When prayers are blocked

The Truth Project always makes me think. Always. And Wednesday night was no exception (and as a sidenote, here's what I posted the last time after I saw the very same lesson--completely different than this post).


Wednesday's lesson focused on sociology--God's view of relationships. The amazing speaker (Del Tackett), illustrated how the concepts of unity and diversity are embedded in God's very triune nature.


He also illustrated how God's systems for social order in the family, the church, etc. include similar concepts to those illustrated in the Trinity (e.g. Christ is the head of the Church, Church leaders submit to Christ and members are instructed to honor their leaders--just as the husband is the head of the family, wives submit to their husbands and children are told to honor their parents).


Among other things, one of the verses Del brought up was this:

Husbands, in the same way be considerate

as you live with your wives,

and treat them with respect

as the weaker partner

and as heirs with you

of the gracious gift of life,

so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

(1 Peter 3:7)

Whoa. That's pretty harsh. If husbands don't love and care for their wives, it hinders their prayers?

Perhaps it was because of the earlier discussion, but I started to wonder, "If this concept is true and applies to husbands and wives, could it possibly apply to other scenarios or spheres of God's design for social order?"


For example, if I'm dishonoring my parents, does it hinder my prayers? Or if I cease supporting Church leaders and reject their authority in my life, does it in some way block my prayers from reaching God's ears?

Honestly, I don't know the exact answer. But it definitely made me think (admittedly about some stuff that's not really that fun to think about!).


The bottom line? God designs and orchestrates so many of our relationships--and He takes them pretty seriously, especially those described in the Word as covenant relationships (e.g. family, Church worldwide). When there is a barrier between me and those I'm in a covenant relationship with, it can create a block between me and God. Why? Because God is part of my covenant relationships--He designed them.

I think it's pretty cool that God is a God of relationships--that He creates and lives in mine. I just have to remember not to allow anyone or anything to stand in the way of my relationship with Him.

30 days of worship music

Recently, our pastor challenged our youth and young adults to listen to nothing but praise and worship music for the next 30 days.

There are so many good reasons why it's a great idea--worship makes God bigger in our lives (than problems or gas prices!), helps us stay focused on living right, keeps our minds centered on the positive (and not criticism), etc.

But from a practical standpoint, I heard some people comment, "What am I going to listen to for the next 30 days?" or "That's going to be a lot of Hillsong!"

So...I decided to break out my CD collection and look for praise and worship music. I thought I'd use this post as a forum to let you in on some of the worship bands and CDs I like...and if you think of others, let me know:

Hillsong and Hillsong United: I'm probably more of a Hills United girl myself--and have been listening to the "I (Heart) Revolution" and "All of the Above" CDs lately.

Starfield: Starfield is a worship band out of Vancouver, BC (discovered them back in my days at Trinity Western!). "Beauty in the Broken" is an awesome worship CD--love the songs "The Hand that Holds the World" and "Unashamed". I don't have their latest CD "I Will Go" yet (I'm going to buy it on iTunes tonight!), but have been listening to some of the singles on their MySpace page. It's great!

Sonicflood - "Sonicflood" - I broke out this "oldie" worship CD (circa 1999!) in the car this morning. It's still a great CD to me with songs like "Heart of Worship" and "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever."

Delirious? "The Cutting Edge" - Delirious' album, "The Cutting Edge" is also an older CD (1997), but I think it really sparked a lot of the modern worship revolution we've seen in the Church worldwide. It's a 2-CD set packed with some of my all-time favorites like "Lord, You Have My Heart" and "Oh, Lead Me." Simple. Beautiful.




Champions Centre - "Nothing Compares": Our own worship CD includes some great tracks with the heartbeat of our House.





Others worth noting? (Though not completely my style):

• Lincoln Brewster "Amazed"
  
• Third Day "Offerings" and "Offerings II"


• Lakewood Church


• Reuben Morgan


• Planetshakers


• Darrell Evans


• Chris Tomlin


• Vineyard (e.g. the "Breathe" song on the "Hungry" CD is one of my faves)


• Matt Redman

Others? I'm sure there are a ton more. I'm sure the next 30 days of worship will be amazing...but I'm more excited to live a life of worship (beyond just music) forever.

Quote of the day: Risk

I found this while I was doing a search for a work project. Hope you enjoy it:

“To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To hope is to risk pain.

To try is to risk failure,

but risk must be taken

because the greatest hazard in life

is to risk nothing.”

Girlfriend get-away...for a day

I have a travel bug. Although I will be going out of state soon (Chicago in August, hopefully Europe/East Coast in October), I felt like exploring this past weekend. My amazingly easygoing (translation: perfect travel companion) friend Angela and I took a day exploring different places in Seattle. And apologies to my male blog readers, but our girlfriend get-away for a day focused on things we enjoy--namely, shopping, chocolate and coffee.

