So each dorm puts together an Ekklesia each semester. Hardy Hall's was about a month ago and one of my girls taped it. Here is the youtube link for anyone who wants to see it. I am clearly a little biased but I thought it was fantastic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_QBwF1pRag&feature=youtu.be
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
A Smelly, Old Goat
Today, I woke up and decided to do something instead of just sitting at home bored....or get a head start on my homework for Tuesday. I decided I would take the nice weather as an opportunity to trim the goat hooves that have needed done for awhile. I chose to do my favorite goat first...and after examining his coat, decided that a bath could help get rid of some of his dry skin. After doing a few other goats, I got the gumption to bathe our buck (fully intact male). For those of you who don't know....bucks attract females by urinating all over themselves. This buck is about three years old...a.k.a....three years of urine was built into his coat and he smells very bad. I got Willy into the stand, trying not to gag and began spraying him off. The water rinsed off a light brown color, that is how dirty he was. I worked for close to an hour to clean this thing, scrubby like crazy to get the built up urine to detach from his skin. When mom went out to feed him a few hours later, she was sad to report that the smell was back. His cleanness had only lasted for a few short hours before he peed all over himself again. stupid goat.
Being Easter weekend, I began thinking about this absurd behavior. I had just taken the action of cleaning Willy and all of his grime yet he went right back out and continued the action that got him all smelly. I find this disgusting, yet so often, I behave just like Willy. I cry out for forgiveness for all of those things that make me smelly....only to go right back to living my life and doing the very thing I had just been cleaned from.
I smell of sin. Other people are repulsed by me, yet Christ dared come close enough to me to clean me of my stench. Christ did this unthinkable action, yet I take it so lightly, I go right back to sinning and working up my smell.
that's absurd. stupid human.
Being Easter weekend, I began thinking about this absurd behavior. I had just taken the action of cleaning Willy and all of his grime yet he went right back out and continued the action that got him all smelly. I find this disgusting, yet so often, I behave just like Willy. I cry out for forgiveness for all of those things that make me smelly....only to go right back to living my life and doing the very thing I had just been cleaned from.
I smell of sin. Other people are repulsed by me, yet Christ dared come close enough to me to clean me of my stench. Christ did this unthinkable action, yet I take it so lightly, I go right back to sinning and working up my smell.
that's absurd. stupid human.
Jesus paid it all
All to him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow
All to him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow
Thursday, March 15, 2012
On Love...
I am normally not a fan of posting things from other people but I found this on Pinterest tonight and loved it.....
Back in 1958, John Steinbeck, author of East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men, got a letter from his teenage son Thom, in which Thom confessed that he had fallen desperately in love with a girl named Susan at his boarding school.
Steinbeck wrote this wise and wonderful letter back to him the same day...
New York
November 10, 1958
Dear Thom:
We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.
First -- if you are in love -- that's a good thing -- that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light to you.
Second -- There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you -- of kindness and consideration and respect -- not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had.
You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply -- of course it isn't puppy love.
But I don't think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it -- and that I can tell you.
Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.
The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.
If you love someone -- there is no possible harm in saying so -- only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.
Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.
It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another -- but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.
Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I'm glad you have it.
We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.
And don't worry about losing. If it is right, it happens -- The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
Love,
Fa
Back in 1958, John Steinbeck, author of East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men, got a letter from his teenage son Thom, in which Thom confessed that he had fallen desperately in love with a girl named Susan at his boarding school.
Steinbeck wrote this wise and wonderful letter back to him the same day...
New York
November 10, 1958
Dear Thom:
We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.
First -- if you are in love -- that's a good thing -- that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light to you.
Second -- There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you -- of kindness and consideration and respect -- not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had.
You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply -- of course it isn't puppy love.
But I don't think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it -- and that I can tell you.
Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.
The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.
If you love someone -- there is no possible harm in saying so -- only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.
Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.
It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another -- but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.
Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I'm glad you have it.
We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.
And don't worry about losing. If it is right, it happens -- The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
Love,
Fa
Sunday, February 19, 2012
A New Name
I was saving two seats for friends when I went to church today. I was the only one in the row and nobody had bothered to sit next to me so I didn't even bother putting something on the two neighboring seats to ensure room for my friends. However, just minutes before the sermon was supposed to start, and just seconds before my friends would walk through the sanctuary doors, an elderly man came and sat in my row, leaving only one seat empty beside me.
