I am Creative.

It challenges me to think freely, to be creative. It sounds so backwards but it's true, it's easy for me to do normal, it takes a lot of work for me to be creative. I have to be really disciplined with my time and mind to think "outside of the box".  The world tries to offers me everything I'll ever need, why would I need to create anything new? There are pinterest boards on how to dress or eat or who to be. Instagram tells me what to think and feel, TV tells me what is cool and trendy. Why would I ever need to create anything for myself, be outside of the box?

If I don't take the time to be creative, use what God gave me, I start following the world and to be honest that bores me. I'm not made of this world so following it won't be enough, it's not creative enough, or good enough for my mind, a mind like Christ. I need to dig in deep and create something, anything that God says is good and go with it. I need to let my mind run wild until I stumble upon something that makes my heart beat faster and I can put out into the world.

God is the God that created the sound of thunder and the beauty of rainbows, he made every edge of the mountain tops and he even made yummy pumpkin spice lattes! (ha well He gave someone the creative idea to make them ha) Point is that He is super creative, think about it, how fun and creative He must be to make a narwhal, the cutest- weirdest animal I know of?

So I don't ever want to stop being creative, seeking more adventure in life and searching for outrageous new ideas. God is infinite so I can't ever learn it all or see it all or think it all, so why stop looking for new adventure and creativity? Why should we ever stop growing or learning or looking for something amazing, there is always going to be more of God so why not ask to see more of His creative mind?

So I'm doing this 100 day challenge with my home dog Carrie V:

http://hillsong.com/collected/blog/2015/11/the-100-day-creative-challenge/#.VkNhQa6rTq0

We're going to spend the next 100 days, writing, drawing singing whatever it takes to dig in and pull out something new and creative back into the world! 

About 5 years ago my friend and I did this project, where we decided to push ourselves past fear. We decided to let our creative side fly, let our passion take over and tell fear to go bye bye. We ended up creating this film, "31 Days" (you should watch if you have 45 min to spare), that just was raw and real and sparked us to push ourselves to be creative. There is a higher quality on DVD but the vimeo version will do. This video still sparks my heart.

https://vimeo.com/19056037

I'm not the same person I was back then, my voice doesn't sound the same, my life doesn't look the same, fear doesn't control my life anymore. Even though I'm not the same I can still grow. There is always something new to find, something fresh and creative to come out and make the world more beautiful. I don't know what will happen at the end of this 100 days, but I'm EXCITED!!

Thanks for being along for the ride!

If you knew God was coming back in a year, who would you be?

So a lot has happened since I wrote my last blog,  LIKE A LOT:

I colored my hair neon purple.

I'm moving to Australia next week.
I bought a pony.

And Adele has asked to mentor me and sing on her next album.

haha ok ok None of those things are true, but if I told you what was going on in my life, those things above would sound more real than my real life :)

My friend told me I need to come up with a 2 min version of everything that is going on. hahaha and for the life of me I can't get it all in 2 minutes.

Everything God is doing is soooo outrageous I just get so excited and want to tell everyone about all of it. I have gotten pretty good about just telling "parts" of what is going on, but oh my it's really hard for me to put what God is doing in a 2 min version. I guess I can try to sum it up in six sentences:

Sold my house.

I'm going into full time ministry with YoungLife.

Raising A large amount of support VERY quickly.

God is building up a community VERY quickly.

Seeds being planted in good ground.

Generations beyond generations will know the love of Christ. Hallelujah!

haha it's almost laughable how generic those 6 sentences are so you should ask me, we can get coffee. ha I've been getting a lot of coffee lately!!

Anyways, this time of my life reminds me of the below questions that EVERYONE has either asked or been asked: 

"If you knew you only had a month to live, what would you do?"

or

"If you knew God was coming back in a year, who would you be?"

Everyone has thought about their answers for these questions. What would we do if we knew God was coming next week? What is that one thing that we would only do if we knew heaven was tomorrow and we had nothing to lose? 

Jump out of an airplane?

Ask that beautiful woman named Lindsay out on a date ;)

Sell everything, buy an RV and travel the country?

We all wish we had the faith or courage to live out our answers, but something is holding us back? Usually fear, comfort level or society hold us back (usually a combination of them all) . Well anyways, I have my answer to that question too and I have to be really honest:

I am living part of my answer out right now. Honestly.

It's been years of talking about it and years of hearing his whisper (and sometimes not such a quiet whisper). It's been years of reading the scripture and saying "Yes yes yes that's right, have no fear, I'm bold, love does, live on the edge for God."

But I feel I'm here, God brought me right here. 

Now God is God, so I do believe every part of my life I've been learning and walking. I do believe I've been walking in faith and following him but now, now I'm in a whole new place. I'm not the same person I was 8 months ago, I might as well have that purple hair and change my instagram to @theNextAdele because that much has drastically changed. However, I do know I've been following him and he's been teaching and loving on me, but this time on my life is calling on faith and trust I've never known.

I keep saying "I'm out on the water, out on the water just trusting Jesus when he says I won't sink." I can't make myself stay afloat at this point, I can't make what He is saying be true, my strength and knowledge and what I see, it's not enough. I desperately need Him, desperately need to trust when He says He has plans to prosper, plans not to harm, when He is saying He's gone before me and it's done and trust Him. He is  literally all I can lean on. When I look at my own strength or try and figure it out, even for a moment, I almost sink, I will get so nervous I can barely move, literally. So he reminds me to look right at him and only him and shows me how to step. Ohhhhh and the walking parts these past months, even if they were baby steps up the stairs, the moving parts have been so Gods beauty. The trusting and peace, oh how amazing. I can't even pretend it's of my own strength, I can't even fake the peace He is covering me in.

Let's just say God is really showing me His glory and that I have no idea how to predict His moves but I really can trust Him, especially in the impossible situations.

I just listened to a Creflo Dollar sermon and he said "When Jesus does something in your life and you're surprised, it probably means your heart was hardened."

wow. just yeah.

He's showing me that His miracles surprised me, I don't know if I really trusted him with huge things. I read the Bible, believed in healing then, but Did I believe in it now? Did I really believe when he said "nothing is impossible" that it was true or was my heart hardened? Did I have unelief that God was ALL God said he was?

Everything that is going on has knocked me off my feet, at first anyways and now, even in this past month his "miracles" have become my normal. Praise you God for changing my heart.

I forever want to be doing things that make me need him so much that miracles are just the everyday and no fear has a hold on me. Because the honest truth is, Jesus is coming back, and we don't know when but let's not assume it's far away. God wants everyone and our call is to take the love we know and share it, plant those seeds right now. His call is not for us to build up our comfort level or make our plans, it's to go and share the word and do it with the urgency that He is coming back.

So I'm excited to be living out part of my answer to that "What would you do if you knew Jesus was coming back next month?" To let go of everything and run and share the good news with lots of joy and holding onto nothing as I meet with parents and high school students.

The other parts of my answer to that question? Well of course part would be to write and share music and I already see God stirring that one back up.

And the other part of "what would you do if you were going to die tomorrow" question would be marriage ;) Let's just say I'm in a place of trusting him to take care of every area of my life now so excited to see Him in it all, but this is for another blog ;)

" I'm telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you'll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don't want to go. He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, "Follow me."  John 21:18-19