Wallingford: Go for the restaurants and Wallingford Center

First, we went to Wallingford. There are a lot of cute restaurants there, but not much shopping in walking distance from where we parked. We enjoyed some time at Wallingford Center, an architecturally cool building that looks like a renovated old city hall (I'm not sure what it once was). We liked Amita, a gift shop with some amazing jewelry, and Zanadia, a home furnishings store with some high-end furniture and smaller, affordable items (including candles with the Colin Cowie stamp of approval).

Ballard: Shopping, cupcakes, coffee--oh my! What's not to love?


Our first stop? Cupcake Royale, baby! I tried the mocha cupcake with...let's get crazy creative here...a mocha. Now, I'm definitely a Starbucks girl, but the coffee here (Verite Coffee) is great--and the presentation by baristas takes coffee to another, artistic level. I also learned that Cupcake Royale is a woman-owned business--another good reason to support it.

Here are a few of the stores we visited:

*Note: These are the ones I could find again on the Web--there are lots of other cute finds, though!

Duque Salon + Spa + Boutique: Check out the accessories for the best trendy deals--I found a great evening bag for a friend. They also have cute (and expensive) clothes...and a spa (if you're comfortable getting your hair cut/dyed in front of those looking at t-shirts, wallets and hair accessories).



Archie McPhee: I would call this place the Mecca of Cubicle Flair. It has a random assortment of weird stuff. Need a giant handlebar moustache? A rubber chicken? A thermal lunchbox that looks like a Chinese take-out box? This is your place...

Gifted: Smaller version of Archie McPhee...I think they sold jelly bracelets, wacky air fresheners Pop-Its and Razzles.


At one of the smaller stores we visited, I bought this yellow (yellow is my "it" color of the moment) necklace with "love" written inside. There were other options with beautiful colors and words (alive, sweet). Loved them!

Dinner: Mediterranean cuisine to die for

We headed to Cedars restaurant (which both of us had been to before). It's a Mediterranean restaurant with outdoor seating and good prices. Order the garlic nan ($2.50) as an appetizer with the hummus spread ($3.95 - comes with great pitas as well). I had coconut curry chicken for dinner ($11.95)--mmm mmm good!

Gasworks Park: Check out the view!

After dinner, we headed over to Gasworks Park (home of a huge 4th of July fireworks show). I'd never been there before, but Gasworks Park has an incredible view of Seattle and Lake Union. There's a paved trail where you can run, walk, bike, etc. and I saw some people out on picnics and tossing Frisbees.

If you want to stay in the South Sound...

For a micro-mini girlfriends get-away, grab some gelato at Forza in downtown Puyallup. Bonus--gelato has less butter fat than ice cream.

The real reason to get it? Oh. my. word. It's amazing. I've tried hazelnut and chili chocolate so far--and they both rocked.

The not-so-basic break-up

Ironically, I was thinking the other day about the fact that sometimes I think too much.

It is a common pattern a girl crazy in hope. Maybe it's the writer in me that creates real-life stories that seem to make perfect sense ... to me anyway. :)

The problem? What I'll refer to as the not-so-basic break-up. I'm not talking about breaking up with a guy. The kind of break-up I'm referring to here is a break-up of ideals--like when something you thought was solid seems to evaporate and you're left wondering, "Did that really happen? Why? How could I have been so wrong about XYZ?"

As I was thinking, I read this passage in Joshua where these words stood out to me:

Not one word failed

from all the good words

God spoke

to the house of Israel.

Everything came out right.
(Joshua 21:45 - The Message)

My thoughts and ideals may fail me and others, but not one word of God ever fails. Ever. God speaks even when I tune Him out (unintentionally most of the time). But no matter what, His promises will come true--and if I follow Him with my whole heart (and head), things will work out right.

That seems simple enough to write and even to say--like a Sunday School-safe, politically correct kind of thing. The hard part is really believing it and actually walking it out, walking in a way where I totally trust God more than my own strength.

It's a teeter-totter of balance because God gave me a brain to use, but He also gave me (and every Christian) the Holy Spirit (the voice inside that believers often attribute to conscience, womens' intuition or a gut feeling).

Though this may not be the most amazing post I've ever written, it's an important topic I'm trying to work out. Maybe I should just let go and stop thinking--at least for now.


Related posts:

Random note - As I wrote this post today, I forgot about these older posts (which I just re-read for good measure). This is definitely something I'm continually working on and chances are, it might be affecting you, too.

• Crazy in hope
  
• "What now, God? moments