For Richer or Poorer

When we first started throwing around the M word, the skepticism was sinking in and covering my brain, inch by inch.   A year ago, I thought I could be single forever and now he was saying "Marriage"?  And what about school?  What about wanting to travel, and live in Chicago in a crappy apartment with my dogs? 

Now I look at this ring on my finger that means he will do it-- stand in front of the people who know and love us best and make the promise only fit for a wife.  Marry me.  And I know that I couldn't want any single thing more for my life than that. 

---

In the past year, I've struggled.  I've fallen time after time, and been much too tired to pick myself up.  I have felt like a failure, lost, worthless, hopeless... did I mention lost? 
And for more than just the last year, I have known struggle and defeat, disappointment and brokenness, financial hardship and loss.  I have faced trial after trial, and it would be a lie to say that i can be proud of every way I've ever responded when faced by opposition. 

But this year, I learned a lot about loss and being lost.  And that is why I'm confident of this marriage we want to enter into.  Because we've both lost (and been lost) a little too much.

I know that He is faithful.  He has proven that to me time and time again. 

I know that He provides.  In a year where dreams and plans were taken out from underneath me, somehow I have not been overcome.  He has provided not only physical things like my home to come back to and a full-time job to pay off my debt, but also things that feed my soul - like love and hope.

I know that He is purposeful.  So purposeful that I was born in Arizona, moved to Texas, moved to Arkansas, and ended up in Missouri where I had to meet God before I could meet my fiance.  So purposeful that until July after my senior year, I was banking on going to Carthage College in Wisconsin.  So purposeful that I didn't, and went to Mizzou instead.  So purposeful that even after denying that I ever knew Him, He still called me back to Himself and I went on CRU's Summer Project to Togo, West Africa last summer because I wanted to be faithful.  So purposeful that I sat down at a random table with 3 people I didn't know one night last summer and had a conversation with a complete stranger about the glory that I saw in Togo and the contagious love that He'd instilled in me there.  So purposeful that my future husband fell in love with me that night, and it wasn't my doing.    

He has seen us through to this point in our lives.  And nothing about our disappointment, our hurt, or our struggle has been lost to Him.  He has used it to grow us, to shape us, to sharpen us, and to bring us together. 

I never knew how much I wanted people to approve of me until I was in this spot.  I wanted everyone to congratulate us, and support us, and agree with us.  But the chances of us doing "the right thing" by everyone else's standards is impossible.  Maybe for the rest of our lives our choices will be looked down upon by someone else or won't make sense to someone else.  If I never do the "right thing" by another man, but it is the righteous thing in sight of our God, I will consider it glory.  I don't have to be looked upon with favor by man.  And it is not my goal to. 

I am more sure of the call to love my future husband with everything that I have than much else I have experienced in the entirety of my life.  And I (speak in boldness) welcome any oppositions that give us the chance to reiterate the trust we must have in God over and over again.  I pray for humility to accept advice from our family and our friends, but strength and wisdom to persevere even when what He has called us to looks foolish to everyone around us. 

Next summer, I plan to stand in front of the most important people in our lives, and promise these things, regardless of who else it may please, other than him and our Father.

"I will reap with you.  I will sow with you.  I will work with you.  I will rest with you.  I will laugh with you.  I will cry with you.  I will struggle with you.  I will prosper with you.  I will suffer with you.  I will be sharpened with you.  I will receive gratefully with you.  I will give generously with you.  I will lead alongside you.  I will be lead by you.  I will love with you.  And I will endure with you forever." 

For richer, or poorer.
Poor in spirit.  Poor in pocket.  Poor by the standards of our culture, our world. 
Rich in the Kingdom of Heaven.

How We Work

"When you don't understand God's hand, you trust His heart." - Darrin Patrick

Just a few thoughts today, or maybe a lot.  I don't know; we'll see when we get to the end.

Six months ago, I was somewhere close to figuring out that I wasn't going back to Columbia this Spring.  I might have explained before how I cried for about 10 minutes when I found out, and then dried my eyes and went to work.  It was a week before finals.  So I studied and packed and took my tests as they came up, telling only random people at random times as we all started leaving for Christmas break.  It was all surreal, packing my room and moving away, mostly due to the looming unknown ahead of me more than being sad for leaving my friends or college.  Of course those things would hit me later. 

