Also, since last weekend when we got to see Meredith Andrews in concert, her CD has been playing almost non-stop in our apartment and it's great, but this song is pretty sweet and decently fits with my last post. I hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2UZXgQaeQg

Timing is Everything

There is no way to get around God's timing. No matter how much we may want to avoid it or speed it up or slow it down or whatever, God's timing is basically unchangeable. Just this morning I was reading through the Genesis 11 and the tower of Babel. God told the people that His plan was for them to multiply and fill the earth, the entire earth. God had built this whole beautiful planet for the people and God wanted them to fill the whole thing up, but the people decided that building a huge tower to heaven and staying in one spot would be better. Then God, without even saying anything, put His timing into action by changing all their languages and literally picking them up and spreading them around the world Himself. We can't get around what God has planned.

Generally this fact is something I try to fight pretty hardcore. Actually that may be kind of a lie, lately, I have really loved where God has me and I think normally we don't even notice how great God's timing is, but I guess it seems like the only time we, I anyway, talk about God's timing is when we have a problem with it. Which is dumb, because at the end of the day, we know we can't argue with perfection. I mean really, when you start questioning God's timing, Job 39, 40, and 41 happen, and do you really want to answer the question "Where were you when...?" No, no you don't.

So moral of the story, I saw God's perfect coordination of life this week in my time with Him and I thought I would tell you about it, and acknowledge at least a little that I don't always hate God's timing. As you know, right now I am going through a Bible in a Year plan, but I am also going through Beth Moore's A Woman's Heart:God's Dwelling Place with our SALT Bible Study. 2 or 3 days a week I add some of this study to my time with God along with my other readings.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but this summer something that I kept coming back to was the name of God-El Roi, the God who sees (seen in Gen 16:13). This picture of God seeing and loving and reassuring Hagar, a woman who no one else on earth really loved, just hit me. This is the woman who was the mother of Ishmael. If God had the right to leave anyone out in the cold, it was her, but He didn't. He saw her in the wilderness in her desperation and He loved her, it is a beautiful story that I don't think most people pay attention to.

With that in mind, this is the Psalm that was part of my reading Thursday:

Psalm 33:13-19
The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory; nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.

Pretty sweet, right? God is always watching over those who love Him. The One who fashioned your heart, understands all your ways, delivers you and sustains you! He is your only hope, anything that you put your hope in on earth, can't cut it, and He is watching you from Heaven has His eyes on you every minute! Yeah, that's sweet!

So I read that and loved it, great way to start the morning. Then I start moving to the Beth Moore study, ready to jump into Exodus, but instead the "theme verse" for the day is from 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 9:16 to be exact. Do you wanna know what that says? Here it is:

For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

I mean really, could those verse fit together any more perfectly? God definitely got His point across.

Now some of you are probably like, "Come on Randi, I know you're trying to be spiritual and everything, but really this is just a coincidence." And you know what, I disagree. I would even go further to ask, if God cares enough to look out for little details like what I read in the morning, how many more amazing things does He orchestrate for us everyday?

Golf Umbrellas Not Allowed

I just want to say, for the record, that golf umbrellas should not be allowed while walking on the sidewalk on campus. Not only is this an unnecessarily large amount of cover for one person, but a golf umbrella effectively blocks the entire sidewalk. So if, by chance, are carrying a golf umbrella and feel like tooling around and walking slower than molasses in the middle of a passing period, anyone walking behind who doesn't want to walk that slow and actually wants to get to class on time, is stuck going slow, especially if you happen to be walking down Dayton with construction all over the sidewalk, so your space is already cut in half.

Jesus,
Thank you today's blessing of rain. We were definitely in need of it, and I know the downpour today was an answer to someone's prayers. Please give me patience with my fellow students, especially when I'm soaked.

Steppin' Out

In case you were wondering, I am still going strong on my Bible in a Year study. So far I have gotten all the way through Genesis and part of Exodus, 27 chapters of Psalms, 6 chapters of Proverbs and most of Matthew. Pretty much everything I have read so far, I have read before, but God has really been speaking to me through these familiar passages.

