Hello Love

I like to write.

I like to hope and dream.

I like to imagine that I can be an inspiration and a blessing to those I may meet.

I like to hope the thoughts I express in paragraphs and prose turn into poetic muse.

I like how this past year has been full of life-changing moments.

I like how when I meet a new friend or person along this life’s journey, a new memory of affect is created.

I like how it’s through life’s momentary meeting’s I can encounter an encouraging word, an inspiring story, a laugh, a smile, a burden to share or a lesson to learn. 

I like how just when I think I have placed God in the center of my life He yet again turns everything inside out.

I like how I have to grow each day, learning to draw grace and strength from deep within.

I like how I soak up inspiration from my Creator.

I like how much I love and need the Lord my God.

I love how much my God means to me and how much faith I place in Him alone.

I love how I find comfort and meaning to life through my relationship with the God I believe in.

I love how I never have to stand alone.

I love the freedom and peace I find in my Saviour.

I love Jesus and all that His name encompasses.

I love how crazy and strange it may be to say all of this and know that I am unique.

I am thankful for Love that gives me air to breathe.

I am thankful that God is love. 

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Quiet Confidence

People may write me off as the best quiet spirit, naysayers may say my personality needs to change and is one not many would want to hire, people may say you’re aiming too high, maybe you should try doing something easier, maybe you should stop trying to achieve this dream of yours, maybe...the list can go on and on. The world is full of negative naysayers always unwilling to accept the best for others or they think they need to offer ‘good advice’. The one thing they don’t know is that their words of negativity or what may be meant to deter me only fuels the fire in my belly even more. I haven’t come this far floating on clouds, it’s been pure determination and confidence not in myself alone but in something far greater. It is a courage to attempt to accomplish the desires that burn in me that God alone placed and is faithful to complete. It is with a quiet and calm confidence in One who is more than enough that propels me further not for myself but to give of myself and whatever I can offer to live a life worthy of a love and salvation given so freely for me...and for you. 

Yes, it may hurt to hear the negative but it doesn’t really matter what other’s think, say, or do if you have placed your confidence in the Creator of life, dreams, vision, creativity, and all things beautifully set apart for the praise of His glory.

The best thing about my kind of confidence is that I don’t place it in a fading outer appearance, a vast educational knowledge or intelligence or degrees, riches, social status, awards, and accomplishments. My confidence is in One whose beauty never fades, a love that never fails, a joy that runs deeper, a peace that cannot be shaken, a wisdom none can comprehend, a strength that goes beyond the physical, and an abundance of life that flows not out of momentary happiness but is rooted in faith. 

It is scary stepping out of your comfort zone but all it takes is one step. That is all I do, take one step at a time confident in my faith; confident that the desires I have are God given; confident that in my daily mundane life, is where moments of God’s greatness can be revealed. I am confident that there is an ever growing amount of learning to be done but I am also confident that the doors God opens present challenges that will come with joys of seeing more of what God can accomplish through ordinary people believing in an extraordinary God. 

-I hope you know how much God loves you!

Love

I do not want to fall away from you, Lord. I look neither to the left nor to the right. I look to You, Lord. Who can walk this path alone? Thank God gravity pulls me towards your nail scarred hands.

Do you have the faith to believe? Remember the stories of the Bible and place your faith in them…in God. In the strength the Lord gave Sampson to destroy the Philistines. As Sampson looked to heaven crying out in repentance, saying, “God grant me this one last time! Forgive me! Use me to do your final work in my life!” Sampson leaned forward; sweat pouring from his forehead as he pushed with every fiber of his God given strength, the pillars creaked and groaned collapsing into dust and rubble. 

Do you believe in the faith God gave Ruth? Her very obedience to follow YHWEH into a foreign land was the action of simple faith. A widow of the accursed Moabite peoples, she followed her mother-in-law to embrace the very land and people who rejected her heritage. Ruth became a woman known throughout this new land because of her character and was woven into the bloodline of our Savior Jesus. Her destiny unfolded in God’s perfect time, best of all in God’s perfect way.

Salvation from a life of bondage was given to Rahab, a harlot. Whose very own household became the sole survivors of the city of Jericho. Do you put your faith in this freedom? 

I read of how it is written, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” The same God who promised to Abraham his very seed would outnumber the stars in the sky is the same God I put my trust in. Do you? 

