hold fast to dreams...

for when dreams go, life is a barren field, frozen with snow.”

-langston hughes

as i spent my week in new orleans, i began to realize that i was slowly falling in love with the city. brokenness and longing coupled with such amazing culture, hospitality, and authenticity...

I have been...
motivated.
inspired.
challenged.
called.

have at this new life, risk and all, or become a barren field.

what a place to find God.

the probability that we may fail...

in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”

-abraham lincoln

i'm in new orleans for the week and it has been awesome so far. so many people (around 37,000) coming together who are excited for God and doing His work is always amazing.

and the amount of work that we are accomplishing as a group is impressive. the city has estimated that the work we will do in THREE DAYS would take those currently involved in projects over three years to complete.
a daunting task to be sure, but nothing is impossible as His hands and feet.

and in what better way could we experience God than that of helping those in need?

this is shaping up to be an incredibly inspiring week.
God, let's do this thing.

to love at all is to be vulnerable...

love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. if you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. but in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. it will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

-C.S. Lewis

it's time to change some things. day after day i continue to avoid difficult thoughts. i do my best to keep my emotions tied up and locked away. it's destroying me.

relationships with family, friends - everyone - are hindered by my selfishness. God help me open myself up to those i care about. dig from deep within me the struggles i have kept hidden so well.

make me vulnerable. make me loving. make me genuine...

We were promised sufferings...

they were part of the program. we were even told, "blessed are they that mourn."

-c.s. lewis

a few weeks ago I was hanging out at kate's house and we were reading postsecret. if you haven't ever looked at one of these books, do so. as we were each reading through, we shared things with each other that we found interesting or funny. but it took me a long time to get through the one I was reading because of what I found, and a lot of what hit me was hard to share... so many people with so much pain and difficulty - right next to messages of hope and how great life can be. and so much of that I felt I could relate to - all too easily.

things of all sorts have been a real struggle for me lately. things that used to make sense don't anymore and I see the world changing so quickly around me. it hurts a lot. and at the same I'm doing a lot to try to grow in my relationship with God and so many parts of life are more amazing than they ever have been!

it's a crazy and broken world we live in. fortunately we have someone to guide us through, if only we accept His willing invitation...