Catch-up Tuesday! 5 Ways I know I'm in Houston...

Once again- I’m playing catch-up, but like everyone else in Houston, I’m going to blame the weather!

If you haven’t heard, Houston got a Winter Weather Advisory!

Which brings me to today’s blog…

5 ways I know I’m in Houston.

 

5. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter is overrun with the word “snow” followed with explanation points in the newsfeeds.

 4. A news broadcast aired a segment on “Frozen Fountains Downtown” and interviewed Houston residents on what they thought and felt about the fountains having icicles on them…. Can’t even make that up…

3. The “snowmen” that are being made are about the size of my hand.

However, in our defense, there’s not much to work with, and I’m extremely impressed by the detailed faces of snowmen in miniature size. The accomplishment truly is a work of art… on a face so very small.

2. Someone wrapped their bush in a comforter…like from a bed… literally buckled to the bush to make sure it didn’t fall off.

I guess the sheet wasn’t going to be heavy enough to keep the bush from freezing… in the 28 degree weather.

1. Kids waited outside with their coats on for hours waiting for snow to start falling… with parental blessing.

 

But you know, even though it’s amusing to someone who grew up with seeing snow, it’s also fun. Simple things like snowfall and snowmen can still bring smiles to people’s faces.  (Especially if you’re watching from inside!)

So Houston, let’s enjoy this snow and this cold…after all, it will be 70 by Friday!

Frozen, Sisterhood, Welts, and Laughter

Living in Texas, we don't always rarely get cold weather. BUT tonight, we are supposed to have a cold front!

The possibility of ice got me thinking about Frozen. If you have not seen Frozen, do so!! It is quite possibly my favorite Disney movie.

Frozen, in turn, made me think about my sister and all the memories we have growing up together. So, today, in honor of ice in Texas, Frozen’s greatness, and my incredible sister, Kara, I share with you a few of the great moments of the:

 

Hastings Sisterhood.

1. Hand-prints welts

In one of my earliest memories of Kara and I, we had just gotten out of the bathtub. (Keep in mind that she is five years older than I.)

 “Holly, I wonder if it will hurt you more, if I hit you
when you are wet instead of when you are dry?

 And then, without warning, WHACK... The sensation of stinging pain ripped through my back, and I stood in utter shock and pain as tears started to flow.

Kara says: “Wow!! I can see my handprint on your back!”

Yes, I did get her in trouble. Extremely well-deserved trouble.

 

2. Wicked Queen

“Who wants to play wicked queen?!”

 Kara convinced Ben, my older brother, and I that it would be fun to play… on more than one occasion. (Which yes, I realize says more about my intelligence level than hers) She got to be wicked queen, and Ben was her bodyguard. I was the slave that had to do EVERYTHING the Wicked Queen Kara asked.

 

… A visit to the ER later, my chipped tooth and 3 stitches caused Wicked Queen to be banned from our household.

 

3. Persecuted Teens

 Moving into my early teenage years,  one night Kara wanted to feel like what a persecuted Christian might experience… So, she made us sleep with the window open in our room one November night WITHOUT blankets so we could experience the coldness of an Asian prison.

My mother did not appreciate that experiment…

 

4. Sweet 18

On Kara's 18^th birthday, she wanted to know what it might be like to be tortured for Christ and then have to live disabled…. (If you’re sensing a theme, yes, she was called to missions!) She made me lead her around our house blindfolded, so she could experience the difficulties of living as a blind person.  I’ll never forget that she was wearing her old, rattiest green sweatshirt with a duck that said “Duck the Halls” with Christmas lights  wrapped around its’ head, and bright red sweatpants.

To her shock and probably horror, we had planned a surprise birthday for her, and so her request to be blindfolded helped us out perfectly…..But all of her friends saw her in that outfit… blindfolded with a cane. Sweet vindication I say. :)

 ......

I won't even begin to tell you of the number of times she's accidentally seared my forehead with a curling iron while doing my hair, or licked her finger and applied saliva to my face, as she did my make-up…. But through all the years and all the memories our Hastings Sisterhood is stronger than frozen’s and I am so thankful that God blessed me with a sister like Kara… I couldn’t ask for a better one.

 

If you have siblings, let this cold weather remind you of the blessing of family.

And maybe let them know that they are “someone worth melting for.”

– Olaf, the snowman from frozen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch-up Tuesday: Unexpected moments...

I fell asleep yesterday at 9pm. Yes… 9pm. It was GLORIOUS!!!!!! But as a result today is deemed “Tuesday Catch-Up” since Monday’s Musings did not happen. My apologies!!!

