On The Road Again

While it is very sad to be away from home this summer, one of the perks of researching at A&M is that College Station is within a roughly 3 hours radius of all my friends in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Waco!

So as I looked at my calendar to plan weekend road trips, I decided to update my driving playlist. There are few things more frustrating than driving across a state, finally finding a good station, and then driving out of range!

So here's my new and updated Road Trip Playlist:

1. needtobreathe

 I could listen to needtobreathe in almost any situation, at almost any time and it feels right. So of course their discography belongs in my playlist! Now, I own three hours of their music alone, so I had to cull my favorites to prevent a needtobreathe monopoly of my stereo!

2. TED Talks

Maybe this reveals my inner nerd, but I love TED Talks. They're the perfect length to pique your interest in a topic, but not long enough to lose my attention!

Some of the ones coming with me to Austin this weekend are:

Taylor Wilson: My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors
Thomas Insel: Toward a new understanding of mental illness
Elon Musk: The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City...
Allan Savory: How to fight desertification and reverse climate change

I'm a girl of diverse interests, what can I say?

3.  Brian Regan, "Pirates and Pilots"

 "Can you imagine a better ending to this story? Landing in Charlotte with luggage and dry socks! squish squish....squish squish squish"

Every time I travel, by air, land or sea, this routine always pops into my head. And Brian Regan does it much better justice than I ever could...

4. FM Static

Nine months of the year I wouldn't really consider myself an FM Static fan, but once summer rolls around, something in my soul longs to listen to Trevor McNevan's side project with reckless abandon. Pop punk and summer just go together like that I guess. Favorites songs include Tonight, Take Me As I Am, My Brain Says Stop, But My Hearts Says Go! and Last Train Home.

Bonus (Guilty Pleasure) = Taylor Swift. 

I'm unashamed to admit that I listen to Taylor Swift from time to time. Driving happens to be one of those times. Let's be real- I'm never going to fall asleep at the wheel when I'm singing along to You Belong With Me, 22, or I Knew You Were Trouble, complete with goat screeching, of course.  

So yeah. That's what I'll be listening to this weekend (and probably a few other weekends this summer)

What do you listen to when you drive? 
Books on tape? Country radio? Celine Dion? 
And what's your driving-by-yourself musical guilty pleasure? ;-)

Until next time, Ceci 

You've Got Mail!

Actually, not really. It's a glitch.

A few weeks ago I was checking my email on my iPhone, but I noticed that though I had read all the messages in my Mail inbox, the app still claimed that I had one left unread. Despite my current engagement in technology minded studies, my Google searches were futile and I found no reasonable explanation for the little red circle with a "1" gracing my homepage.

This blog isn't about my inability to troubleshoot Apple products though, it's about my response to this imaginary forever-unread message that stares me down every time I use my phone.

 To offer some background, I'm an information junkie. I love data, facts, opinions, theories...I love knowing STUFF. (For all you Baylor people, one of my Strengths is Learner, no surprise)  I find it difficult (nearly impossible) to enter a library or bookstore without leaving with a stack of books ranging in topic from neuroscience to philosophy to airplanes.

My most recent book splurge

One way this translates in other parts of my life is that whenever I get out of class or feel a buzz in my pocket, I feel this deep and insatiable need to check my email.

What information is waiting for me to come and discover? 

What if a professor emails clarification on an assignment? What if work emails out a new policy? What if an old friend tries to reconnect with me?

 That cute little notification began to taunt me. What it symbolizes is an unread message, an undiscovered nugget of information. Though I knew that there was, in fact, no unread message, it still made the point that somewhere there is something I don't know, that maybe I should.

What if I get information about housing for my summer internship? What if a group I'm involved with sends details about an event I'm helping with?

What if...what if...what if...?

But what if it all could wait? 

...what if it all didn't matter?

I don't think information is bad, I think it does matter; God is omniscient and we still think He's pretty cool. But one thing the ease of having a smart phone has taught me is that in my little corner of the world, information is an idol.

I've fallen into the same trap that caught Eve in the garden. I want to know; I want to be like a god and know everything. She ate a fruit, I'm a chronic email-checker. It sounds trivial when you put it that way, but it's really not. This combination of pride and a longing for independence are a lethal mixture, one that I've found myself getting awfully comfortable experimenting with.

I'm reminded of the verses in 1 Corinthians 8 that say "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." (NKJV) The New Living Translation is especially convicting: 

"But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much."

I guess that's what it boils down to, knowing things makes me feel important, but that's not my purpose. I don't live to make myself important, but to show Christ important through me.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this bug with my Mail app, I'm welcome to advice, but what once was extremely annoying has now become a simple reminder there will always be unread emails, unopened messages, and unexplored life mysteries. And I'm going to be okay with that :-)

Reflection Leads to Trust

Today has been such a whirlwind, I've hardly had a chance to catch my breath...let alone reflect and process.

But now, as I sit. breath. think. rest. I am so overwhelmed with awe and gratefulness to my God, that I can't help but write it down, in hopes that someone else might be encouraged...even if it only serves as a reminder to myself in 5, 10 or 25 years.

Three years ago I made one of the best decisions of my life and little did I know just how life-transforming of a decision that was to come to Baylor University. As I sat crying in the Penland cafeteria with my dad at Spring Premiere, little did I know the adventures that awaited.

