Well said.

I love quotes. Therefore, I also love quoting things. (side note: I am not referring to movie quotes..though I love them too) I'm pretty sure this is a transparent part of my personality that everyone knows, being that I usually want to share the good quotes or verses I discover or recall. Lately I have been wondering why it is that I enjoy finding good quotes, hearing good quotes, and telling others good quotes. Why? Because others are better writers than I am? maybe. Because someone finally voiced what I've been thinking all along? sometimes. Because others are more clever than I am? no, that can't be it (just kidding). In all seriousness though, I've been thinking about my answer to why I enjoy good quotes...I thought of two things:

1. Personal Experience: You can tell when the author [of said quote] accurately transfers the original emotions tied to the words, because it becomes personal. Well-written literature has something that brings it to life - whether it's through the imagery, the language use, or just the content - and you can relate to whomever the author may be when the quote speaks to you heart.

2. Personal Encouragement: I was created to need encouragement on a daily basis. Let me just tell you how much relief I felt when I realized this.

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13

Matt Carter read this verse in his sermon this past Sunday at Austin Stone. Carter was talking about our need for biblical community, because from it we develop more in-depth relationships, we are pastored, we are encouraged, and we endure. For fear of becoming that "needy" friend, I tend to keep my challenges inside and resist help from others. I realized by my doing that, I keep others from living out their biblical community. God CREATED us to live in community, to live life together, to need and want relationships, to walk alongside of others and struggle together.

SO, with that said, thought I would include several favorites at the moment.

"Sing Me To Heaven"
(a song we sang in my High school choir):

"In my hearts sequestered chambers lie truths stripped of poet’s gloss. Words alone are vain and vacant and my heart is mute. In response to aching silence memories summon half-heard voices. And my heart finds primal eloquence and wraps me in song. Wraps me in song…If you would comfort me; sing me a lullaby. If you would win my heart; sing me a love song. If you would mourn me and bring me to God. Touch in me all love and passion; pain and pleasure. Touch in me, touch in me, grief and comfort; love and passion; pain and pleasure. Sing me a lullaby; a love song; a requiem. Love me; comfort me; bring me to God. Sing me a love song. Sing me to heaven."

"Christ's resurrection and our newness of life"
(from one of Charles Spurgeon's sermons -1891):

"There is a happiness to be enjoyed by truly whole-hearted believers which some even of God's own children would think to be impossible...I have seen boys bathing in a river in the morning. One of them has just dipped his toes in the water, and he cries out, as he shivers, "Oh, it's so cold!" Another has gone in up to his ankles, and he also declares that it is fearfully chilly. But see! another runs to the bank, and takes a header. He rises all in a glow. All his blood is circulating, and he cries "Delicious! What a beautiful morning! I am all in a glow. The water is splendid!" That is the boy for enjoying a bath! You Christian people who are paddling about in the shallows of religion, and just dipping your toes into it—you stand shivering in the cold air of the world which you are afraid to leave. Oh, that you would plunge into the river of life! How it would brace you! What tone it would give you! In for it, young man! In for it! Be a Christian, out and out. Serve the Lord with your whole being. Give yourself wholly to him who bought you with his blood. Plunge into the sacred flood by grace, and you will exclaim—'Oh, this is life! Oh, this is joy, My God, to find thee so! Thy face to see, thy voice to hear, And all thy love to know.' May we thus walk in newness of life! Amen."

How To Enjoy Life
(Audrey Hepburn):

"For Attractive lips, speak words of kindness, For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people, For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry, For Beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day, For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others."

"A Return To Love"

(Marianne Williamson - 1992):

"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be so brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God: Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

"The Road Not Taken"
(Robert Frost -1920):

"TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

En la República Dominicana

What a blessing to be in my early twenties and to have already traveled to a handful of places around the world. Naturally, it's safe to say each new place has shaped my perceptions of different cultures, but it's also safe to say each new place has helped define who I am. It is easy to get caught up in the rhythm of our own lives; but once you experience different people groups, and once you've seen their beautiful environments, things for you are never quite the same.

One thing I am glad to have from each trip is a journal. When I read back through each journal, I remember the beautiful sights, the joys, the struggles, the questions, the people, the excitement, and of course the growth.

Here's the first excerpt of thoughts and prayers from while I was in the D.R:


31 - July - 2010

Day Two - Puerto Plata (Los Ciruelos y Tamarindo), DR
...It was a hot and exhausting way to spend several hours (moving dirt and cement blocks) - but a joy to serve Mak and the community. The more help they receive, the faster classrooms get built. The more classrooms they have, the more kids that get to go to school. The more money they save on labor, the more money they have to spend on the children at the school.

When we finished for the day, Juan drove us back to the Mak house to shower and prep for dinner.

(side note: cold showers are awesome. it's a new experience though, having a cold shower and still feel dirty and sticky. Welcome to summer in the DR - hot, humid, dusty)

I love the community around here. The Mak staff has served us, while not treating us like guests. What I mean is, they love us like brothers and sisters; we became part of the Mak family the moment we stepped in the door. It's such a beautiful picture of love to see our group and the Mak staff (strangers up until today) working and living together. There were tons of hands helping out today - construction, paint chipping, prepping dinner, cooking, cleaning, etc. We are not here to just visit this beautiful island, we're here to serve and love on the people here.

I can't help but think THIS is the perfect picture of what Christ calls us to do and be - living in unity and community, and forsaking our comforts for HIS glory.

It's not about us, it's about Him and it's about them.

...Lord, I pray you open my eyes to the things unseen; not just the beautiful landscape; not just the tragically impoverished villages. Transform my eyes to see what You see. Transform my heart to break and cry out for what Yours does. Help me to resist the selfish temptation to think I can help or save them - it is only through You...