Coffee with a Water Lily

Life, in so many ways, is defined by a series of moments. This past week I have had so many moments, still shots of memory, imprinted into my mind forever. But one in particular keeps bringing itself to the forefront of my thoughts. This past Sunday I feel that I truly began to understand and in a sense, discover, the Holy Spirit. In my walk, the Holy Spirit has always been this floating entity that I understood to be Christ's blessing upon us, his way of staying among us while he sat beside the Father, whispering fervent prayers on behalf of those he saved. Holy Ghost seems to be the more accurate description of the Holy Spirit as I had grown to understand it. A see-through thing that floats around, groaning and moving and filling up spaces with it's presence. No doubt, I have felt the movement of the Holy Spirit, I have sensed his presence, felt indescribable peace and joy in the most unexpected of moments, but there was nothing concrete about the way I anticipated the in...

In the spirit of loving and open discussion, and a continuation of my last blog, I just wanted to re-post a conversation I had with a friend on facebook.  He is a dear and trusted friend, and I hope our words together encourage or just pin point something you may be struggling with. :)       how's the crew treatin ya? your on the Manitou right? (sp??) Yeah I dont know its a really wierd situation what's going on? I just have come to realize how much i dislike the world, attitude and midset of tall ships/people who work on them. And after this summer at camp, nothing can ever quite be as good. (that i know of so far) but I think the thing I learned most at camp was that my whole life I have taken myself too seriously. far too seriously. after realizing that, everything has just become much simpler. I am dealing with the tall ship stuff because it is a job for the moment, and I know I will be moving on to bigger and better things soon haha glen, I think that's ...

As I grew up, I constantly struggled with the idea of "identity". Being an identical twin I was forced, from a very young age, to decide who I was. Would I choose to be just like my sister, blending in, keeping safe, sticking together? Or might I choose to be an opposite, standing out only in forced contrast to my twin? I chose the contrast, keeping my hair short when her's was long, dying my hair light when her's was dark, loving english while she chose science. Parts of me wonder how this fits in with the whole nature vs. nurture thing. Was I always meant to be the more creative mind and her the more analytical? Or was it the questions were asked, for years, that shaped us; which twin was the sporty one, which one was better at math, which is better looking (yes...that was a question, which I was never sure how to answer). From where I stand now, however, it is not our outward appearance that defines us as unique individuals, it is our inner lives. In college, I...

It was a long day at work...hours on my feet, using my hands to adjust clothes other people would end up wearing. There's a lot of little things to do, but what I love most is the chance to take the craziness of the sale room and tidy it up. To see it go from chaos to clean. Reflecting on that now, it's not surpising that this has mirrored itself in different aspects of my life. Faith is definitely one of them. To have a rambling mind, filled with fear and questions...these moments are my trials. I have peace, however, when those thoughts fall into a category, fit into a place of understanding that allows me to file it away and move on. Lately, however, I've come up against the unfile-able. Spiritual warfare. Growing up, I was afraid of the dark. My nightlight was the rope of sanity that I clung to when my head was filled with all the possibilities of what might possibly be in the unknown, creepy corners of my room. Even now, I wake up from a nightmare, scared of the bl...

My name is Andrea, I love Jesus and I am poop-my-pants scared to begin this blog. My goal is simply to have a place where the musings I have late into the night about life, faith, love, worship, family and every other crazy characteristic that makes up a day, can be shared with someone...anyone really, who might possibly be asking the same questions or pondering similar topics. If I have learned anything in the life I have lived, it's that life (yes...I'm saying life an obscene amount of times) is not meant to be lived alone.My heart has been saved, changed, and shaped by God, but it is God's hands and feet, his people, that continue to save me on a daily basis. Relationships, moments spent in deep conversation, even a smile from a stranger; these  have all given my life meaning in ways that nothing else can. So world, this is my blog, these are the honest musings of my heart and mind, and if you connect, understand, disagree, or feel even the slightest twinge of a re...