I apologize if it seems the past couple of weeks, I write with a sense of heaviness, but, to be honest with you, my heart is heavy. So many friends and loved ones are struggling with so much, and so many others, that I don’t know, are facing unbelievable trials. So as I am working through everyday life and the circumstances that come, I write what I learn along the way.

Sometimes things hit.  Sometimes it’s unexpected- other times it’s not. But regardless, there’s always an impact.

When blessings hit, we are filled with appreciation, surprise, elation, and joy.  I remember when Aaron proposed- I was SHOCKED. (He had convinced me, quite thoroughly, that it would be 3-4 more months before our engagement).  In that moment, I couldn’t even put a thought together, let alone a sentence. It was beautiful.

Think back to a surprise blessing and the emotions that rushed over you. …Sometimes it is small surprises, like a friend paying for a lunch, a card in the mail, an extra order of Waffle Fries in your Chickfila bag… but no matter the size of the surprise, the impact hits and smiles flow.

When trials hit, however, emotions do as well: despair, bewilderment, frustration, dread, sorrow. The shock that we encounter is hardly beautiful. It’s destructive. When I think of those unexpected moments in my life or my loved ones’ lives, I cringe. The pain is raw and the emotions run deep.

Unexpected moments often bring extreme reactions. You see this echoed in Jesus’ disciples and crowds following Him. When Christ performed miracles, the surprise and joy flowed. The excitement was buzzing! When you read the Gospels you can practically feel it reach through the pages.

 When Christ was crucified, the despair and dread among the disciples were paralyzing. They stayed together rarely venturing outside… a far cry when they were willing to go out two by two to spread the Gospel (Mark 6) without taking anything for their journey. What a difference a surprise circumstance makes.

The difference between the impacts is obvious:  Excitement and joy VS dread and withdrawal.

And yet, God allows both. The good collisions and the bad ones. But why?

Phillip Yancey said this: “Within the pages of one book the same person experiences an overwhelming sense of God’s presence and also God’s absence.”

 

God allows life to happen. Therefore, in this fallen world, we will experience the effects of sin through the unexpected impacts, surprises, and collisions that hit. When they hit, we must fight through our emotions to remember the goodness of God’s sovereignty is to be trusted, not the badness of our circumstances.

I must hold onto the grace that holds on to me… as I keep learning that even though the surprise collision or accident, makes a difference in my life, it does not make a difference in God’s plan, God’s grace, or God’s goodness.

Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

“John Claypool, reflecting on that passage, notes that the order reverses what we might expect. As if to overturn our preconceptions, Isaiah begins with soaring and ends with walking. All Christians pass through various stages. At times- for many it comes early in the journey- we soar in a state of spiritual ecstasy; at times we run, expressing our faith with the boundless energy of activism; at times we can barely take a step without fainting.

Claypool made this observation, in fact, while sitting at the hospital beside of his ten-year-old daughter. … Now as her life slipped away, he could do nothing but sit by her side, hold her hand… and weep. It took every ounce of spiritual energy to keep from fainting.

Now I am sure that to those looking for the spectacular this may sound insignificant indeed. Who wants to be slowed to a walk, to creep along inch by inch, just barely above the threshold of consciousness and not fainting? That may not sound like much of a religious experience, but believe me, in the kind of darkness where I have been, it is the only form of the promise that fits the situation. When there is no occasion to soar and no place to run, and all you can do is trudge along step by step, to hear of a Help that will enable you “to walk and not faint” is good news indeed.”  

-Reaching for the Invisible God, Phillip Yancey

  God’s love and goodness is always with us whether we always realize it or not...

Keeping us from fainting is just as loving as,

and perhaps even more important, than helping us soar.

 

Monday's Musings: That thing

I thought I would be through with this one particular situation (thing)  by now… Things had even started happening where I thought it was being taken care of. And then… BAM. The door was shut. In my face.

I was back to where I started.  ... Ever been in a position like that?

You’d been asking God to answer a prayer for that thing… whether it might be for a boyfriend, a husband, a child, money to pay off medical debt, a new job, a friendship restored…

Or maybe you’re like me on some days, and that thing, that “situation” that I’m asking God to move me through is the ability to tame my hair, the ability to remember to take my lunch to work, the ability to make it to the gas station since my gas light came on, the ability to turn down the cookie…since I already ate 2 doughnuts!!

We all have days with situations. Some situations are bigger than others. Some are longer than others. But we all have periods where we thought we would be done dealing with that thing by now. The boyfriend would have appeared, the financial struggles would have eased, the parents would stop fighting… the frizz would have been beaten, the lunch would have been brought, or the weight would have been lost. Yet instead...

 BAM. Door shut.

