Weekend Wrap-Up

It's been awhile since I've done a Weekend Wrap-Up... and it feels good to be back! :) Hope you lovelies all had a wonderful weekend... what better way to end it by enjoying some tunes, inspiration, craftiness, and a sweet reminder about who's really in charge... as well as a yummy, easy treat!

music.

FREE Jenny & Tyler music at Noisetrade!

inspiration.

diy.

1. Buy Bulletin Board

2. Buy cute scrapbook paper at a craft store [I got mine at Michaels]

3. Paint the border of your board so it's not that cheap wood look

4. Arrange your paper, and staple!

faith.

Check out this portion from "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young on January 31st:

I am your strength and shield. I plan out each day and have it ready for you, long before you arise from bed. I also provide the strength you need each step of the way. Instead of assessing your energy level and wondering about what's on the road ahead, concentrate on staying in touch with Me. My Power flows freely into you through our open communication. Refuse to waste energy worrying, and you will have strength to spare.

food.

[image here]

You must try this delicious appetizer! I made it for New Years, as well as for a little get together with some friends a couple weeks ago. Click here for the recipe! It's super simple and has been a hit!

There's still a bit of time left in the weekend... go out there and make it count!

Guest Post: If God is Love, I think Jesus is Justice

Editor's Note: I'm so excited to introduce our very first guest post! Let's begin the journey to see what makes people tick! Today's post is by Laura Turner. She will be graduating from UWEC this summer with an Organizational Communication degree and a self-made minor in Community Development. Laura's main passions are discipleship/Bible teaching and social justice. Before she came to college she went to a one year Bible school program through Torchbearers in Germany and will be returning for two years come fall to be the female RA to encourage the students and build Godly community. She's a dreamer and sharing about those dreams is her favorite hobby. - HB

If God is Love, I think Jesus is Justice

Why we cannot re-define Justice to our own understanding (and must be aware of falling prey to our relativity-obsessed society) and the crucial significance of our knowledge of Christ shaping what we do, never the other way around.

 

“An Idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, – ‘ If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” Tim Keller

I wonder if soon I am headed to a point where I would ditch Jesus for “justice”. “Justice” in quotes because, really what is justice without Jesus? I am so angered by the sex industry: Apathy of the church in taking a stand and the fact that there are millions of girls around the world that are servicing (the nice way to put it) 20 men a night. Every night. They have no love, no home and seemingly no hope. What do I do as I feel this pain so deeply? It makes the most sense to just go out and end it at any cost! I’m tempted to ignore prayer and searching the scriptures because of my urgency to end the problem! At any cost. But I praise You that I’m so intertwined, Your love is so written on my heart that truly, somehow I know there is no justice without Jesus. Justice. True justice. It’s what only God can bring. It is justice that causes freedom for all involved, not just the ones I deem to be oppressed.

Oh how He loves us. That “WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS (hostile, evil, haters of God, haters of good, desirous of death) CHRIST DIED FOR US.” Romans 5:8. The Lord in His divine love that is solely of Him, saves the trafficker and the trafficked in the exact same way. He saves them from the oppression of sin and death. What death to the soul, spirit, mind, heart and body have the traffickers experienced? They have not lived. They have not experienced God or at least they have not let themselves experience hope of His love. But, Oh How He loves us. Seeing the plight of each man without comparing one to another, without counting his own sin that he did to others and to God against him, but saves him, cradles him, rescues him, redeems him, changes him, washes him clean and carries him home all the same. What weeping in joy and praise there will be from the trafficker who comes to know love that covers all- “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”*

Praise Our Great God. I still pray that He saves the girls tortured and living in death in sex slavery, and most of me wishes evil upon the oppressors. But by Christ He has opened my eyes so I can see my sin in His light.

Lord, forgive me. Heal my heart. May I never choose “justice” over you, because I don’t believe your goodness, your power, your proactivity in redeeming the world. For you are much more active than me, You are the only one who can stop evil and redeem what was broken and dead. You go farther than me in redeeming the oppressor as well as the oppressed. My heart is so much smaller than yours. “For your thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are My ways you ways,” declares the LORD, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are My ways above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

This is one tiny fraction of what the LORD is doing in this world to further His kingdom and His love. He is gracious to deal with each of us as we need. There is much more to the story God is writing on my heart as well. Thanks for reading.

