GoG 3: The Pearl

"The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it."
Matthew 13:45-46

Today's sermon was God's grace in action for me. Pastor Roger spoke about "being all in" last week, and this week he expanded on this message by reminding us that in being all in, we should consider God to be that pearl of great value just as He considers us His pearl of great value.

God's grace, in this circumstance, is the fact that God sent Jesus to die. Jesus went and sold all He had and bought us by dying on the cross for our sins. We are His pearl of great value. I am God's pearl. Man, that is exciting!

But part of God's grace in this story is my response. Now that I know the sacrifice Jesus made so that I could be His, how am I going to respond to that sacrifice? And that's where being all in comes into the picture. Everday, I must put away my selfish ambitions and say "yes!" to the heart and mind and life that God not only has for me but wants me to live for His glory.

God's grace is that He not only gave up everything for me, but He also loves me so much that He won't allow me to stay the way I am.

So what will our response be?

GoG 2: The Best Medicine

Laughter is one of the greatest things in the world. Next to my salvation, God's grace and faithfulness, and the amazing relationships in my life, laughter is the greatest gift I believe there to be in the whole world! I also have quite the knack for it. It doesn't take much to get me laughin' so hard I can't stop. :D It's just a ton of fun to laugh!

Today, I got a glimpse of God's grace through laughter. My mom and dad and my brother and me were sitting in Chic-fil-e eating lunch, and after we all finished, we sat for a few minutes. All of a sudden, my dad said "So ... in an emergency, where should you go?" And we all busted out laughing with groans and "oh no, not again's" on our lips. He just looked over at us and smiled really big. ... You had to be there to really know why that's funny .... it was pretty great. We all laughed pretty hard about it.

If you know my dad, he's pretty cautious ... likes to have a plan for everything ... and really wants to make sure his family is safe - ya know, dad stuff. But he's also repetitive and sometimes a bit obnoxious with it all. But our minor annoyance almost always turns to humor because my dad is just such a character. Gotta love him! .... Well, more than once in the past year he has brought up the issue of where to go in an emergency that rips our house apart. Unlikely, yes. But not improbable. But dad bringing it up multiple times and in such a serious way ... it makes us, as a family, laugh and sometimes, roll our eyes at him.

For him to ask it at the moment he did was priceless. Out of the blue. In a fisicious manner. Ha! It just got all of us laughing ... which eventually, led to more and more laughing. :)

Proverbs 17:22
A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

See, it's true! Being happy, excited, laughing out loud is so good for us! And God allows us to laugh ... He not only allows us but enables us to laugh ... He even wants us to laugh! :) He considers it medicine to heal our depressed and weary and growing faint spirits. Man. God is the coolest! :) Again, this is His grace in action. He loves us so much that He not only enables us to experience laughter, but He prescribes it for our everyday lives even though we never deserve the joy that laughter brings. ..... Good stuff.

Have you laughed today? :D

GoG 1: The "all in" 2010

Alright. So we have officially started our journey! Today is January 1, 2010! Wow ... I just wrote 2009 and had to backspace. Ha! Erasing that '09' and replacing it with '10' has begun! ;) And our journey through God's grace has begun as well. I say 'we' 'cause you're gonna come with me! If you read my blog, you are (hopefully) experiencing God's grace as well in every blog post. So let's get started!

Today, I had a simple thought that helped me get a glimpse of God's grace in my life. Most of the glimpses this year will be simple, I'm sure ... because I'm a simple person. :) It's the simple things that make me the most excited much of the time. .... Today, I was brushing my teeth, getting ready for a cold day of football with some good friends ... and I stopped brushing in the middle of this thought ...

I was thinking about last night. I met with some close friends for a New Year's Eve get-together. We played games, ate some good food, and laughed a lot together. It was a good time. While I was there, though, I got to thinking about how my friendships with these friends have grown a little distant lately. They are, without a doubt, some of my best friends, but we haven't spent much time together lately ... or really talked much either. We've all just been so busy! So we haven't had (or made) the time to nurture our friendships recently. And that's where the thought started. While I was brushing my teeth, my mind connected this thought with my relationship with Jesus. ..... When I don't spend time with Him, our relationship becomes a bit distant. Just like my best friends and I haven't been staying in touch as well and have grown a little distant, so has my relationship with Jesus become distant because I haven't been really communing with Him for several months.

It's so true. Relationship is about togetherness. It's about that word communion that I threw at y'all in an earlier post ... it's about "an interchange of thoughts, about giving and receiving" ... things you can't do if you don't spend time with one another.

