A Babe Wrapped in Swaddling Clothes

Fa la la la la and deck the halls.

Christmas trees adorned with lights and memories in the form of ornaments.

Presents followed by a mess of bows and wrapping paper.

Santa Clause, Rudolph, and Frosty the Snowman.

Happy Holidays.

Seasons Greetings.

A babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Merry CHRISTmas.

Man it is way too easy to make Christmas about commercialism.

About us.

“Me,” “My,” and “I” are the vocabulary of the season.

There is way more emphasis placed on receiving than giving, when isn’t giving where the real joy comes from?

I’m not saying it’s wrong or painful to receive gifts.

Quite the opposite really.

I love opening presents and getting new things.

The key here is just to remember that everything we open or get pales in comparison to the ultimate gift that we have been given.

A babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.

My prayer for myself and for you is that we would be humbled and filled with joy this Christmas by one of the most humbling things anyone has ever done.

The King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Creator and Sustainer of the entire UNIVERSE left the throne and the glories of Heaven, where He ruled and reigned, to come to this sin filled, disgusting earth.

This alone is astounding. This would be amazing even if He had come in the form of a king, in majesty and honor, in all that He is and is deserving of, to save this world.

But no. That’s not what happened and that’s why it is amazing all the more.

How did He come instead?

A babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.

A baby. Considerably one of the most feeble and helpless states a human could ever exist in.

The King of kings, helpless.

And then He had to grow up and endure the trials of this life.

All the drama and hardships and failure of bodies and immune systems we have to deal with: He suffered them too. Willingly. Without complaint or anger in His heart.

And then, as my home pastor has been wonderfully stating, the babe of Bethlehem became the Christ of Calvary.

And this Christ, Jesus, fulfilled every prophesy ever foretold, and by shedding His blood, His perfect, flawless blood, is able to present a filthy, wretched sinner like me as righteous before a just and holy God.

A babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Salvation from sin.

Oh praise Him!

Dance and sing and be filled with JOY about this fantastic gift that will never fail, break, or disappoint.

And so, this Christmas, amongst many other things, I am most thankful that, by His grace, the Lord has chosen me and that every day He helps me to lay down my life and will in surrender to His. I am thankful that He loves me unconditionally. I am thankful that because of the humility of Jesus Christ, displayed in His birth, life, and death, I have the ultimate privilege of walking through life on this sin filled, disgusting earth with a perfect, loving God. I rejoice even more that when I leave this earth I will be in the presence of my Almighty God and will get to praise Him forever and ever in all of His glory.

“'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.’”  

Luke 2:10-14

First Semester of College: Check

Wow am I slacking on the posting. My Thanksgiving post took the place of an "update" post, and life after Thanksgiving break was a whirlwind with finals right around the corner. Which, praise the Lord, are over. I don't think my schedule or biological systems have ever been so wacky.

 Much to my dismay, I got a B in Chemistry, which simply increased and justified my hatred for the subject. I am thankful, however, that the Lord tested my heart practically on the things which He recently taught me. It's easy to say, "there are more important things than making all A's" when that's what you're doing. Making a B, (my first since 6th grade mind you) was definitely humbling, and because of that I'm thankful. I'm thankful that the Lord has taken my highest priority and self-worth away from letters and on to Him.

Disclaimer: I still know grades are important ;)

I'm also thankful that I finished my first semester of college. At the same time I'm also incredibly sad because it flew by. I've already made so many fantastic memories and friends and hope that the rest of my time in Clemson, SC holds more of the same. 

So, with that being said, here's how my first semester wrapped up:

Thursday night Georgia Tech game, which was awesome. We froze, were at the top of Death Valley, and won. A successful night I'd say.

I did a lot with Clemson LIFE that weekend. Kate and I threw our social event for the rest of the students, which included dancing and eating pizza. 

The next day all of the students participated in a talent show and rocked it!

I then went over to a friend's to have play a quality game of settlers.

 The next week I participated in my first Clemson vs. USC Blood Bowl and got a free orange long sleeve t-shirt! Leanne and I also went to the Catching Fire premiere. The movie was great and I was thankful for quality time with her.

