to julia with love

In response to your blog.

He'll never leave me

Hooked on this song at the moment. My brother taught me this song on guitar and I have been trying to play it on piano as well. The lyrics are beautiful.

I'll Never Leave You
Words and Music - Mac Lynch

As Joseph sought the Lord his God, with all his heart (with all his heart)
God laid on him a burden he would bear, yet not alone.
The Lord was with this holy man to bring to pass His master plan.
Through foreign lands, God walked beside His own

Chorus
I’ll never leave you, never forsake you.
By waters still, in pastures green, I’ll often take you.
But when I break you, so that my name be glorified,
I’ll never leave you, never forsake you.

Though fires and floods would seem to hide His plan for you (His plan for you),
Though trials and afflictions seem to take away your song,
Though you may never understand, just trust in His upholding hand.
In time you’ll learn, He’s been there all along

in less than an hour...

My folks are coming back home after 39 days of globetrotting, and leaving their young to fend for themselves. It's about time too, was starting to get sick of the friends that kept coming over for dinner...

conviction by calendar

It’s not every day that you get convicted by a calendar.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my spiritual life recently. It’s been pretty average for a few months now and I have neglected a lot of things that I shouldn’t have neglected. I had points where I was OK, after which I would rest on my morals and think ‘that was pretty good Rowena, well done,’ and then slack off again for a while. The conviction has continued to grow and grow until recently I realised the sluggish spirituality I had been experiencing has been pretty much my fault for being lazy, and pretty much just losing interest in my First Love.

There have been a few things that have prompted me to make a change. Firstly, random as it sounds, organising the National Youth Conference. After a bit of discussion, we decided on a theme, ‘Come, My Beloved’ – God. It’s a theme that is revolves around God calling us (His beloved) back into a relationship with Him. When I think of this, I picture myself as a type of Hosea’s wife – a dirty, sinful, selfish, woman who left her husband to prostitute herself, only to be bought back again when no one wanted her and when she was at her lowest point in life. Well, I haven’t exactly prostituted myself and this isn’t exactly the lowest point in my life, but I have strayed from my God – and that’s bad enough. I have been infatuated with the things of the world and have lost interest in the most important things in life. The camp theme has reminded me (like many times before) that God is always there for me and that He is always ready to take my repentant self back.

Second, while teaching Sunday School, one of the lessons that came up was being Loyal to God’s Team (as opposed to my own or the world’s team). Though the lesson was meant for the kids, I knew it was also meant for me too. I had started cheering for the wrong team. I had to get the right colours back on again. This was sometime last month.

Third, seeing a man on the train reading his Bible. Convicted by his devotion, I started reading my Bible again. Hmm, this would have been about last week-ish.

Fourth, having two opportunities to share the Gospel. Doing so lifted my heart and reminded me what a privilege it is to be called a child of God. It reminded me of my own sinful nature and God’s disgust for sin. It reminded me of His unbounded grace, and ceaseless love. It also reminded me of the joy in serving God by being His hands and feet.

Fifth, Regeneration Campfire (as well as other discussions I have had in Regen) just helped confirm with me that spiritually, I’m not really where most others are and that I have fallen behind. Just sitting at the campfire reminded me of the times where I had done so previously with a heart full of devotion to God and full of desire to serve Him. That was... on Friday night.

Sixth, a long lunch at McDonald’s with Truc and Julia. I think just talking about what was going on in my head helped me determine to do something about it. Now that it was out in the open, I couldn’t just not do anything about it – especially not with two watchful sisters who would start checking up on me. Accountability can be a powerful motivator. That was yesterday to be exact.

Seventh, seeing my Regeneration Prayer journal on my desk starting to gather dust. Convicted by the dust, I grabbed it and started praying. That was last night.

And then today, as I flicked through my calendar at work to June 8, I came across some wise words from Oswald Chambers:

What’s next to do?

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them – John 13:17

When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more. Examine where you have become sluggish, losing interest spiritually, and you will find it goes back to a point where you did not do something that you knew you should do.

It was just a few words from an old dude I don’t know, but they penetrated right through to the squishy bits of my heart. I had been thinking for a while that I needed to get back on track with God, and this was just the push I needed. God is really, truly amazing..

warming by the fire, underneath the stars

On Friday night, Regeneration headed out to Lake Leschenaulta for a Campfire, without the camp. It was a night of sitting outside, surrounded by 4 degrees of freezing-ness, and warming up by a toasty hot campfire. We sat around praising God, praying, sharing, fellowshipping, drinking hot chocolate (and Tea Tarek), toasting marshmallows, taking photos, and some of us wannabe MasterChefs even tried our hand at Campfire Cuisine (corn, potato gems, sausages, roast potatoes, and even a choc chip cookie).

It was great doing something so different, and I'm sure it won't be the last time.

threadless

I bought t-shirts on the internet! Wow! I'm so excited. My first internet clothing purchase. Soon I will be getting t-shirts in the mail!

These were from Threadless and they're having a summer sale with tees selling for USD 5! I kind of got a bit excited and bought 9 t-shirts, however two Caleb bought for himself (I shouted the shipping and he jumped onto the bandwagon). Including the shipping each tee worked out to be around AUD 11 - not bad eh? Just promise not to buy the same tees as I did OK? :D

These are what they look like!

Caleb's more expensive tees (USD 10 ~ AUD 12.50 - not including shipping) were these ones.

I LOVE this one...

keep left!

There's nothing like the train station at peak hour. I fight it on a daily basis. It's really quite interesting to see the different types of people there. Over the years, I have classified people into a few different categories. Personally, I dabble in between the different categories, depending on how I feel on the day. That's how I am in general - I like a little from column A and a little from column B - variety is definitely a lovely little spice in life. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but it's a start. You could probably write a whole thesis about stair and escalator etiquette, but here's the wikipedia version.

The Climbers. Climbers don't like to waste time. The speed of the escalator is not enough for them, so they will insist on climbing up the escalator - or to top that, they will even use the stairs instead to avoid the risk of the escalator's fast lane being slowed down by a floater. Nothing frustrates the climber more than a floater (description below). Some climbers will confront offending floaters with a polite 'excuse me', but I have witnessed some climbers even shout to offending floaters to 'keep moving!'. Climbers are go-getters, and when their go is gotten by someone else, heads will roll.

The Floaters. Floaters are either really oblivious or really inconsiderate. Most people know basic escalator / stair case courtesy, if going slow or staying still - KEEP LEFT! It's not a hard concept. But some newbies to the train station are not aware of the rules and will break them unkowingly. That's alright guys, you're stupid - you can't help that, I understand. You may be forgiven for being a noob. Then there are the inconsiderate ones - the scum of society. These guys will stand on the right side of the escalator, turn around and see a line of climbers waiting to ascend, and then TURN BACK AROUND to face the front - WITHOUT moving over to the left! Just thinking about that is annoying me!!

The Left Keepers. These are the good citizens who know the rules and keep them. They assist with the smooth flow of escalator / stair traffic with considerate behaviour. They keep left. They avoid trouble. You could even call them peacemakers. Some left keepers will even tap floaters on the shoulder and tell them they're blocking the flow of climbers below. These are the silent heroes of the train station.

Finally, there are the occasional Show-Offs. These are the people who will run up the stairs, over-taking others and skip all the way to the top without taking a breath. They make other people feel unfit and fat with their incredible fitness. Some will even wear their joggers to and from the train station just to assist with gaining their moment of glory. I wouldn't be surprised at all if these guys spent all their spare time at Jacob's Ladder running up and down the concrete steps. Though all the non-Show-Offs openly despise the Show-Offs, deep-down they all aspire to be just like them someday.