Fail

I just finished re-reading one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors, and wanted to share these words with you. Because they are beautiful and true.

Excerpt from A Million Miles In a Thousand Year, by Donald Miller:

I realized that for years I’d thought of love as something that would complete me, make all my troubles go away. I worshiped at the altar of romantic completion. And it had cost me, plenty of times. And it had cost most of the girls I’d dated, too, because I wanted  them to be something they couldn’t be. It’s too much pressure to put on a person. I think that’s why so many couples fight, because they want their partners to validate and affirm them, and if they don’t get that, they feel as though they’re going to die. But it’s a terrible thing to wake up and realize the person you just finished crucifying didn’t turn out to be Jesus.

I was interviewing my friend Susan Isaacs… She said she had married a guy, and he was just a guy. He wasn’t going to make all her problems go away, because he was just a guy. And that freed her to really love him as a guy, not as an ultimate problem solver. And because her husband believed she was just a girl, he was free to really love her too. Neither needed the other to make everything okay. They were simply content to have good company through life’s conflicts. I thought that was beautiful.

…When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.

I think it’s great to want a husband, or to want a wife (I’m talking to the unmarried teens here). It’s natural. It’s how God created us! But while phrases like “he completes me” sound great, it’s not how we should view marriage. Marriage does not complete us. Nothing on this earth can complete us, and we will not be complete until the earth and skies themselves have been made new. I know that sounds depressing – as if all of our hope and joy will be in the future – but the thought is actually amazingly freeing. I suppose a simplified way to say it is – lower your expectations on other people, because not a single one can give you what you are looking for.

As Donald Miller described, when you stop expecting a person to complete you and to be perfect and to say the right words all the time and to understand you and to love you unconditionally, you find freedom to love them for who they are. When you expect someone to be Jesus, you will be disappointed 100% of the time. But when you realize that the people you live with and the person you may one day marry will mess up all the time, when you stop expecting perfection, you will no longer be disappointed as they fall short, because they will. They are fallen, I am fallen, you are fallen.

Or as Oswald Chambers wrote,

“Never look for right in the other man, but never cease to be right yourself. We are always looking for justice; the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is—Never look for justice, but never cease to give it.”

While this is all great advice for any relationship, I think that it applies to marriage the most. Because that is what we – however greatly or mildly, however subconsciously – look to to complete us. Just look at what culture tells us! The majority of books and movies and stories out there are about a guy and a girl finding each other. Every story looks different and every ending is different, but in the end they portray marriage as something that gives a completion to your life! Without it = Miserable, With it = Whole. I know I often commit the mistake of thinking that marriage will infinitely improve my life, and that somehow a fallen, human guy will make my entire life better. That I will no longer feel lonely or inadequate or unloved.

Don’t place those expectations on any human, cause they cannot meet them.

We should not lower our standards as we wait for a godly spouse, but we should be aware that humans do not complete. Only God can fulfill and provide what we need.

^

This video fits pretty much perfectly.

Thanks for reading, I hope you find this encouraging in your own life!

Sarah

Indeed Beautiful

From Donald Miller’s book, Searching for God Knows What:

But today, the Rock cries out to us

clearly, forcefully,

Come, you may stand upon my

Back and face your distant destiny!

[Maya Angelou]

I love the line “the Rock cries out to us”. I think that is beautiful, for some reason, maybe because Jesus was like Maya Angelou’s mother in that He went around looking people in the eye to tell them they were beautiful, that He stood as a rock for them, a Being who, for the rest of their lives, they could look back to and hear in their minds, and envision in their memories,

     God saying to them the world had been lying,

                    and you are indeed beautiful.

-Donald Miller

Church and a Hike

So this week I had Friday off, and I thought I had Saturday as well, since that’s what I had last time (They usually give employees regular days off). But as it turns out, when I came into the cafe around noon for lunch, I was working that day! I ended up being only an hour late and worked hard as it was busy… And now I have Sunday and Monday off – which will be my new regular days off. My boss, Mary, changed them because she knew I would be going to church. So sweet of her!

So day off, one day of work, day off, day off. What am I to do with myself with all that free time?? I already posted my pictures from the hike I did on Friday, here’s what happened today (Sunday):

Once I found out I had the day off, I knocked on my neighbor’s door, Kayla. She came with the Christian ministries in the parks (www.acmnp.com), along with a guy named Lee. They were actually the first people I met when I came. She was super excited when I told her I could come.

So the next morning I got up before seven (earliest I’ve woken up in a while… I’m sure my family’s smirking at that, but hey, I see no reason to wake up early if I don’t need to. ), headed over for breakfast, and picked up my sack lunch from the cafeteria. We can arrange for one sack lunch a week, and take it hiking or wherever. And it’s free! (Which it better be as we’re paying for meals…) Sweet deal.

I drove with Kayla, Lee, Courtney (Kayla’s roomie), and Gene (who works in the kitchens) to Ohanapecosh (try remembering that name five minutes later!). It took about 40 minutes to drive to… beautiful drive though, along one mountain ridge, slipping across the valley, then back along another mountain ridge. It was a clear, sunny day, so we had great views of Mount Rainier along the way. There were waterfalls everywhere along the road – almost got a car wash a couple times.

Once we reached Ohanapecosh and met up with Vince and Kristy – a couple that are in charge of the ministry at Mt. Rainier NP, I believe – we went to the amphitheater which was outside (gaspeth!) and a fairly good size. A good amount of people showed up too, I think about 17 others, not including us. They came from the campground nearby and the ranger station. It was a small church service, with a few songs and prayers, then Vince  talked for a while about Genesis 1.

