Something that is Nothing

How are you living?
Are you living content with the fullness that is found in Him,
Or are you content with the fullness that leaves you empty.
I do run sometimes to nothing.
Do you hide when you get there like I sometimes do?
Why is this nothing, the nothing that I make into something?
Something that I long for instead of You.
Something that doesn't know me as well as You.
Something that fills me but only for awhile
Something that is nothing
Disguised as beauty my eyes are drawn to its attraction
My eyes are blinded by light that isn't pure
Once again I run to nothing
Hiding when I get there.

Up To the Mountain

Here is another Patty Griffin song/video that I love. I love the power in her voice that comes out!
I also like how she handles sound weirdness. The girls that laugh in the background are a little obnoxious though. When I saw her live there were some sound issues that happened and she just kept going and didn't even mention anything about them. She handled it well.
Here is the video.

I Will Not Take My Love Away

I continue to be amazed at how God uses music in my life to bring me to Himself.
Today I was listen to Matt Wertz's album and started listening to the words of this song.
It met me where I am right now. I'm thankful for this song. If you want to listen to some of it go here. It is only 30 seconds, so if you don't have it already....just get the whole album. It's great!
Here are the lyrics...

I Will Not Take My Love Away

"I will not take my love away
When praises cease and seasons change
while the whole world turns the other way
I will not take my love away

I will not leave you all alone
When striving leads you far from home
And there's no yield for what you've sown
I will not leave you all alone

I will give you what you need
In plenty or in poverty
Forever, always, look to me
And I will give you what you need
I will not take my love away"

Consume Me

Sometimes this feeling it overwhelms me
I forget who You are
Your grace that surrounds me
I know that Your love never fails
I know Your grace covers still

Consume me
And fill, every space in my heart
That's empty and needy
I need You to guide me
Your love and Your mercy
I need You to hold me
My God, You're my God, You're my God

Strengthen my faith, 'cause I'm feeling so weak
I have grown tired of this waiting
This strength that You give me
I know that You will never leave
I know You're faithful to me

Some words...

I sit and listen, my heart starts racing
My mind starts wandering, dreaming
Will I ever do this, will I stand up there someday
Will it ever go away, this feeling deep in me
Will that feeling leave me, if I never make it there
Will it stay to say this is what could have been

Is it up to me or do I wait
I fear that my fear will bury it in the ground
As I play it safe
My thoughts of me are the thoughts of a worm
Not the thoughts of a child
Singing songs of the mire
Not the songs of a bride
Afraid at the end, doing nothing

Quote

"I know that I long for God and a conformity to His will, in inward purity and holiness, ten thousand times more than for anything here below."
-David Brainerd

"When I Say I'm a Christian"

I read this today and loved it. So thought I would share it.

"When I Say I'm a Christian"
by Maya Angelou

When I say….”I am a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I’m clean livin.’”
I’m whispering, “I was lost,
Now I’m found and forgiven.”

When I say….”I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble
And need Christ to be my guide.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak
And need his strength to carry on.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visibleBut,
God believes I’m worth it.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou,
I’m just a simple sinner
Who received God’s grace somehow!

The Video

Here it is! The video...
It's a little ghetto because I had to play it on my computer and then video my computer playing the DVD. or whatever. So the quality isn't that great. But you still get the picture!
The parts that make me laugh....
1. When I say that I'm a little nervous....and then the camera guy asks...."Are you nervous?!" and I basically repeat the exact same thing I said before.
2. Ray's reaction to me as I do the "Are you ready to rock" hands and face just before I get into the plane!
3. The fact that they play "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses during my fall.
4. When I land there is a dude that comes over right away to help with the parachute and I basically chest bump him.
5. Hilary's legs just before she lands!
Enjoy!!!!

Wooooooo Doggie!!!

Well...I did it...I went skydiving!!!
It was AMAZING!!! I would definitely do it again!

Here is the entrance of the place!

