60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 59-60 - A W(rap) Up

I've always known that country music was not for me. I've known that from the time that I was born and then started breathing. Hard to believe, I know, but I just have always had this divine intervention going on in my soul that protected me from the depression and despair that is country music. Ok, there was that time in high school that classic country was kind of fun, but really, I've never had a desire to listen to country music. Obviously, that's not entirely divine, but I suppose the way God created me, well that most definitely is divine.

Over the past 2 months, there has been something growing and deepening its hold on me. This journey to see beauty everyday was not something that came easy to me. See, I'm not the most observant of the beautiful. I tend to see the messy, the broken and the sick. Overall, I find it more difficult to find the good things in life and it's something that I'm working to see more of in my life.

One of the ways that I'm beginning to see more of the good in my life is through a different song. I've noticed that I've had different soundtracks to my life. The one right now is Alternative and Rap. I'm digging Mumford & Sons, Gungor, and Lecrae. Those are just the top three artists outside of my typical worship music. I just love the vulnerability of the music and the ways in which the words just speak to my soul with their authenticity and real-life relevance.

The last two days of the Beauty Project (which I know is tardy) is my new found soundtrack that I hope is part of His soundtrack. The song that is constantly being sung at the bottom of our lives. Holding us up, giving us a cornerstone from which we can build our lives into Him.

His song is beautiful. And our song is made that much more beautiful when He gives us a piece of the melody.

Fine.

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 57-58 - The Power of a Song

Music.
It just gets to me.
Pierces me straight to the heart.

The past few days I have been trying to listen to some different music than I usually do. Usually, I'm listening to some worship music because I enjoy it. Lately, though, the playlist has been mixed more with Lecrae, Matthew West, The Album Leaf and a little musical group named Gungor. None of these groups play worship music outright, but I have found this song just ripping me up. Every time I sing along to it, I find myself in a deep worshipful state of perspective. Take a listen and perhaps you'll understand why.




GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 56 - Reconnecting some Relationships

Last night, I got a chance for the first time in a few weeks to reconnect with my group of guys that meet on Monday Nights for Wings and Whimsical, Witty and Wise Conversation. While last night was short, in light of the weekend, it was cool to recognize all the different relationships that God has placed in my life to build me up and allow me to minister to just by doing life together.

The Seasons of life and relationships that we go through are truly beautiful.

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 55 - The Beauty of a Chance

Before Sunday, nobody knew who this was. Heck, the only reason I knew who he was before he went into the game was because one of my small group guys knew that he was better than Todd Collins.

The reality is that Caleb Hanie is going to turn into a story of a guy who got a chance. He got a chance and he played quite well for a guy who has played in 3 games previously. I mean the guy went down the field in 81 seconds and scored a touchdown. Of course that was right after the biggest guy to ever score a touchdown, intercepted his pass as the Bears were looking to score on the drive earlier, BUT WHO'S KEEPING TRACK.

The reality is, that something beautiful to me happened when Caleb came in and showed the world (ok, the nation) that he might have something to prove as a starter in the NFL. Just the simple reality that he was in the game was beautiful.

Go Caleb Hanie.

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 54 - Hanging with the Boys

I have a group of friends from Bethel that I bonded with and made some deep relationships together as we went through the college experience. we have been through some fun experiences together and shared many moments as a group. It was so cool to see the guys that were there and the places that God has taken them. One moment in our weekend produced a bit of conflict and it just reminded me of the importance of conflict in relationships and the role that it can play. We worked through it just fine and had a great weekend in light of that moment.

The reality that we were able to work through it with no hugely divisive actions was distinctly beautiful.

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 53 - A Welcome Surprise

This weekend i'm spending some much needed time with some of my friends from college. It is a fantastic group of guys that I truly cherish my time with, both now and the memories we created and bonds we formed while in school. It has been an amazing ride with these guys and I can't wait to see what God puts in front of us in our lives.

Anyway, as we have been planning this, a number of "the boys" had other opportunities arise and others that we thought weren't going to make it. However, one of the guys that originally planned to miss decided to join us. The smile on the host's face was priceless when he saw that we all had come to his alma mater to meet up with him. It truly was beautiful.

I'm so excited to be here in Berne! Even if i'm writing this at 4am!

GC

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 52 - Getting off my duff

It's no secret.
I haven't ever exercised very much. Lately, it has been pretty sad.

But, Monday I got an email to invite me to play some basketball on Thursday Night. Begrudgingly, I accepted. I say begrudgingly because I knew that I am not the most skilled at the game of basketball (although I was pretty stellar as a manger in 9th grade during 5 v none drill and 3-man weave). But I did it.