That weekend Crosspoint had a bonfire and shag, and even though it rained it was still a blast. I got my roommate to come to the shag AND the Citadel game the next day, which was quite a big deal. I was so happy to spend time with her. There was another shag after the Citadel game which I, of course, attended. I'll take a weekend filled with football and dancing any time!

Right before heading home for Thanksgiving break, I helped decorate Crosspoint for Christmas.

 

Thanksgiving break was wonderful. I snuggled in with my mom and grandmother to watch Christmas movies AND cooked (almost) everything for Thanksgiving lunch. My mother is helping me to become domesticated and able to one day feed my husband (hopefully). Family photos for Christmas cards and Black Friday shopping were also fulfilled traditions.

The week before and of finals was crazy. Before finals week hit, we threw a surprise going away party for a girl in my CP group who is going back to Brazil, where she's from. I have been so blessed by her and I'm sad to see her go, but I know that the Lord has great plans for her life. 

The next night FCA held a tacky Christmas sweater shag. Tis the season!

And finally finals week was here. I basically spent every waking moment in the library. Except at 11:00 pm, when the dining halls held Moonlight Breakfast. One night that I went there was dancing in the dining hall and 'club schillet' literally turned into Club Schilletter. 

I finished my exams on Wednesday, but didn't leave Clemson until Friday afternoon, which gave me almost 48 hours of freedom in Clemson to do as I pleased. 

So I read, watched some movies, and hung out with friends. Some of my CP group girls and I went to the Sailing Club and got to see these glorious sights. It was fantastic, and so was my very first semester of college!

Be Thankful

The title of this post was inspired by this fantastic decoration on my dorm hall, courtesy of my RA. 

This blog post also has the serious potential to be the longest post known to man, but I will make sure that doesn't happen.

Anyways, this "BE THANKFUL" message is a pretty good reminder, not just on the fourth Thursday of November, but on everyday. 

We have a pretty sick tendency to pause for a brief moment, voice our thanks for this or that, but then gorge ourselves on food and go out and buy more of what we already have. 

I'm not saying that eating or shopping are necessarily bad things. I will have done both of them by the end of today. The point is that we have so much to be thankful for. All day. Every day. Not just on "Turkey Day."

I read a book recently called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. 

This book rocked my world.

The author talks of making a list, a list where she writes down all of the things that she is thankful for everyday. In her words, a "list of writing all that is good and pure and lovely and beautiful." 

So I set out to do the same, starting this past January.

I currently have 20 pages filled with 1,176 different things that I've thanked the Lord for in the past 11 months.

The crazy thing is that this doesn't even scratch the surface of what the Lord has done and provided throughout this time period. 

Here's the deal. When we thank God for the things around us - for the huge, unbelievable miracles, for the small, minute, and seemingly boring details of every day life, and for everything in between - we see in an overwhelming way that HE IS GOOD.

How can one genuinely thank God for the things around them, the things given by His hand, and still stand in disbelief? Still stand in denial of His overflowing goodness?

The correct answer here is that they can't. 

And just wait, it gets better.

Through this process of giving thanks, we see that the Lord is good. And when we realize He is good, we see that we can trust Him. We see that He truly is faithful.

This realization allows us to live in utter and complete freedom. It allows us to literally dwell in it. To roll around in freedom and shout for joy that we don't have to worry or stress. To skip and laugh because we know that every detail of all of our days rests in His good, trustworthy, and faithful hands.

HALLELUJAH!!! 

I will save your time and eyes by not listing all 1,176+ things that I'm thankful for, but I will share one that I need to pause and be truly thankful for every day.

And that is the life, death, and resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for through Him, a wretched sinner like me can stand before a Holy, Holy, Holy God and be seen as righteous. 

Here's one way I remind myself:

And that really is the truth of it. 

Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that I could never live so that He could satisfy a just God by dying the death that I so fully deserve. 

When we realize this in the deepest part of our being, when we dwell on it, when we accept this truth and surrender our lives to Him, we can't help but be thankful. 

If this truth doesn't show that we serve a good God, I don't know what does. 