On Sunday, my pastor continued our study of the book of John, and toward the end of his sermon, he said three little words that I want to dedicate my life to this 2010.

I'm all in.

Yep ... this year, I want to wake up each day with "I'm all in" on my lips. I want to say "Lord, I'm yours. Use me. Mold me. Break me if need be. Just do your work in my life today. I want to be all for you." And part of that ... if not nearly all of it ... is communing with God. I can't be "all in" if I don't spend time with God. So that be the goal. :) That be the grace God showed me today. God wants to be in relationship with me. He's been calling. He's been waiting. Which is grace in action. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. I don't deserve a God who wants to be in relationship with me so badly that He'll wait forever for me to come around if He needs to. He patiently waits at the door of my heart, gently knocking, saying "If you'd only let me in, you could have a life more abundant than you could ever imagine."

God's grace. Thank you, Jesus.
So today and everyday, Lord ... I'm all in.

John 10:10
... "Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly."

Glimpses of Grace Project 2010

Hello, everyone! I'm back! I've been pretty lax with my posting lately. Just really busy ... really distracted ... really unmotivated - in what seems like everything. And being on Christmas break doesn't help. ;) But I'm looking forward to this Spring semester. I am finally a college grad!!! I am working as the youth director at my church!!! I am working at after school again!!! The writing center!!! And I'm exercising!!! So once I get my butt in gear as far as seeking Christ with all I am, my life will be complete!!! I'm working on it. Being inconsistent for a long time makes it rough to get back into the habit. Jesus is the biggest part of me - my L I F E ! So what's my problem? .... Again, I'm working on it. :)

So ... to say all of that ... I am gonna start a project for 2010 that I pray will help me refocus on the big picture - Jesus as the center of my life! Or rather Jesus AS MY LIFE! :D

For those who love to follow my blog, get ready! 2010 is gonna be an amazing ride! I'm pretty excited about it! The project is called "Glimpses of Grace." And here's what I'm thinkin' ....

A couple weeks ago, a pretty great lady from my church was handing out books to our small group. She had a plastic bag full of books, and we could all take one. My initial reaction was "A book? Are you kidding me? I don't like to read." But I looked through the bag and stumbled across a book called "Glimpses." I opened it up to find some of the coolest pictures ever with corresponding Bible verses. The photographer took pictures that "revealed God's glory in the ordinary." Glimpses: Seeing God's Glory Revealed in the Ordinary. That's the name of this short, little book full of pictures and verses.

Well ... I was completely intrigued. I really like photography (even though my hands are shaky, and I'm not all that great at taking pictures ... haha!). And I really like putting God's word into the aspects of my life. So I thought (think) this book was (is) amazing!

Now ... something totally unrelated ... have y'all seen the movie Julie and Julia? It came out recently ... a movie about Julie (a modern woman who loves to cook) and Julia Child (the first television cook). Anyway ... in this movie, Julie decides to start a blog(!) and set out on a mission to cook every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook in one year. 524 recipes in 365 days ... something like that. And then she blogged about her cooking adventures every single day. .... Overall, I wasn't oober (uber ... don't ya like the two o's better?) ;) impressed with the movie. But I really liked her idea to set a goal and blog about it.

So that's what I plan to do.

I'm gonna integrate these two ideas and set out on a 365-day journey through God's grace .... and then blog about it! .... I will set out - each day - LOOKING FOR glimpses of God's grace in my everyday life, and then I'll blog about it. My goal is to blog every single day, but on the days that I (may) miss a posting, I'll catch up the next day. I WILL blog 365 posts this year! It be my greatest goal ... or rather, project ... for 2010.

And that be it. :)

Glimpses of Grace Project 2010 ... coming January 1, 2010!!!!!!! :D

Simple Joys: Part 2 :)

Joy is such an amazing gift from the Lord!

I wanna bask in it again tonight!

So here are some "simple joys" I've experienced this week ....

We'll call this Simple Joys: Part 2.

Sunday:

~ The humbling experience at the ice skating rink with friends ... not only can I not skate, but I fell down within the first 10 minutes! Josh and Alec were the only ones who got to see it too. Ha ha!

~ Little Barrett grabbing my hand and holding it during our entire walk to Monument Circle.

Tuesday:

~ Getting the best haircut of my life! And getting a hug from Kayla afterwards :)

~ Seeing that most of the shirts I bought at Old Navy said "Small" on the size tag.

