Check out this link.
I watched a documentary (Ghosts of Cite Soleil) about this area before the hurricane hit Haiti. The whole area is fraught with violence and absolute poverty. Peace is only kept by gang violence because police don't even dare go into the deep bowels of this area. This is perhaps one of the saddest things I have heard in a while. And it makes me feel very Americanized and selfish for having a nice life here nursing spoiled elderly people when children are dying daily (basically just of dehydration) in places in the world like this. I'm a nurse! I could help! But here I am stuck in a very mediocre-ly nice life with a soul that is slowly dying from its own opulence.
Give me a small hut in the slums where I have to walk down the street to use the loos... Yeah, that's where I want to be. If I am not meant for that then why does God tug on my heart strings every time that I read something like this?
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Apple Cider
Actually this post has nothing at all to do with Apple Cider, except that is what I am drinking right now.
But it does have to do with Apples. Specifically the Apples of the Eye. Okay, that sounded creepy. That was unintentional. (And I apologize if this is an excessively girly post.) But I digress...
The premise for today's post I got from a friend who posted on my "social network" wall a hugely encouraging note. Telling me that I was the apple of God's eye and that He delighted in me. I can't tell you how much that meant to me. Actually I think it was an answer to a prayer that me and my mom talked about the other day.
*deeply personal alert* For years and years I have struggled with self-esteem issues. Like many young women of my... uhm, should I say... 'frame'... I have always thought of myself as the fat kid. And therefore, as the fat kid... I have considered myself unattractive and frankly, just plain ugly. I've made jokes about it. I've hidden it. I've tried desperately to change it. And I've denied it as if I didn't care. But in the end a deep wound cut straight to my very soul, spread its gangrenous fingers of infection all over my heart and crippled the strength that should have swelled in my spiritual/emotional muscles, making me desperately weak in ways I should have been strong.
So me and my mom were talking about this... for the first time in the almost 13 years since the original wound was dealt. (which is huge, in and of itself) And my mom said something that I immediately turned into a prayer. She said that she could tell me some verses about who I am in God's sight, but that it wouldn't help. That I had to find and claim those dear verses for myself.
Then today, when that sweet new friend posted it on my wall I was blown away because there God had landed the phrase that He wanted me to know straight from His heart to mine. (and ironically she was scared to share this with me, because she often feels like people will think its odd because of her own failings that God chooses to give her messages for people. I don't find that odd. And you shouldn't either. We ALL freakin' fail!)
According to WikiAnswers: "...this phrase is usually figurative, meaning something, or more usually someone, cherished above others. As sight is so precious, someone who is called [the apple of my eye] as an endearment is similarly precious."
So do you realize that is the way that God feels about you? I should point out that the phrase "the apple of my eye" is usually meant to express something about how precious someone is by comparing them to your eyesight. I think I can relate to that. I have been obsessed for most of my life with NOT wearing glasses. The genetic odds are stacked against me. All four of my grandparents and the majority of their parents wore glasses. Both of my parents have glasses (bifocals actually), and over 50% of my siblings also wear glasses. I eat certain foods simply because of the Vitamin A. On long car trips I used to "exercise" my eyes by making them focus on an item very near to me and then one very far away in quick succession. Granted I had a tendency to read in bad lighting, but I made up for it by routinely reading at a distance that was far away from me as possible. So I kind of know what it is to value your eyes. But I think God takes it to another level. Anyway, I found these verses and they really spoke to my heart about how God views me.
Zechariah 2:8 "For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye—" and then basically goes on to say that God will effectively kick their scrawny little butts!! (Jo's revised edition) But think about what amazing love and protective loyalty that describes in our Heavenly Father! He OBVIOUSLY thinks we are worth that and finds us completely precious! CrAzY huh?
Deuteronomy 32 tells a lot of the same story: 10 "In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, 11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. 12 The LORD alone led him;" Again, can you sense the complete compassion, affection, and protectiveness with which He cares for us? As though we are a delicate thing, much desired.
