October 4, 2009

Amid the changing seasons and unknown times, Lord, you alone are constant... My True North, the One who helps me to be content. I love you.

My prayer all day... God is so good.

Getting Ready...

Today, I sit in Panera... again.... listening to a love of mine, classical music. I'm working on my plans for this next year and my vision for how I want SGA to go. The more I think about it, the more I realize that my vision is simple. My vision is my calling, my passion, and my purpose: Love.

Now, this word is often misused, misunderstood, feared, hated, adored... the list goes on. I, however, feel as though this one word is our purpose for existence. We were brought into this world BY the love of God, for the purpose TO love others unconditionally, as an expression of thanks FOR the love that has been graciously given to us.

My vision is simple. You won't find too many additions, only alterations where there is brokenness and problems that need a little more, well, love and attention. This can only happen through teamwork and cooperation, and my job is maintain those two things. How will I do that? Love.

Seems a little broad? Yes, it is. Seems to have little 'vision.' I would disagree. Sure, I have ideas on how to implement love into my job, into SGA, into SNU, but I know that things will change and I will face a lot this next year. The great thing is: God is for me. He will guide my actions as I go into this year, which is the most comforting thing I could ask for!

Despite all of my uncertainties, I am so incredibly excited for what God has in store for this next year! :)

God is great and today is a blessing that I will never get back, so I'm going to make the most of it and share this love that I've graciously been given! :)

Love deeply,
Mendolin

My latest thing....

As you can see, I've changed my background. This has inspired me to talk about my new love: Birds, trees, flowers, pears... etc

I've been painting/ drawing/ admiring A LOT of natural and modern art lately. Its weird. I don't know what's into me, but I just LOVE simple drawings of a cute and whimsical bird like the one on my background, or the outline of tree branches.

Its weird. Is it a phase? I hope not. I like it!

Oh my... this is WAY overdue!

So, after receiving a text from Michelle to write on my blog, here I am... facing the fact that I haven't written here in well over 3 months... SAD! Thank Michelley for the push to do it! :)

I don't even know where to begin, so I will just talk about what I've been thinking about a lot lately: my life after graduation. I know that it is 11 months away and I have a lot ahead of me, but seeing as how this past year FLEW by, I thought it was a good idea to just start the little thoughts now. Nothing too extensive (I hope), but just little thoughts about what I want to do with my life. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there that has these issues- worrying about the future- but that's where I'm at.

This summer, I get to hang out at "home" in Nebraska with my parents. The only thing that makes it home here is the fact that my parents live here. Sorry Lincoln, but you don't have all of the childhood memories that Norman does. You don't have the old house on Trenton that Jonathan jumped off of and onto our trampoline... and then onto the ground... really hard. Ouch. You don't have Eskimo Sno that tastes oh so good on a muggy and hot summer day like today. You don't have Griffin Memorial Park where I spent 10 summers playing softball with my friends. And you don't have the experiences that shaped me into who I am today. I lost my first tooth, got my first car, and found my passions in Norman.

You DO, however, have a house that I live in right now that allows me to rest, contemplate life, and sort through things in my life! That's something great about this place. I'm away from a lot of the things I know, and that causes me to look at my life from an outsider's perspective... Funny how you notice some things that you never could or had time to examine while you're "inside" your life. Sounds funny, but here's a list of things I've learned:

