Doubting Thomas

I wanted to share/reflect on one of Oswald Chambers' devotions from his book My Utmost For His Highest. I had actually dog-eared this particular page last year, but it's impact on me was no less profound this time around.

[On a side note...one of my many odd obsessions applies to the condition of my books, where it literally causes internal pain when any crease, bend or mark alters their perfection....but I'm proud to say that I'm slowly overcoming this strange phobia for ease of referencing quotes/pages of interest]

"The woman said to Him, 'Sir, You have nothing to draw [water] with, and the well is deep.'"

 - John 4:11

"Have you ever said to yourself, 'I am impressed with the wonderful truths of God's Word, but he can't really expect me to live up to that and work all those dtails into my life!' When it comes to confronting Jesus Christ on the basis of His qualities and abilities, our attitudes reflect religious superiority. We think His ideals are lofty and they impress us, but we believe He is not in touch with reality - that what he says cannot actually be done. Each of us thinks this about Jesus in one area of our life or another. These doubts or misgivings about Jesus begin as we consider questions that divert our focus away from God. While we talk of our dealings with Him, others ask us, 'Where are you going to get enough money to live? How will you live and who will take care of you?' Or our misgivings begin within ourselves when we tell Jesus that our circumstances are just a little too difficult for Him. We say, 'It's easy to say, "Trust in the Lord," but a person has to live; and besides, Jesus has nothing with which to draw water - no means to be able to give us these things.' And beweare of exhibiting religious deceit by saying, 'Oh, I have no misgivings about Jesus, only misgivings about myself.' If we are honest, we will admit that we never have misgivings or doubts about ourselves, because we know exactly what we are capable or incapable of doing. But we do have misgivings about Jesus. And our pride is hurt even at the thought that He can do what we can't.

My misgivings arise from the fact that I search within to find how He will do what He says. My doubts spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, I should bring them into the light and confess them openly - 'Lord, I have had misgivings about You. I have not believed in Your abilities, but only my own. And I have not believed in Your almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.'"

Wow. How many times have I said this! "Oh, I don't doubt Jesus....I doubt myself." Ugh! What a load of crap! And God is just so amazing; He really wanted to drill this point through my thick skull today because after reading that this morning, I read Acts chapters 3-4 this evening. In these chapters, the apostles Peter and John performed a miracle in the name of Jesus Christ by healing a crippled man outside the temple. Then later the believers prayed, "...enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus"....and after they prayed "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly" (4:29-31).
Okay, Kate, where are you going with this?! Well, how many times have we limited God because of our own incompetence? Even today, I don't give God enough credit to heal my wounds and answer my prayers, let alone use me to perform a miracle! But why not?! Peter and John did it! Over and over the Bible tells us to pray and we shall recieve, but we are a society of doubting Thomases. Lord, give us faith although we cannot see. Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness and perform miraculous signs and wonders in Your Name. Amen.

Home

I'm at home right now and it is wonderful! I've been able to spend time with my parents, celebrate a friends birthday, play with my niece and nephew AND I have enjoyed more than enough good food :)

So in honor of being home, I made my first ukulele recording of the song "Home" by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes. It's an amazing song introduced to me by Katie Holsinger. The video quality is kind of crappy and the sound is a little off but I promise to get better! :)

[Oh, and be sure to notice my new chairs in the background! Love them!]





God > "Intelligent Design"

Ask just about anybody, I am a nice person....not to mention extremely non-confrontational. However, there are two things that I would happily enter into a friendly debate with anyone about: God and evolution. Yup, they do exist! Both of them. And quite happily I would add.
I am currently reading/rereading a book on the matter.....it's the best "textbook" that was ever assigned to me in college: Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search For Common Ground Between God and Evolution by Kenneth Miller. In this book, Miller convincingly constructs an argument against both those who deny evolution as well as those using science to justify a materialist worldview.  I absolutely love the way that he uses the mechanisms of evolution to point to an all-powerful creator. It makes me even more awestruck that we have such an amazing God.
There are soooo many incredible arguments that I wish I could syphon straight from the book to your brain, but since I can't do that, I will share a sample from my last night's reading (it's kinda long....but you should stick it out anyway):

"To an anti-evolutionist, when new species appear in the fossil record....it must be a product of design. This makes the fossil record a tool for recording the actions of the designer. We must say, then, that it pleased the designer to design only microorganisms for nearly 2 billion years of earth's history. He then began to tinker with multicellular organisms, poducing a bewildering variety of organisms that survived only briefly. In the Cambrian era, roughly 530 million years ago, the designer produced an extraordinary variety of multicellular organisms, many of which were the first representatives of what we now regard as the animal phyla....Even in the Cambrian, he was not yet interested in designing a vertebrate....That came later.

Then, as we have seen, the designer produced one organism after another in places and in sequences that would later be misinterpreted as evolution by one of his creatures. And just to compound that misinterpretation, he would ensure that the very first limbs he designed looked like modified fins, and that the first jaws he designed looked like modified gill arches. He would further ensure that the first tetrapods had tail fins, like fish, and that the first birds had teeth, like reptiles. So thoughtful was this designer that after having designed mammals to live exclusively on the land, he would redesign a few, like whales and dolphins, to live in water - but not before he designed creatures that were literally halfway between land and swimming mammals. In working this magic, the designer chose to create forms truly intermediate between walking and swimming mammals.

It would be nice to pretend that this description is nothing more than an irreverent polemic, a nasty poke at the opposition. But it's not. It is a fair description of just a tiny bit of what any advocate of intelligent design must believe in order to square such beliefs with the facts of geological history. And this is just the beginning.

Intelligent design advocates have to account for patterns in the designer's work that clearly give the appearance of evolution. Is the designer being deceptive? Is there a reason why he can't get it right the first time? Is the designer, despite all his powers, a slow learner? He must be clever enough to design an African elephant, but apparently not so clever that he can do it the first time. Therefore we find the fossils of a couple dozen extinct almost-elephants over the last few million years. What are these failed experiments, and why does this master designer need to drive so many of his masterpieces to extinction?

Intelligent design does a terrible disservice to God by casting him as a magician who periodically creates and creates and then creates again throughout the geologic ages. Those who believe that the sole purpose of the creator was the production of the human species must answer a simple question - not because I have asked it, but because it is demanded by natural history itself. Why did this magician, in order to produce the contemporary world, find it necessary to create and destroy creatures, habitats, and ecosystems millions of times over?

I have no doubt that some will read these questions as blasphemous.  How dare I (or anyone) question the motives of God? But keep in mind who is really reponsible for dragging the designer into the crucible of science. If we wish to make sense of natural history by invoking the miraculous to account for life's every twist and turn - and that is exactly what [believers of intelligent design] wishe to do - then it is the invoker himself who has presented in court the motives of the Creator. It is the advocate of design who wants to hold his designer responsible for every detail of life. Ironically he's the one, not the evolutionist, who has made these questions necessary.

In the final analysis, God is not a magician who works cheap tricks. Rather, His magic lies in the fabric of the universe itself. The fossil record is not a series of sequential tricks fabricated for no purpose other than to mislead. The fossil record represents, with all of its imperfections, an epic of evolutionary change, the history of life on this planet grand in its range and diversity and magnificent in its detail. It is the record of the historical process that led to us. It is the real thing, and so are we."

I mean think about it! Isn't a God that designs the mechanisms of evolution smarter than the God that an advocate of intelligent design depicts? Seriously! Read this book! Come to understand how ingenious and amazingly cool evolution is and know that GOD set it all into motion for HIS glory....and that all things, including evolution, work for His ultimate good plan.

Popcorn paws

I am an animal lover. There is no use trying to disguise that fact about myself. And while I'm at it....I might as well admit that I'm one of those weirdo's that really really really loves my animals (not enough to dress them up in ridiculous outfits, however). Well I guess since I spend so much time with my pets, I notice things that others might miss. Like the fact that cats and dogs feet smell like popcorn. Fact.

I first noticed this in elementary school about my cat, Simba, and have always gotten a strange pleasure out of smelling my pets feet ever since....especially Gabbie's (Don't act like you don't have weird scents that you like too....you're probably one of those people that likes the smell of gasoline....gross!)