I remember the promises He gave to Esther, Paul, Jeremiah, and Abraham. These are the promises of salvation from destruction, promises of a calling to preach the Gospel to the ends of the world, a promise of a hope and future. I remember the stories, these words of the Bible, this love poured out in blood for me…for you. 

Love’s own hand writes your future. Your very days are ordained, each moment known before one even passed. Remember the promises of the past; they are the keys to your future. It is never too late to follow in the footsteps of our Savior. Never too late to choose life, it is never too late to believe. 

Psalms 139: 15 – 16 “You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”(NLT)

Travels

Spring brings about rain, flowers, and the hope of long summer days. Summer's laden with promises of fun in the sun but to me the need to travel is once again rising up within me. In my mind's eye I picture the lush, green vegetation that surrounds the valleys in central Sri Lanka to the big bold city lights with the sounds of car horns, people shouting and police sirens wailing. Then the canvas changes to the muddy yellow colors of the sands of the African deserts’ intensity draining you of energy as the sun joins in the promotion of the suffocating heat. 

There is beauty in the rain pouring down from the heavens in the cool of an African night. Our eyes appear wider as the variety of huge colorful lizards lay in silent wait for the ceasing of the rains. The architectural highlights of each country beckon the aimless wanderers. Malaysia’s own twin towers, Japan’s sophisticated streets, or England’s familiar Big Ben. 

The masses of humanity throng dangerously close to each other as the smells tear through ones mind. The images, sounds, and scents forever embedded into one’s memory. Who can forget the first time they walked through the white sands to the blue oceans of Hawaii’s magnificent beaches, gingerly stepped down the stairs to India’s slums, ran through the streams in South Korea’s prayer mountains, or climbed to the most breathtaking view from the height of Sigiriya’s leveled peak? 

If one looks closely, they find uniqueness in faces of the masses that pass by. In a small village on the outskirts of a city in Nigeria, men, women, and children live, work, and survive. They go about their daily activities of school and work in the fields, never venturing outside the perimeter of their village. In the open Chapel area on a breezy afternoon, they sing and praise the Lord with faith and passion. Here they reside, shunned by society. Outcasts. Their decomposing bodies a shocking sight to others around. They are a community of lepers, worshipping the Lord amid their poverty and lack of a dignified place in society. 

Contentment that is what I saw in the lives of the leper community. It stems from knowing who you are in Christ Jesus. There is nothing else, how can there be when everyday, your very life is decaying, literally before your eyes? Yet there is this contentment. 

Do you let yourself identify with your circumstances, your ideals, your status symbols? Are you letting culture dominate your life or is it your religion? Let your relationship with Christ deepen so that you learn to identify with Him. Then no matter what cross you have to bear that day, you have the confidence to face it, knowing who you are in Christ.

There is something about us humans that draws us to higher heights, constantly trying to outdo our last success. Never satisfied with what we have, always striving for what is thought to be better. Why else would this constant need for travel, change, and better things be driving our lives? People travel aimlessly everyday, consuming the latest and the greatest, living for nothing. Go, travel, live, give, love, and learn, but know that there is always a greater impact in other’s lives when you live for Christ. To live is Christ, to die is gain. To truly live with passion for life, with satisfaction in our every single action, is to live in Christ. 

There is one question that I have to ask myself at the end of the day, am I content in Christ? What are my motives? I know I will never be satisfied no matter how many countries I set foot in, or how many frames I hang on my walls, or whether I get the right career, and life, unless I first allow myself to be content in the arms of Christ.

Though it has been the loneliest and most difficult year of my life, God has proven so faithful! He continues to amaze me with His love and goodness. People are fickle, life is hard but God knows just where you supposed to be and who you are meant to be.

Thank the Lord, He placed me close to my family! This year would be so much harder without them.

'They', whoever 'they' are, were right, going through PA school is hard. I thought I'd make friends and we could go through this tough test of studying medicine together but I've found that the only one I can truly depend on is the Lord alone. Friends may come and go but very few will put aside their selfishness and jealously to really stand with you through the years. I treasure my friendships that have lasted through years, some since childhood, some since high school, some since college. Though we do not communicate often, when we meet up it's like we never missed a day away! True friends are hard to find. Sometimes though we need to learn to completely trust in God alone. It's never people, past successes, our own intelligence, money, status, or stuff that can ever save us, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the name of Jesus, nothing but the Lord God my Savior can save us. Yes, it is my complete belief in a loving, Heavenly Father God that is my light and my salvation through this life. Sometimes life draws us closer to our Maker.