~ Meeting with the Common Ground youth pastors and getting a hug from Jeremy Wright.

Wednesday:

~ Having Mathanael as my buddy at after school - piggy back rides, sitting on my lap while I helped him with his homework, him asking me to sit next to him during Bible time ... ah! Life is good :)

~ Getting hugs from Diazaun and KeAndre as I left after school.

~ Getting a "bye, Mical" from Mr. James as I headed out the door at after school.

Thursday:

~ Having a really good tutoring session in which I helped an English Composition student expand his ideas and narrow his thesis.

~ Helping Mathanael with his math homework.

~ Racing Diazuan with his math problems - he won.

Friday:

~ Lunch with Maggie and Hannah.

~ Getting an uplifting e-mail from Alex.

I wanna pay closer attention to the simple joys in my life!!!! God is so good! :)

Communing with God

So it's been awhile, eh?

I think it's been awhile since my last post because I haven't been consistent in my relationship with Jesus lately. A lot, if not most, of my thoughts on this blog have to do with my walk with the Lord ... and well, I haven't really been growing lately. And I haven't been growing because I haven't been consistent in my walk. Therefore, no thoughts to blog about.

So here are a few thoughts I'd like to post ... and I'm hoping that writing 'em down will help motivate me to work on them a little harder.

I spoke at the Danville Middle School FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes/Anybodies) a couple weeks ago, and the following thoughts are what I shared with them. I admitted the same lack of motivation to them. I admitted that I am just not motivated to spend time with the Lord these days. And I don't know why. It is starting to weigh on me though ... or rather, Jesus is really starting to convict me about it.

So here's what I'm thinking ....

In light of my lack of motivation, I decided to think about why it's important to spend time with God ... and not just spend time with Him but spend quality time with Him - communing with Him.

Communing with God

Communion - "fellowship; interchange of thoughts or interests;

a state of giving and receiving."

Now that we know what communion is .... why is communing with God so important?

I'm gonna share 5 reasons with you.

In no way is this an exhaustive list, but it's a good start. :)

#1 - RELATIONSHIP

Communing with God means having a meaningful relationship with Him. When we become Christians, we develop a relationship with God. .... Think of your best friend. Think of any friend that you have. Can you be in relationship with them if you don't spend time with them?

#2 - THE GLORY OF GOD

Glory - "the highest degree of pleasure; satisfaction; pride."

As Christians, we should want to bring joy (or pleasure) to God. We should want Him to be proud of us. Don't you want God to be proud of you? I know I do! Being in relationship with God makes Him proud of us because we are living out the calling He placed on our lives. And that calling is, simply put, to live in relationship with Him. Communing with God satisfies His desire for us to be in relationship with Him.

#3 - ATTITUDE

I don't know about you, but when I don't spend time with God, the first sin that I fall into is having a bad attitude ... more specifically, being impatient ... with everything! I also don't live in joy because when I don't spend time with God, I lose my sense of purpose. My purpose in life is to be in relationship with Jesus Christ. When I do not spend time with Jesus, I lose my joy.

#4 - LACK PURPOSE

I've said it .... at least twice now.

Being in a relationship with Jesus is our purpose in life.

God created us to glorify Him. God created us so that we could be in relationship with Him and so that He could be in relationship with us. So when we don't spend time with Jesus, we have no reason to live - we have nothing to live for.

#5 - FIND GOD'S COMMANDS/PROMISES

When we spend time with God (read God's word and talk with Him), we know how He wants us to live. We know how to honor God with our lives. And when we know how to honor God, we know how to live out our purpose because honoring God is our purpose. We can also find God's promises and learn to hold on to them in good and bad times.

So what does all of this mean? Or rather ... how do we do this? How do we commune with God?

The first step???

Denying ourselves.

Then Jesus said to the disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life."

Matthew 16:24-25

Whew! Now that's a load of conviction!!! "You must put aside your selfish ambition." Wow. 'Cause that's what it really boils down to ... and Jesus knows it. When I choose to be inconsistent in my walk with the Lord ... when I choose to watch a movie instead of reading my Bible or turn on my iPod instead of talking to God ... I am putting ON my selfish ambition rather than putting it ASIDE! Man. That's rough.

But that's what Jesus asks ... what He demands of us. What He demands of ME. That's what it takes to be His follower.

So it looks like I've got some work to do, huh?

Let's start over today ... right now.

