God-sized hole

The other day a man knocks on my door. So, naturally, I answered it. He was from the Houston Chronicle and, long story short, I've got a free summer subscription to the Houston Chronicle's Sunday paper.

We got our first one recently, and I was reading an article in the Parade about Shia LeBeouf, the kid from the Transformers movie. It was a really sad article, but he said some things that really shocked me.

The article says, "When LaBeouf is feeling insecure, he sometimes stops his bike on the side of a busy road to see if people passing by recognize him. He is scared that they won't." I don't know about any of you guys, but I know that I grew up wondering what it would be like to be famous. I thought about all the screaming fans following you everywhere and how that would make me feel less insecure. Deep down, I knew it wouldn't work, but you can't help but wonder. You read articles about celebrities and they always say things like, "I'm just like everyone else. I'm just a normal person," but I think this article tells the real story.

Shia says, "I don't handle fame well. Most actors on most days don't think they're worthy." But here comes the clincher. "I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it's a God-sized hole. If I knew, I'd fill it, and I'd be on my way."

Raise your hand if you now want to share the Gospel with Shia LeBeouf. I know I sure do! He's looking for the answer--he says he wants it! Lord, I pray that You would send someone with the Answer to his problems, his insecurity, his sin-filled life. Use him to transform a worldly market into one that brings You glory.

In related news, I no longer desire to be a celebrity. I'm sure you're all relieved. It's okay, I'm just not tall enough. *Sigh* I'll save that for the little bro'. :-)

Slow Day

I told myself I'd never do it. But I'm doing it. Because it's so slow today--two posts in one day. *gasp* I know, I know, but here it is, regardless.

Today I became a Master Shredder. Yesterday, I was the Flash Drive Finder, but today--today I am the Master Shredder [teenage mutant ninja turtles plays softly in the background].

I am in charge of the shredder. When the trash can receptacle gets full, I pull out the bag, tie it up, and place it out in the hall. Today, there were three (yes, count 'em), 3 bags full of shredded paper. That I shredded. The Master Shredder.

Yesterday, I was the Flash Drive Finder. That entailed sifting through over 20 lost flash drives to try and find their owners. And find them I did! It was scary, not knowing what I'd find. But since most of the flash drives belong to engineering students, they mostly consisted of labwork and assignments. *Sigh* No goop on them.

Ironically, one flash drive had nothing on it; nothing except the entire 1st season of Friends. Hmm. Can I keep that one? o:-)

Casting

"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7 NIV

I read this passage this morning. It's not an uncommon one; one I've heard since I was a little girl. But recently, it has had a new meaning.

How do you cast your anxiety on Him? What does that look like?

cast –verb (used with object)
1. to throw or hurl; fling: The gambler cast the dice.
2. to throw off or away: He cast the advertisement in the wastebasket.

Throw it! Hurl it! Fling it like a cockroach away from you!

I like to think of a fishing rod being cast. You fling that sucka as far away from you as you can.

The King James Version translates the word "anxiety" to "care." Things you care about.

I have a tendency to try and safeguard the things I care about. I hold them close to me for safekeeping, if you will. I watch closely to make sure things go the way I want them to go. Rarely do I fling those things away from me. Yet that is exactly what we're supposed to do!

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21

Why do we allow ourselves to hold onto anxiety and cares? Proverbs says that "an anxious heart weighs a man down." I don't know about you, but I don't want to be weighed down! After all, "in his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." (Prov. 16:9)

Praise the Lord that because of his "great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.'" Lamentations 3:22-24

So rejoice! Fling off anxiety and hurl the things you care about into the arms of the Lord! He cares!

In Need of Trousers

Sorry for two posts in one day, but I had what I consider a great idea and I wanted to act on it before I forgot. :-)

So, as many of you probably don't know, I am gaining weight. This is actually a good thing! Except that now I can fit into all of 2 pairs of pants that I own. So....