2 hours later, the lactic acid beginning to build up in my muscles, it is the best feeling of pain I have ever felt. Almost beautiful. Just like the picture of 9 out of shape guys running up and down a court simply trying to get in shape and have some fun doing it was.

Thanks for the invite guys! Clearly me getting off my duff was a beautiful thing!

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Make Up Day!

So, I've fallen way behind in the 60 Days of Beauty Project. I simply haven't made it a priority to write posts. I've seen plenty of beauty around me. Whether it is a friend recognizing how much he is loved, to seeing a student wrestle with their faith to know that it is their own, to seeing a mom jump for joy at the knowledge of her next step to bringing her son home. Or in was the glimmer of hope that is resembled through a comment on a post, the dependency that is created on the Word of God when the noise of the world is destroyed, seeing lightbulbs go off in the minds and hearts of young believers. Or in the dreaming of a changed group of people, or the deep desire to find a desperation for the Word of God.

But today, it was easy and in combination with tomorrow's beautiful moment, it was easy today and is the ultimate make-up.

50 years ago today, the Oval Office became housed by one of my favorite Presidents. So, in honor of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, here is his inaugural address in its entirety. Followed by the video of my favorite President's inaugural address just 20 years later.

GC

60 Days of Beauty: Day 45 - He is God of All (Even the Details)

This one is not something that I can only credit on one day. The reality is that He proves this almost every day. However, Thursday, God showed off, again, and proved, again, that He has the details figured out as well.

How often we doubt Him.
How often we settle for freaking out.
How often we rely on Him, lastly, instead of relying on Him firstly.

Sure, we are just planning for an event. But, it's the little things that we tend to miss Him the most. We fail to recognize Him in the smallest of things. We count on Him only for the biggest, most daunting of tasks.

Over the past few days, I cannot ignore His presence to provide and make His plan perfect while showing Himself faithful and displaying the beauty of His divine providence.

60 Days of Beauty: Day 44 - The Beauty of Goals

I have never been a very big number cruncher in my life. As a matter of fact, I've kind of made it my personal policy to have as little contact with a calculator as possible. Trying to make my mind wrap around numbers can be a bit of Taboo, mainly because I usually crunch the numbers to come up with the wrong numbers.

All that to say, I got an email on Wednesday that bummed me out a bit at first and inspired me to put aside personal bureaucratic policies to just explore what potential we, as a student ministry, have to reverse the trend of our Blue Cup Initiative. What I found was absolutely astounding and completely convicting.

The numbers are irrelevant, however, I was sharing some of those numbers with our Senior High on Wednesday and the coolest thing ever began to happen. Students grabbed the Blue Cup that I had placed in front of them and began passing it around the room. I'm not sure how much it raised, or if it even got put in one of the bins. But it struck me about the impact a person can make when they know what kind of impact WE can make.

In this moment the beauty of inspiration through a reasonable goal was so obvious to me.

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 43 - He is Pristine

I was walking out of the office today for something and I was hit with this amazing truth due to the snow that was falling and had already covered the trees around the building. Let's see if I can make this make sense.

Psalm 19:1 says:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

So what exactly is the glory of God? The glory of God throughout seems to be the character of God; the things that describe who God is and what defines Him. It is our words to describe who God is and all the ways that we see and experience Him.

I walked and saw such a pristine setting as the snow was falling from the sky to the snow-covered ground adding to the collection of unblemished purity that was the billowing mounds of snow.

I caught a physical glimpse of God and it was truly beautiful.

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 42 - I thought I was caught up?!

Well, I thought I was caught up and so now I will be!

Mondays can prove to be a difficult day for most and I'm no exception. Coming off the weekend, follow-up to do from the weekend, setting a plan for the week and trying to get back into the swing of things can be somewhat stressful.

Last night was also the National Championship game featuring the Auburn Tigers and the Oregon Ducks. Or as Referee Bill Le Monnier said, the Oragone Ducks. Anyway, it featured one of the highest profile players in all of college football. Sure, Cam Newton is a fantastic athlete, there is no denying that. But his character, of course, is not exactly something everyone would want to write home about.

In fact, a few months ago, he had a bit of a pretty stressful Monday when the first reports of his family demanding $180,000 for him to play football first surfaced. This probably made his day pretty stressful including the weeks and months that would follow. I always wondered how he could cope with that kind of stress.