But as far as my future schooling, education, and career went... I was at a loss.  What was I supposed to do now?  I told everyone the goal was getting back to Mizzou in the fall.  But even before I realized how much financial weight I was actually bearing when I got home, something about that statement felt more like the comfortable copout answer that just ensured avoiding all those questions I didn't want to answer.  I was afraid to admit that it wasn't actually something I wanted.

And then Moody Bible Institute came up, and I jumped on that idea quickly.  Major in Linguistics in their department for World Missions!  Yeah, I could still postpone all this financial responsibility I had and go live in a foreign country, after completing a college degree which is what was obviously expected of me, right?  And while I genuinely had this passion and heart that pulled me across oceans, that door was closed quickly when Moody admissions helped me put my financial burden in perspective.  They wouldn't accept me with all my baggage.  And though disappointed, I looked at it as this very personal "Yield" sign from God.

I had no choice but to slow down, and work.  To much surprise from mostly everyone I know, I really enjoyed my work.  In insurance.  It made little, if any, sense to me.  And it didn't settle very well with me either.  I was supposed to be making my way back to Africa -- blazing through foreign countries, living on little, going hungry and homeless, or sleeping on dirt floors and catching foreign diseases -- if my sacrifice could lead to the glory of the Gospel.  I just wanted the sacrificial life of a missionary to be my ministry, and what I had was a well-paying job at an insurance agency in my comfortable high school town without any real sense of community.

What the hell, God?  I asked that a lot.  Sometimes I just laughed when I asked Him, because it could be quite humorous how far I was from all the plans I had for myself.  But sometimes I cried, because I was so lost.  And still am.  But just like the Darrin Patrick quote I placed at the top, my heart has had to echo the simple truth that God is, and will always be... smarter than I am.  Oh, and His will is sovereign too.  Oh, and He loves me.  Though at times I have been so lost about where He is leading me, I sincerely trust that His heart for me is that of a loving Father's.  And don't let me make my life sound like this dark pit of dispair and lonliness.  I have been looked upon with utmost favor by our God, far beyond any reason I can come up with. 

Mostly this week, I have just been super encouraged by brothers and sisters alike to pursue the wild and sacrificial spirit that I wish to become, but to pray more for the role that I have in my current community and life to do that where I am at now. 

I have been challenged to pray for integrity and love, genuineness and honor in my work.  I have been encouraged to pursue missions in the way that I can right now.  I have enjoyed being a sender this semester.  Providing missions and missionaries with financial support to take the gospel to places that I cannot physically go has been an absolute joy for my heart.  And only possible with the job that He provided for me.  Linking my prayer and hopes and passions to places throughout the world through missions that I cannot take myself is what I have been able to do in the mean time. 

So much has changed in this last semester, but His love is steadfast and unchanging.  And He is slowly teaching me to be a daughter who trusts His heart above all else.

no fear

I have decided to follow Jesus.

And that means no turning back.

My doctor finally put me on a stabilizing medication, to help reduce the physical side of my panic (heart racing, hyperventilating, that kind of embarassing stuff).  The first week was asbolutely miserable.  Messing with the levels of serotonin in your body effects more than I was prepared for.  Two weeks later, I think for the most part, things are beginning to level out and the worst is over.  Now that most of the physical symptoms can be controlled with this serotonin stabilizer, the mental part is up to me.  I have been learning to remind myself in moments of anxiety, "No fear.  He is the Lord, my God, my Savior."

This week I've been focusing on moving out.  Considering my newly-developed fear of making plans, I have decided to just keep moving forward.  Every day, my plans change.  They adapt to new research I've done, or advances in my work, or circumstances with my family, or just the ways God is still stretching me through this process (whatever it is, because I'm still not totally sure).  It's funny that after all this stretching, you'd think I should be pretty tall by now.  But I still feel small (:

The newest adaptation of my plans is far from what it was a month ago.  Or last week.  But I think there's some beauty in this surrender I've been forced to embrace, because I cannot dictate my own future.  Even the small stuff.  I have to ask Him before I make any decision about what I am doing and how I am doing it.  Or rather, the conversation goes more like:

"I am going to make this new step today within my means; feel free to interrupt, or confirm that it falls under accordance with Your will."

