Beauty for Ashes

Beauty for Ashes. Something God spoke to my heart recently. When we give him our broken dreams, the dreams that burned so strong, but now all they seem to be are ashes.... God can take that ash and turn it into beauty. Life can grow out of that deadness...that broken dream...that dream that blows away with the ashes of life. Ash is grey, lifeless, powder and dead.... it smells dry, like empty lifeless hope....that caved in under the crushing heel of reality. In our hands we hold the ash....it slips through our fingers, and blows away with the wind...

Look closely though at this burned out shell of a dream... There's something there? Some color...chills run up and down my spine and I realize His promises are sure.... new life comes out of our ashes. New life comes out of death..."the old has been made new", "unless a grain of wheat dies..." Life from death, life out of death. Beauty for ashes...beauty instead of ash. A flower for a lifeless and broken dream....hope....

Now to totally shift gears:)

Oooooh, I'm kinda tired. Been sick recently. Took Friday off to help out our churches fund raising effort. Had cold then. It really hit me that night. Actually ate a whole garlic clove with applesause. That was a chilling experience. Garlic is suppose to help fight colds. I've had a yucky cold not too long ago and I wasn't in the mood for another. (Wanted to fight it with some Garlic. I was thinking of taking 2 cloves, but decided I had had enough with the one.) But I got another.

The worst day of my cold was Saturday.... and I'm still getting over it, but I'm not sore like I was Sat. Sat. it was like a trackter trailer had run me over, okay a pick up truck....anyways enough on the metaphors, I was SORE, and ahhhh, not alot of energy.... read alot, took a nap ....my nose ran, my eyes even ran, when I was napping(gross huh)....I existed...

It's mostly in my head literally. And on top of that my wisdom tooth has been bugging me.... ahhhh, just cut my head off until everthings back to normal than put it back on. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all..."

So you see I'm on spring break. Great way to start spring break...I've been wondering about when I should deal with my wisdom tooth. If there's any sort of infection they give antibiotics/wait it out until you don't have any. It's minor surgery....which I am NOT looking forward too. If any one has any stories to encourage me along the line of having a wisdom tooth pulled drop me a line. I was even reading about it when I was more sick, and it didn't make me feel very good. Enough "bawling" about the yuck stuff in life, lets talk about something more positive...

Tomorrow wil be one of my highlights of the week. I'm going with Seniors from our Youth Group to Baltimore. Just talked to my youth leader, at this point there will only be 4 of us. Two seniors and myself and the Brianna, the youth chic. In Baltimore we'll be going to the aquarium and on some cool water taxi... So today to get ready for that I should go on a walk. I've been practically "comatose" these past few days.... actually I've just been really lazy, haven't had alot of energy,taking it very easy. So that tomorrow I won't pass out in exhaustion I should build my body up with a nice walk. It will help my lymph nodes too.

Anyone who hates reading about eyes should not read the next paragraph.....

I called a guy from my church Paul, he and his wife Linda run a ministry called "Hopes and Helps." Anyways Paul's been sick too. Wasn't at chruch either. I was like "I feel your pain." But he has these little polyps in his sinuses etc... and will have to get surgery sometime for them. I think one's even pressing on his optic nerve.... poor guy... pray for Paul. He was like how are they gonna get in there, pull my eye out or something? He's had them for over 20 years. He probably just thought they were some sort of sinus problem.

He and his wife LInda are celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary today. SO if you know them drop them a line or call em... He told me to wish his wife a happy anniversary if I talked to her.

I hope you're not getting tired of all my pics I've been posting. I've been a mite trigger happy recently with my digital camera. They're cool! and fun to take and to see what I've taken.

Because of being sick I've finished 2 books and totally started and finished another. One was on grace, which was really good, by Philip Yancy...the book I read from start to finish, while sick, was "The Cross and the Swithchblade." Which is a neat story. It does deal witht some pretty hard core problems kids in gangs have...just to give you a heads up. I watched the movie before I read the book. The movie is moving. It also deals with some hard core stuff. It's an eye opener to what life is like in a gang...that was like 30 plus years ago so who knows what it's even like today. It also shows the powerful move of GOd in some of the kids lives. GOd moved powerfully in David Wilkerson's life, (a preacher comfy in his church in Penn.) it all started with him putting a fleece out to God to sell his TV. And if he did sell it withing 30 mins. of the morning paper coming out he'd dedicate the time he used to watch TV to praying. So that was like 2 hours everynight from midnight to 2 am. And because of these praying times GOd started to speak to him.... and eventually as He walked step by step in obedience there was a very powerful ministry started in NY called Teen Challenge. It's in other states too. This ministry reaches out to kids in gangs, and on the streets who have drug addictions, are part of gangs...etc...

So for Marie's book list, the recommended reading is "THe Cross and the Switchblade" and watching the movie...and again the book isnt' for the faint of heart.

Happy Easter celebration week! May you connect with the Creator and the Resurrected this week in a special and personal way! And remember what we see as ashes is the medium (an artist term) God uses to sculpt beauty into our lives. Remember Beauty for Ashes.