Sweeter than Sirens

Posted on May 31, 2012 by daniellervargas

This is my honest confession,
Of a lifelong lesson:
Siren’s melodies enchant with their ring
I need an infinitely sweeter song to sing

I have forsaken the Living Water
I run to waterless cisterns, not trusting my Father
I am dying of thirst
My soul feels cursed

These broken bones will rejoice
When You purge me with Your voice
The voice that creates with galactic power
I beg for You to speak a new heart into this old tower

Oh bind me, bind me to You, O Lord
No other lovers will my soul adore
If I lose my mind and wander
Ravish me, O Great Lover

There is no other way to be free
Unless I am bound to You eternally
My crusty eyes fail
My heart begins to set sail

Anchor me to You
For no other love will do
Breathe on me Spirit from above
Melt this stony heart with Your love

Siren’s songs will fade away to be heard no more
When this heart sings heavenly notes for
A love that is sweeter and better and supreme
And there in freedom this soul will beam.

“Do it Anyway” by Mother Teresa

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Beautifully Broken Me

The following poem by Mother Teresa is a modified version of “The Paradoxical Commandments” by Dr. Kent M. Keith:

“People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight.

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.

Give them your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.”

This has been a great reminder to me: we shouldn’t let others stop us from being all that we were meant to be in Christ.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
- Galatians 1:10

Visions of Glory While Doing the Laundry

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Missytak

My excuse has been motherhood. In different chapters of my life, it’s been other things getting in the way. Keeping up with the disciplines of the Christian life is one thing, but what I’m finding more problematic is the capacity to daydream of heavenly things. I guess that’s what meditating really is: getting caught up in wordless worship, longing for Jesus’ hands to cradle my face and see Him look me eye to eye when He returns or calls me home.

In prayer, ministry, Bible study, I feel the need to wrap my head around things and put words to thoughts. That’s well and good; certainly it’s appropriate to process things with careful intention. But how many times does Paul tell believers in early churches to set their minds on things above? Sometimes, instead of processing things in my journal, I think I’m supposed to just get caught up in it. To stand in awe of His radiance, to ache for His return, to sing along with worship music from the 80s with the windows all the way down and the volume all the way up.

God Almighty gently reminds us to “be still and know that [He is] God,” not to “spend 15 minutes journaling before the kids wake up.” Be still. Get caught up. I think I can do that… Shoot, I know I can do that. My connection to my Jesus might not be as formulaic right now as I’d like, but what’s to keep me from bringing my worrisome heart to Him while I drive to the park or brush my teeth? I can even rest in Him – as an act of worship – while nursing my son or folding underwear. Visions of glory while doing the laundry might be all I can manage for now, but I think that’s what I need to get back to.

Though journaling is a great idea, too.

Introducing: Missy

Posted on May 29, 2012 by karen

Hello there! A bit about me: I was born and raised in San Jose and have spent most of my adulthood in the Northwest. After high school, I moved to Portland for five years then Seattle for three more. Now I’m back in the Bay Area and working on raising a little family. My husband Chris and I have been married for four years and have the two most beautiful little boys in the world, our precious Caleb and brand new Elias.

I have always enjoyed writing and find that it helps me clarify what I think and feel. It’s an honor to contribute to Substance Over Shadows because there’s little in this world as valuable as community, especially when the people in it are engaged in truth and committed to growing. That sounds so trendy, but I mean it. My family and my dear friends serve as priceless communities in which I worship God and forge my roles as wife and mom, and now it’s exciting to expand a community here as well.

Missy is a Contributor for Substance Over Shadows.

Looking at Love

Posted on May 25, 2012 by daniellervargas

“Christ won our salvation. He earned it. God loves us because he loves his beautiful Son and wants his Son’s righteous beauty spread and proclaimed by transferring that righteous beauty to his Son’s bride…The Father’s affection for the Son is so great that he wants millions of faces to look just like Jesus. It’s finally about Jesus.”
- Jonathan Leeman

I am coming to understand that this love doesn’t look like I would expect. God gives us the gift of salvation so that we would look like Christ, the ultimate object of the Father’s love. God doesn’t love us because he sees some worthiness in us, or our potential future good. He loves us based on the worthiness of Christ. This flies at the face of pride, self-righteousness, and human merit. He loves Christ and wants us to look like him.

If God’s love at the moment of our salvation is defined by the fact that he gives us the righteous beauty of his Son, this must also mean that each day of my life God loves me by working, moving, orchestrating all the events of my life so that I look more like his Son.

Deep breath.

God’s love is vastly superior and extremely complex in comparison to our own cultural, self-defined ideas of love. So painful events, emotional wounds, and deep valleys may in fact be the loving tool that God uses to make us more like Christ.

No wonder Paul prayed that the Ephesian church may have strength to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge.

“…that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
- Ephesians 3:18-19

Pursuing Christ OTD (on the daily)

Posted on May 24, 2012 by itsmelissamarie

A few weeks ago, I read a post by Jeff Bethke (“Why Chick-Fil-A & Apple Products are Holy“) about an idea he got from Matt Chandler (“Inspirations“). Now I’m passing it on to you!

Below is a list of things that inspire vs. things that move me away from Christ. It is a list of things I seek out or try to avoid throughout my day.

What’s cool is that the list is personal; it’s different for everyone. They can be simple, sweet, silly, whatever.