So I was discussing this with a friend last night and the first thing he did (being the research fiend that he is) was to get on google and ask the question: "why do dogs feet smell like popcorn?" Apparently others have observed this phenomenon as well, although many refer to it as "frito-feet." Here is what we found:

"Dog feet are a great place for bacteria and yeast to take up residence because there’s a lot of moisture and little to no air circulation in the folds and pockets of skin between toes and foot pads. All these micro-organisms give off their own distinct odors (they’re what give us BO), and the popcorn/corn chip smell on some dogs could be the fault of yeast or the bacterium Proteus, which are both known for their sweet, corn tortilla smell. Or it could be the bacterium Pseudomonas, which smells a little fruitier, but pretty close to popcorn to most noses....it is perfectly normal for there to be a lot of bacteria on and in your pet—and on and in you. It’s part of life on Earth and there are worse things these bacteria could be doing besides making your dog smell like delicious snacks."

So if you have a pet...see for yourself. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised!

God is good!

Wow. I don't even know where to start!

Praise God for answered prayers! For forgiveness, peace, joy, hope, lessons learned....and a renewed spirit!

In the last few days and weeks God has proved his faithfulness over and over, bringing healing to my soul and a renewed energy to serve Him. I have been accepted to PA school, Amy booked her ticket to Haiti, a friend came to Christ, and a broken relationship has been mended. Hallelujah! Things are looking up! And I'm ready for action!

I was reflecting on my time in Okemos last night. To this point, it may not have been the most enjoyable, but I am so thankful that I am here. First, and most importantly, I have Amy Luke. She has been my biggest support these last six months and, although we have been roommates for five years, I feel like I have learned more from her friendship now than ever before. She is such an amazing woman of God with so much love and wisdom to share. I have been blessed to live with her for so long, and thank God because I think her rational brain is finally starting to rub off on my not-so-rational one!
Second, I have been learning patience. For the first time in my life, I'm not in a rush! I've been a sprinter all my life, but I'm now starting to enjoy life at a slower pace :)
Third, I love my residents and have learned so much by working with them. I only hope that I can bring them as much joy as they do to me.

So now that I only have three months left here, I am going to do my best to take advantage of every moment. I am going to be a better friend, a better worker, and a more adamant witness for Christ.

I was reading Micah today and was humbled by his reaction to the sins of the Israelites:

 "Because of this I will weep and wail; I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl." - 1:8

How many friends do we have that do not know Jesus, yet do we ever weep and wail for their soul? Howling like a jackal and moaning like an owl? And if you're like me, maybe you pray for some and forget about the others? I have failed them. So today I will be better. Like Pastor Kevin DeYoung preached the other week, I will do better to place a pebble in someone's shoe. Then I will pray and hope that someday they will take that annoying little pebble (that nagging thought about Jesus) out of their shoe and examine it.

So anyway! GOD IS GOOD!

AMEN!

Blue Valentine

Although the trailer gives absolutely no hints about the plot of this movie, I have to admit that I am ridiculously excited to see it for 2 reasons: 

1. Ryan Gosling. Before I explain why I love Ryan Gosling, I must first tell you about my infatuation with The Notebook. This is a love born before it even reached motion pictures, since The Notebook was my favorite book by Nicholas Sparks. I remember numerous times throughout high school when I would stay up all night reading/crying my head off over the love between Noah and Allie. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I have forever since dreamed of a man like Noah and the passionate, crazy love that he had for Allie. It wasn't at all rational.....but I've never really been a fan of rational, myself. So that being said, I was pretty much destined to fall in love with Ryan Gosling when he played the role of Noah in the movie. He was perfect....and I expect nothing less of him in Blue Valentine....whatever it may be about.

2. Ryan's character plays the UKULELE! I have recently become a ukulele fiend, where nearly all of my free time is spent practicing. It brings me so much joy....especially when I take it to the assisted living home and play for my residents. Watching them listen to me is one of the rare moments that I get to see a light in their eyes and a smile on their faces. I try to be good for them. I love the ukulele.

So if there's anyone else out there who loves Ryan Gosling and ukuleles....hit me up and we can catch dinner and a movie!