One day a couple weeks ago I ran into Matthew 14, and I discovered I absolutely love this chapter! So it starts with John the Baptist's death. Sad day right? Yeah, it is, John was a great man, and he was martyred as a result of his faithfulness, and when Jesus heard about it, He reacted like you or I would. He withdrew in a boat to a secluded place, by Himself. Jesus knew from the beginning of time exactly how John's life would play out. Jesus knew when John was imprisoned by Herod, that he would never be free again, but that didn't matter. Jesus loved John, and when he died, Jesus was sad, He mourned. He had to go spend some time, out on the water, all by Himself, talking to His Dad, figuring stuff out. I love that Jesus loves, that He is emotional, that He knows what life is really like.

So, then Jesus goes back to the public, He can't hide forever, life doesn't stop even when we want it to. He goes back to shore and sees the people waiting for Him, and another emotion, compassion. Jesus overcame His own sadness and loves on the people who follow Him, He spends the day with them healing and teaching! Then, when they are hungry, enter AMAZING miracle. Jesus feeds over 5000 thousand people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. How sweet would it have been to just be there, like what does that even look like?!?! Imagine, your a disciple and Jesus looks at you when you ask Him to send the people away to get food "You give them something to eat!" He says. So you roll your eyes and start handing out the food that is meant to feed one family but it doesn't run out. You keep breaking off pieces of bread and there is always more, I mean, just think about that for a second, really think about, I hope you love that thought, cuz I do, and we're only like halfway through the chapter!

Once everyone is satisfied with their dinner and Jesus has healed everyone in the crowd, He sends the disciples ahead of Him. He finishes His last goodbyes with the crowd, I imagine it would take a while for some people to finally leave Jesus presence, and then goes again to spend some time in solitude with His Father. Its been a long a day, He's exhausted, and once He's spent most of the night in prayer getting filled up, He goes to find His men. By goes to find them, I mean He walks out to the boat that is in the middle of the storm, and this is my favorite part.

The disciples see a man walking on the water, instead of thinking the Son of God is coming to meet them, they jump to ghost. How often do I respond like that? I'm so terrified by what God is bringing into my life that I miss the fact that it is in fact God bringing something new into my life and not Satan tormenting me.

Jesus knows what they are thinking, He knows what His men need to hear, He can see the doubt in their faces, maybe even read it in their thoughts, "Don't be afraid, be courageous, it's Me." Now here comes the beauty, Peter hears it and he longs serve his Lord, "Jesus, I'm Yours, use me, tell me to join You!" Just what Jesus was looking for, He knows Peter is ready for this and responds with one word, "Come!" An invitation so simple, so appealing. Jesus doesn't need to explain Himself or tell Peter anything else, just "Come!" Peter just steps out of the boat, and walks toward Jesus.

BUT, oh man what a big but, but Peter gets overwhelmed, he was doing so well, having faith, going where no man has gone before, literally, but then he lets himself be distracted by the waves. He takes his gaze off Christ and begins to sink. When I read this, the first thing that came to mind was the movie Runaway Bride, you know when Maggie is walking down the aisle, everything is great, but then the groom turns to talk to the preacher or just for a second he blinks in reaction to a camera flash and everything goes down hill, that eye contact is broken and all faith is lost. Peter knew Christ would never let him down, but the waves were so big, the wind so loud he lost faith and began to sink, there is only one reaction ""Lord, save me!" He cries out to his King and there is no hesitation from Jesus, immediately He stretched out His hand and took hold of Peter. Jesus brings him to safety and asks "Why did you doubt?" that's it, no scolding just, "Peter, you know I love you, I would never let anything happen to you, why didn't you trust me?" As they step into the boat, the see is calmed and the boat keeps going to the other side of the sea.