If you know me, you know that I am one of the least confrontational people you will ever meet and I am absolutely shy when it comes to strangers. There was no way I could muster up the courage to ask this man to scoot over a seat, though there was plenty of room to his left. I would let him be, even if that meant that I would be sitting alone for the service, surrounded on all four sides by people I didn't know. [not to mention, they were adults that I did not know...which makes it all that much worse.]
I was nervous to say the least. What if the preacher said something especially moving and I teared up? What if the Spirit really stirred in my heart, leading me to tears or kneeling and praying? What if the worship rang in my heart, probing me to raise a hand? What if the people around me neglected to sing, making my voice the loud one though usually out of tune?
Of course the sermon would start out with a saddening movie featuring children starving and neck deep in poverty in the Dominican Republic. [I can't even watch one of those commercials about starving dogs without tearing up, much less adorable children] I could feel a tear welling in my eye. The speaker continued, causing me to laugh a few times and sit in a state of solemn prayer after all was said and done. The worship was heartfelt, leading me to hold out my hand as a flag of surrender.
It was freeing. I allowed God to move me however He wanted regardless of the strangers surrounding me. I realized that even though I typically sit next to people I feel completely at home with, I still restrict the God of the Universe so that I don't act in any way that others may not appreciate. I am worshiping the God who sent His son to bare a crown of thorns yet I am still totally self-conscious.
Ironically [if there is irony in Christianity] the sermon was on "Wow moments" The moments that God gives us a new name, leading us to complete surrender. Once again, ironically, my name "Danielle" means "God is my judge" yet I often allow other people to trump this judge. Today God different give me a new name, He graced me with confidence in my old one.
If you know me, you know that I am one of the least confrontational people you will ever meet and I am absolutely shy when it comes to strangers. There was no way I could muster up the courage to ask this man to scoot over a seat, though there was plenty of room to his left. I would let him be, even if that meant that I would be sitting alone for the service, surrounded on all four sides by people I didn't know. [not to mention, they were adults that I did not know...which makes it all that much worse.]
I was nervous to say the least. What if the preacher said something especially moving and I teared up? What if the Spirit really stirred in my heart, leading me to tears or kneeling and praying? What if the worship rang in my heart, probing me to raise a hand? What if the people around me neglected to sing, making my voice the loud one though usually out of tune?
It was freeing. I allowed God to move me however He wanted regardless of the strangers surrounding me. I realized that even though I typically sit next to people I feel completely at home with, I still restrict the God of the Universe so that I don't act in any way that others may not appreciate. I am worshiping the God who sent His son to bare a crown of thorns yet I am still totally self-conscious.
Ironically [if there is irony in Christianity] the sermon was on "Wow moments" The moments that God gives us a new name, leading us to complete surrender. Once again, ironically, my name "Danielle" means "God is my judge" yet I often allow other people to trump this judge. Today God different give me a new name, He graced me with confidence in my old one.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Living Free
When I was little, I remember begging my parents to go to DisneyWorld. I wanted to see the princesses, I wanted to ride the rides, meet Mickey Mouse in person, get all of the autographs...you get the point. When I was little I loved my AmericanGirl dolls, I had one that looked just like me. I loved caring for them, taking them everywhere as if they were a real little girl. Little did I know that ten years later I would be finding out about the tears that went into making those dolls and the famed Disney T-Shirts. I would find out that the very items that make so many American children skip with glee are the same ones that chain children of the same age to work areas, forcing them to sew the shirts or put together the dolls for me to play with.
Sitting at my computer, I am disgusted. The very thought of slavery in general [especially after this country long ago abolished it] makes me cringe, but thinking about the children sweating over, crying over, being beaten over, longing for their next meal over the very things that brought me joy and companionship as a child is repulsing.
I sat at my computer tonight and looked up companies that were not free trade [free of slavery] the list was shocking. Things that I use to get by on a daily basis were all made through blood, sweat and tears.....mostly of drastically underpaid and abused children. CoverGirl, Crest, Cologate, Pepsi, Nestle, Hershey, Apple, Dell, Kelloggs...I could make the list go on and on. [go to http://chainstorereaction .com/home/ to see a list of more companies]
Beauty products often use children to mine the mica, one of the main ingredients found in most make-up. Chocolate companies use children to harvest the cocoa while drastically underpaying them. Clothing companies higher children to sew the clothes and operate machinery [though child labor has long been outlawed].
