My Child,

You may not know me, but I know everything about you. Psalm 139:1
I know when you sit down and when you rise up. Psalm 139:2
I am familiar with all your ways. Psalm 139:3
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. Matthew 10:29-31
For you were made in my image. Genesis 1:27

For those interested in mentorship and/or the college-age years, here's a new curriculum release by Chuck Bomar and yours truly.  It's designed for mentor relationships and can also work for a small group setting.  With quite a lack of mentoring resources for this age-stage, we hope it's greatly beneficial for you!  Peace, Abbie

http://www.whatisorange.org/xp3college/about-xp3college/

A posse of young, boys was playing basketball in my neighborhood the other day.  They were gifted and African American, looking to me like miniatures of the guys on TV.  With one exception though, I noticed—their rim was a good couple feet higher than the normal ten-footer!

“What are you boys doin’ playing on such a high hoop!?” 

“What you mean, Mrs. Abbie?  This is our normal.  And we barely ever miss. Watch this,” said the shortest of the bunch, laying-up the ball with a near perfect swoosh.

“Oh,” I said, walking away with two realizations.  Namely, that we are what we’re raised with, and our "norms" aren't always (or are rarely!) the norms of those around us.  This goes for views of sports, health, safety, morality, church, God, self, family, theology, psychology, and the list goes on.

Fight it though you may, but in every language and translation, this is what God says...

You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you. (niv)

You are altogether beautiful, my darling, And there is no blemish in you. (nasb)

You're beautiful from head to toe, my dear love, beautiful beyond compare, absolutely flawless. (message)

[He exclaimed] O my love, how beautiful you are! There is no flaw in you! (amplified)

You are altogether beautiful, my darling, beautiful in every way. (new living)

Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

This post began this morning in a prayer time caught by the words, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11.28).  I bet I’ve breezed by the verse two hundred times, but this morning it stopped me. As I meditated on the words, feeling their elaborate depths, something in me sensed an appetite for “more.”  Do You mean more coming to You, God, or receiving of Your rest?  Or maybe You want me to open to unrest?  What do you mean by drawing me toward more, Father?

I sat for a handful of minutes, overwhelmed by my needs for reprieve.  And for such repreive needed by others.  Names and faces began illustrating my prayers.  This person and that friend—this family member and that enemy—“How might they be weary and burdened, Holy Spirit, hungry for Your rest?”  Names and faces kept coming.

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way tha...t hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." — C.

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Rambling reflections as I sit in a coffee shop this morning.  Couldn’t help but listen-in on a business conversation setting the table behind me.  “What makes our real estate more desiring than the one across the street?…What makes us more profitable than our competitors?”  And as I settled into my chai and let their gripping words collide with my ears, I realized the relevancy of these questions, as they applied to my stance as a Christian. 

“Why is our message worth more than any other?”  “Is my faith that different from the one across the street, down the hall, or in another building?”  And I’m no apologetic, but allowing God to sift me through these matters left my heart with a truth, transcending any argument, religion, and even reason. 

I remembered that Christian’s belief system stands on grace.

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