There's the Wish-List, the To-Do List, and the Oh-Why-Don't-I-Have-Time-To-Do-This List and more

1. The To-Do-List

• Remember to get my Christ Ambassadors name-tag to bring to our meeting tonight... I've been "absent" for a year... oops.
• Work out at the gym with Bethany.
• Try and find one hour that I can sit down and research for my paper... the topic is "How media influences body image in America." Basically it's a paper on literature review.
• Try and find the time to eat dinner before Wednesday Word and Worship.
• After Wednesday Word and Worship read "The Case for Trent" for my social work class and review for my Com 161 quiz in the morning...
• Realize that it will be impossible to go to bed before 10:00 with a horrendous list like this.

2. The Wish-I-Could List

• I wish I was a creative photographer with the ability to take unique, and stirring photographs.
• I wish I had the time to read all the books that I want to.
• I wish I could sing... really well.
• I wish I could play the guitar... that I was so good at it that I could just sit in my room playing any and every worship song that I could imagine. And maybe write one of my own.
• I wish I had better memory skills... I wish that I could look at a Bible verse and BAM! have it memorized... that I could retain awesome and crucial information about creation and apologetics.
• I wish I could accept change more... I wish that when something new in my life happened, it didn't completely throw everything off for me... causing me to re-adjust everything... which is so difficult. I wish I liked change better. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a complete rebel towards change... but I can't deny the fact that big changes stress me out. It's not a bad thing, it doesn't ruin my life or my day... I just tend to be more stressed, physically and emotionally.
• I wish I could captivate an audiance with words... both verbal and written. Several of my friends have amazing blogs, and they are all spectacular writers. Yes, I write well... I'm detailed, yes. I'm creative, yes. I have a love of fairies and elves and gardens, yes. But my writings don't bring revelation to the reader.

3. The Oh-Why-Don't-I-Have-Time-To-Do-This List

• I wish that I could bake and cook more... so many times people ask me to cook them something... they will even pay for all the ingrediants! Well, that sounds like heaven to me... but I normally don't have the time.
• I wish that I could spend infinate amounts of time with people... I want to have enough time on my hands that I could balance spending more time with people.... with my friends, with people I could pour into, with people that evoke great discussions, with people who make me laugh, and those with stories that make me cry. 
• Yet, I still wish to be able to spend more time alone... I want to be able to sit in the presence of God... meditating on Him... knowing that He is my own. I want to sit in my room, quietly with a book. I want to sit in a rocking chair, alone, and knit while talking to my Best Friend. I want to lay on my back in a graceful (yes, graceful... it works for me right now) patch of grass and flowers and stare at the sky, playing the cloud-shape game by myself...
• I wish I could go to bed earlier. I wish that I didn't have this amazing book that I want to read, no matter the price of not sleeping.
• I wish I could read more. I wish that I could read a book a day... I can read a book a day, for I am a speed reader... it's just that I don't have the time to read a book a day.

Love tinted glasses...

    A couple days ago I decided to make a quick trip to Wal-Mart... you know, the store that controls our lives? Well, I needed this to be a very quick trip. I wanted to run in, get my items of groceries, find the fastest checker I knew of, and leave as soon as I possibly could.

    As always, I quickly look to see if any of "my checkers" were there. You see, I have a "list" of WalMart employees kept in the back of my head that are the "good" ones and the "bad" ones. Unfortunately, the longest line was at the checkout station of my favorite lady but I happened to see the light next to her flash on. Dashing hopefully to the counter, I set down my groceries thinking that I would get out even quicker than I had first planned. And then... I saw who was behind the checkout stand. She was probably about 5'2'', about 80 years old, and was taking forever. Trying not to be inpatient I stand there quietly, hands folded, waiting for her to start scanning my items. Did she start by picking up my banana's and typing in the code? No, of course not. Instead, she grabs her bag from behind her computer and sets in on the belt to begin using.

    First of all, this bag is the clear, tacky plastic kind that I used to have when I was five. It's filled with gum, denture paste, lipstick, a comb, perfume, a pair of glasses and some other slightly random items. I watch as she slowly, and boy do I mean slowly, opens her shiny clear bag to get out her glasses. She then lifts the tube of lipstick out, along with a pocket mirror, and proceeds to apply her bright, ruby red makeup. Instead of finishing and turning to attend to my groceries she then pulls out a well-used kleenex and blots her lips. Thinking at last she is going to turn around and start checking me out, I watch as she instead sprays herself with perfume, get's out a watch and signs into her little computer. By this time I am itching to get this over with. The line that I had decided not to wait in has now been replaced with all new people... and I'm sitting here waiting on a little old lady to finish her "business". In my opinion, at this time, all this primping was completely uneccessary and a complete waste of my time. After a long process of entering in codes and having to take off one item that she scanned twice I get to leave.

    It's after I leave the store that I realized how precious that whole scenario was. Did it annoy me? Yes. Should it have annoyed me? No. Why not?... Because Jesus thought she was beautiful.

He loved the time that she took to bring out her purse. He loved her taste in that tacky, clear, zippered, square purse. He loved watching her enjoy primping and applying make-up. He just loved her.

    Have you ever heard the term "rose-colored glasses"? People use that phrase to say that you are looking at something as better or more special than it really is. Well, Jesus looks at us through "love-tinted glasses". I know that while I was sitting there, being incredibly impatient, thinking that her bag was stupid, and wondering why in the world she would choose that moment to apply lipstick, He was thinking how much He loves her. He doesn't see the waste of time, the imperfections, the wrinkled skin, the quirky tastes, or need to hurry in everything... He just sees His children. He sees us as His best friends. He looks at us through love-tinted glasses... And that just knocks my socks off.

David Crowder sings a song that has become a recent favorite of mine... I feel it is quite appropriate to place the lyrics in this particular blog.

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

You should watch his music video... click here.