Get up and Walk...

GET UP AND WALK
by Bethany Dillon

I have got no one to blame
Except if that someone's me
I washed my hands, but just
the same
My eyes confess for me
I come in filthy rags
You know I'm guilty

I wake up almost every night
Saying Your name
What I would give to walk in
the light
But what I hide has made me lame
My face down on the ground
I wait to hear the healing sound

You break through my deafness
Swing open the curtain
And I find the courage to get up
and walk!
I forget my weakness
For you've answered my loneliness
And through the mud on my eyes
I can see my Hope has come!

You'll have to show me where to go
It's been so long since I've used my feet
I got up today a cripple
And now I'm dancing
So let the power of Your move
Not stop with what I can see

I couldn't walk
I couldn't sing
I couldn't love until You found me





" ^1-3 Back in the boat, Jesus and the disciples recrossed the sea to Jesus' hometown. They were hardly out of the boat when some men carried a paraplegic on a stretcher and set him down in front of them. Jesus, impressed by their bold belief, said to the paraplegic, "Cheer up, son. I forgive your sins." Some religion scholars whispered, "Why, that's blasphemy!"

^4-8Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why this gossipy whispering? Which do you think is simpler: to say, 'I forgive your sins,' or, 'Get up and walk'? Well, just so it's clear that I'm the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both. . . ." At this he turned to the paraplegic and said, "Get up. Take your bed and go home." And the man did it. The crowd was awestruck, amazed and pleased that God had authorized Jesus to work among them this way."

- Matthew 9:1-8 (msg)

broken cisterns

My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water — Jeremiah. 2:13

Spurgeon writes:

Men are in a restless pursuit after satisfaction in earthly things. They will exhaust themselves in the deceitful delights of sin, and, finding them all to be vanity and emptiness, they will become very perplexed and disappointed. But they will continue their fruitless search. Though wearied, they still stagger forward under the influence of spiritual madness, and though there is no result to be reached except that of everlasting disappointment, yet they press forward. They have no forethought for their eternal state; the present hour absorbs them. They turn to another and another of earth's broken cisterns, hoping to find water where not a drop was ever discovered yet.

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life..."

...Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"

-John 4:10-14,28,29

this is what happens when i drink coffee after 9pm at night. It's 1am, and I suddenly had the urge to update and revamp my blog.... some 8 months after my last post.

It is finally summer and the 30 degree weather is making me very happy.

This past winter was a long and hard one. I pretty much resolved to move to a hotter place when we got a snowfall in JUNE!

My heart has been in a place of discontent for a while, and I think it started creeping in when the winter was just not letting up...

But slowly I am learning that wanting to always be somewhere else is no way to live your life.

It's fine to have goals and dreams but to not be present in the present is a bad habit I sometimes fall into.

so once again, God is calling me up the mountain... He's really been challenging me on this.

I have been learning what it is to feed on the Word, the living and active word of God, and to find fullness in the Almighty. Believing. Choosing to drink Living Water and to eat the Bread of Life daily.

It's crazy how many things I turn to for filling... but it leaves me feeling void... satisfying in the moment, yes, but to what avail? I realize just how empty I am without Him.

It's been a struggle, i'm not going to lie. I'm pretty feeble, but He is faithful and doesn't give up on me.

so that's what's been happening in my relationship with God.

On the front of daily happenings:

I applied for registration as a nurse in Ireland. I dont know what will happen in this area, as there are currently few jobs available in Ireland because of the recession.

However, I am still pursuing it and I am patiently waiting to hear what the next step will be. It is in God's hands. I will probably go live and work there for a year or 2 if it all works out, no earlier than spring 2010.

I've had a couple of new jobs since the last time I wrote in here.

In the Winter semester I did a stint of clinical instructing with a college. I instructed first year nursing students in their clinical placement in the hospital. I really enjoyed it and realized that I would like to incorporate teaching into my future in nursing.

I then got a job in an Intensive Care Unit combined with a Coronary Care Unit. It has been quite a challenging 3 months, and I am starting to get the hang of things slowly. I love the cardiac nursing aspect of my job. I find it very fascinating. I am still not sure how I feel about caring for people who are unconscious and unable to communicate, staring at monitors and values all day... i like talking to patients.. I am going to reevaluate how I feel after the 6 month mark.

I feel grateful for this opportunity to learn.

Cello is going well. I am now 8 months into my lessons. I must admit that I wish I had more time to practice, but i have to settle with what i have. I'm still renting one, it's going to have to do for now...maybe sometime soon I will be able to afford to buy my own...that would be amazing. I find that when I am focused on worshiping God, the time I spend playing is so much sweeter. there's just nothing like that sound of the deep C string vibrating under the bow.

I picked up my guitar again this month too, for the first time in almost a year. it was good.

what else?

I got into two accidents since my last post.

First one, I was rear-ended and my little blue car (diego) was a write-off. It all worked out, and 3 months of physio for whiplash and a sweet settlement later I now have a new car and a good portion of my student loan paid off.

Second one,

I crashed a scooter. Yes. that's right, a scooter. I was wearing shorts and a tanktop and now (4 weeks later) have some ugly road rash scars covering my shin/knee and elbows

At least it wasn't my face, and I had a wonderful weekend when it happened. I will never forget the beautiful views I saw of Kelown, a driving that little rented Yamaha Vino.

Concerts... I saw Celtic Thunder twice ! (lol yes i know i'm a nerd, but I love it) and COLDPLAY! best concert i've been to!

I'm looking forward to going to Vancouver for the U2 show in October!

Yeah i guess this blog doesn't have to be a play by play of everything that happens to me, but I thought i'd include a bit of an update, and start writing in here again ( as I feel inspired to..)

I'm off to BC on sunday for a few days camping with the fam in the mountains, should be fun and relaxing.

before I go...

If you haven't heard of Kari Jobe, go here and check her out!

Her music has been a blessing in my life.

exploring

I feel like this season i'm in is one of exploring... finding out more about what I desire/dream of in life, how that fits into my relationship with God and His Kingdom, ultimately, and how I can live life and enjoy life and serve.

I am trying new things!

Set design (for our church play).

Being backup singer for my brother at his shows.

Cello. I started lessons today.

It's all pretty sweet.

HIDING PLACE
By Sarah Groves

Early when the day is new
Before the stirring
I will come and talk to you
And confess the ways I am broken
To recall the words you've spoken
And to try to comprehend
The love you have for me

You are my hiding place
You fill my broken heart with songs
Songs of deliverance
You sing of how the weak are strong

You never meant for me to walk alone
You are always for me
As the truest lover of my soul
You hear my desperate calling
You have kept my feet from falling
And have set me on this rock on which I'm standing now

You are my hiding place
You fill my broken heart with songs
Songs of deliverance
You sing of how the weak are strong

And I believe you
For you've saved me from my darkness and my shame
And I believe you
For I hear your song of beauty grow with pain

You are my hiding place
You fill my broken heart with songs
Songs of deliverance
You sing of how the weak are strong