Be My Valentine

A throbbing headache pulsed through my brain as I sleepily pulled on clothes. It was Saturday morning and my class started at 8:30 am—and it wasn’t scheduled to end until 5 pm.

I desperately wanted to go back to bed, but missing even a few hours of this class would cost losing valuable information that I needed to know. Then I remembered:

Today is Valentine’s Day.

I looked down at my navy blue shirt and blue jeans. One of these has to go. I was determined not to wear the funeral garb of a depressed single on the national pink and red day of romance.

Since I don’t own a pair of pink or red pants, I changed into a red sweatshirt that had light blue heart designs on the sleeves—even if it is the same thing I wore last Valentine’s Day.

My headache was bordering migraine status and I was feeling sick and dizzy when I finally pushed open the door of Bethany Hall.

The mystic silence that has accompanied snowfalls since the beginning of time met me as I entered a fairyland of big drifting white snowflakes—and this is not even the magical land of Narnia. Everything was covered in a delicate layer of snow, and a sense of delight swept over me.

PAUSE.
I am aware that the word “snow” may create in my readers a mix of emotions from fear of its evil cousin, Ice, to the grumpiness that follows disappointed wishes for the warmth and sunshine of spring. But for about two years now, snow continually points me to its Creator. It doesn’t matter what time of year or season it should be, snowfalls will always help me catch a glimpse of God’s mysterious and unfathomable love for me.
UNPAUSE.

I think I even smiled as I started down the sidewalk. Just because I don’t have a boyfriend doesn’t mean I’m not loved.

I had walked past a little white candy sweetheart sitting forlornly on the wet cement when my curiosity—and perhaps my sentimental girl nature—got the best of me.

I walked back and stooped down half expecting a corny message like “Get Lost” or “Got Love?” to be written on its surface. But wait, the pink words were partially washed off but I could just make out—

“Be Mine.”

Were those tears that stung my eyes or just the cold wind?

He didn’t have to do it.

An unexpected snowfall points me to an outer-worldly God Who exists outside of time and has no need for my love—but offers His unconditionally.

Someone’s forgotten candy heart whispers a worldly message that symbolizes love, and turns it into a sweet reminder that God delights to be a part of my every day.

Both embraced me with the warmth of real God-love.

Love that reaches through space and time.
Love that can touch me no matter what time of day or season.
Love unshakable and love unchangeable.
Love that holds the promise of eternity with Christ.

On the days when it is so easy to think of what or who I don’t have, do I remember Who and what I do have?

Yes, my head still throbbed and I still had a long day of class ahead of me, but is He enough?

Or is He just a forgotten and unappreciated part of my daily life?

Only His touch can make the dreary and the forgotten truly beautiful. Only His finger can leave sweet messages on the sidewalks of life.

Liquid Ice

The icy water flowed over my head, weighed down my hair, and successfully gave me a royal neck ache. Briefly I questioned why my head was hovering over this big sink in the laundry room of Bethany Hall—when I remembered: It was Sunday morning, 6º F outside, and the hot water that had mysteriously quit Friday night still remained conspicuously absent from our dorm pipes. Why did the hot water have to be out today of all days?

This current attempt at hair washing had become a desperate last resort when I realized I had two options: 1) not wash my hair and suffer the embarrassment of church attendees distractedly wondering how long it had been since I’d washed my hair <painful answer: a week>, or 2) wash my hair and be able to focus on the sermon knowing that everyone was doing the same while blissfully ignorant that they could have witnessed a wild Laurie morning.

My eyes were squeezed shut when both my head and I agreed that we couldn’t handle this liquid ice for another moment. My skull had approached that painful stage called “nearly numb” that comes right before it shuts down. This feels worse than the icy mountain streams of Yosemite that we swam in years ago!

With a few numb handed twists the faucet was silenced and I stood there, my hair dripping over my face, trying to voice my agonized gasps of pain while the obnoxious THUMP, CLUNK, THURNK, of the malfunctioning middle dryer filled the room. Why, oh why couldn’t the hot water just miraculously turn on?

Back in my room, with my hand thawing around my regular morning cup of tea, I felt my body relax as I pulled out my Bible and a little notebook titled: “Journal of Daily Thanksgiving to God.”

It was something I’d started two years ago when I realized how little I thank God for the every day things of life: Thank You Lord for this new day! Thank you Jehovah-rapha for no headache today! Thank you—

As I thought through the little and big things of my life that I could write down, my grudging heart realized how much I had that I was not crediting to the generous hand of my God. I mean, the hot water goes out and I take on the attitude of a martyr!

I don’t live in a country where drinking water is the murky color of mud, nor does it takes two hours to fetch, and our land is not experiencing a drought.

What if I didn’t have water at all? –No clean dishes, no clean clothes, no tea, no running toilets, no showers...

I have so much and yet when one little part of it takes a vacation, I resort to grumbling in my heart. I forget that my God is the God of Living Water that never stops flowing—my only source of true joy that never should grow cold.

Thank You God for running water!

"...but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him
will never be thirsty again.
The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water
welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

Beginnings...

"In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:10

After years of contemplating, praying, and tossing around the idea of starting a blog, I finally have been convicted to just do it and allow God to work despite my weaknesses and fail attempts.

There is nothing glamorous or special about this blog but it is dedicated to encourage, refresh, inspire and convict those who read to live a life more fully with Jesus Christ--Who is the only One who really matters in the long run.

What is written here are my thoughts as I seek and struggle to live this one life before my God, with my God, and for His Name and glory.

Join me as as together we seek God with our every breath in the "every moment" of every day.

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!" Psalm 150:6