like two little old ladies.

I changed the 'title' (btw, does anyone know what ' ' are for? I used them simply to not have too many " " in one sentence) of my blog from "I stand in awe" to "living.loving.laughing" ... I decided that even though I'm always in awe of who God is and what He's doing in my life, that the name sounded a little odd. Maybe it's just me.

We concluded our staff conference tonight with another Louis Giglio video where he went the opposite direction and we looked at how intricate God is. It was a great reminder to see in the pictures how our DNA, then cells come together to make a human. Fiona made the point that a just over a year ago, that was Timothy (the youngest baby on the property, if you're not following) and to see him now - not a little clump of cells in a dish like in the pictures, but a growing constantly moving baby. It's such a testimony to the amazing God we have!

On another note... The Office season premier is tomorrow night and I'm pretty sure I'll know where I'll be at 10pm. Jim and Pam, Andy and Angela... it's just too much.

As Steve was praying to close our time at staff conference, I looked down and saw these two sitting on the steps next to me and couldn't resist...

Indescribable.

I'm the first to admit I'm a little sick of hearing the song "Indescribable" by Laura Storey (Ha! it's not Chris Tomlin, someone reminded me of that tonight actually). I mean we've pretty much sung it to it's death, which is sad because it's a great song.

Tonight during our staff conference meeting we watched a video in which a guy I've never heard of (Louis Giglio) challenged me in a way I didn't think was possible. Funny how that happens. He was talking about what God created and showed pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (like the one here) and I just sat there, mouth wide open realizing that the SAME God that takes interest in MY life created all the amazing, breath taking images, galaxies, constellations and micro-cell organisms.

Yet, He still cares about me. The passionate, intense God that created the HUGE ball of fire that keeps us warm (and burns our skin) cares about what is happening in my life right now. At this moment. Humbling? Oh yes.

through the side door

home sweet home...

Todd Agnew... My Jesus.

In my opinion, this is probably one of the best songs ever written...

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ
Then why do you look so much like the world?

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand

Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the rich
So which one do you want to be?

Who is this that you follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side or fall down and worship at His holy feet

Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable
So which one do you want to be?

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet would stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despised the proud
I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus!
I want to be like my Jesus!

Not a posterchild for American prosperity, but like my Jesus
You see I'm tired of living for success and popularity
I want to be like my Jesus but I'm not sure what that means to be like You Jesus
Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I want to be like my Jesus

Blue Like Jazz.

After being recommended this book by a lot of people I know, I was excited finally get my hands on a copy and read it. I always appreciate books that "reignite" or flam e the passions that I have. Last year I began to really fall in love with the person of Jesus. Who He was, the kind of person the Bible says He is, not the meek and mild Jesus everyone has always told me about.

I first began to see how much of a revolutionary Jesus was when I was watching a video podcast by Mark Driscoll about the humanity of Jesus. He was a person. He ate, slept, cried, threw things and laughed, which, basically sums up my day sometimes. We get so caught up in this idea we have of a tall man with baby blue eyes and flowy brown hair that we don't remember who the Jesus of the Bible is. He wasn't meek and mild and passive. He turned tables over to get his point across. He cast out demons from people into a pack of pigs that jumped off a cliff. He spat in dirt to make it mud then smeared it over a blind person's eyes and they were healed. He said He was God in a society where you just would NEVER do that.

Which picture of Jesus do we have? The cute and cuddly baby all bundled up in a manger? Or, the man who looked into the face of the man who put him to death and said He was God?

barn no more

Three weeks ago Wednesday my parents' barn burned down (horses were outside and are alive, the chickens weren't so fortunate). So, the clearing process has been in full swing. Today we were pulling charred pieces of wood off the foundation. Fun times all around :)
Last Thursday I went up to CQBC for some room-painting action (oh yes- it's truquoise! finished product pictures will eventually be posted) and I was expecting it to be a lonely day since everyone was working. However, some of my favorite neighbours dropped by to entertain me.

breathe in. breathe out.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind adventure. I've flown across the world, seen "long lost" friends from various cities, painted a room rich turquoise, hung out on the nicest grass I've ever seen, eaten a fare share of Thai food, laughed so hard that my stomach hurt and my face was wet from tears, bought a good part of a new wardrobe, tried long island iced tea, played with a fun camera, threw around 60 pound bales of hay, hung out with some really funny kids, flattened metal roofing from our burned-down barn and saw a pretty sweet sunset tonight.

So it's been busy.

I have a fear though, that in the midst of everything good and exciting, that I forget about God. It should be an impossible feat, how do you forget about the Creator of the universe? But, much like an old friend who you feel comfortable with, I seem to be guilty of not keeping in touch with my Saviour. I'm the last one to admit that I pack my plate so full of things and activities that I don't have time for anything else. Mostly because if I stop, then I have to face things that are much easier to avoid when I'm too busy to think about it. The danger of that is forgetting about God, forgetting that He's there.

I was driving to Ottawa on Friday and I was listening to music really loud and singing along, despite the fact I lost my voice, and I turned the radio off and just sat in silence. I realized that I hadn't stopped to have a quiet time with God in a few days. So what was stopping me right now? The insanely good song I was listening to? Or the fact that I had packed my life with so much "extra" stuff that I had no time for my God? It's option B.

Life went into high speed when I landed in Canada. I had such a great time getting to know God while in Uruguay that I guess I took Him for granted when I went from 1st gear to 5th. I need to take my walk with God "back to the basics"... back to a place where I seek for Him more than anything.

ouch.

I have a sunburn. It's fantastic. I spent the afternoon at the water park taking pictures of unsuspecting clients as they took advantage of the 30+ degree weather that has hit Montréal. I know I have!

One of my favorite things about summer is fruit! In the field near our house you can find the BEST black berries ever and they last approximately 2.3 seconds after I find the bowl on the counter.

I'm pretty stoked because I saw on TV last night that tonight is the Prison Break season premier!! That's exciting because first of all, the last episode was horrible and I'm hoping the writers that were on strike got their act together for tonight. Secondly, I have my parents gigantically huge TV to watch it on. Which means: not only will Micheal Schofield be on tonight, but he's pretty close to life-size. I don't know if I can take much more excitement than that!! Alright, I am over exaggerating, but there is still an "aire of excitement" about the whole thing. Enough about Prison Break.