Paid in full

A quick update to tell the world (well, at least you, my reader!) that I am now debt-free! I made my final student loan payment Friday afternoon, and it finished processing today. I now see $0.00 under the outstanding balance - each loan (1 for each year of college) has been paid in full. Such a wonderful sight! I'm just a little excited about this fact... and also the fact that I paid it off in one year! God is good!

A Little Quote to Ponder

Just had to share this quote... Came across it in a book I just bought by Carolyn Curtis James. Here's the quote: "the New Testament anchors a woman's identity and purpose to her relationship with Jesus rather than to her parentage, her marital status, or her children."
Ponder that one for a little while - my identity is tied and rooted in me & Christ. Not my relationship status or social status.

What the Numbers Say

Yesterday we had primary elections here in Pennsylvania. That was my chance as an American citizen to have my say in the affairs of my country, and I proudly walked over to my polling place to cast my vote. We have been given a freedom that not everyone else in this world enjoys - the chance to vote for whomever we believe would be the best candidate. (And yes, I do understand that more and more the US judges and certain government officials are making rulings and legislations that don't reflect what the voting majority has declared to be their beliefs. Problems come when any one person is allowed too much authority.)

I am just one person. My one vote may not rock the boat, figuratively speaking. But it had an impact. And in one of our local races, every vote counted, with the current number being only 300 votes difference between the two candidates. (Disclaimer: Though I do feel strongly about that race and my choice of candidate, this post will not be about my political stance in this election, or political affiliations. I bring this local race up only to make the point that every vote matters.)

After the elections, I was on the internet looking up election results as well as news articles, and found out some very disheartening facts. In my county, only 27.7% of registered voters cast their vote yesterday (this number includes all Republicans, Democrats, and nonpartisan voters). That is apparently a good number; one county adjacent to mine only reported 23% taking a few moments to vote. The numbers tell me that basically only one fourth of all voters determined the outcome of the elections, and those percentages would be lower if you figured in the number of citizens who have not registered to vote. That is pathetic! I realize there are no perfect candidates out there, and it can be discouraging to vote when all you see are candidates and politicians who care more about themselves and their winning office than what's the best for you as their constituent or what's best for our country. But it makes me wonder how many election results would be different, how many current/past elected officials may not have made office, if it was the majority of people who went out and voted, rather than only 25 per cent. Who knows where our country could be, if everyone did their part?

Spring is in the air!

I love spring!!! After a long hard winter, it makes me really happy to finally see some flowers making an appearance on this 70 degree day!

Hope, Part 2

There is a yearning in hearts weighed down by ancient grief
and centuries of sorrow.
There is a yearning in hearts that in the darkness hide
and in the shades of death abide, a yearning for tomorrow.

There is a yearning, a yearning for the promised One,
the First-born of creation.
There is a yearning for the Lord who visited His own,
and by His death for sin atoned, to bring to us salvation.

Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.

There is a yearning that fills the hearts of those who wait the day of His appearing.
There is a yearning when all our sorrows are erased
and we shall see the One who placed within our hearts the yearning.

Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.

Do you have a yearning for the One who heals our broken hearts and lives? I talked about hope in my last post, and this song just seems to go perfectly hand in hand. Emmanuel. God with us. Talk about the most glorious hope. God came to earth, died, and - best of all - rose again! Death, the thing most opposite of hope, was beaten. Oh, death still claims our loved and not-so-loved ones here on earth, but it doesn't have to be the end anymore! And no other "religion" can claim that - to have a God who came back to life from the dead. I yearn for tomorrow, for the day when Christ's final appearing happens. I yearn for the One who has given me a new life and has given me hope. And so my heart resonates with this song.


(This song was written by Susan Bentall Boersma. I strongly recommend you visit the website below and listen to the song. It's beautiful. )
http://www.jwpepper.com/10276203.item#.UunD53kYRLo

Hope

I guess this post is coming from some things I've been thinking about recently... so bear with me if it's not following an outline, doesn't have a funnel-shaped introduction paragraph, and doesn't end with a restatement of the main point. (Forgive the harking back to English 102!)

In my field of work, I have the chance to work with people. It's one of the best jobs a person can have - to spend their time trying to help people. Granted, I'm sure most jobs can be somehow linked back to helping people. A fast food restaurant helps people get a full stomach (and probably a lot more than that, but I will let others expand on that one). A janitor helps people keep in a sanitary environment. But my job is to help people better their lives, and it's somehow a perfect fit for me.

Yet in the task of helping people and working with others, I'm finding that hope is too often missing. And it saddens me. I go in with the hope of making a difference, and then I hear someone say the person is just going to go right back and do the same thing again. And they might. I mean, that's human nature. Think about it. Haven't you ever come to the point that there was something you said you wouldn't do, or you were going to limit something... and then you turn around and find yourself doing what you just decided not to do? Come on. Admit it to yourself. You have done it. I have too.

This is where things could get depressing. I mean, if we've just admitted human nature is to do over and over what we don't want to do - or shouldn't do - why not give up. And I'll have to admit, I don't have all the answers to this problem.... but I do know one thing. And it's the most important thing. Hope can only come one way, and that's through Jesus. That might sound cliché. But it's the only true answer to getting out of the cycle of relapsing into old habits.

He's my hope. My hope for myself, my hope for the people I'm trying to help, for you.

I wish I had more time to write more of my thoughts on this... I'm just hitting the tip of the iceberg. Maybe there will come a part 2 after I've had some more time to muse on this subject. Feel free to add some comments below and throw in your two cents worth...

12.30.13

I read this and wanted to pass it on to you to read. May it be your prayer too.

O CHRIST,

All thy ways of mercy tend to and end in my delight. 

Thou dids't weep, sorrow, suffer that I might rejoice.

For my joy thou hast sent the Comforter,

     multiplied thy promises,

     shown me my future happiness,

     given me a living fountain.

Though art preparing joy for me and me for joy;

I pray for joy, wait for joy, long for joy;

     give me more than I can hold, desire, or think of.

Measure out to me my times and degrees of joy,

     at my work, business, duties.

If I weep at night, give me joy in the morning.

Let me rest in the thought of thy love,

     pardon for sin,

     my title to heaven,

     my future unspotted state.

I am an unworthy recipient of thy grace.

I often disesteem thy blood and slight thy love,

     but can in repentance draw water

       from the wells of thy joyous forgiveness.

Let my heart leap towards the eternal sabbath,

     where the work of redemption, sanctification, preservation, glorification

       is finished and perfected for ever,

     where thou wilt rejoice over me with joy.

There is no joy like the joy of heaven,

     for in that state are no sad divisions, unchristian quarrels,

          contentions, evil designs,

          weariness, hunger, cold,

          sadness, sin, suffering,

          persecutions, toils of duty.

O healthful place where none are sick!

O happy land where all are kings!

O holy assembly where all are priests!

How free a state where none are servants except to thee!

Bring me speedily to the land of joy.

From The Valley of Vision