I have decided to start a revolution... I shall call it the LML Revolution!!! What does this stand for you may ask... "Love My Life"... I have recently become aware of the "fml" tag line that has ravaged twitter posts and facebook statuses... As many or most of you know this has a very derrogatory meaning that will not be reiterated here in my blog...
It is a shame to see how easily the accronym is slipped into conversation when its exact meaning is degrading the basic gift of life that the Lord has given us! The fundamental and foundational gift that comes to us even before free will! Whether life soars or slumps we are called to embrace this gift... to run into the arms of our Creator and perservere!
So with all of that being said, I declare my revolution for all to embrace! Let us simply put into play a new phrase, acronym, LML- LOVE MY LIFE! For that is the initial attitude that we must take before we can even move forward in love of others!
Therefore I end this blog by saying, I LOVE MY LIFE!
In Him through her,
Lauren
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
A Little Thought
What lense are we seeing our world through? It changes daily... we need to pray to see things as God sees them. That we may have our eyes opened to the beauty, the growth and the active Gospel around us! Only through His lense can we see the world for what is offered to us in the beauty the pain the suffering the pride the innocence and the brokeness...
As we begin to see through the eyes of God our hearts will naturally begin to melt away from the hardened desensitized walls that the world and our defenses have created and secured.
As we begin to see through the eyes of God our hearts will naturally begin to yearn for our neighbors... we will slowly live less for ourselves.
As we begin to see through the eyes of God our hearts will naturally begin to intercede for the needs around us... and in that we will learn to imitate our Mother, Mary Most Holy.
As we begin to see through the eyes of God our hearts will naturally begin to melt away from the hardened desensitized walls that the world and our defenses have created and secured.
As we begin to see through the eyes of God our hearts will naturally begin to yearn for our neighbors... we will slowly live less for ourselves.
As we begin to see through the eyes of God our hearts will naturally begin to intercede for the needs around us... and in that we will learn to imitate our Mother, Mary Most Holy.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Grant Me the Grace
Why sometimes does it seem impossible to measure up? You can always find someone "smarter," "holier," more "beautiful," more "stylish," more "classy," more "feminine," more "sweet," more "patient," more more more more... You can always find someone MORE than yourself!
Why aren't we OK with that? What is it in us humans that makes us cringe at that idea... that we are not superior in something... not even globally but in our own smaller communities... schools, parishes, towns, goverments, trades... there seems to be an inner drive to not just exceed but to beat out the competition.
This drive is so evident in some and in the rest of us it slithers underneath our motives, our reactions and our judgments of others. To be worth what we feel is required or necessary we must be on top. If not by the world's standards or even that of a specific society... then by those we love and cherish the most... our family, friends, loved ones.
Humility is such a sweet and sour gift to us. All the above statements are the tip of the iceburg for why we need to grow in this virtue... to know ourselves in Light of Our God... and the constitute all things in that Light...
World, what should we be striving for...
That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
Why aren't we OK with that? What is it in us humans that makes us cringe at that idea... that we are not superior in something... not even globally but in our own smaller communities... schools, parishes, towns, goverments, trades... there seems to be an inner drive to not just exceed but to beat out the competition.
This drive is so evident in some and in the rest of us it slithers underneath our motives, our reactions and our judgments of others. To be worth what we feel is required or necessary we must be on top. If not by the world's standards or even that of a specific society... then by those we love and cherish the most... our family, friends, loved ones.
Humility is such a sweet and sour gift to us. All the above statements are the tip of the iceburg for why we need to grow in this virtue... to know ourselves in Light of Our God... and the constitute all things in that Light...
World, what should we be striving for...
That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Floating or Fighting
Life is both extremely delicate and resiliant. So is the heart.
People walk in and ou of our lives in droves. They touch us and avoid us.
Aware and oblivious.
We have constant choices of perception and action. And yet.
Fragile and strong. Intricately so.
Floating or fighting, dazed or intentional.
Enamored or careless.
I live in both. Is it possible to always be intentional or is it necessary to detach and retract... to protect yourself... to avoid just for a while... but how easily it becomes complaceny.
Scarey.
Lord, set me on fire. Put my heart into the flames. Set my eyes like doves.
I want to be intentional. Test me so that I may surge forth in all wrecklessness and abandonment.
Allow me to LIVE.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Ministry
Soooooo... months into full time ministry I am convinced that this job is a bi-polar journey that is impossible to keep withint 40 hours and leave in the office... It requires ridiculous bursts or energy, love, organization and soul and then when you barely think you have any more you get a break... during that time you look back and think "I have the best job in the world."
And while I hold this truth in my heart... that I do indeed have the best job in the world...... man sometimes I don't think I can keep my head above water... keep from crying.... advocate any longer or ever find the heart to give in my own prayer time.
Tough weekend... but as always in life it could be worse... always could be worse... I should only thank God for my abundant blessings! For He is so good to me.
He carries my heart and heals it when wounded.
There is so much I need to learn... and I will NEVER EVER KNOW IT ALL... I will always fall short... Oh I pray that my intention is enough when my efforts fail.
Humbling.
Challenging.
Heart-wrenching.
Beautiful.
Up lifting.
Saving.
Ministry.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Hello World! So guess what- WE HAVE NO POWER! Wow, Praise God!
He gives us the power to breath speak and love so let us breath deeply, speak truth and love abundantly!