I came away from Chapel tonight with my heart being pulled to live a fair trade life. I went to a survey to see how many slaves that I owned based on the items that I consume and it turned out that I was responsible for nearly 36 slaves! [go to slaveryfootprint.org to take the 11 question survey] Yes, this number could be off....and it's not like I own these slaves, but I do keep them in work by buying from the companies that abuse them. I was determined that I was not going to be responsible for the blood sweat and tears any longer. I got on the list to see what companies I needed to stop shopping with....only to find the list consumed nearly every product I use, making it nearly impossible, for me a poor college student to afford to shop elsewhere. My heart sank.
Sitting at my computer, I am disgusted. The very thought of slavery in general [especially after this country long ago abolished it] makes me cringe, but thinking about the children sweating over, crying over, being beaten over, longing for their next meal over the very things that brought me joy and companionship as a child is repulsing.
I sat at my computer tonight and looked up companies that were not free trade [free of slavery] the list was shocking. Things that I use to get by on a daily basis were all made through blood, sweat and tears.....mostly of drastically underpaid and abused children. CoverGirl, Crest, Cologate, Pepsi, Nestle, Hershey, Apple, Dell, Kelloggs...I could make the list go on and on. [go to http://chainstorereaction .com/home/ to see a list of more companies]
 |
| A little boy harvesting the chocolate that would soon be in my candy bars |
Beauty products often use children to mine the mica, one of the main ingredients found in most make-up. Chocolate companies use children to harvest the cocoa while drastically underpaying them. Clothing companies higher children to sew the clothes and operate machinery [though child labor has long been outlawed].
I came away from Chapel tonight with my heart being pulled to live a fair trade life. I went to a survey to see how many slaves that I owned based on the items that I consume and it turned out that I was responsible for nearly 36 slaves! [go to slaveryfootprint.org to take the 11 question survey] Yes, this number could be off....and it's not like I own these slaves, but I do keep them in work by buying from the companies that abuse them. I was determined that I was not going to be responsible for the blood sweat and tears any longer. I got on the list to see what companies I needed to stop shopping with....only to find the list consumed nearly every product I use, making it nearly impossible, for me a poor college student to afford to shop elsewhere. My heart sank.
So I may not be completely able to live a free life [which sickens me], but I can cut down on the things that I don't need. I can cut out chocolate and pop [it'd be a good life decision anyway], I can try to avoid shopping at certain stores that are notorious for supporting slavery. I can write a blog and spread the word in order to challenge others who are more able. I can make people aware of the labor behind their everyday supplies, their childhood joys. But in the end, I pass the buck to you: I keep on praying because it's all I can do. I can not let my heart grow calloused to modern-day slavery and hope that it will soon be just another chapter in the history books.
If you're heart is now plagued [like it should be] check out these apps that will provide you with the fair trade grades of companies...carry it with you as you shop! free2work and free world are just two of the many apps.
 |
| two child minners |
"It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love"
be compassionate and loyal in your love"
~Micah 6:8 (the message)
Monday, January 23, 2012
Lists Lists Lists
Anyone that knows me has probably at some point in time been aggravated because of my obsession with lists. I make a list for everything: what I need to do each day, goals I have for the month/semester, pros and cons for nearly every decision I make (sometimes even as bad as what/where I eat). I am a list girl. I like to analyze [I know, weird characteristic for someone so bad at math and science to have] every possibility to figure out which would be the most beneficial for myself and everyone else involved.
These lists aren't just a little thing: I often spend a few hours making pros and cons for such things as what job to take/keep, {ya'll should have seen my four page lists on whether I should be a CMC again}, which relationships to really dive into, which dorm to live in....what to do over the summer. I'm telling you, these things are massive.
Yet, as I found myself making lists over the past week for various crucial choices, I heard God echoing something He has written on my heart time and time again, "Be still and know that I am God...let me do my job Danni, trust me."
You see, I have this issue with taking things into my own hands. I find myself surrendering so many times only to take everything I just let go, clutching it tighter than before. {it's like the bigger sister game of giving your little brother something only to take it away two seconds later}God is challenging me to forget the lists, to throw them away and just follow Him. My lists are taking my now and my future into my own incapable hands. My lists are saying that I have enough credentials to plan out my own life based on my own flawless {yeah right!} human reasoning.
So, for the umteenth million time, I am surrendering my lists. I am surrendering my control because clearly, me driving the boat isn't getting me where I want to be right now. Instead of making a list for everything, I will have one thought, one question: Is this God's will or my own?