And He does.  Right now, nothing is within my power.  So I pray for wisdom, and I evaluate thoroughly.  And I move when and where He says I can.  I've been complaining about how hard it's been to hear Him this whole time.  But I am realizing that I hear Him just fine.  In one word sentences. 

Like, "Yes." "No." "Here." "There." "Love." "Cry." "Rest." 

This refining has looked like just what I can see directly in front of my face, and nothing further.  I ask Him what He wants to do with my future, with my life.  Am I supposed to go back to school?  Am I supposed to stay in St Louis?  Can I just marry him now?  Can we just run away to Africa?

And He says, "Look at this job I provided you with."  or  "I've given you the means to pay the bills you owe."  or  "I've given you the means to move out on your own."  And I'm like okay, mysterious God; that doesn't answer my questions. 

But He's providing for me to live in right now, and only now.  And all I can do outside of that is dream, or hope, or wonder.  Or further than that, Trust.

With each day, and each new burden that's placed upon my shoulders, He tells me to hand them to Him and asks over and over how much I am willing to trust Him.

And the answer is as far as He asks.  I decided to follow Jesus.  And that means no turning back.

Somebody that I used to know

This week I’ve been feeling out of time, out of place, and out of touch.

Saying that coming home was, and is, hard on me is an understatement.  It’s not just about leaving Mizzou; leaving my life, and the future I was very meticulously building for myself.  And it’s not entirely about living with my parents again, having minor rules to live by, and other schedules and lives in the house that conflict with mine.  It’s not even about having to learn to be independent at an accelerated rate, teaching myself adulthood as I go along, taking responsibility for things that seem far beyond my grasp. 

Coming home has been the hardest on me for all the things I left behind when I headed to Columbia.  And I mean that in neither a completely nostalgic, nor completely bitter way.  Maybe just a little bit of both. 

I dropped my little brother off at the church I used to call Home this evening and realized how I don’t really belong here anymore.  I used to feel comfortable there; I used to feel known there.  My family used to be there.  But E-Free hasn’t been my home in years. People have stopped asking for me, or about me.  Which is okay.  Because I’m supposed to be gone, like everyone else.  I’m supposed to be moving on.  Like I was doing before I had to come back.  And it’s not that I drive all these familiar streets and hate the memories that I made on all my adventures here. 

But I also remember being ready to leave it all behind.  Because the year that I left was a year of endings.  Exactly the way it needed to be.  I tied all the loose ends, and shut all the doors when I left.  Because I made a lot of mistakes that year, and I wouldn’t pass up that opportunity to walk away from everything I broke, all the bridges I burned.  I knew the people that mattered would stay in touch, but everything else could be let go. 

There was a time when this was my culture, and calling.  But now it’s just where I used to sit and talk with Mary, where my sister showed me who Jesus was for the first time, where Jake broke my heart, and Ben broke the pieces that he left.  It’s where I got drunk to forget, and dunked under water in forgiveness and mercy.  It’s where I witnessed His goodness; and forsook  His grace.  It’s where I wanted to yearn and burn for more passion, but hadn’t learned how yet.  It was a time for growing.  At one point, it was my culture and my calling.  But now I can only see it as what it used to be.

And I can’t for the life of me figure out why He’d call me back here.

into existence

The 9th time my family moved, I waited until the weekend before we were leaving to start packing my room.  It was my subtle rebellion.  “Take that, Mom; half my room will end up in the garbage because I won’t have time (or space) to pack it and bring it all with me.”  The logic was there for a 13-year-old-me, at least.  We moved in 7 days anyway.  And brought all 3 of our lives with us in my aunts pick-up.  Everything that still belonged to us in a truck.