"He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" -Romans 8:32

Some of the things in our lives may not seem good. A month ago my brother got in a car wreck. By the worlds standards, that is certainly not a good thing. But the Lord brought me to the realization that  I can be genuinely thankful for things that, in my finite mind, seem bad, because the Lord is sovereign and He is good. He can use the bad and ugly for good, for His glory. Because of this I can actually give thanks to the Lord for seemingly horrible things.

Ann Voskamp says it like this, "Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our "Yes!" to His grace. Thanksgiving is inherent to a true salvation experience; thanksgiving is necessary to live the well, whole, fullest life."

So Happy Thanksgiving everyone, today and everyday. 

Halloween and Home

Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I don't like it at all, really. 

This is large in part due to my mother's opinions of Halloween. She isn't a huge fan and so we never really celebrated it. With that being said, however, I love getting dressed up, just in general, so that's a plus. In addition, this Halloween also offered me with several opportunities of great fellowship!

 Surprisingly, Halloween is quite popular amongst the college crowd. Especially the fraternity pledges who have to dress up and walk around campus in their assigned costumes. Hilarious. 

Anyways, I got invited to a get together (I try to avoid the word 'party' here. Negative connotations are definitely involved) on Halloween night hosted by some girls that go to Crosspoint. 

We ate, danced, and marveled at one another's costumes. 

Well, most of them. I, for example, wasn't planning on dressing up for Halloween and therefore left all of my costume/spirit week ammo at home. So I scrounged some randomness together and dressed up as Boo from Monsters Inc. Not incredibly obvious or creative. Oh well!

The next night I attended a hipster birthday party for one of my CP group leaders. There was a macaroni bar, we decorated cookies, played games, and dressed up like hipsters, of course!

Then Sunday night I went to the dykes with Marie and Karla. Afterwards we went to Karla's apartment and watched an evangelism video. 

I am beyond blessed to call such a beautiful place my home and such beautiful people my friends and my sisters in Christ. 

Grace in tangible form is a very real thing here.

Oh the joy of the Lord...

And this past weekend I got to go home!!!

Going home is such a treat. My family and I stayed in Friday night, relaxed, and watched Thor. 

Saturday morning I got up and had the privilege of going running with this fine dime. I love hearing about her life and miss her dearly.  

Then, Saturday afternoon the family and I went to Charlotte to see the new Thor movie.

It. Rocked. 

Marvel is doing great work these days, great work. And I am beside myself with the news that there is a new Captain America movie coming out! EEP! I was literally bouncing in my seat and giggling like a little girl. I just love him. He's the perfect hero. Mmm.

After the movie we went to dinner and explored downtown Charlotte.

 It's a pretty nifty place, I must say.

The time with my family, of course, was wonderful, but much too short. I'm looking forward to the upcoming break where I can stay for more than 48 hours. 

In other news, college is great. Like, really great.

 Our dorm room is invested with ladybugs and today our thermostat started making puffing noises, but other than that it's great. 

:)

The time is coming to register for classes, which means I have to figure out what I'm doing with my life. I'm currently a Biological Science major, and I'm doing fine (all A's!), but four years full of chemistry and biology labs is a bit foreboding. That and the advice I received from a MUSC representative has me leaning towards changing my major to psychology, which I'm pretty excited about.

 The time has also come to start looking into living arrangements for next year, which involves finding roommates and an apartment. Yucky adult stuff. Things are more or less coming together. Already plans have been made and changed, so it could be a somewhat bumpy road ahead. 

There is no better way to proceed through life, however, than trusting in the Lord's goodness and in His sovereignty. He IS trustworthy. He IS faithful. Stress and worry are unnecessary. Honestly, they're sinful. When I worry and stress out about life situations, like finding an apartment, I declare through my actions and thoughts that God is not all-powerful, that He can't do everything, and that I can.

And that is disgusting.

How can I think for a second that my God is not good, when He sent His one and only Son to die for my sins? 

How can I think for a second that my God is not good, when He shows me so clearly every day? 

He never fails to display His glory here in good ol' Clemson, SC.

Oh praise the One Who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead.