All Things are Possible.

There will be things in your life that will not make sense.
And most of those things will deal with who you are and God.

You see when the angel appeared to Mary that fateful day [when she was to found out she was going to give birth to the Son of God] he immediately greeted her as 'highly favored one,the Lord is with you, blessed among women.'
At that she was perplexed. Umm.. what did you just say about me?
One translation of the bible it says: "she was greatly troubled and disturbed and confused at what he said and kept revolving in her mind what such a greeting might mean."

In all reality when someone walks into the room they usually don't say:
"Hello beautiful one, with such a good heart, you are loved!"

It would take you by surprise and you would probably laugh.
BUT what if that statement was true.

Listen with me for a minute.

When the angel appeared to Mary he immediately called out the things in her that he saw, the things of WHO SHE WAS.
And because Mary did not know who she really was, she was troubled and blushed at the thought of being highly favored and blessed among women.

She was a bit confused and seriously troubled as to why an angel of the Lord was with her. But what if she knew who she was. What if when the angel appeared to her and said those things, she knew the angel was from the Lord because he called her things she already knew about herself. So then when he went on to explain that she would in fact be the mother of the Son of God it wouldn't have shocked her as it did.
She would of been comfortable and confident in the mission place before her.

Another interesting thing is that the angel did not have to declare who he was to Mary. She immediately knew that he was a messenger of the Lord.
She saw that Lord was with him. He was confident in who he was, who he was made to be, a messenger of the Lord.

Think of it this way, if you will.
The angel knew who he was. Knew who he was created to be. So when God calls him and tells him to go tell Mary that she is going to give birth to Jesus, he didn't question.
Wait, what? Who me?
He heard what God asked of him and did it. Having full faith and trust in God that even though this sounded very radical and it might have to take a lot of explaining to do, he went ahead with his message to Mary because HE KNEW WHO HE WAS.

I desire to be like that.
I want to know who I am. Know what I'm called to do.
I want to have radical things take place in my life.
And when they do I don't want to be confused or question but instead be confident.

I want to call out things in others that are the Truth, so that they too might get a glimpse of who they really are.
And maybe in that I will find that that is what I was created to do.
Call out Truth. Lead others to Truth, in who they are, who Jesus is.

You are loved.
You are safe.
You are highly favored.
...






Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean NOT on your own understanding.

..

Slouchy Hobo.

Supposedly I'm one.

Slouchy Hobos write in a blog.
Slouchy Hobos work at Starbucks.
Slouchy Hobos are extremely tired.
Slouchy Hobos dye their hair often.
Slouchy Hobos miss their family.
Slouchy Hobos have the best family.
Slouchy Hobos win $100 gift cards at Young Life Christmas Parties.
Slouchy Hobos get surprise packages in the mail.
Slouchy Hobos are incredibly grateful.
Slouchy Hobos take pictures in bathrooms.
Slouchy Hobos know that they are loved.

I came home from an 11 hour work day to two boxes sitting by the door.
I opened it and saw the books and few shirts that my mom said she was going to send.
BUT THEN I saw it.
I dropped everything and screamed.
It was THE PERFECT BAG.
Only a few months ago I had seen a bag similar to this one.
I had really wanted to get it but I never had the money and it was never on sale.
I saw it here in town a few weeks ago and prayed that I could get it somehow.



Now here it was in my hands perfect color and all.
The style of the bag is called Slouchy Hobo.
I couldn't of asked for anything better.
My precious Aunt Lynn went early Christmas shopping for me and bought it.
And honestly this Christmas I wasn't expecting anything let alone THE PERFECT BAG!

My Aunt Karen and Uncle Jon also sent me chocolate which is ALWAYS the best idea to send a Slouchy Hobo.


Yeah, I'm excited.

I'm so grateful.
Thank you all so much.
..

Dirty Hands.

We drove with the sun slowly setting behind us.
The evening concert was held in a beat up old warehouse down town.
The outside looked broken down and the remains of life were few.
We parked under a bridge and covered our ears when the train come screaming over head.

The concert was to help kids over in Africa. The Invisible Children to be exact.
There was good music and good conversations we were able to have with others standing around.
One girl had the word LOVE scribbled across her hand. Another guy wore a shirt that had a ripped up heart on the side.
We came from different places and all had a story of our own.


Michelle and I decided to leave early. We took pictures as we walked to our car under the bridge.
I looked up and saw an older gruff-looking homeless man walking swiftly away from us. When he saw me looking at him he threw his hands up and said, "no harm ma'am."
I just smiled and nodded my head.
I immediately wanted to know his name.
I walked up behind him, "Excuse me Sir."

He stopped and I asked if there was anything I could pray about for him.
He said, "just keep me in your prayers."
I asked him his name, "Darrell."
I reached my hand out and said it was nice to meet him.
He immediately jerked his hand back, "My hands are dirty, you don't want to shake my hand."
"Yes I do, that doesn't matter." I kept my hand stretched out towards him.
He looked at me then shook my hand.

As we both walked away he turned around and shouted, "remember me in your prayers, you are going to pray for me right?"
Yes Darrell, yes. I promise you I will pray for you.

I looked down at my hand covered in dirt. My palm was blackened.
He wasn't kidding when he said his hands were dirty.

<>.<>.<>.<>.<>

I talked with another kid earlier this week. He's on drugs, in an abusive home and weighs at least 50 pounds less then me.
He said, "I think that if Jesus were here He would love me and all my friends who deal with addictive behaviors and substance abuse problems."

Those words are so true it aches my heart.

I didn't care that Darrell's hands were extremely dirty with who knows what on them. I don't care that my friends strung out on drugs or that she cuts herself every night.
I DO CARE, but it doesn't hold me back from holding them, or getting beside them in the mud and sickness of sin.
They need help, we need help. They need to be told that they're right, they did mess up [we all did] but redemption is possible.
Rescue is coming.
You can be healed.
I want to get beside those people. I want to show Love in the middle of this hatred.
Because I've sat on the bench for too long.

I wanna hold the dirty hands.
don't you?
..