I've never been invited to tread on the water with Jesus, but I definitely have been asked to trust Him. Sometimes, its the only thing you ask for, "Jesus let me know you, use me," so He does, He calls to you, "Come! Join me, walk with me." Then you do, and its great, but somehow you let Satan in too, and he distracts you, that perfect eye contact with Christ is broken not because He looked away, He could never take His eyes off you, but you take just a little glance to the left or right and you start to sink. You fight you it, you try to put your feet back under you all by yourself, but the water doesn't firm up and you keep on sinking further into the sea. Then, when your head goes under and there is no other option, you need help or you're done, you cry out to Jesus and He doesn't even hesitate, He reaches out and picks you up, you're safe in His arms He walks you back to the boat, you can see the love in His eyes, "Why did doubt?" There are no words, you don't know what to say, why did you doubt?

This is such a beautiful picture to me. The whole thing, beginning this chapter with Christ's humanity, then hitting the other side of the spectrum with an amazing miracle, and finishing with Jesus being Jesus, demonstrating His love for His faithful. Isn't it great! Jesus wants to use us, He's calling us to service, all it takes is faith. Sometimes, probably more often than not, we're gonna fail. It's true. I'm going to, you will, Peter did. We are going to run out and try to serve Him, and we're gonna fall flat on our faces, we're going to stumble and fall, we're going to sink in the midst of a raging storm, and He knows that, but He's still going to call us. He loves us enough to use us, and He's loves us so much, that He's standing by to catch us when we fall or cheer for us when we don't.

Is Jesus calling you to step out of the boat today?

I Survived

This fall I'm going on my third year of living in Madison. Throughout the last couple years I have had an ample amount of time to discover how life on the isthmus differs from the small town that is Portage, Wisconsin. I honestly love both communities, but I think this a topic I could probably talk on for days and still have only made a small dent in. For most, the first difference that comes to mind when considering Portage vs. Madison is size. Many in Portage will probably celebrate the day when we can amend our population sign to finally read 10,000, while Madison is currently pushing 225,000 people. This dramatic size difference is responsible for many of the other contrasts one can see between my two hometowns, not the least of which is biking.

Biking in Portage generally entails cruising down deserted streets and never really having to pay attention to traffic. Biking in Madison is completely a different story. Since umm I don't know, maybe conception, I have been literally petrified of biking in Madison. As a kid, whenever I would ride down to the west side with Mom, I would see bikers flying through traffic on University, only feet from the nearest car, which generally are also flying, and I would be afraid for the people in the bike lane. At some point while in high school, I came to the conclusion that these cyclists either A-have lost all regard for own lives or B- have no comprehension of fear.

However, over the last few years biking on campus has started to become more and more appealing, if for no other reason than simply because the walk to the boathouse from the southeast can sometimes push 20 minutes while the bike literally feels like 5. So, this week I decided to tempt fate and brought my little red Trek to Mad-Town.

I rode to class all week and I'm still alive! I did manage to rack up my first verbal warning from a biking police officer who rode past to remind me that I need stop for all stop signs and I may or may not have kinda run into someone on the sidewalk as I was trying to get to the street, but for the most part, I am still in one piece and have learned to almost love biking in Madison.

Date Morning with Jesus

So since being back from Colorado I have done a terrible job of fitting Date Nights into my schedule, and by terrible job, I mean there have been none. I have been doing a better job at spending time with the Lord in the Word, but as far as setting aside time to just sit with Jesus, somewhere without distractions and just listen to Him and journal, I didn't do that at all while I was home.

This morning I decided that a Date Morning with Jesus would be a great start to the week! I began by googling mountains near Madison, WI and unfortunately was unsuccessful in my search, so I decided to try something new, the Arboretum. Yes, I am a Junior and I have never been to the Arboretum. I'm not sure how that is, but it is. The Arb was definitely a great spot to sit and simply take in God's creation. Almost immediately as I got there, I got to watch a bunch of bumblebees flying all over some wild flowers, what a glorious sight and I actually remembered my camera, so I thought I would share some with you. It really was a great morning, just what I needed. Hopefully I will do a better job at making Date Nights a regular part of my schedule the rest of the semester.