Lord, help me put aside my selfish ambition and follow You with all my heart and mind and life! Be the center of me. Give me an undying passion for You. Be glorified in me!

Simple Joys :)

Yesterday, on my way to school, I saw a boy dancing while he was waiting for his bus to pick him up for school. It was the best thing I'd seen all week! And it got me thinking about simple things that bring me so much joy. So I decided to watch for simple joys throughout the day all day yesterday ... and here's what I observed. :)

On my way to school:

~ The boy dancing at the bus stop.

~ The way the sun and the clouds worked together to create another one of God's paintings in the sky! .... A piercing orange-colored sun beneath pink and purple clouds! Oh, it was gorgeous! A great way to start off the day! :)

~ Watching the leaves fall as I walked to class.

At after school:

~ Whishae grabbing my hand and holding it.

~ Whishae giving me a big smile.

~ Mathanael saying his Bible verse.

~ Helping little George with his math homework. He connected the dots to create his numbers, and after he finished, we raised our arms and shouted, "yeahhh!!!!"

~ Getting a huge hug from George.

~ Hearing the other leaders at after school say I was doing great things to help out with the crazy, little guy - George. He's a hyper, little 5-year-old who was new to after school this week.

At Kroger:

~ Standing and waiting for a hug from Emily when we met to pick up dinner and a movie.

~ Laughing with Emily.

None of these things are super extravagant or amazingly exciting to the everyday person, perhaps .... but they are most certainly simple joys that brought tremendous joy to my life yesterday!

Look for the simple joys in life! You will never go wrong!!!! Praise the Lord for His tremendous yet simple blessings! :)

Addin' to the Bucket!

MICAL'S BUCKET LIST (Not necessarily in this order) J

#1 - Hike through New Zealand!!!

#2 - Run a mini marathon.

#3 - Read through the Bible at least 3 times .... once in my NIV, once in a ESV, and once in my wide-margin NASB.

#4 - Learn to play bar chords on my guitar.

#5 - Take swing dancing lessons!

#6 - Marry an oober godly guy!

#7 – Have at least 4 kids and homeschool them.

#8 - Take a 3-day trip of silence and solitude!

#9 - Visit my sponsored child.

#10 - Read all of Mere Christianity.

#11 – Take a BBF trip to the Bosom Buddies Cottages in Canada with Emily!!!

#12 – Be a waitress.

Wanted: Jones Soda Bottles

Jones Soda! I am in need of Jones Soda bottles!

If you drink Jones Soda, keep your bottles ... and please let me have 'em!

If you're willing to give 'em up ... give me a call or shoot me an e-mail, and I'll pick 'em up from you! They are muchly needed and muchly appreciated!

Thanks, fellow blogger friends! :)

Braggin' about My Brother :)

My brother came home today. He goes to school in Evansville. And while he was home, he told my dad and me a story.

He went to a party on Friday night .... there was drinking. My brother doesn't drink. But his roommate drank a bit too much. Wes only stopped by for a few minutes ... to say hi to a friend. .... Shortly after they got back to their apartment, his roommate starts sobbing and telling Wes how awful his life has been, how bad things have happened, how hurt and lonely he had been. My brother didn't really know what to do or what to say .... but when his roommate talked about how lonely and unhappy he was, my brother started telling this guy about Jesus!!! Wes told me and my dad ... "As soon as he started talking about how lonely he was, I knew I had to talk to him about Christ." ... Wes got to share his testimony with his roommate on Friday night. When I asked him for the details ... "So what did you say?" ... he said ... "I just told him about my freedom in Christ. I always say things like, 'don't sweat it' to him, and I was able to tell him why I say that all the time. I told him I don't get worked up about things 'cause I have Christ in my life. I'm a happy, confident guy because I have Him." (Okay ... so that's not word-for-word ... but it's a pretty good paraphrase.) :) .... Wes also said that his roommate told him that he really appreciates Wes' friendship. And his roommate told him, nearly word-for-word .... "You're not only my friend, you're my role-model. I watch the way you live your life, Wes, and I try to live that way." .... Wow! What a compliment!!!!

Gosh. I was so proud of him! I AM so proud of him!!!! He's told more than one story about this kind of thing since he got into college a couple years ago. He's really grown in the Lord, and I am just so excited to get little glimpses of it here and there. :)

Really, the more I hear about all that he's accomplishing by his godly example ... the more I watch his consistency in character and dedication to the things he's passionate about and the discipline he has ... I want to be just like him. He has really grown up over the past few years, and I am incredibly proud of him. The more I think about it ... I'm with his roommate on this one!!!! Wes is more than my brother, he is one of my role-models too. :)

Precious Moments in My Heart's Desire

After school today at Eastside Church of the Nazarene.

