14. He gives great character

Character: the mental and moral qualities of an individual. 

The following is a compilation of excerpts from an article written on sportsillustrated.cnn.com. Sheer inspiration. Enjoy.

"Let the party begin in Raleigh," ESPN's Dan Shulman said. The final score flashed on the screen: N.C. State 84, Duke 76. Fans streamed toward midcourt, led by Andy and Will. Then came the unmistakable voice of commentator Dick Vitale.

"It has begu -- oh, watch the young guy with the wheelchair. Oh, they got a wheelchair out there."

The red wave had reached midcourt, engulfing Andy and Will.

"Unbelievable," Vitale said. "Did you see that? Oh, my heart goes out."

Will's mother, Debbie, stood up.

Oh my goodness, she said. That's Will.

Will, youngest of their four children, born without a pulmonary valve or a right tibia.

As the crowd pressed in around the players and the fans, Rodney Purvis, a freshman guard for the Wolfpack, was knocked against Will's wheelchair. The wheelchair tipped over. Will's phone fell from his hand and his glasses fell off his face and his wallet fell out of his pocket. Andy fell over too. He reached for Rodney with one hand and Will for the other. People surged around and above them. They were trapped on the floor. 

With them in the mass of bodies was C.J. Leslie, a 6-foot-9, 200-pound junior, the second-tallest player on the team. He had played all but two minutes of the game and scored a game-high 25 points. At some point he looked down and noticed Will on the floor. He called to the other students, telling them to get back, get back, and then he reached down and picked up Will Privette, 110 pounds, and held him in his arms.

Later, on the Today show, C.J. said he intended to pick up Will and put him right down in his chair. But something changed his mind. Will made the Wolf Hands. The party would go on. And C.J. just held him there, way up high above the crowd, in the center of the raging Wolfpack, for what seemed like a very long time.

Character. 

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130124/n-c-state-will-privette/#ixzz2JWjGh4FF

photo credits: www.freep.com, www.sportsillustraed.com (Zumapress.com)

13. He gives us rest, and i'm feeling pretty tired.

Have you ever worked to the point of exhaustion to figure out a crossword puzzle? There is always at least one unknown answer that is preventing you from filling in all the rest. In fact, it can get so bad that you're sweating profusely, exasperated, and preventing anyone from speaking to you until the puzzle is complete (I've never done this, of course). So, out of desperation and the need to revive communication with people around you, you take a little peek at the key just to get that "one" word filled in and continue on without the frustration of failed attempts (and failed relationships). 

I feel this way in life when struggle or chaos shows up, "If only I could have that one little hint of how to get on with it and save myself the frustration, my life would be so much better." Well, I can hold my sweat and exasperation because as I was in prayer this morning, this verse popped into my head; it was spoken by Jesus:

"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30).

The reference notes in my Bible teach that a yoke is a "heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It is attached to a piece of equipment that the oxen are to pull."

Oxen & yoke. Isn't it interesting that Jesus gave THIS analogy?
The yoke sits right on their shoulders.. interesting. 

Do you see what Jesus is offering us? He is offering to take all of our problems and troubles upon Himself. And not only does He want to take them, but He says He will give us REST. I love rest!!

You don't have to panic as if your life depended on peeking at the answer key. He already has given us the key in the verse: Go to Him. Go to Him in prayer, curl up in His lap and tell Him about your burdens. Release them to His control. If He guarantees our rest, why do we cling to our problems and try to fix them ourselves? Why do we wriggle and fester in despair when there is an easier way out and a guarantee for rest? 

The one word that is preventing you from finishing your crossword puzzle: surrender

Thank you Jesus for offering us rest for our souls. I am sad that we don't take you up on it more often. You are waiting, arms open, for us to send our struggles your way; yet we resist. Please help us to overcome ourselves to we can find rest for our souls. Please help us to be people who honor You. 

In Your saving name we pray, Amen. 

12. one word

I started attending Port City Community Church in 2007. Mike Ashcraft is the Pastor and he is awesome. Seriously, awesome. He's the kind of preacher that messes up sentences on stage, laughs at himself, wears a flannel and talks about surfing. I like those kind of pastors. I like them because I don't feel like the have the "I'm perfect" complex. I like the "Yup, I'm messed up and I know it" attitude. Don't you?

