Just another day

Today was a day. It was an ordinary day. A day just like yesterday. A day just like tomorrow.

Every day is just that. A day.

It has 24 hours.

It has 1,440 minutes.

It has 86,400 seconds.

And once it counts down to the last second...it's gone. Forever.

What make a day extraordinary or awesome or "the best"?  Is it because the day has magically or mysteriously become longer or shorter to suit your needs?  Is it because you tried out someone else's day? Is it because you relaxed and slept all day or was it because you ran a marathon and are exhausted?

Because after all, it's still just a day.

Today my day was filled with people remembering, people loving selflessly, people participating, cheering, praying, singing, laughing, hugs...lots of hugging.  I watched a couple who were visiting from Iceland jump into frigid waters at Lake Anne to help raise money for people they didn't know or would ever meet. I received a check from a woman in Illinois to go to the same cause. I watched people up and down the East coast release balloons in memory of a little boy gone too soon.  Another family on the other side of the globe remembered him too.

Today may have just been another day to many, but for me it was full. I stepped out of myself and into God's heart to love on others, to support them, to talk with them, to pray for them, to let them know they matter deeply not only to me but also to many others.

This is not to bring attention to myself. I am forever amazed at how I am the one blessed when I love on others even in the simplest act of being present to support someone during an event that took months to plan or releasing a balloon.

Me? Myself? I am the one blessed BEYOND measure simply because I looked outside of my selfish human nature? That is a miracle that can make ANY day an EXTRAORDINARY day.

And when the seconds count down and the day is gone forever, the moments my heart captured today will live on and remind me that there will be days I need to live outside of myself and step into God's heart to see the world through His eyes.

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If you would like a glimpse of my day or would like to participate in any of it, feel free to scroll down and join in.

• Birthday Balloon release:

Print out the tag and attach to a balloon celebrating Brody. Don't worry if his birthday passed. Do it anyway.  The family will appreciate it. However, if you decide not to or can't please visit his Virtual Memorial and sign the guestbook: 

Brody Teegan Rodriguez

Thank you.

• Polar Plunge: Freezin' for a Reason to benefit Camp Sunshine

Camp Sunshine is an AMAZING organization. You can read more about it on the Plunge pledge page. Feel free to donate to today's jump and start planning to attend next year's.  Do a little digging around and you'll find wonderful people who do great work. One of my best friends heads up the fundraiser and her family volunteers at the camp every year:  

Freezin' for a Reason....brrrr!

Thank you.

Blessings for your day,

Happy New Year!

I love butterflies.

I don't mean in the little girl, pretty delicate pink and yellow polka dotted butterflies with sparkles. I mean the gorgeous beauties in nature that fight with every beat of their wings to survive. Most especially I love the Monarch.

I love everything about these beautiful creatures.

I will tell you why.

But not today.

Today I will tell you of one verse.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Cor 5:17)

What a wonderful truth to remember as we ring in the New Year with all the grace He has given us!  Celebrate it. Embrace it. Live it.

Blessings for your new year, 

Opening the mind...and heart

I certainly hope you enjoyed visiting with me while we read Why the Nativity? by David Jeremiah before Christmas. I did. I really, really did.

If you recall, what I loved most was reading his words that painted pictures in my mind and took me back to ancient Palestine.  I believe those images opened my thought process and truly helped prepare my heart for the powerful message of the Nativity.

Now I'm at it again. This time with another author; however, this author is quoting several writings from 1st century Jews and other scholars and writers, while taking me on a trip to understand the culture and perception of the time surrounding Jesus and his contemporaries.

For me personally, it's really mind blowing and also enlightening. And I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

One of the quotes in this book says exactly what I have felt about studying the bible properly in order to truly understand what is being said. As a note, remember what I wrote about looking too close and not enjoying the forest because you're focused on examining bark and only bark. There is a time and place for everything.

But I digress.

Here it is:

"to grab a few lines of Jesus and drop them down on someone 2,000 years later without first entering into the world in which they appeared is lethal to the life and vitality and truth of the Bible."

Did you catch that? Lethal. 

Lethal to the...truth.

Woah.

I'm already almost half way done with this book and the deeper I dig the more I'm discovering on my own.  If I've peaked your interest and you want to know what I'm reading I'll tell you.  Actually, if you don't care stop reading here because I'm going to tell you anyway...silly.

Just know one thing, I've been told all my life I'm a perpetual student and I get bored easily if I'm not challenged.  So with that said, don't be surprised because I've traveled from Why the Nativity? by David Jeremiah to Erasing Hell by Francis Chan.

If that didn't give you whiplash, then you know me all too well.

Blessings for your day,

Merry Christmas!

Blessings for your day,

Preparing for Christmas - 12.23.2011

There is so much I could personally say about today's chapter from this power packed little book we are going through. As a matter of fact, it's really not the book that has me overwhelmed and overjoyed. It's how the deep corners of my heart are being filled with the blessing being poured out during this season.

It's something completely intangible.

It's something both skeptics and believers alike have difficulty understanding.

It's something so beyond my comprehension and my desire to be logical that it makes my brain hurt.

And yet, I can "feel" it.

It.

The unexplainable, inexplicable, unbelievable, what cannot be seen or heard.

It.

Or just maybe...Who?

I try to wrap my mind around the danger in asking the question and I'm simply blown away at how desperately my heart wants to hear the answers...again, and again, and again.

From David Jeremiah's book, Why the Nativity?

December 23: Why Did Jesus Come?

This is probably the longest chapter his book. Not because it is filled with convincing arguments or a well rehearsed speech that is carefully typed out for the reader to follow and understand "it". Dr. Jeremiah lays out verses of scripture and then describes ideas and thoughts and examples everyone of us can understand. He goes over them as if reciting the chef's specials at a five star restaurant. You can almost envision on the plate in front of you what your ears are hearing and you just KNOW it's going to be amazing...every single bite.

However, you still have to choose to be present and sit and listen.

"The news is so good, so outrageously wonderful, that the world finds it difficult to believe."

I'm not going to lay out what David Jeremiah wrote in his book. It's like the choosing and the tasting in the world's finest restaurant. I can tell you all I want at how good it is but until you sit down for yourself and savor it, you will never know how outrageously wonderful "it" is.

Get the book. Read and get curious. Ask the questions. Ask your own questions.  Sit and chew on every morsel of discovery.

Don't delay. Your table awaits.
Why the Nativity?