PRIMETIME!!!!

For his returning
we watch and we pray
we will be ready the dawn of that day
and we'll join in singing with all the redeemed
Cause Satan is vanquished and Jesus is king!

So believe it or not, but I used to be absolutely terrified of the thought of living forever with Christ. Literally, terrified. I can remember sitting up so many nights in Junior High, crying all over with my faithful mom by my side, reassuring me that even though I couldn't understand the concept of eternity, it was not something to be afraid of. That, however, was not an acceptable answer for me so I would continue to attempt to wrap my mind around the infinity that is God, never succeeding only managing to send myself into a series of mini-anxiety attacks. As I continued to grow in my relationship with Christ, I was able to accept the fact that I will never be able to wrap my mind around God, that mystery is part of what makes God God.

Coming to terms with this fact allowed me to kind of lay down my wrestling match with eternity, but up to recently it has been really hard for me to actually look forward to eternity. Not that I didn't think it's going to be amazing, but it's just something I can't understand, and therefore have had a really hard time actually being excited for. In the last couple years, by God's grace, I have been able to actually believe myself when I say I am looking forward to living in eternity.

Tonight we had our first Primetime (Campus Crusade Meeting) and we sang the song "Sing to the King." The verse at the top of this post is from this song, could you just read one more time for me, and really think about it, please, for me.....Really, like how awesome is that? Can you imagine a day when Satan is vanquished??? Like no more, non-existent, no foothold on anyone's life, no death, no suffering, no anything, the only thing you have to think about, to pray about, to even dwell on is Jesus being King!!!! I'm pretty excited for that day, just so you know!!

Also, quick PS, this week Matthew 16 was part of my Bible in a year reading and tonight Adam Penning talked about it too, so I feel like I should tell you what I've been thinking.

Matthew 16:15-16--He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Who do you say He is? Seriously, who is Jesus to you, your Lord, your Savior, some guy who talk to everyone once in a while? I'm gonna challenge anyone who is reading this (all 5 of you) to seriously think about that this week. Write it down, tell Him who He is to you, cuz that's what I'm gonna try to do too.

Back to School

Good morning from Engineering Hall. Yes, that's right, I am finally back in school. I moved to campus Friday and attended the first class of my junior year, Problem Solving Using Computer Tools, this morning at 9:55 am. Officially a student again.

Do you ever feel like sometimes you see/hear/feel experience, I guess, something in your day that is like tailor made by God for you? You know, the glimpse of your favorite wildflower, the breeze on your face, a color in a sunset? Sometime this summer as I was basking in the beauty that is Colorado, Sally asked me that, and I realized that for me, one of those things is thunder storms. Every time I hear a huge thunder boom and see lightning streak through the sky, I feel God's power, experience His sovereignty, remember His eternal plan. Every single date night this summer that I spent on Gologotha ended with a lightning storm in the distance, so good! Then the entire month I was home, nothing. No flashes of lightning or cracks of thunder, only a couple weak showers. In fact, when I was driving to Minnesota with Meryl last week [so fun :)] I told her how much in storm withdrawal I was.

So, as I was sitting on the futon Friday night, contemplated the question of how ready I really was to actually go to class in less than a week, and God ended this storm drought. Right as I'm getting ready to jump back into the crazy pace of life on campus, God decides to light up the sky with His glory and remind me why I'm coming back to campus this semester. To live for Him and give Him all the glory. All the opportunities that I spent an entire summer getting excited about began to play through my mind and I am reassured that even though classes are gonna be rough and there will be seemingly endless headaches and late nights, God has me here this year because it is exactly where He wants me, where He is going to use me, and that is where I want to be.

I can't wait to see what this semester holds!! What AIA is going to look like with our leadership overhaul, who God is going to bring into my life...I want to give Him everything!

Ephesians 4:1
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Father, I'm your prisoner, use my life.