It was great talking with the people afterwards.

Annnnd then we went for a hike! The seven of us – Vince, Kristy, Lee, Kayla, Gene, Courtney, and me! We walked up to Grove of the Patriarchs and then back. On the way we passed Silver Falls – BEAUTIFUL waterfall. Mesmerizing to watch.

Silver Falls

Pictures just don’t do it justice – cliche but true. I’ve never seen another waterfall where you could see so many individual water drops as they sprayed into the air and fell. This waterfall was fast, almost violent, sending some water shooting into the air after they hit the bottom. Beautiful.

Bridge we crossed on the way – awesome, yes? Only one person could cross at a time. It swayed and bounced in an odd but cool way as you walked.

All of us. =)

My Sack Lunch

And of course my lunch. Just to show you how amazing it was!

Most of the rest of the day I spent in Paradise Inn, reading Donald Miller, people-watching, and listening to piano music. They have a piano player who is there about 5-8 every day, so wonderful to sit and listen to… When I came in tonight he was playing “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady.

 

Here’s the link to my pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/113953510817426936065/Jun5GroveOfThePatriarchs?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmm9KHisey20wE&feat=directlink

My Reading List

I wrote this post before I left but didn’t post it. So here it is now:

Here’s the books I’m taking on the mountain:

I know, heavy reading right? In this stack:

• My English book for my online class
• My Bible!
• Three Donald Miller books, yes, three
• Walden by Thoreau
• The Screwtape Letters by Lewis
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Tolkien
• And Surprised by Joy, Lewis again.

Some of these are books I’ve wanted to read for a long time (Lewis & Tolkien) and some I just feel would be good for… you know, hiking and outdoors and what not. (Miller & Thoreau) I didn’t want to take books that were just “fluff” as those would be read all too quickly… and you can’t really read them again and get anything new out of them. These have substance, and I’m looking forward to finally reading them.

I had a larger pile but had to slim it down – I think this amount will be plenty for four months! XD I will be coming back for a short while in August, so I’ll be able to trade out, drop off, pick up more things if I need to.

What do you think? Good reading list?

Rediscover: Day 30 – My Books

A summary of the past few days for me:

• They have been amazingly excellent
• Saturday I worked a bit, then met my mom and brother for lunch and got to pick out some new glasses. They’ll be ready in about a week – I’m excited as it’s been a long while since I’ve had new glasses.
• I spent time with God Saturday night, and enjoyed going to college group Sunday afternoon – eating lunch, fellowshipping, and sharing candidly with one another about what’s going on in our lives – can’t beat that!
• And today some friends spontaneously rode their bikes by to say hello – I love surprises like that!

I’ve been helping out at my dad’s math tutoring center. I mainly work with the younger kids – about 2nd-8th grade. I love getting to know the kids and fellow instructors – however I’m rusty in math and usually get stumped (or epically FAIL) at least once a day. Today a student asked for a protractor and I got her a compass. I think part of it is, since I was homeschooled throughout high school, I don’t know the “lingo”. I didn’t pay attention to what was the quotient and what was the median, if I could divide and do algebra and solve the problems, what use was the vocabulary going to do me?

However public schools are rather big on the inconsequential lingo, so I’m going to have to make sure to learn it… Fortunately the kids are forgiving and we can just laugh off my mistakes.

But enough about math. (I’ve grown rather tired of looking at numbers all day ) Let me share what’s been going on in my life spiritually.

First off, you should know the three books I’ve been reading. These are the “exceptions” to my fast and have been since the beginning.

First off I’ve been reading Fasting, by Scot McKnight. I got this book from BookSneeze and since I’m obligated to them to finish this book and review it, I’ve continued reading it through the fast – although not as much recently… Once I’ve finished it I’ll be posting my complete review on this blog.

Mostly, though, I have to say  I don’t get that much out of it… the other two books I’ve been reading, though, have spoken to me a lot.

 

This one, as you can tell, is out of the ordinary. Whereas the above book, “Fasting”, was written by a theologian, Professor in Religious Studies, and specialist in Jesus studies and the New Testament, this book was written by a guy that used to be in the band Korn, which is NOT a kid-friendly band. The story of Brian “Head” is amazing – I posted the video of his testimony earlier on my blog. Reading his book, I can see how strong his faith has become, and what a relationship God has built with this man, who was previously “on top of the world”, but so broken within. Actually, here’s what I just read a few days ago, that he wrote:

When I was rich and famous, everything was great on the outside, but my inner life was often a torturous dungeon. Nowadays my inner life is great, but sometimes my outside life has been very shaky, to say the very least.

He talks about many trials he’s gone through since being saved – it’s pretty amazing to hear what’s go on/is going on in his life, and his response to different things… and you can definitely see that through it all, God is now his anchor through storms.

The final book is “Searching for God Knows What” by Donald Miller. This is the third book I’ve read by Miller, and he is quickly becoming, hands down, my favorite Christian (non-fiction) writer. Or if we’re considering all genres, one of my favorite writers. Of all time. Ever.

I recently had a friend stay over for about 10 days, and we began a routine of reading part of this book at nighttime, sitting on the lower part of my bunkbed, with only the bedside lamp turned on. You know, that part of the evening when the house is quiet and still. We started at the beginning of the book and took turns reading. At some parts we laughed until we cried, and at other parts, the one not taking their turn reading would simply listen quietly, absorbing in the words and their meaning.

Did I mention I like this author? Just  a tiny bit.

 

Well, in order not to make this blog post too long and full of TOO many menial details, I’m going to wait to talk about what God’s been teaching me/things that have stood out to me until next time…

Thanks for checking this post out.

God bless.