Here's my hands, here's my heart

Hello! Today I am sharing with you a beautiful song by Seeker & Servant

I think they have a very special sound. Very organic despite all of the electronics, they are great live too. Have a great day! Continue to worship! Free

In the Silence You Speak

Good Morning! If you're not able to see the video below, please click on the web browser version so you are able to hear the music! I believe those subscribers may not be able to see the video from their email. Here is a song You Speak that I've had on replay since last week. It really encourages me to (have the courage to) sit still. Sitting still is difficult for people for so many different reasons. But it is so much harder when I'm hoping God to speak into my life while I'm running around "doing my own thing". Every time that I have finally sat still and let my heart be silent, He speaks. I can only encourage you to do the same! 
Here are the lyrics:
You Speak - Audrey Assad
You liberate me from my own noise and my own chaosFrom the chains of a lesser law You set me freeYou liberate me from my own noise and my own chaosFrom the chains of a lesser law You set me free
In the silence of the heart You speakIn the silence of the heart You speakAnd it is there that I will know YouAnd You will know meIn the silence of the heartYou speak, You speak.
You satisfy me till I am quiet and confidentIn the work of the Spirit I cannot see,You satisfy me till I am quiet and confidentIn the work of the Spirit I cannot see.
In the silence of the heart You speak.

Thank you for the comments last week!

Home Sweet Home

The experience of being in Germany gave me a lot to think about and a lot of time to think. I’d say the beginning of my time in Germany could be categorized as the time where I was thinking about the concept of home. What is a home? Is it a group of people? Is it a geographical place? Is it a group of memories from my past? Is home a feeling I have with a certain person? I grappled with these questions and came to a conclusion, (which turned out to be only half of a conclusion because my return to “home” uprooted the pat answer I had). 

As the time in Germany was coming to an end I then began to think about reunions and relationships. I learned relationships can be maintained over a distance, sometimes. Physical presence in a certain season of a relationship is not always necessary, in other stages of relationships it is. The distance and time acted as a sifter, which in the long run was something for which I could be grateful. I was excited to see my family (real family, not a concept here J though I thought about this too), friends and my dog. In my mind I imagined some exuberant reunion where I would feel completely reconnected to my loved ones, where I’d be on the same page with them, like I was before I left. That’s where I began sensing the disillusionment around my idea of reunion, because I didn’t immediately connect with my mother, father or sister (I think my dog and I are still on the same page).

Time had passed, the people, my family, I was looking at were different and I was different too. Our reunion was that not of the same people, celebrating “starting where we left off”, it was a meeting of new people.

This was somehow the second half of my conclusion about “home”. If home is a person or a group of persons, is it still home if the person has changed? Are you further from home if the person is not in character even recognizable?

For this reason the “reconnecting” didn’t happen as fast as I had hoped, if at all. It felt like there was an ocean between us, and, for many months there was. My conclusion (for now) on “reconnecting” is this, it does not happen in a moment but it is reestablished through the beauty of the mundane together. I realized this with my dog, I could only assure him that I wouldn’t leave (without him) again by being there for him day after day. Giving him his food, taking him for his walk, little by little I hope he doesn’t expect me to be gone for so long (we are still researching time perception in animals). The same goes for my close loved ones, our “reconnecting” is a whole new connection; they are not the same, I am not the same. Only as we spend time together, little by little do I discover what they’ve become and can reveal who I’ve turned into (for now).

Through it all I found my answer about “home” in a song the Lord had given me actually right before I left,

“I gave you plans and you broke them in two, and gave me back something more pleasing to you – a heart that could trust through all toils and snares, a heart whose only home could be found home in you.”

From the beginning I had the answer but I was veiled from it’s meaning until I had toiled and came to an untrue conclusion. My heart, my eternal home is in God. If my home was in my family, they would pass away. If my home was a geographical place, it would pass away. But my home is neither of those things, I get to continually make God’s presence my home as I go through my life with Him there, my best friend.

I think today is a great day to stop and make some time to evaluate where you are rooted and where your home is.

Henceforth We Are Friends!

Hello! A lot happened this week (says everyone), but the thing worth most sharing is the reoccurring theme that kept appearing at unexpected times. I was running late for one of my classes (also a theme I am noticing) and in my rush I forgot my calculator. This would have been devastating on any given day, for you engineering majors you know your calculator is an extension of our right hand, but this day it was especially horrible because I had a statics exam. I dug around in my backpack a little more (now officially late for Spanish) and couldn’t find it, I could only conclude that my backpack was like a magician’s hat, I had practically everything inside there except my calculator and a white bunny. Now the reality of my missing calculator was really setting in and I only had a couple of options, buy a new one (not really an option because they cost more than a whole Benjamin Franklin), text a friend who is hopefully around and could give me theirs (also not likely because all my engineering friends are scattered across campus in brightly lit labs doing the homework with their calculator).  There was no way I could do this exam without one, I could of course show all of the work on how to do the problem, but if I didn’t give a numeric answer then my only hope was mercy and partial credit. The last thought my already-overwhelmed brain thought was, Lord, Help me! Of course at this moment my good engineering friend walked by and I knew she would have her trusty calculator she would hopefully lend me. This encounter was amazing for two reasons, one, I met this friend our freshman year. Since then I have never met her while walking around campus, this was the second time in three years. Secondly, I was amazed that as soon as I thought for help, the Lord provided, instantaneously.  My mind went to the Psalm 18:6, In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

The second instance (I’ll make this narrative shorter) was two days after, I had just finished my time in the fluorescent, all-but-silent-except-for-furious-typing lab and was walking towards my car. When I parked there that morning I knew the lot was far away and secluded but I hadn’t anticipated coming back in the evening. Yet I found myself walking up the stairs, about to take the turn onto the unlit path leading to the parking lot, yikes. Part of me said, “aw, come on! Think of all the places you’ve been abroad and nothing happened” the other part thought, “but still! There is no way I’m walking down that creepy dark road, but I have to get my car”. At that moment, (am I getting predictable now?) a different friend from my math class came down the road in her car and with an excited “Is that Genevieve? Get in, where are you going?” I was delivered right to my car. The theme should be obvious by now, it definitely is to me and I will never forget it. Psalm 18:6 isn’t just a verse that I read about someone else’s life, but it was now a part of my story and my truth about how God hears me, delivers me and cares for me. Whenever I had read Psalm 18:6 before I thought “distress” meant, you know, being hotly pursued by angry men on horses with spears and your death-wish. From David’s story we know this was true, but I believe David knew God showed his love and care even when David didn’t need to be rescued. If God was only the one who answered us when we were in trouble, He would only be our savior but Jesus made it clear, that henceforth we are his friends.