It's your eyes that make me smile, oh yeah, oh yeah.

"You are the sun,
You are the only one,
You are so cool,
You are so rock and roll."


Today felt like spring. It was one of those days where being inside a structure felt stale, so I went outside. I felt the sun on my face and the sweat roll down my back as I ran. I thought about many different things, but I mostly thought about Taylor. I think of him quite often; I have ever since I met him. I thought about how much of a difference one year makes. I thought about how much one person could impact another. I thought about love. I thought about God and His plan. One day, I will be able to articulate all this much better. For right now, I will continue to think about someone I loved very much, and run under the sunshine with a Gracious Lord who holds me in His hand.


"We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to
interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken." 

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Take me to the river and let me see again.

I tried to lay down and go to sleep, but I could hear. More specifically, I could hear the RVs out on the Quad practicing. A thousand images rushed to my head, and I knew sleep was a long way off.
I've really wanted to write about everything, this chapter in the Story, but I can't gather my thoughts long enough to sort them out. I have been given many things to treasure and many things that are challenges. I'm finding that there are an abundance of things to be (or not be) resolved. Perhaps resolved is a poor word choice; rather, there are an abundance of things I need to lay before God.
I was reading Philippians and the latter part of 2:12 caught my eye: "...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Refinement is constant. As with any relationship, we must constantly examine ourselves. In a relationship with Christ, we must consistently check our own desires and thoughts and submit them to the authority of Christ. We must humbly come to God and allow Him to do verse 13: "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose." 
Despite the great sadness and longing that has come about, there is a Good Purpose. The Story has an eventual ending, and it is one that puts all happy endings to shame. In the meantime, we must work. We must deny ourselves and come to Him in humility. I also believe it is okay to struggle; after all, you must work out your salvation. 
In spite of this weary world, I urge you to take heart, fellow traveler, for there is a Purpose, and it is Good.

"He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the tribe of His inheritance-the Lord Almighty is His name." Jeremiah 10:16

Perfect submission, all is at rest; 
I in my Savior am happy and blest, 
watching and waiting, looking above, 
filled with his goodness, lost in his love. 

Even in the midst of tragedy, we know that God is Sovereign. The Lord of 

Hosts knows our pain, for He sent His only Son to die. I rejoice in the fact that even when the pain seems to devour, it won't. When the darkness seems to 

encompass all, it doesn't. For there is a Savoir who has overcome death: 

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 1 Corinthians 15:55

Even though we will see many trials on this Earth, and God spares no detail in our purification, we can rest in the fact that the grave is overcome and one day we, the Bride of Christ, will come together in Eternity and rejoice in His name forever. Amen.

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."
-Theodore Roosevelt


I am thoroughly disturbed: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." 
2 Timothy 4:3-4 
Oh, gentle reader. I believe that time is upon us. It seems to me finding an individual of integrity is akin to finding a needle in a very large haystack. 


For I know of churches where greed and lack of self-control are ripping the body in two. 


I watch the news, where the primary goal is not to broadcast informative reports, but rather push, nay, shove an agenda onto the viewer. 


I look to our leaders in government, and all I see are men and women lining their pockets with dollar bills. 


I look at my fellow citizens, and I see people demanding their 'entitlement'. 


I watch people treating others without the slightest decency.


And, with horror, I often catch myself falling into those same traps.


The world is rife with corruption, dear friends. At times, I despair. I think, "Why should I even try?"  I have long felt a quiet tug on my heart to plant myself inside a modern day Vanity with its accompanying Fair (namely the 'fair' Washington DC and London). But too often, I think of my call and dismiss it. Who am I kidding? Did I even hear right? 
I know that you, kind reader, have also trudged through the Slough of Despond ("The Pilgrim's Progress"). The roar of spiritual battle seems too deafening and your sins too heavy. I urge you (and my own soul) to remember this: 

"Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." (Romans 13:11-12)

Now, ladies and gentlemen, is the time to take up arms. This despair we see should shake us to our core and remind us of the urgency of Spiritual Warfare. Why should we try, dear reader? We should try because that is what we are called to do. If we do not try, we are forever in that Slough of Despond, watching the world warp faster and faster. "Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." Ephesians 6:11

Put on the armor and pick up the "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17) and I will do the same, right this instant. 

For the darker the night, the brighter Christ will shine, and we must be willing to follow the call into the darkness. 

"He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on."