Is anyone looking to get rid of pants? And if so, would you consider giving them to me? :-) This would save me the hassle and the money of going to buy new pants, and it promotes unity and fellowship within the body! Okay, so maybe not so much the last stuff, but it sounds good, right? :-)

Zeal and Hastiness

Choose Your Own Adventure chapter 3 is up! Check it out and comment! http://ladysimonedos.blogspot.com/

"It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way." Proverbs 19:2

zeal (zēl) n. Enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal, or goal and tireless diligence in its furtherance. [emphasis mine] (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/zeal)

How many times have we let ourselves get fired up over a sermon that held little Scripture to support it's main focus, then petered out over the week? I think too often we look to motivational speeches to get our emotions and feelings high (giving us the illusion that we have true zeal), and then we wonder why we're not living joyful, abundant lives. I think the verse in Provers 19 tells us. Life is not good when you have zeal with no knowledge. We need to know the Truth, and we need to be reading His love story to us daily. Then we will know the direction to go with our zeal.

I think we also often are "hasty and miss the way." Recently I sensed God leading me to pursue a masters at a seminary. So I got all excited because now I had "new direction," and I got information from a local seminary, began asking local students what they thought about seminary and even started an online application! Long story made short, God said "not now." It's still something I would like to pursue, but I will only pursue it in God's timing. There have been many other times, too, when I sensed God leading me a certain direction and I got ahead of him.

It may seem like a -duh- issue, but Proverbs says this is not good! Easier said than done, right? I think we could also add to the Proverbs something like, "It is not easy to wait on God's timing, but it is better in the long run."

It probably already says that. I should go read all of Proverbs now... they're so smart! :-)

P.S. On an unrelated note, I just vomit-burped kolache. Also not good.

Choose Your Own Adventure!: Update

Chapter 3 is almost ready to go to the printer! I had originally written the story in the wrong direction according to my comment requests, so I had to re-write. But it's just about here... so stay tuned! :-)

For those of you who aren't in the loop yet, come join us! The web address is ladysimonedos.blogspot.com and leave a comment letting me know how you want the story to go!

Modesty

I found this article on Heather Hendrick's blog from a while ago. She talked about modesty and there was a link in one of the comments. So I went to check it out.

http://www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey/

This group surveyed guys from all over the U.S. and even some internationally. They ranged from ages 12 to over 50 years old. And they asked all sorts of questions about modesty.

Here are some that I found either surprising, or confirmed strongly a belief I had.

1. "A tankini with a bikini bottom is immodest."
661 guys said yes, while 235 said no. 159 were neutral.

2. "Seeing a girl stretching (e.g. arching the back, reaching the arms back, and sticking out the chest) is a stumbling block.
565 said yes, and 206 said no. 224 were neutral.

3. "Gauchos are modest."
588 said yes, 197 said no. 184 were neutral. However....
Some of the comments included things like:
"Depends how tight it is around the seat area. Gauchos can be much worst [sic] than other pants when it comes to this." (Age 40-49) Neutral responder
"As long as they are loose around the hips they should be fine. If they aren't, then they are a problem." (Age 16) Yes responder
So...since I've never seen any gauchos that weren't tight around the hips/booty area... they're immodest according to these guys.

4. "Wearing pants with words across the backside is a stumbling block."
811 said yes, 71 said no, and 79 were neutral.
This is a big pet peeve of mine. Don't do it!!

5. "The same standards of modesty should apply to wedding and bridesmaids' dresses as to everyday attire."
655 said yes, 190 said no, and 161 were neutral.


Wow! What a great resource to have! Granted, surveys are prone to error, so I'm taking everything with a grain of salt. But it's still opened my eyes to some things that I didn't realize were inappropriate. Thanks, guys!

Confabulation Concerning Trifling Discourse

I was reading up on regeneration in my Bible Doctrine book by Wayne Grudem (highly recommended, by the way), and I came across these verses. I especially liked the version that Grudem uses:

"A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances." Ezekeiel 36:26-27

I really like how easy it is to read this book on systematic theology. I'm not one for recommending books very often, but this is one I will gladly put my stamp of approval on. :-) I get to learn more in depth about topics like regeneration, justification, sin, angels and demons, and man as male and female.