Now, I can be a pretty big skeptic at times. I can especially be skeptical when a character flaw is exposed. So of course, I was pretty skeptical of Cam Newton and his "preacher" father. I'm not proud of it, but it's the truth.

I got slapped in the face on Monday Night when I saw this:



There is something so beautiful about this that most will see and negate with all of their excuses as to why he can't be a follower of Christ. That thing is simple:

Cam Newton represents me.

Wait, what? Cam Newton represents me. Have I made mistakes? Yes. Too many to count. Do those mistakes disqualify me from doing what I do? Perhaps. But God is an amazing God and He chooses to use those with broken pasts and broken presents to make His name famous.

Sure, Cam Newton has a pretty screwed up past and we really don't know what his reality is right now. But, we know this: He had the guts to put the God of the Universe on Televisions around the globe, regardless of what people would think of him. Regardless of the skeptics, like me, that would sit on blogs and newspapers and televisions shows and completely second guess his faith. But the beautiful thing is, He can overcome all of that. He has overcome all of that and He was made famous.

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 41 - I Almost Gave Up

Ok, I'm not going to lie. I was getting rundown.
I'm not very good with discipline all the time and I can tend to slack off.

But here's the reality: Nothing in this world matters as much as seeing Jesus name made famous in all the earth.

I can get so caught up in the things that seem so frustrating, so massive and so incredibly difficult to figure out, when the reality is that those things are so trivial, so irrelevant and so incredibly pale in comparison to knowing Christ and making his name famous.

God's meticulous providence is so much more beautiful than any color that we can add to this dull picture of chaos and depravity.

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 40 - Intense Magnification of the Obvious

I was walking out of the church building on Sunday and as I was walking out, my friend Jeff Simpson said, "How Magnificent."

Of course he was referring to the beautiful sight that was the mixture of snow on the ground and an intensely bright splash of sun. It was truly amazing and beautiful.

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 39 - Need I Say More?

I'll let the video do the explaining... It was freaking awesome.



GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 39 - An Intentional Relationship

In High School Ministry, you get to see a lot more obvious fruit than you do in middle school ministry. Sometimes the relationships built and experiences had in middle school are the start of something that grows and grows and sees the fruit become a reality in high school.

Friday Night, I saw some of this fruit when a student made it their job to connect with another person and totally make it her mission to build a relationship with her. It's this kind of relationship that get's me psyched up. It's this kind of relationship that leads to transformed lives. It's this kind of relationship that speaks pure beauty.

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Days 36-38 - A Growing Passion

These days were spent reflecting the message that God was teaching through the speakers at Passion 2011. I wasn't actually at the event, however, I was blessed by the Live Feed that Passion had provided. There was a distinct lesson that reverberated throughout my experience with Passion this year:

The beauty and power of Christ's passion and love for us to praise His name with our words, our hearts and our lives. 

It was definitely worth three days of beauty.

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 35 - Recognizing the Important Stuff

Prayer
Word
Meditation
The Recognition that God considers me precious and loves me SO THAT, I can love Him and give Him Glory.

I have nothing to complain about.
I have everything to give to Him.

The recognition of the important things in life, is beautiful.

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 34 - Praying for a Student

I make regular visits to our classes that take place on Sundays. I don't usually spend much time in each of these classes because I am usually trying to get to a worship service. I was reminded today why I can't replace time with students when they choose to come to my turf and miss out on the opportunity to spend time with students. But guilt and shame is not what this post is about.

I walked into our Jr/Sr Youth Class and heard a story of one of our senior guys that is going to Riley's on Wednesday to have tests done on his heart. It was in that moment that I could not ignore my distinct desire to pray for him. And it was powerful for me. It was moving to me. It was something beautiful. As 8-10 guys huddled around this student, whose next few months are really hanging in the balance, God showed me the beauty of interceding on behalf of another person.

GC

60 Days of Beauty Project: Day 33 - Catching Up with One Friend

So I didn't leave my house on New Year's Eve. And I'm cool with that. New Year's Day, I made plans to hang with a friend. A guy who I had lived with in my second semester at Bethel and on the same floor for a couple years in Brenneman.

We haven't talked in a while and that became somewhat apparent as we talked. We watched football and went on an ice cream date, talking about the way that our lives and our friends' lives have coarsed through time since school.

It was a moment to reconnect with a friend. It was a moment to reclaim parts of a relationship somewhat lost.

I'm thankful for a friend like Derek and the reality that no matter how long it has been since we last talked, I was blessed by the beauty of the grace to which we were able to simply reconnect.

GC