I’ve spent the better half of my life trying to control situations around me.  The 12th time I moved (back home, from college), I told myself I’d give up on that.  Because I could cry, or complain, or freak out completely, but at the end of the day there was over 5200 dollars that I couldn’t cry or complain into existence.  I simply had to adjust to the circumstances.  If I sat to think about it too hard, I sincerely believed I’d lose my mind.  So I went through finals, sold my books, and packed my room in the last few days I was there without much direction at all.  Some people said I was tough; some thought I was just in denial.  But really, to me, it was as simple as doing what I had to do.  We all have basic survival instincts, right?  We all have the ability to keep adapting as major life changes occur.  There weren’t many choices for me at that point.  Pay 5200 dollars, or leave… and I didn’t have 5200 dollars.  The funny thing is: I raised 5200 dollars to go to Togo over the summer.  I told Jesus that I’d like to do His work in West Africa, and He said here are the people I’ve appointed to support you, and here is 5200 dollars.

I got a job at CLH less than a month after being home.  It was literally a God-send.  He sent them to me. 
I talked to my sister recently about wanting to stay at CLH even though I am trying to move into her house further away and still saving for a car.  She had originally suggested that I just get a job closer to the house, but I explained that not only do I have a commitment to them at this point, but I’m making good money for someone my age without real college background doing something I didn’t have the qualifications for, but ended up really enjoying.  How likely does that scenario sound?  Especially after what I witnessed today (more of that later).  In her typical manner – that I do love about her; don’t get me wrong – she stated, “Well you know God owns all the money in the world, so He can give you whatever you need.” 

While I do believe that wholeheartedly, it is actually the reason I am staying at CLH for at least another semester.  (As opposed to another job because I still can’t go back to school.) But this is a good laugh for me.  Because what she said is true.  God does own all the money in the world.  Which is why I was able to go to Africa.  And why I have employers who have given me a steady, secure job that I have basically had to learn the field as I’ve gone along for. 
So I have to believe it’s why I had to leave college. 
He’s hasn’t allowed me a way back yet.

Over the last 4 months, I’ve been learning the ropes to the “real world.”  You know, the one they always talked about in high school.  I’ve learned to take responsibility, to save and budget,  to suffer, to be proud of my work, to breathe, to panic, to bounce back, to pay bills, to plan, and then re-work the plan on a daily basis because circumstances never stop altering. 

What I witnessed today helped me to realize that this is how He’s been refining me since I drove out of Columbia in November. 

I had a doctor’s appointment so I kept the car and planned to pick my mom up from work afterwards.  Only an hour after I’d been at work, I got a text from her that said I might have to come get her sooner because her firm was dissolving and that she didn’t know if she had a job anymore.  

A lot of things ran through my head in that moment.  Like how this is the kind of thing that happens in movies.  Or how I could imagine people rioting at her office, employees punching the partners or picketing or burning fax machines and the such.  But mostly how beyond all the angry people at the office, what was going to happen to my family?

I had all day to think about it (on the car ride to the doctor, waiting in the office, on the way to pick up my little brother from school), until she finally came home and told us exactly what happened.  She explained the dirty details of the partners’ decision, how hundreds of secretaries were left out of the loop until it came to the disastrous spreading of a rumor today, that they shortly found out was entirely true.  She explained that she couldn’t give much more information, because even she didn’t know.  She couldn’t say when her last day would be, or if she is even getting her check this payday.   Life circumstances.  Dramatically altered, from one day to the next, no warning. 

I couldn’t help but sit there as she described her day, the initial panic to what I saw as calmness before me, and remember that day in my dorm when I realized I was in way over my head with that bill.  And it hit me right then.   He has so much to teach me still.  Because I was still here, making plans for me, and my money.  And now it’s changed again.  And whether it’s to show me in stark contrast how steadfast or unchanging He is, or if it’s to teach me patience, or if it’s to continue to make me surrender, I accept it humbly. 
And I don’t think it’s because I’m strong or brave or awesome.
I may be any (or all of those things ;)), but I am broken first.

Just Breathe

"2 A.M. and I'm still awake writing this song; if I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me, threatening the life it belongs to. And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd 'cause these words are my diary screaming out loud and I know that you'll use them however you want to."

When I go into one of my panic attacks, Brian has to remind me to do what is supposed to come naturally to me.  Sometimes, I am so overcome with panic that I lose control of what I'm saying or doing.  Or not doing.  

I don't think I have a disorder, but I'm not a doctor.  And I do know this isn't normal, but it's common.  I've gone back and forth in the past 3 months, questioning whether or not something is really wrong with me.  More than that, I have often been too ashamed to face the reality that this is my present glory: brokenness; His glory.  And that shame only adds to the anxiety.