Anyways, Mike preaches about a concept named "My One Word." Here's how I understand it: instead of a new years resolution, you pick one work that describes a quality you would like to see improve in your own life. You commit it to God, research a verse that you'll memorize or think about often pertaining to your word. By the end of the year, you'll look back and be able to see how God used that word in your life. The goal is to not have a "resolution" but something you can commit to God and watch Him work. Mike wrote an awesome book on the topic, but if you don't have time to read it, here's a super short video with Mike explaining the concept in more detail or you can visit www.myoneword.org:

This intrigued me even before I committed my life to Christ. My first word: Motivation. This was in 2008. I wasn't doing that great in school, wasn't exercising Princess Madison as much as I wanted, didn't have the friends I wanted; I lacked motivation. Just that year, I was motivated to move out of the state I was in to get away from all I knew there and try something new. He used that year to make all the changes I needed to make before I could be motivated, and then He motivated me.

Words since then:
2009: Faithful
2010: Discipline
2011: Diligence
2012: Secure
Word for 2013: Peace. 

God made it incredibly clear to me what my word should be each year through friends, devotionals, songs, you name it. Your word can be whatever you want it to be. When people ask me what my resolution is, not only do I get to share a new perspective, but I am constantly reminded of God's faithfulness. I could write a book on each word and how much it has impacted me.

I would encourage you to prayerfully choose your word. It's not something you can fail at, because you commit it to God and He doesn't fail. I encourage you to take the step of faith and let God prove his faithfulness in your own life. 

If you want more information on how to get started, visit that website above, comment on this page, or e-mail me directly-- I'd love to share more and come along side of you in this journey.

Happy word hunting!

11. we can choose courage

I have baked the same gluten free cake recipe twice now. Both times turned out to be a disastrous occasion. The same process has happened with all gluten free baked goods I have tried. It goes a little something like this:

1. Either buy boxed mix or try new recipe

2. Look at baked good when timer goes off

3. Baked good is done, but tastes/looks DISGUSTING.

  4. Get discouraged, determine I'm the worst baker in history of baking.

I will refer to this process as the "g-free baking plague," or just "the plague" for short. It might not be the worst plague in history, but you'll know what I mean when I use the term. Thanks for understanding. This has literally brought me to tears on more than one occasion, because I allowed the dismay overcome my hope. The plague is really just one of discouragement. 

The real problem here is that it took me most of my life to realize the effect discouragement has on me. Baking was the straw that broke the camels back, but God was kind to me a few weeks back to zoom out of my own life perspective and show me exactly what this discouragement looks like in someone else:

I was in a ski class for beginners. There were four of us in a group, Alex from Russia, Frank who knew how to ski but was self proclaimed "rusty," Julian, the self-defeater and myself. I had very low expectations for the day. I am a bit of a perfectionist (understatement of the year) and think that I have to be gold medal ready on day one. However, I decided victoriously, "TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT!" If I fell 100 times, whatever. If I didn't even learn to put my feet in the skis, OH WELL! I just wanted to get out there and not try to be perfect. But what ended up happening is that I did pretty well, and so did everyone else in the class. Except Julian. Julian was somewhere between 30-40 years old, soft spoken, didn't look you in the eye and just wasn't getting how to ski. All three of us were getting it so the instructor told us to make "follow the leader" patterns while he got Julian caught up. After a few of these patterns, and seeing Julian fall almost every time he tried to move forward, we saw him taking off his skis and walking down the hill towards the rental lodge. I asked Frank, a friend of Julian what was up. He replied, "Poor Julian, he doesn't have great self esteem. I told him that anyone could learn how to ski. I guess he just got discouraged, but I'll talk him into coming again." Poor Julian.

I wanted to run after Julian and tell him to be brave, don't be afraid to fall, you can do it! Before I knew it, he was back at the lodge and did not return to the lesson. I was genuinely saddened for Julian. And then I realized..

When I get attached to expectations that I cannot meet, and fail... I am just like Julian. I wanted to quit baking forever, because I couldn't escape the plague of discouragement. But after seeing what happened with Julian, I knew I can choose differently. I chose to sign up for a gluten free baking class and give it another try. I don't have to be a professional baker. Or skiier. Or swimmer, or any of the things I push myself to be. Nobody has set those expectations for my life except me and the trouble is when we lose our courage. 