And last, but not least, Psalm 17 tells us of the confidence with which we can approach the throne knowing that we are already a precious jewel in the eyes of our Lord: 6 "I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer. 7 Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. 8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings".
But it does have to do with Apples. Specifically the Apples of the Eye. Okay, that sounded creepy. That was unintentional. (And I apologize if this is an excessively girly post.) But I digress...
The premise for today's post I got from a friend who posted on my "social network" wall a hugely encouraging note. Telling me that I was the apple of God's eye and that He delighted in me. I can't tell you how much that meant to me. Actually I think it was an answer to a prayer that me and my mom talked about the other day.
*deeply personal alert* For years and years I have struggled with self-esteem issues. Like many young women of my... uhm, should I say... 'frame'... I have always thought of myself as the fat kid. And therefore, as the fat kid... I have considered myself unattractive and frankly, just plain ugly. I've made jokes about it. I've hidden it. I've tried desperately to change it. And I've denied it as if I didn't care. But in the end a deep wound cut straight to my very soul, spread its gangrenous fingers of infection all over my heart and crippled the strength that should have swelled in my spiritual/emotional muscles, making me desperately weak in ways I should have been strong.
So me and my mom were talking about this... for the first time in the almost 13 years since the original wound was dealt. (which is huge, in and of itself) And my mom said something that I immediately turned into a prayer. She said that she could tell me some verses about who I am in God's sight, but that it wouldn't help. That I had to find and claim those dear verses for myself.
Then today, when that sweet new friend posted it on my wall I was blown away because there God had landed the phrase that He wanted me to know straight from His heart to mine. (and ironically she was scared to share this with me, because she often feels like people will think its odd because of her own failings that God chooses to give her messages for people. I don't find that odd. And you shouldn't either. We ALL freakin' fail!)
According to WikiAnswers: "...this phrase is usually figurative, meaning something, or more usually someone, cherished above others. As sight is so precious, someone who is called [the apple of my eye] as an endearment is similarly precious."
So do you realize that is the way that God feels about you? I should point out that the phrase "the apple of my eye" is usually meant to express something about how precious someone is by comparing them to your eyesight. I think I can relate to that. I have been obsessed for most of my life with NOT wearing glasses. The genetic odds are stacked against me. All four of my grandparents and the majority of their parents wore glasses. Both of my parents have glasses (bifocals actually), and over 50% of my siblings also wear glasses. I eat certain foods simply because of the Vitamin A. On long car trips I used to "exercise" my eyes by making them focus on an item very near to me and then one very far away in quick succession. Granted I had a tendency to read in bad lighting, but I made up for it by routinely reading at a distance that was far away from me as possible. So I kind of know what it is to value your eyes. But I think God takes it to another level. Anyway, I found these verses and they really spoke to my heart about how God views me.
Zechariah 2:8 "For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye—" and then basically goes on to say that God will effectively kick their scrawny little butts!! (Jo's revised edition) But think about what amazing love and protective loyalty that describes in our Heavenly Father! He OBVIOUSLY thinks we are worth that and finds us completely precious! CrAzY huh?
Deuteronomy 32 tells a lot of the same story: 10 "In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, 11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. 12 The LORD alone led him;" Again, can you sense the complete compassion, affection, and protectiveness with which He cares for us? As though we are a delicate thing, much desired.
And last, but not least, Psalm 17 tells us of the confidence with which we can approach the throne knowing that we are already a precious jewel in the eyes of our Lord: 6 "I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer. 7 Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. 8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings".
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Tears
I came across this song in a mix of songs from a friend of mine. I wasn't expecting it, and it made me get all teary, even though I am sitting in the coffee shop and have to look completely pathetic crying to myself.
I have a dream... that someday I will live in a world where babies aren't allowed to be murdered before they even get a chance at life.
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