During this period, with my thing, God has been so gracious to me. He’s brought people into my life that have ministered to me in ways I wouldn’t have expected. He’s given me encouragement from many surprising and different directions. His grace has been my anchor. But it’s the kind of grace that also brings a stinging (but needed) reminder. The kind of grace that we are oh-so-thankful for and yet cringe for at the same time.

It’s the grace that God gives when He pours out encouragement for you about that thing while simultaneously showing you that thing is going to last a bit longer.

It was the grace I received when I was in my mid-twenties and was struggling with loneliness… He gave me Scripture after Scripture that brought peace to my soul… while also impressing on me that singleness was that thing  -that current stage of life- that I was going to endure for a while.

The grace you get to keep praying and fighting on the day that your friend or family member gets the news that the medical tests came back positive and that thing, that life situation of medical turmoil, pain, and confusion must be endured for a bit longer…

The grace that I’ve watched my sister live by, day-by-day for the past two years…. While her thing continues and she waits.

God’s Grace: It comes in all shapes and sizes. It comes in words, in people, in music… It comes when you least expect or when you most need it. And what I’m learning is that, although I used to think His grace takes care of situations, that is not always true. Sometimes His grace takes you out of that thing, but sometimes it leaves you in that thing.

1 Peter 4:19 Therefore, those who also suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

1 Peter 5:10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

So my friends, join me in clinging to Peter’s words, encouragement and promises. Our “thing’s” won’t last for eternity but His grace will.

Monday's Musings: 2014- Disney vs. Texas.

2014: Happy new year everyone!! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year’s!

Yes, this post will be about New Year things. What can I say, I’m feeling a bit stereotypical today.

For some strange reason, even though I know December is the last month of the year, and December 31^st is the last day… when January 1^st hits, I always am surprised. How can it be a new year already?! How did the time go by so quickly?! How did my weight go up that much in 2 weeks?!

2014. A new year. A new month.  A new day. I cringe at the sheer amount of cliché phrases I just wrote in one line, but still, we all say them and believe them. Those phrases are good, and imply great hope. It is a new year, a new month, a new day, so we can achieve the impossible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Philippians 4:13 was written for January 1^st right?!? (¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.)

And yet for 99.9% of us, the world did not drastically change on January 1^st, 2014 at 12:01am.  I went to bed in my same bed, and I woke up to the same alarm…. The annoyingly loud same alarm… I went to the refrigerator and the same left-overs stared back at me. The scale didn’t magically reset and drop me back to my high school weight. I weighed the same.

A new year comes in which I expect to achieve new goals, new hopes, and new plans. Yet while dreaming of new change, everything around me stays the same. I started thinking about the irony of that truth. Most years, I am one of the 45% of Americans (according to the Chicago Tribune) who set New Year’s goals, and most years, I am also one of the 37% who don’t achieve them. Impressive, right?

But this year, I began to question this conundrum as I began to make my list.

 Why do I give-up? Why am I part of that statistic? Why do I so easily become part of the norm? Why doesn’t God help me more?

And I realized, part of the reason is because I expect God to change my life along with me. Each January 1^st, it’s like I expect to wake up as the Princess in the newest Disney movie, have the voice and hair of an angel, and be able to accomplish my goals as birds, bunnies, and mice, sing and dance around me in my beautiful kingdom.

HA! If only.

So this year, my plan is a little different… No longer will I succumb to the emotional heartbreak of not turning into a Disney Princess on January 1^st and thereby lose the willpower to lose the 10 pounds.

This year, I will face the reality. I am Holly Brown- a resident of Texas, not the magical land in Disney’s books that is far, far away.

This year, I will realize that if there is any hope to accomplishing my goals, I must be what changes. Not my circumstances. Not my paycheck. Not my gym membership.

God is not at fault for my lack of “Disney-perfect”, volumous hair nor is His lack of changing my income, work-load, and city the reason why I won’t become a Dr. Brown this year. The reason is me. I won’t pay that much money on hair product, and I don’t actually have the resolution and grit it would take to pursue a doctorate… at this point in my life.

My life looks the same that it did on December 31^st at 11:59pm, but instead of letting that bring frustration and disappointment as the year goes on, I will let that be a reminder… God gave me this life, this bed, this alarm… this annoyingly loud alarm, this refrigerator, and this body for a reason. He does have a plan and a purpose for my life in 2014 just like He did in 2013. He’s the one who will change my circumstances in the year that they are supposed to change. I’m the one who needs to be open to His plan, His purpose, and His change… or lack thereof, in my life.

So do I still make New Year’s goals? Yep. But with an open heart and mind. Open to God changing my thoughts…my heart.. my actions. Myself.  while I work to achieve the goals I’ve set… and work to accept my circumstances… Texas and all.