Here is a picture of us filling out the information, which also included a warning basically saying that there is a chance you could die. Comforting.
Suitin' it up!!!Faisal suitin' it up!Hilary suitin' it up!I'm so excited!!! I'm glad that I went to the bathroom beforehand...I did not pee my pants!The plane...We basically all filed in and sat strattling a bench with your tandem instructor behind you. You pretty much have to sit in their lap and they hook you up so that you are tight up to each other. It was a little too close! awkward!!
Ali came for the ride and got to sit up by the pilot! He looks like a professional!
10,000 feet in the air...This is Perry, Hilary's videographer! He kept giving me a hard time about how much I was smiling! He thought I was "full of trouble"! HE looks like he is "full of trouble"! He also thought that my shoes were going to go flying off. He took one look and said..."I'll be catching that one on the way down!" He was wrong! They don't have laces but they were very secure and cute!I was the first to jump!!! I screamed.
I think I'm still screaming!We were free-falling at 120mph for about a minute or a little bit longer. At that speed, it makes your face look a little funny!The parachute opens...for that I am truly thankful!
(ps...the jumpsuits do NOTHING for my figure! HAHA!)Once the parachute opened we spent 5-6 minutes floating to the bottom! It was beautiful!! Ray let me be in control of the parachute! I had the handles! He told me to put my right hand down to my right side of my waist and we would spin around and turn down! It was so much fun! We all jumped! No one party poopered out!
This is my hero, Ray. We did it!!! WOO HOO!!! We get an official certificate.
We all had some hearing issues after the jump because of the altitude and the pressure. Here we are trying to blow our ears back into place.
Roomies!!!
Faisal is practicing for his next jump!
Friends forever ! awwww!!Friends forever! awwww!!! (this was the closest Ali came to jumping!) Woooooo Doggie!!!stay tuned for the video!

Florida Trip

I took way too many pictures on this trip to post them all, so I made a slide show that will be at the end of the post.
The trip was amazing. It was suppose to start Friday June 22 but my flight was canceled because of weather and so instead of leaving at 6:00pm on Friday my flight left at 5:40 AM Saturday morning.
That's early.
WAY too early!
But my adrenaline was going and I was so excited to get out there I was able to get up and make my flight!
It was so great spending time with Christy and AJ. Right away the laughing started when they picked me up from the airport!
We stayed in Beverly Hills, FL where Christy's aunt and uncle live. (due to some disbelief that Beverly Hills Florida actually existed there is a picture to prove it!)
They have a really nice house with a pool and so right after we arrived at the house we ate lunch and got into our suits and hit the pool!
The next 9 days basically consisted of eating, going to the pool, going to the beach (gulf side), sleeping, watching movies, playing games. It was great!!!!
We went to a wildlife center that had manatees, alligators, different types of birds, and other animals.
Christy is known for her crocodile hunter imitation. So of course I made her do it when we saw that there were alligators at the wildlife center!

We also spent several days at Clearwater Beach. The beaches were beautiful! White sand, clean, the water was warm and amazing...aside from the big fish that would swim by us every once in awhile. yikes!
On our way to the beach one day we saw this guy...

Here is another video that I took the night we watched the sunset on the beach. BEAUTIFUL!!! I miss it SO much!

Dara met up with us in Tampa the last weekend of our trip. She lives about 3 hours or so away and so she joined us in the fun!
My flight coming back to Austin was delayed several hours because of bad weather. Not something that is fun to come back to when you just spent 10 days in the sun and warmth.
As you can tell from the pictures I got pretty dark. That's what usually happens in the summertime. Then people start thinking that I'm from some other country...seriously!
It has been really hard adjusting this week to being back to real life!
I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be able to go and spend some quality time with amazing women!
Hope you enjoy the pictures! Click below to go through the slideshow.

My Apology

Sorry friends. I realize that it has been way too long since I've last posted. I have quite a bit to post about. I'm hoping that on Saturday I have some time to get the blog updated.
I'll leave you today with a funny story that happened last night.
I got home from work and I parked on the street instead of the parking lot to our apartment and I was shutting my truck off and gathering up my things and I looked up and saw this old man riding his bike across the street (I'm looking at him from the side).
You may think...that's normal....especially in Austin...everyone rides their bikes, everywhere. Well...this was a little different...the dude was wearing nothing but a thong, friends.
Yes...I'm serious.
It wasn't Leslie, it was someone else with "his" fashion sense. I couldn't believe it! It was hilarious! The things you see in Austin!