I've had little bits of time to put this post together - forgive me if it's scattered. =)
Wow. I think the past three weeks has left me with one defining thought - everything comes back to worship. God has done so much in the past 3 weeks - I hardly know how to keep up. I've been on overload trying to stop my craziness long enough to process it all.
Two parts of this I can share ... the other part - is still in process =)
The first is my sister's wedding. wow. To be able to stand up with her at the alter ...as a witness to all that God had done in her years of knowing Scott. - To see how God had brought them on very separate journeys - in order to prepare them for each other - and for an even greater purpose ... a ministry twice as strong - a life lived together that in every way would speak worship to Jesus Christ. - beauty. ...to look beyond the radiant couple to the rows of friends and family ...also standing as "so great a cloud of witnesses" - each person representing a different phase that God walked them through - to me that was incredibly powerful. - And the music... each of the pieces that Melissa selected for the wedding ...was absolute worship - 
"How Beautiful/the radiant bride/Who waits for her Groom/with His light in her eyes/How Beautiful/when humble hearts give/The fruit of pure love/so that others may live"
"How beautiful/the feet that bring/The sound of good news/and the love of the King/How Beautiful/the hands that serve/The wine and the bread/and the sons of the Earth" 
"Filled with wonder/Awestruck wonder/At the mention of Your Name/Jesus, Your Name is Power/Breath, and Living Water/Such a marvelous mystery"
You're My Beloved/You're My Bride/To sing over you is My delight/Come away with Me My love"Let everything that has breath...praise the Lord" - this wasn't a request from the Lord - this was more like...a statement. "Everything that I've touched - WILL praise Me. It can't help but praise Me. - I AM the beginning and the end. The first and last. The everlasting God who's creation was put in place ... to worship."
::~::~::
And then of course ...there are my children. *Grin* ...how could every single part of them be anything BUT worship?? Camp has been full of beautiful, fun, crazy moments. The volunteers are AMAZING ..everyone just going all out to make sure the campers have the best week of their life.
So many stories I'd love to share - so many highlights. I think one of the main ones for me ...had to do with my new little friend, Erica. Erica has some sort of skin disorder where her skin is like ...rapidly growing all the time - so it just gets thicker and thicker ...turns rotten and brown and hard. I believe the story is that Dick was visiting her town and found her in the back room of her family's house - I've personally never seen something so bad - her skin had grown so that her entire body was drawn up and she could hardly walk. She comes across as SUCH a shy little one ...but in reality is an absolute FIRECRACKER! - I spent lots of time with her translating between her and the nurses - OH we had a blast ...but really - it was so cool to see her come out of her shell. - and amazing to see the transformation that took place as the nurses worked with her - soaking her in warm water for hours and applying meds to her skin - it went from alligator skin to a fleshy pink in just a matter of days!!!! I got to translate quite a bit between her and the nurses ...which was interesting - because she would randomly break off into Qeiche (sp?) and laugh at me when I would stop mid-sentence...stumped by what she'd said. - There was such a joy about her. - Such an innocent, free joy to live and love life despite what she'd been dealt. The little trooper would hobble through all the races and contests that were set up ...nothing could detour her. You wouldn't believe all the different physical issues these people have to deal with - and yet their lives are a dance. - A dance of grace and passion and joy and strength. hmmm - I am struck most with the grace with which they survive...I know :) how can people in wheelchairs and crutches be graceful?? Well when I think grace ... I think of a strength that comes in time of my weakness. I think of a beauty in time of brokenness. I think of dancing on the feet of Jesus when I'm not able to dance on my own. - There is something so gorgeous about that kind of vulnerability to me ... it's humbling and hard and...impossible. But because there is such a level of desperateness for Him - it ends up look to me, as the most beautiful grace. So despite their broken bodies ... they walk in more strength than I will ever know. To me ....that kind of strength ...is absolute worship.
Life. The very word is worship. ....He is the author of all life. He created each of us - no matter what we look, feel, act, or live like - to worship. To me, it's incredible how even the air that we draw into our lungs is worship ... acknowledging his artistic beauty. And in the hard things this life brings to us - our desperation...our "endness" that we come to - is worship because it's when His strength shows us how very powerful His love is. Honestly, I can't look at anything in my life ... and not see something that in someway doesn't glorify Him. - It has nothing to do with me ... it has to do with the fact that anything and everything that He touches (which is pretty much everything in life) - is worship. The hard - times of vulnerability where we fall on our faces and express the need that He's seen all along. The easy - when we dance in joy and love with the Savior of the world. The beautiful - that in such simple ways mirrors Himself. The "ugly" - that we look at and wonder "why" ... and He answers with, "my child...look through my eyes - and in this too ...you will see beauty beyond compare" -
"My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God" Psalm 84:2
To live. is to worship. -
So live fully. He is worthy of it.