How simple is prayer and yet we avoid it for the most pathetic reasons... here I speak of myself... what is more important than communicating with our Creator and yet for countless reasons I close my mind and keep my mouth shut throughout the day. How simple it is to say hello, good morning or good night... to review your day and anticipate the next... all after welcoming the company of Him who moulded our hearts. Yet, I crave for sleep to come too quickly and wake up at the last possible moment. How simple it is to recite a quick "Hail Mary" or a "Glory Be" for intercession and thanksgiving. Yet, I take pride in my successes and wish for things to be better. How simple minded I am... it's all about me when really... EVERYTHING is about He who loves me with burning passion.
In Him through her,
Lauren
He gives us the power to breath speak and love so let us breath deeply, speak truth and love abundantly!
How simple is prayer and yet we avoid it for the most pathetic reasons... here I speak of myself... what is more important than communicating with our Creator and yet for countless reasons I close my mind and keep my mouth shut throughout the day. How simple it is to say hello, good morning or good night... to review your day and anticipate the next... all after welcoming the company of Him who moulded our hearts. Yet, I crave for sleep to come too quickly and wake up at the last possible moment. How simple it is to recite a quick "Hail Mary" or a "Glory Be" for intercession and thanksgiving. Yet, I take pride in my successes and wish for things to be better. How simple minded I am... it's all about me when really... EVERYTHING is about He who loves me with burning passion.
In Him through her,
Lauren
Monday, December 22, 2008
I really need to work on blogging on a more consistant basis but ever since I have found TWITTER... well typing less that 140 characters is much easier than typing an entire journal entry... so maybe I should begin to piece together my tweets and make a blog post ;)
I just want to wish the world a very Merry Christmas! May your hearst be filled with the peace and joy of our Savior who offered Himself for us, nailed to the wood of the Cross!
This Christmas is different in many ways, I suppose that is certainly part of growing up... For the first time I do not have a winter break where I spend a solid month in VA with my family. This is the first time I have come home to VA with armfulls of wrapped presents and a suitcase. My grandmother is no longer with us and my family is certainly feeling that pain, especially my grandfather and mom. Lindsey and Scott (sister and brother in law) aren't coming in until Christmas Eve from Arkansas. My cat isn't with me this Christmas either, crawling up into the tree...
This year I have been able to enter into Advent in a new way, while realizing for the first time how much I do not enter into the liturgical season and get caught up in the secular aspects of it all. I had my first staff Christmas party which was a wonderful blessing, my Pastor is amazing to me, like a second father. I starred in my first Christmas pageant since the 8th grade and without even knowing my lines had to learn another part and smoosh them together. Hahahaha...
All of a sudden Christmas is around the corner... and what stuck out to me last night in prayer?? This:
"Oh come oh come Emmanuel and RANSOM CAPTIVE Israel that mourns in lowely exile..."
I am that ransomed captive, I am Israel for whom he came to die.
In how many ways am I a captive of my own sin, my actions and decisions? I am not a captive of the flesh, that is a gift of God. I am not a captive of Satan, my Baptism claimed me for God. I am not a captive of this world, my faith, my Church and my God teach me to live in and not of it. I am only a captive to my own sin... MINE. And that, my brothers and sisters, is captive enough.
He RANSOMED me... his blood was the ransom for my freedom. He paid the ransom for me, that captive, and that ransom was the blood flowing down the splinters of the cross into the earth. I was bought, purchased, ransomed.... me. I wasn't locked in a tower, guarded by a dragon and saved by Prince Charming... I die inside myself... not to myself... in my heart, mind and will I choose sin and there I am enslaved... I chain myself... and then came Christ not on a white stallion but on a bed of hay... to shed his blood to tear down the walls of my heart and chains of my sin and to claim me once again as His.
I just want to wish the world a very Merry Christmas! May your hearst be filled with the peace and joy of our Savior who offered Himself for us, nailed to the wood of the Cross!
This Christmas is different in many ways, I suppose that is certainly part of growing up... For the first time I do not have a winter break where I spend a solid month in VA with my family. This is the first time I have come home to VA with armfulls of wrapped presents and a suitcase. My grandmother is no longer with us and my family is certainly feeling that pain, especially my grandfather and mom. Lindsey and Scott (sister and brother in law) aren't coming in until Christmas Eve from Arkansas. My cat isn't with me this Christmas either, crawling up into the tree...
This year I have been able to enter into Advent in a new way, while realizing for the first time how much I do not enter into the liturgical season and get caught up in the secular aspects of it all. I had my first staff Christmas party which was a wonderful blessing, my Pastor is amazing to me, like a second father. I starred in my first Christmas pageant since the 8th grade and without even knowing my lines had to learn another part and smoosh them together. Hahahaha...
All of a sudden Christmas is around the corner... and what stuck out to me last night in prayer?? This:
"Oh come oh come Emmanuel and RANSOM CAPTIVE Israel that mourns in lowely exile..."
I am that ransomed captive, I am Israel for whom he came to die.
In how many ways am I a captive of my own sin, my actions and decisions? I am not a captive of the flesh, that is a gift of God. I am not a captive of Satan, my Baptism claimed me for God. I am not a captive of this world, my faith, my Church and my God teach me to live in and not of it. I am only a captive to my own sin... MINE. And that, my brothers and sisters, is captive enough.
He RANSOMED me... his blood was the ransom for my freedom. He paid the ransom for me, that captive, and that ransom was the blood flowing down the splinters of the cross into the earth. I was bought, purchased, ransomed.... me. I wasn't locked in a tower, guarded by a dragon and saved by Prince Charming... I die inside myself... not to myself... in my heart, mind and will I choose sin and there I am enslaved... I chain myself... and then came Christ not on a white stallion but on a bed of hay... to shed his blood to tear down the walls of my heart and chains of my sin and to claim me once again as His.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