-You don't have to do something EXTRAORDINARY to have an extraordinary life.
I don't know about you, but for the longest time, I thought that I had to be super sold out to a cause and do something to the effect of selling all my possessions just to serve along the homeless and live amongst them, eating whatever and doing these difficult things that I didn't really want to do just to make an impact in this world and change the course of our society. I know that Mother Teresa did things like this and I want to be like her, but I didn't stop to think about something she said that now has left a great imprint on my life "In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." Wow... I missed the whole thing. These past few weeks, I've realized that I can't and shouldn't do everything myself. I need others and all I have to do is love the people I come in contact with EVERY DAY. That's the simple truth.
-I love to create things.
There is something so calming and fulfilling to paint a picture, sew a pillow, recover a chair, or put together an arrangement of furniture. Call me crazy, but I just feel so at home when I'm making something out of a lot of things that are cool or things that look like nothing at all. I can't imagine my life without art and creativity. Take that away, and I'm dead. You take away my paint and I'll sew. Take away my thread and I'll take pictures. Take away my pictures and I'll do something else. Take away everything and I will just sit by myself coming up with great pieces of art in my head until I go crazy from hallucinations and I die... seriously. I. love. art.
- I love to love people. I need people.
This time with my family has been great, but I realize my need for my friends. When I'm away from them, it just makes me really fidgety and frustrated. I long to just sit with one- anyone of them- and talk about life over a cup of coffee. Also, it I've been cooped up for a long time (more than 4 hours) in my house, I like to go somewhere, even if its just to read a book. As long as I'm surrounded by people, I'm good. I need others. I believe that community is essential to life. Put a sick person in a room by themselves, and I promise you that they will die a WHOLE lot faster than a person surrounded by people that love them. Its in our blood.
-I'm pretty stubborn, short-tempered, and intolerant when it comes to certain topics, discussions, and people. Its not with everything, but I'm short-tempered when its concerning politics so I just keep my mouth shut. I am pretty stubborn/ short-tempered with discussions concerning food... odd, but true. I'm pretty intolerant of people who are SOOOOOO opinionated on things that they THINK they know everything about, but don't. Again, I keep my thoughts to myself most of the time, and try to keep it inside.
- I am NOT great at long distance running.
I can do it. I love it. I feel like I've done my body good, but I'm just slow as molasses. I'm sure anyone reading this could beat me...
-I have a lot of life to live...
and that's just something that excites me more than ANYTHING! There's a lot that is going to happen- graduation, jobs, wedding, houses, babies, travels, loving people, family time. I can't wait! :)

So, a lot has been on my mind, and a lot more will probably come. While I'm still sorting all this out, I'm going to read some books and I'm excited. I just finished Serve God, Save the Planet by Matthew Sleeth. It was bittersweet for me. That will be left to another day. In the mean time, I'm starting Crazy Love by Francis Chan... should be great!

-Love Deeply

Melinda Leanne

So Little Time...

So, I do realize that my blog title is a rip off an old, cheesy, Olsen twins' TV show on Fox Family... and I'm OK with that.

But on more serious note, there's so much to be done here on earth. Just thinking about it all sends my head into a spin like I'm on the time warp amusement park ride at the state fair. I have heard about, seen videos of, and talked about more serious issues this semester than I've had my whole time here at SNU previously, combined. I'm in an AWESOME class called International Economic Development here this semester and its totally rocked my world. For some good and for some bad reasons too.

I've learned so much about these awesome people like Muhammad Yunus (my huuuuuuge crush) who are not afraid to get dirty and fight poverty and oppression at the root of the problem, dedicating their whole life to speaking up for the poor. This man, while he is not a Christian, is living a more Christian life than several "Christians" I know... and that's including me. I'm not leaving myself out of this judgement because I've been made more aware of the things that I'm doing that aren't helping others as well as the things I'm NOT doing that's not helping others.

Pretty crazy thing when a Hindu is acting more like Christ than you, a so-called Christian, are. That's a pretty tough thing to swallow, but its true. What even more difficult to process is the reality of extreme slavery, whether sexual or not, that is so prevalent today in the world. I mean, its 2009... we have the iPhone, online banking, smart cars, and clothing that is more high tech than computers in the 1960s! Why can't we figure out how to get humanity on the right path towards living a full and wonderful life for our Wonderful Creator?

There's so much hurt and pain in this world. So much love that needs to be shared. So many lives that need to be helped. So many homes that only need a mere cent a week in order to climb out of the lowest level of poverty and be able to sustain a somewhat better life... There's so much to do, but I've got so little time, it seems.

I sure can't do this alone. Not when I'm only here for few brief breaths.

Choose Your Friends Wisely:

Lately, I've understood the importance of this phrase that I've heard several times. No, I'm not having problems with my friends, but I've heard about so many others' problems and how its effecting them.

One thing I've realized lately is that the friends you hang out with and associate yourself with have a direct impact on your development and who you are/ become. A person can change drastically for either good or bad depending on those surrounding them.

I know this might sound a little obvious, but I guess that the magnitude of this fact have been made known to me these past few weeks. With that said, I feel we all have a great responsibility to watch our actions and how they will impact those around us.

More importantly, we should "choose our friends wisely" and never forget the most important relationship we need to nurture and rely on is with God, which should be the friendship that we allow to shape us.

Its so simple, but it really is vital and important....