I help out at after school every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon ... it's a program through Shepherd Community Center on the Eastside of Indianapolis.

These amazing kids from the inner city, along with my SoZo kids, are some of the greatest blessings of my life! I am so in love with them that I don't know what to do with myself!!!! ..... I live for after school! I live for SoZo time! God has given me such a passion for these kids and youth! He's given me such a passion for kids and teens in general! And I just can't contain myself anymore!!! :) I'm soooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright ... all of that said .... I'm calming down ... but only a little. I want to share some moments at after school today because they are so precious to me. :)

I love when the kids yell my name .... "Miss Mical!!!!" .... when they come through the doors. I love when the kids say "Bye, Miss Mical!" as they leave after school each day. I love hugs from the kids.

But today, I got some extra precious blessings. :)

KeAndre is 8.

He has corn rows and the cutest little face in the world ... oh, and a smile to die for!

Today, as we sat down for Bible study, he saw me sit at a separate table, and immediately, he got up and said, "I'm gonna sit with Miss Mical." He grabbed his folder and his book bag and plopped down in the seat next to me.

I think my heart melted a little.

A little later, he said, "high five!" ... so I gave him a high five, and he smiled at me. Again ... this little guy has a smile that is priceless! He asked for a couple high fives this afternoon. Made me smile really big. :D And I think my heart melted even more. :)

I met a little girl named Whishae today. Yes ... her name is spelled just like that. I had to ask her a couple different times throughout the afternoon to make sure I got it right. I asked her how to spell it; I said it over and over to myself (and her). She is a gorgeous little girl and KeAndre's cousin. They bantered all afternoon. It was too funny to watch.

At the end of the day when she was leaving, I yelled after her and KeAndre ... "Bye, KeAndre! Bye, Whishae!" And she said, "you remembered!!" She was excited that I remembered her name and that I said it right. And for a little girl whom you just met about 2 hours earlier to get excited that you (Mical Masterson) know her name?? Oh! I was so excited!

Lastly, there is a little boy named Mathanael; he is 7. He has a mohawk and a broken arm from football. And yes, his name is Mathanael with an "M" instead of a "N." He goes by Mat. And today, he invited me to draw with him. We ended up tracing our hands and making a Thanksgiving turkey. (It's a bit early for that, but that's what he wanted to draw ... how could I say no?) He traced my hand, and I traced his. And he walked me through how to draw a face and the feathers, and then we colored our turkeys together. This simple invite was such a joy. I've got the picture hanging up on my bedroom wall.

Gosh. These kids are just too amazing! And our God is just beyond amazing for allowing me to love on them every week. Life is not life until you can work in your passion on a regular basis!!! And I'm praying that one day I can work in my passion day in and day out. Oh, what a blessing! I don't deserve these kids. I don't deserve my SoZo kids. But God's grace is just that amazing! Oh! My life is complete! :)

"Does he even grow facial hair?!"

I was on campus again yesterday, and I walked by this guy who was on his phone ... and I heard him say, "That was pretty much the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my entire life." It made me laugh a little on the inside.

I passed him wondering what he could be talking about.

It made me think of a funny "overhearing a comment" story that Jesse Smith shared with me and Jared Wade and a group of us friends a while back. He said he was standing next to someone ... at a bank or the store or some place ... and all of a sudden he hears the guy in front of him say, "Well, that's what you get for having 9 kids!" .... I guess the guy said it fairly loud. And Jesse got the biggest kick out of it. Jesse is just hilarious anyway, and he's good at telling stories ... so the story was pretty funny. .... It's one of those "you had to be there" moments, but if you have a good sense of humor or you just laugh a lot, I'm sure you can find the humor in that ... and in my chuckling about the "disgusting thing ever" comment from the guy on the phone.

It just tickled my funny bone a bit ...

But the second comment I heard later in the day was better.

I was sitting in the campus center ... lots of people were passing by. I was reading a book when all of a sudden, I hear someone nearly yell, "Does he even grow facial hair?!" ... Again, I wondered what this girl could've been talking about. Ha! And I think I laughed out loud for that one.

So I wrote these two quotes down in my agenda and thought to myself, "I'm gonna blog about this." I just got a laugh out of 'em. Hope you do too.

Good times! :)