Exhibit A:

Today I had the blessing and privilege to share my day with some very special groups of people.  My morning was spent preparing with the Haiti Engineering Team and the rest of the BU Missions teams for our summer experiences. My afternoon was spent at a Youth Ministry Teams Student Leader Retreat. The beginning of my evening was spent preparing for our annual semi-formal with the always wonderful Leadership Council and the remainder of the evening was spent celebrating, dancing, and laughing with the ECS-LLC community.

Did I see any of that coming? Not a chance! All I knew was that I was moving over 2000 miles away from everything I knew to study engineering.

As I reflect on these experiences, both today and over the last three years, I can't help but see God's hand in every fiber of my story. Every opportunity, mountain, and valley- He has been there.

And He will be there in whatever comes my way next.

As I look forward to my senior year, as I weigh the possibility and options of graduate school,  as I takes steps toward whatever God has for me next, I have no reason to fear, no reason to fret.

Before the world began, God knew each and every step that brought me to Baylor and each and every interaction and activity that I have participated in since. And while I can't even begin to fathom and imagine what is up next for me, God knows and there is nothing more comforting to know or hear.

Three years ago, I stepped out in faith and committed to Baylor and over the past three years God has proven Himself faithful to me time and time again.

The only appropriate responses seem to be praise and thanksgiving!

...and trust. The last three years have been great, but they haven't been perfect. I've let myself down and I've been let down by others, but the perpetual constant and foundation has been Jesus Christ. If that doesn't warrant my trust, I don't know what does.

So I look back in awe and gratitude and forward in expectant excitement...and in the present I trust.

"Jesu Cristo es el mismo, ayer, y todos, y por los siglos." Hebreo 13:8

Hallowed Priesthood

"And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour.)"

Exodus 29:1-2

When reading this passage this morning, I was struck by how seriously God takes His ministry, and how I often forget the gravity of being in ministry and take it lightly, or worse, for granted.

Sometimes I think that because I signed up to join this service organization or because I wear the t-shirt or go to the meetings that I am partaking in the ministry, but it is so much deeper than that. Being a spiritual leader is more than a name tag or title, it requires of you a holiness, a set-apartness, and a sacrifice.

Exodus 29:1 spells it out: "And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them..." In the Hebrew that word "to hallow" can also mean to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be holy, be sanctified, and be separate. The word is so much deeper than at first glance! To be set apart for ministry involves outside work and preparation, forsaking of other interests for dedication to the work of the Lord, a willingness to be daily changed and sanctified, and an eagerness to distinguish oneself from the world and culture and be different.

The commands to bring offerings "without blemish" serve as a reminder that sacrifice was not an opportunity to get rid of lesser livestock. Offering one's best is an expressions of thanksgiving and faith in God's provision. Just as God demanded the best of the ancient priests, He deserves our best today!

And before you discount this encouragement saying,"But I'm not a priest!", take a look at 1 Peter 2:9

"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (emphasis mine)

We who have been saved and called into His great light are a special people. Let us proclaim His praises with that in mind!

So how will you live a set-apart life, offering God your best, today?

Rejoice, we have been delivered!

Recently in my personal devotion time I read the story of Passover in Exodus 12. In it, the Lord is telling Moses about how the Israelites should prepare their unleavened bread and herbs. The people are also told how they should eat: "And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feel, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover." (Exodus 12:11)

Culturally speaking, they would not have their sandals on in the house and their staff would be propped near the door. But not this night.

They were to eat quickly because they had to be ready to leave. Tonight was the night they had been waiting for- they were going to be delivered from the hands of the Egyptians!

Imagine celebrating Passover in the years to follow. When Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples, they still observed the tradition but without the attitude of haste. In fact, they were so relaxed, John lay his head on Jesus's chest (John 13:23). I doubt they had their shoes and staffs close at hand, ready to flee from Egypt. That would just be silly.

Why? Because their deliverance from Egypt was complete. It had already been accomplished.

God has miraculously delivered us too. We too were once in bondage to our sinful flesh, our human nature. But not so anymore! He has set us free.

But so often I forget that my deliverance is complete. comprehensive. finished.

So often I sit with my Converse and staff (I couldn't think of a modern equivalent...) waiting for deliverance from my sins, habits, temptations, circumstances, fill-in-the-blank...forgetful of the fact the power those things had over me was buried 2000 years ago! Time and again, I need to be reminded that my striving for personal salvation is utterly pointless; my deliverance is complete! I need not live FOR salvation, but FROM salvation.



I don't know about you, but that brings me hope and joy! Psalm 71:15 sums it up rather well, "My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure." Psalm 13:6 says, "I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me."

Have a great week and sing to the Lord, for He has been good to us!

P.S. Here's a little song that I love that expresses these sentiments exactly!

"They tell me I must bruise
The rose's leaf,
Ere I can keep and use
Its fragrance brief.

They tell me I must break
The skylark's heart,
Ere her cage song will make
The silence start.

They tell me love must bleed,
And friendship weep,
Ere in my deepest need
I touch that deep.

Must it be always so
With precious things?
Must they be bruised and go
With beaten wings?

Ah, yes! by crushing days,
By caging nights, by scar
Of thorn and stony ways,
These blessings are!"

-John Henry Jowett, from Streams in the Desert, January 11

To blog or not to blog....

...that is the question.