Comment below if you want to share! I’m excited to see what people have on their lists.

Things that stir my affections for Jesus:

waking up early
being in the car
praying for my future husband
country music
a full moon
reading old journals and reflecting on God’s faithfulness in my life
hearing men sing to Jesus

Things that kill my affections for Jesus:

checking my phone every 5 seconds
spending a ton of time in front of the mirror
being alone for a long period of time
reality shows
music with vain lyrics
wasting hours online
conversations that are empty/shallow/about other people

“What inspires you? Better yet, what stirs your affections for Christ, truth and holiness? If we can fill our lives with the things that stir our affections and avoid and flee those things that rob us of inspiration, we have a better shot at dwelling deeply. What and who inspires you? Stirs you? What presses you into holy places? What robs you of joy and vitality? What robs you of your affection for Christ and holiness?”
-Matt Chandler

The List, The Risk, The Story

Posted on May 23, 2012 by karen

A year ago from yesterday, I showed up to Garden City Church for the first time at a pre-launch core team meeting.

I had put my two weeks’ notice in at my job earlier that week, and all week could not understand how I had taken the risk of leaving a financially secure, stable job in Silicon Valley with no plan.

Clearly, though, God had one.

The meeting I showed up to was the one where Justin Buzzard, and his team of about 25 people, thought through “the list” of things they thought would need to be in place before their official launch in September; however, Justin was the only staff member, and thus had the job description: Do everything.

After the meeting, I invited myself to dinner with the Buzzard family, got really excited about what God was going to do through Garden City Church, and proceeded to send the following email* to Justin on Monday, May 23, 2011:

Hi,

I am thrilled to see how God is going to use Garden City Church. Let me share a bit of my excitement!

So I know I briefly told you about how I’d been thinking about leaving my job for a while and then finally put in notice for one of my jobs a week ago. In light of that, I started really thinking and praying about what that meant for me in terms of vocation.

Yesterday, I saw needs at Garden City that I truly feel like God has been equipping me to fulfill… and I would LOVE to be able to chat with you about it.

Anyway, what I got so excited about was this: I won’t have a job, but I’m financially able to request being a volunteer staff member for Garden City. I have an extensive background in admin/communications/office management, and I would be able to commit to being a part of Garden City’s first year (at least!) to create sustainable, repeatable administrative processes and help establish the logistics side of things.

I also love Jesus.

Please let me know if you would be interested to talk more about this.

Until then, I will be praying for you and your family, and for Garden City Church.

Karen

Immediately after sending the email, I second-guessed myself, thinking I could have ended up just freaking him out–he’d only met me a day ago.

But Justin ended up emailing me back, and after a series of meetings with Taylor (his wife) and him, I was given a sweet part-time position to serve at Garden City Church!

God gave me two great opportunities that week to take risks and trust him. Had I known the exact order of events and every detail of that story, it would have been far less exciting; there would be no story to tell.

*Parts of this email were edited/removed.

Hands and Feet

Posted on May 22, 2012 by sunsettide

Three of the many things that God has given me a love for in life are music, mission, and adoption. So when I learned that the members of one of my favorite rock bands from back in the day had founded a Christ-centered orphanage in Haiti, it was Christmas come early. Here it is:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”
- James 1:27

In 2004, the members of the music group Audio Adrenaline founded the Hands and Feet Project. The project, inspired by fan reaction to their song “Hands and Feet,” is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing long-term, family style care for orphaned and abandoned children. Their mission is “to care for the orphaned and abandoned children of the world with the love of Christ.” They started with one children’s village in Cyvadier and now have multiple locations across the southern peninsula.

When the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, both project sites, Jacmel and Grand-Goâve, were severely damaged, many parts beyond repair. Yet none of the children or staff was injured.

While Audio Adrenaline officially disbanded as a group in 2006, the Hands and Feet Project continues to grow and hopes to be caring for one thousand orphans by 2016.

“Our vision is two fold. First, we will strive to raise a generation of orphaned children who will grow up to reach their God-given potential. Second, we will empower first world citizens to partner with us in service at home and abroad.”
- Hands and Feet Project Vision

For more information on the Hands and Feet Project, please visit here.

I want to be your hands
I want to be your feet
I’ll go where you send me
I’II go where you send me
And l try, yeah I try
To touch the world like
You touched my life
And I find my way
To be your hands
- “Hands and Feet,” Audio Adrenaline

The Word that Matters

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Beautifully Broken Me

The other day a friend and I were discussing how grateful we are for Scripture. Not only do we live in a country where it is legal to own a Bible, but we also have access to the Word of God in our very own language.

Recently I have become more and more aware of how often I take this for granted. When I refer to Scripture, it often sounds like this: “I’m pretty sure that somewhere in the Bible it might possibly say something along the lines of [awful paraphrase].”

Yet, I have managed to memorize thousands of song lyrics with perfect precision. No matter how many years come between me and the car rides to kindergarten, I will never forget the words to “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys.

What if, decades from now, instead of remembering the words to a bunch of silly songs, I actually remembered the Word that truly matters?

The God of the universe speaks.

As I’ve started to memorize and truly write these words on my heart, I find myself examining them much more closely. In breaking down chapters and verses for memorization, I am better able to meditate on and savor every word. In doing so, I am able to experience and enjoy Scripture in a way that I never would have otherwise.