I've learned that this anxiety thing can be pretty cyclic.  One anxiety attack leads to more anxiety which leads to another anxiety attack, which leads to more anxiety and so on and so forth.  It isn't easy to accept that this is just the way things are going to be for now.  The Lord knows I fight it.  And He also knows how I fail.

Most of the time, I have no idea what triggers my attack in the middle of a seemingly-ordinary day.  It's this day-by-day, sometimes moment-by-moment uncertainty of being fine one minute, and coming entirely undone the next.  By the time I realize that my stomach is twisting and my chest is aching, my body is beginning to shake as I've already stopped breathing properly.  

And when Brian reminds me to breathe, it's always the moment that my conscious mind can faintly hear above my subconscious cries that I've lost this minor, and yet at the same time major, grip on reality.  

I can't remember to breathe.

Maya Angelou once said,

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

I run into the unwanted answer over and over again that healing takes both time, and screaming my diary out to anyone who will listen, and I believe that my battle is every bit spiritual that it is mental (and physical).  I think I stop physically breathing sometimes because my mind gives my body the impression that it isn't supposed to stop; I've forgotten how to take breaks.  In all these years of running, and holding on,  and hiding, and holding out, I've forgotten-- or maybe never even learned-- to be still and accept being fought for.   

When I am alone with my anxiety, I find myself in the midst of an attack pretending that I can faithfully wish the panic away.  But when Brian is there to see them, I am made more aware of the fact that wishing isn't really doing the trick.  He prays for me in that moment; sometimes I let him hold me, and sometimes I don't.  But more recently, he's been reading Psalm 27 to me even when I push him away because I told him that a friend of mine reads it to another friend of mine who has been suffering extreme anxiety as well.  If it takes him a few repetitions, he still catches my attention with the same verse every time.

You have said, "Seek My face."  My heart says to You, "Your face, Lord, do I seek." -27:8

My heart has to speak.  Because my mind is a mess.  

I have a follow up appointment with my doctor next week, and while I know that she will only remind me that even from a medical standpoint, healing takes time, I have the temptation to wish that she will put some plugs in my head and fix the little hiccups in my brain.  But for as long as it has taken and will continue to take to unfold this story inside me that is not even mine, I let myself be reminded to breathe, and just breathe.  

Because my Father is fighting for me.

Relentless

So that last post must have left everyone (all 2 of the occasional accidental browsers that hit my page) with so much hope for my return... and then I dropped off the planet again. 

Would it suffice if I simply said I've been waiting for the proper time to strike with an entertaining and worthy re-entering? 

No?  Okay, well that's fine because I don't have a Hollywood entrance for you. 

In all actuality, I don't have anything exciting to offer.  I have indulged in and very much enjoyed my hiatus.  And this post is in no way a promise that I am going to "re-join the world."  We can tell how seriously I take that notion by my use of that phrase two months ago, and the hours and depth of words between it and this post (sarcasm).  

The truth is that I just haven't had it in me.  I haven't had much of anything to give.  To myself, to my Community, to my God... and if I'm coming up empty before my God, there's just nothing to pour out into writing.  In the last month, I have found myself stumbling across articles or blog posts that pull at my soul, that cause my thoughts to race, that evoke almost anti-apathetic opinions that put me just along the brink of sharing it with everyone and no one on the internet. But at the end of the day, I ignore my laptop's judgment of me from across the room as I turn the TV on in the evening to let my brain go blank.   

I did read pieces of a blog today, though.   It was about a woman's struggle with alcohol addiction  and that's why I'm here. 

Before you get all excited to share some juicy piece of gossip with someone else about me, realize that you're slandering my name and Paul said not to do that.  But also that I don't attend AA... because I am not addicted to alcohol.  Had you on the edge of your seat for a second there, though, didn't I?  I do in fact have an addiction; and mine's not so specific.  I'm addicted to sin-- just sin in general.  A sin of worldliness that encompasses much more than a specific issue that I can attend a meeting once a week for (not that by any means that's all it takes to 'cure' Alcoholism).  But I am very much romanced by, and involved with, the world.   