It's great to have a string of Bible verses to look up after every sentence. How encouraging to see people backing their ideas up with Truth, instead of just their own human, and therefore erroneous, intelligence. I confess I get tired of academia quite frequently. We tend to use a lot of words to say very little at all.

And on that note, I end my blog post. :-)

Ms. Watts

So, I find it funny that people walk into the Industrial & Systems Engineering departmental office and try and talk to me about their problems. Let me paint a picture for you.

When you first walk into the office, the first thing you notice in the center of the room is this beautiful, mohogany-looking desk. It is tall; it is large. It is not mine. Off to the side, is a small, brown desk with a young woman sitting behind it. She probably has her iPod playing in her ears, and is probably stuffing folders with papers. This is me. Granted, I have a name plate. Maybe that throws them off.

But when you walk into an office, do you automatically start explaining your problem to the girl looking at you blankly as though she has no clue what you're talking about, or do you tend to gravitate toward the seasoned woman who looks like she knows what she's doing, sitting at the big important desk?

I would choose important desk. Important desk is favorite. Small desk is favorite also, but important desk is more favorite.

But apparently that's just me.

Titles

So apparently things have changed some since I last blogged. You no longer have to have a title! It was always a little nerve-wracking for me to come up with a title to my entry.

So, since the title of the entry is Titles, and that's what we're talking about, I have a question about titles. How do they come up with the headings (or titles, if you will) for the different sections in the Bible? And why does the book of Proverbs start out with plenty of these headings, and then slowly peter (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/peter) out? While we're asking questions, why are the pages of Bibles always so amazingly wonderful to flip?! I would say it's my guilty pleasure, but I feel no condemnation over it. :-)

So I've decided to start up my Choose Your Own Adventure story again. I was reading it to remind myself what I'd already written and, man! It's already pretty suspenseful! I just wish I could remember names and future plot details I wanted to put in. I also wish I weren't so fuzzy on the African minutia. But that's okay, because it gives me a chance to be creative again. Can't live on yesterday's creativity, you know. :-) So be watching for the next chapter!

Woah! Two posts in two consecutive days! I better be careful... I might be starting a tradition. :-)

I've started to read John Piper's book When I Don't Desire God, and wanted to mention a quote from it:

I am addressing the question: "How can I obtain or recover a joy in Christ that
is so deep and so strong that it will free me from bondage to Western comforts
and security, and will impel me into sacrifices of mercy and missions, and will
sustain me in the face of martyrdom?"

He then goes onto quote 2 Timothy 3:12 which states that all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Random poll: Is it creepy to call someone who hasn't given you their phone number? EXAMPLE: Timmy, Suzy and I are all friends. Timmy gives me Suzy's number and I call her. She has no record of my phone number. Creepy--yes or no? :-)

The Return

I was told I needed a new post. Ta da! Here 'tis!

I got me a new job for the summer. I'm a secretary in the Industrial and Systems Engineering department on campus. Woo fun. But really, it's not bad. Sometimes I have nothing to do, and then I get to read! :-) The people I work with are all really nice, too.

The Lord has recently shed some light regarding certain situations I've been through. Allen spoke last night at church from 1 Peter 5. Verse 10 really stuck out to me. It says, "And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." [emphasis mine] Wow! The Scriptures are clear that we will go through sufferings. But God Himself is going to restore us, make us strong, firm and steadfast!

I'm reminded of a verse that was shared in my Experiencing God class: "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth." Luke 21: 34-35 Maybe not so much the dissipation and drunkenness (although certainly they are things to be careful of). But I have dealt with my fair share of anxiety recently, and this is good advice! Be careful! These things are going to come to everyone, and it will surprise you when it comes!

This also goes back to 1 Peter 5. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." (verses 8-9)

On an unrelated note, I am thinking about taking up my Choose Your Own Adventure story again, assuming I have an audience. Any takers? :-)