For more information on sex trafficking, visit exoduscry.com

* (John Newton wrote these words to Amazing Grace-after he gave his life to Christ and left his job as a slave-ship captain)

Interior Inspiration: Collections

I've been feeling rather inspired lately in the realm of interior decor. I'm loving all these bright colors against plain walls... it really makes all the fun pieces in the room pop! Collected rooms are so much more fun than decorated ones! 

'Tis the Season for Change

Like clockwork, around the new year I always get antsy to start new things, change things up, take risks, and lay it all out there. However, I usually reign myself in because ideas haven't been thoroughly processed, people consulted, or questions asked. So it just so happens, that about a month or two later I actually start doing all those thoughts that were rolling around in the old noggin as the ball dropped weeks earlier.

All that being said, you may have noticed some changes around here at "The Things That Make Us Tick." KC will be dipping out and I [HB] will be the main writer. The vision of the blog is changing too, and I hope that you will not only come along with me on this adventure, but that you will bring your friends too!

I'm going to be inviting guest bloggers to write about the things that make them tick... whether it be adoption or weddings, organization or music. So keep your eyes open for lots of inspiration, passion, and love!  I'll be opening the floor for submissions in a bit... I have some lovelys in mind that will be starting us off. As of yet, not much has been implemented, but I hope to be slowly weeding things out and adding things in over the weeks and months to come. If you have any sweet ideas, drop me a line.

I'll still be chronicling my journey with EDGE Corps, as well as using this as a personal, lifestyle blog. SO... join me? :)

A little bit of passion inspiration to get things rolling:

Wing it

So naturally, I'm a planner. Every and any personality test I've taken has told me that. I will tell you that. You'd better believe that my staff team will tell you that. But sometimes it's nice to wing it.

The extremely cheesy, cliche, oh-so-terribly-teen saying, YOLO [you only live once] actually has some truth to it. Besides the fact that you do only live once on this earth, in this body, it also speaks to how preciously short life is. Now please don't hear me saying I think we should all go out and party it up while we still can. No. Just that life is short, and so why not take risks? Why not go for it? I feel like Jesus was a risk-taker. He knew how short this life is, and that you only get one shot at it. [Well... unless you are Him]. But He was willing to go out of His way, willing to disrupt any "schedule" that He may have had, in order to love people better.

So, if you are a type-A planner like I am, why not wing it sometimes? Why not take a risk today, this week? Do something out of the ordinary, go out of your way to love. Disrupt your schedule, get out of your comfort zone. Wing it.

Better, not bitter

Today I was talking with a dear old [and in some ways new] friend, and we got to talking about the past. About the way things had been, things that were said, things that were done [or not done]. We talked about how we view ourselves and how others view us and why things happened the way the did. We mourned our losses and chalked so much up to "it is what it is." And in the end, this is what we concluded: we cannot become bitter. 

Even when we are tempted to hold onto our hurts and our failures. Even when it feels good to hold a grudge or get revenge. Even when we feel justified in our pain. We have to choose to walk away with the lessons, the learning, the growth, and leave the bitterness and "justified" hurt behind. God has so much bigger things for us when we are free to fully love and invest, and that can't come out of bitterness. It has to come out of a place of acceptance, forgiveness, and security in Christ. 

Urgency, not haste.

This is the last line of a Mumford and Sons song. And I find it so beautiful. This is how I want to love... with urgency, but not with haste.

I want people to know the Love of the Father, because it's the most important love they'll know. And it's urgent that they know it. I want to show it gently, and with passion. Quietly, and with shouts. Humbly, and as the only thing I can boast about.

I want to fill myself with this Love. Soak it in, drink it up, live in it. I want to depend on this Love more than any other love... any human love.

This Love. It's real. It's tender and fierce. It's the Love of a Father giving up His only son for us. For ME. It's a Love that was displayed for all mankind with urgency, but not with haste.

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
--John 3:16-17