For it was Jobs friend Eliphaz who said, "But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed." (Job 4:5)

Discouragement is like a disease. It spreads and cripples. It disables us from picking up our skis and trying again. I fell twice on that snow, and they weren't exactly what you'd call "graceful falls." But I got up and tried again, and again, and again. And by the end of the day, I was skiing down the slopes (bunny slopes that is).  

Courage: the ability to do something that frightens one. 

Evidence! 

At any given moment, you can choose to be defeated and discouraged or empowered and courageous. But know that it is a choice. Don't even try to say, "Well courage just isn't one of my gifts." It is a commandment and you can choose it:

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you or forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6)

Choose well. 

Emmy.

10. the mayans were wrong; God was (and is always) right.

DOOMSDAY??

I have to admit, I was one of those people that feared the end of the world. I definitely wasn't a doomsday prepper, but I slept with my light on until I was 15, and checked under my bed until I was…wait… sometimes I still do that (oops). 

We all heard the hype about "The end of the world," which was supposed to happen 13 times in our history, according to www.ranker.com. 13 times! I knew the declaration of the new millennium wasn't going to be it. I remember talk of exploding computers and artificial intelligence attacking the world and although I was only 12, I thought, "No way that is happening." I was not afraid of that one. In fact, I wasn't really afraid of any of them until the most recent one. This one had the most build-up and seemed to be the most "reliable." The Mayans were apparently a trustworthy source, and although there were many flukes described on the history channel and doubts that the Mayans ever made this prediction, when December 21, 2012 came around, I felt a little uneasy. This bothered me for years that I wasn't excited about the end like most believers were. Every time people were gossiping about the supposed end of the world (times 13), I was confronted with the fact that I wasn't excited about leaving this world, even if it meant going to heaven. 

The world didn't combust (shocker!) but something peculiar DID happen to me on December 21^st. Although I know that the Bible tells us in Matthew 24:36, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father," I thought, “what if this IS it, what if the Mayans were right?" I began to imagine what the end of the world would be like for me: I remembered vaguely what I had read in Matthew 24:29-30 about the second coming, “…the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken… they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.” I looked up at the sky, which happened to have a red tint to it where I was. I imagined Jesus there, riding on a cloud with a blazing fire to His back, floating through the sky.

I did observe that the verse doesn't say I'm going to die, it says I will be taken up. I began to imagine myself there, in heaven, with everyone else like a big party in the sky with golden streets and Jesus. Mostly Jesus, as long as He is there, I think heaven is going to be awesome. Revelation 4 gives a good description of heaven if you want to check it out. While you're simmering in that hefty verse, give some serious thought to heaven...

Why do we go there?

Do I want to go there, why?

I genuinely contemplated those questions, and after remembering a delightful quote I heard my father-in-law use, "I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than to live as if there isn't and die to find out there is a God" (Albert Camu), I came to this conclusion:

I live as if the true reward is living THIS life depending on Christ, having a God who intercedes for me and helps me grow. The orchestrator of this world simultaneously orchestrates the symphony of my life. To me, heaven is a hope, of course- but it is kind of like a bonus as well. That life is without fear, pain, tears, and this life is the painful one. The Bible tells me that those who believe are going to heaven, so I believe I'm going, wherever it is. That is a great reward, but the greatest reward is just to have Jesus hold me in His arms, which He does now, in this life as well. I'm already winning; I already have such a great reward.  

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

He is with us now, and will be with us then. Therefore, there is no fear in death. Even if we die a terrible death, we spent a life with Jesus and will be with Him forevermore. That is not something to fear, no matter how reliable the Mayans are supposed to be (their credibility has definitely dwindled some). I don't need to store up dried foods, I just need to store up more love and gratitude for the one who gave His life to me, paying for the sins that I committed so I could have a relationship with a perfect God. 

Thank you Mayans for giving me my 13th opportunity to refocus on keeping fear at bay; even in death. My precious Jesus, thank you for loving me despite my fears and doubts. 

Here's to living another day! Thank you Jesus.