The sound of God's voice

you know when people say
"I heard God tell me to tell you this?"
or
"I feel God is calling me to this.."

There are plenty of people that have never said that
they probably think I'm crazy or that God only speaks to me
or a few people

nope
not the case at all
He speaks to all of us

To me He's not a loud Morgan Freeman
He doesn't leave me obvious voicemails
"Hey Linds, It's God, need to talk call me back it's urgent!"
no no it's not like that
it takes effort sometimes to hear him
most of the time
i have to turn off music
work friends
turn it all off to hear

when I'm at home praying
or just sititng in silence
He comes in the form of a new idea
usually a crazy idea
or he'll come in the form of lyrics
i just have to write down
and then somehow he'll give me a tune
to sing those new words too

God sounds like the most ridiculous idea i've ever had
the idea of moving away from my family and friends
because He said go to Nashville
or the idea of going into a "random" high school
nervous
to find those "random"students
and making their life a part of yours
showing them who Jesus is
while you're still learning too

He sounds like a love story too good to be true
He sounds like my biggest fear made small
He sounds perfect
He sounds far more gracious than we can ever understand

then I let the world in
i let doubt creep in
and make me second guess if I ever heard Him at all
but He speaks
and when I get confused
I can ask again and He'll speak again

All the YL leaders are reading a book for Advent season
and I'm in the chapter of "yes"
it talks about Hearing God and saying "yes" to Him
and there is one part I starred 3 times
i'm one of those.
i circle.
hightlight star my books up

ha anywho.
it was this

"Knowing the will of God is not enough; doing it is what matters. Here our desire to avenge ourselves, to explain ourselves, to be understood, to maintain personal comfort and security, to have our lives make sense to others or be validated by them is subordinated to the deeper desire to say yes to God and joining God in what He is doing. This kind of obedience might mean that, for a time at least, we are willing to look like a fool to everyone else because God's wisdom is the foolishness of this world."

He sounds foolish to the world
But He sounds clear to those that listen

He might be a peaceful whisper sometimes
or a loud loud noise
but He's talking
And He speaks to all of us

Even you
Especially you

He's speaking right now
so open your ears
it may not sound like what you think it would sound like
but He wants you to hear

squirt. the happy little Christmas tree.

i know i've lived out of home for awhile. but i've never bought a Christmas tree.
i dont know why
i guess in college you don't buy them because you go home
and i've always lived in a house with a roommate
who had a fake one
well this year
no fake
and i debated and debated
thinking "i'm going home in a week, is it worth it?"
insert my roommate amanda
"ummm you're miss Christmas, you'll regret it and bug me about it forever if you don't!"
haha soooo
we go to kroger
that's right kroger
they had big trees
beautiful trees
and then this one

it's about 2 ft tall
and lopsided
and i fell in love instantly
it just needs a home
so we adopted it
and named it squirt

we get him home.
and he just wants to sleep.
haha did i mention he's lopsided
we've got a stage 4 leaner on our hands
"come on squirt, you can do it, stand up!"

finally get him to balance
by putting on about 4 ornaments because that's all he'll hold
and prop him up on a wooden box
to make him appear a bit taller ;)
amanda tapes on the star
i don't have a star
so we improvised

and here he is
in all his glory
he has a tutu around his base as a skirt
ha a gift one of my coworkers made me
i LITERALLY jumped up and down after we finished.
squirt is quite the handsome tree i must say
all the neighbors will be jealous