NIV)

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
(Ecclesiastes 11:5 NIV)

Everything that God does in your life, be it "duh!" or clear as mud, is for a reason. Moreover, it will ALWAYS produce a result. God's Word will NEVER be fruitless. Maybe the music will take some time getting to your ears, but you'll hear it, my friend. And trust me, it will be beautiful. :)

Proxy (lyric I wrote today!)

Whew! Haven't posted for a while. Just to keep this blog active, I'm going to post the lyric I wrote today. I hope it blesses you! :D

Proxy

You wore my prison stripes
My dunce cap was Your crown
Humiliation once
Reserved for me alone

Bridge:
Your heart of mercy proved
Your love before my eyes
For You became the very thing
That You despised

Chorus:
You were sin on the cross
You were sin for all the lost
Jesus, our merciful proxy
You were sin on the tree
You were sin to rescue me
Jesus, my beautiful proxy

You stood in at my trial
My sentence was Your own
I can't conceive of the
Compassion that You've shown

Bridge

Chorus

You forgave the ones
Who nailed You there
You forgave the ones
Who hadn't heard
You forgave the ones
Who weren't yet born
Jesus You chose to
Love us first

Chorus x 2

My proxy, You stood in for me
My proxy, You stood in for me

It's right behind you!

The pigeon bobbed along in its funny way through the Price Chopper parking lot, right past my dad's van. Because I happen to like pigeons, I walked up to it. Apparently used to people approaching it, the bird didn't zoom away, but rather just made its way a little faster away from me. Eventually, it joined a group of other pigeons near the sidewalk.

I saw a man waiting for the bus, leaning up against the glass shelter, just at the doorway. He was eating some chips out of a small bag. When he noticed the pigeons, he started tossing some of the chips to them. They ran after the morsels and snapped them up.

One of the chips the man tossed landed on the back of a pigeon. The bird didn't seem to notice, though. He just kept right on chasing each subsequent chip, never knowing that he already had one. Now I'm one of those people who sees a piece of conspicuous lint on somebody's clothes and gets annoyed. I wanted to go over to that pigeon and knock the chip right off its back!

Do you feel like that sometimes? Missing out on God, whom you can't see, and chasing after all the things you can see? If you can't find God, turn around and look. He's right behind you!

Challenged by Grace

I don't have any photos for this, Grace, but I'll give it a whirl.....

What is your favorite candy?
Red striped peppermints :)
What kind of music do you listen to?
Any Christian music EXCEPT all-screaming-no-singing.
How do you deal with boredom?
Playing PS3 NHL10 (if my brothers aren't using the game), listening to music.
What is your least favorite pop?
Root beer.
What do you plan on doing tomorrow?
Grocery shopping and Internet.
Favorite color?
I have too many. :)

What time of day do you have the most energy?
Favorite soup?
What are you looking forward to?
What's your life verse in the Bible?
Tell a clean joke.
What song is stuck in your head right now?

Christmas Dirt

One day after the play button on my MP3 player got stuck, I get a new 8GB player for Christmas! God knows what we need before we do. You might say I don't need it, but it helps with CMR work. The new one also plays video and FM radio. Sweet!

As for music, I got the following CDs:

Relient K: "Five score and seven years ago" and "Forget and not slow down"
Daughtry: "Daughtry" and "Leave This Town"
Selah's "You Deliver Me"
Natalie Grant's "Awaken"
Skillet's "Awake"
Jars of Clay's "The long Fall Back to Earth"

Another highlight? A Bible verse daily calendar.

Remember how I told you about that set of headphones I bought? The cheap ones that were too small? They came in a plastic case that winds the cord around and protects the buds. The case fits my new headphones! (Small example of working all things together for good.)

I'm still jobless, and still churchless. Wish neither was so.

God bless!

Cough, cough

Well, I've been sick. Still am. But I'm getting over it. That's not the reason why I haven't blogged in a while. That's because I haven't had anything to write about. I won a Jeremy Camp t-shirt recently, and have been Christmas shopping for my family.

Sweet Seconds of Prayer

Recently, I prayed for the stupidest thing.

After buying a cheap Nextar MP3 player from XS Cargo (great store with low prices), I took it out of the plastic baggie and tried out the earbuds. Somewhere along the way, I lost said earbuds. The whole time I was retracing my steps saying, "C'mon God, why? This is so stupid! I don't get it! It's not weird, just STUPID!" After realizing I was stupid, I figured I'd buy another set of earbuds from the dollar store. Then I do stupid thing #2: I try them in the player AFTER I leave the store and find out, much to my dismay, that the jack is too small. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid me for praying about something so trivial. And yet....

Hi. I'm Laura Chambers, and I have PrayDD. That's right. Prayer Deficit Disorder. I pray every day, but unless something affects me greatly (like the earbuds[?!]), I can't really stay in a prayer for more than seconds. Maybe it's because I'm talking to God and not a person right in front of me who can say "Not so fast, Laura!" and grab my attention and force me to stay in one place and listen. And then sometimes, seconds are all I have, because I have to set the table, or answer a question somebody asks me. Plus there's the awkward, "What are you doing?" or barge-into-my-room-unannounced moments. I'd love to say, "Praying; can you leave until I'm finished/give me a minute?" But no.

That's why I like to go home from the library alone, with God, my MP3 player, and the weather, beautiful or lousy. But even then, I'd rather sing. I say to myself, "I connect better through music than speaking prayer. It feels more natural." Or am I selfish?

I also have a bad habit of praying for someone once and forgetting it later. Or feeling guilty over praying for Christian celebrity tweeps and forgetting my other friends. Or not being able to pray for EVERYONE without feeling like it's too easy, a blanket solution where I say I care for everyone but is it really no one?

But then I'm reminded God prefers quality over quantity, every time:

""And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Matthew 6:5-8)

So it can be an hour or seconds, but if I mean it, God loves it. (By the way, the headphones I already had work with the player!!! Though it's a battery eater.)