These lists aren't just a little thing: I often spend a few hours making pros and cons for such things as what job to take/keep, {ya'll should have seen my four page lists on whether I should be a CMC again}, which relationships to really dive into, which dorm to live in....what to do over the summer. I'm telling you, these things are massive.
Yet, as I found myself making lists over the past week for various crucial choices, I heard God echoing something He has written on my heart time and time again, "Be still and know that I am God...let me do my job Danni, trust me."
You see, I have this issue with taking things into my own hands. I find myself surrendering so many times only to take everything I just let go, clutching it tighter than before. {it's like the bigger sister game of giving your little brother something only to take it away two seconds later}God is challenging me to forget the lists, to throw them away and just follow Him. My lists are taking my now and my future into my own incapable hands. My lists are saying that I have enough credentials to plan out my own life based on my own flawless {yeah right!} human reasoning.
So, for the umteenth million time, I am surrendering my lists. I am surrendering my control because clearly, me driving the boat isn't getting me where I want to be right now. Instead of making a list for everything, I will have one thought, one question: Is this God's will or my own?
Monday, December 5, 2011
Peace like a River
Peace: (noun) cessation of or freedom from any strife or dissension.
Content: (adjective) satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.
During the CHRISTmas season, I often times let my mind wander [partly because my brain is being fried by finals and papers]and it often times leads me to meditate on words of the season. You know, those words that are on the front of every CHRISTmas card, the ones that appear as every other word in carols, the ones that you can find spelled out in lights. Joy, Praise, Thankfulness, and Peace and just a few that immediately come to mind, and I will spare you from making an even bigger list and add one more repetition of them to your day.
Anyways, PEACE [or paz as my Spanish final would show] has been the word at the forefront of my mind lately with a variety of situations at hand. I am a person who loves to be in control of my life [and maybe sometimes the lives of others], part of this has been learning to find contentment in all of my circumstances. Sure, the job market is scatter-brained, but I have grown content with an English Education major and don't know what I would do if I had to change. I have been single for 20 years of life and am perfectly content remaining single for the rest of my life. I am content in just attending my church at school and not venturing into it much further. I am content at being a Campus Ministries Coordinator on my floor for two years and living on the same floor my entire college life. I am content with my friend group and have to push myself to expand it.
I am learning that circumstances are always changing. Last year, I was content with having my best friends just a minute away. This semester, I was pushed to become content with two of my best friends living 10 hours and 27 hours away from me. Next semester, I am being pushed to be content with my best friend moving to England [a.k.a. no texting or calling and a 6 hour time difference instead of 2]. Life changes. What I have to be content with changes.
However, I am learning that maybe there is a difference between being content and being at peace with something: two words that would often being considered synonymous [thats a really big word for me]. The more I think though, the more that I see the definitions differently. Content means being at peace with what you have RIGHT now, the circumstances that you are in RIGHT now. Contentment is constantly evolving. Being at peace is being content in where you are right now AND where you could be five seconds from now at the same time. Peace isn't found in a situation or occupation or group of people or major or relationship status...Peace can be found only in the God of the Universe Himself.
John 14:27 says "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you...Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." Perfect Peace transcends our present life, it calms our hearts and quiets our deepest fears. Isaiah 66:12 says that God grants us peace like a river. Now, I am not a Bible expert in the least since of the word, but when I think of rivers [a metaphor that is often cliche in the world of English], I think of life; of a source of water teaming with fish and plants; full of currents that can propel boats and rafts. I picture the crazy white river rapids, full of movement. Peace like a river: contentment in movement.
Now how can we possible find peace when we are clinging to things of this present second? How can we be at peace with the future when we are begging the present to stay the same? When we cling to things of the now, we are bound to go crazy when our world is flipped upside down. When we cling to the rock in the river for dear life, the currents are bound to wipe us away [and down a waterfall if you watch enough movies]. We have to cling to the river itself. How do you cling to a river you might ask? Well, is it ironic that Jesus referred to himself as Living Water to the woman at the well? Wouldn't you consider a river to be live water? hmmm....let's put those two together shall we? We must cling to Jesus, we must come to have peace in the One that is moving us.
So, I give up on being content in the circumstances of the now. I'm throwing my hands up and saying Jesus take the wheel [might as well add another cliche right?]. If God so chooses to change my relationship status, I will be at peace. If God decides to kill Skype [the way I will survive not hearing my best friend for like 5 months], I will have peace. If God decides that I need to move out of the state that I have called home for 20 years, so be it. I will have peace like a river. I will find peace in the Living Water. I will let go of the rock and jump to the ROCK.
<3
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