I might have to schedule different meetings every night of the week to cure my worldliness.  Monday night, I'll schedule a support group for self-righteousness.  Tuesday for apathy.  Wednesday I'll reserve for doubt.  Thursday for materialistic and shallow lust.  And Friday for my selfishness.  And even as I could fight with my pride long enough to keep that up week after week, I would get nowhere without acknowledging and accepting the Grace Jesus poured out over my life when He trusted God's goodness and faithfulness enough to willingly be mounted on the cross.  And that thought occurred to me as I read blog post after blog post by the "Christian drunk".   

It was in that particular phrasing that I had one of those 'a-ha!' moments.  No matter how often, intense, or pre-meditated the offense is, we are all Christian [fill-in-the-blank-with-something-horrendously-offensive-to-God-and-shameful]s.  You and me, we are Christian Sinners.  Oxymoronic?  Maybe.  But maybe not.   

Last week, at the SIUE I Agree With {Brian} Campaign
(where I was immensely proud of my stud of a boyfriend for being a faithful little broken servant before the masses), there was a panel discussion in which CRU invited believers, non-believers, and skeptics all alike to ask questions about Jesus and the Gospel.  Things they were confused about or had been challenged by, controversy that had burned them in churches past, and all around some of the most popular misconceptions about what Jesus actually came here to say and do.   

There were a lot of really hard questions and, more often than not, simple curiosity combatting with more skepticism.  Of course, I was there to support Brian.  But out of the whole night, one question stood out to me.  In context, a girl stood up and asked about Forgiveness-- simply put, if someone who hadn't forgiven an abuser (sexual, in this case) would go to hell.  The panel began to answer, and the questions continued; it became more like a conversation and I was sitting there thinking that I'd like to be on the panel in that moment.  I could answer.  I had a good answer.  And then she asked: 

"And what about him (the abuser)?  Are you saying that if he apologized and repented for what he had done, he'd just get off scotch-free?  That he would get to go to Heaven and be there with the person who hadn't done anything wrong (the abused)?"    

Initially distracted by her small blunder ["scotch-free"], I almost missed the last question.  But  I was humbled in the moment, and in more way than having to repent for my grammatical judgment on her.  Both the abused and the abuser, having equally accepted the shame (created and received), will stand before God all the same.  Both, repenting for any and all of life's sin, are accepted and beloved, sought after and won -- by God.   

And that is a relentless love.  The Love that fights to convince His daughter that she is pure and worthy, that she is lovely and honorable despite anything she's been shown before now.  And the Love that fights to convince His son that he is redeemed and forgiven, that he is pure and honorable, as well, despite anything he's been told before now.  

better be prepared to be surprised

This is the part where I re-join the world.

---

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”  - Martin Luther King Jr

---

It’s impossible to explain where I’ve been, mostly because I’d have to be sure where it was before I even began to search for words… and I can’t say that I’m sure. 

What’s important now is that I’m here.
No looking back.
That’s where I’ve started this semester.
Not looking back.

I decided a total change was in store for the little safe-haven I’d created in this blog.  Because I knew there was definitely no going back to the way that it was before. And not just here, but in my life.  It hit me yesterday when I received  two emails from MU senders.The first one was from a Grad student, offering me the opportunity to help with her dissertation that involved direct observation of teacher/student behavior.  More hands-on research;
too good to be true.  Well it wasn’t.
  I thought of how great it would be to take her up on that offer, get my name heard in the Department of
Counseling Psychology.
But I had to turn it down. 
Can’t work in a city I no longer live in.

A little after receiving that one, I saw another in my inbox.
This one was for the fast-lane to apply for a
paid undergraduate research internship
that I qualified for because  I had already been a part of their prep program that I had been accepted into my freshman year.
but I had to turn that down, too.
Can’t work for a school I no longer attend.

But I think the important thing I had to realize was that I couldn’t sit there and be upset.  Because life is happening. 
It’s moving now. 
& if I keep turning around to look at what was or what
could have been |would have been| should have been,
I’ll miss it.
Everything He told me I’d be.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 
                       Are you not of more value than they?”
                                           -- Matthew 6:25-26

it’s alarming when I really think about it. 
how He takes care of us.

And that’s all I can prepare myself for at this point.
To be surprised.