Too Many Crunchy Apples

I ate an apple tonight. I knew that Mumford and Sons was playing in the background, but I couldn't hear the music above the fruit I was crunching on. This elementary realization stopped me. A whisper. "Sometimes you crunch so loud that you forget to be still and listen to what I'm saying."

Love Today

Sometimes I don't want to look out of the window in the morning because I'm afraid that the sun won't be shining. After what seems like an eternity of dreary clouds, my skin is itching to feel warm rays blasting 'happy vitamins' into my skin. This morning I was brave, and I threw back the curtains. The heavens were a light grey. I watched the deathly bare branches jutting harshly against the pale sky, and I decided to try to love today anyway.

Keep In Touch

My dog has been doing this weird thing ever since I got home for Christmas break. She usually sleeps in my parents bedroom while I'm at college, but when I'm home I like to drag her in and cuddle with her at night. But she rebels. She insists on us leaving our doors open so that she can go from room to room in the house at night, spending a few hours with me, and a few hours with my parents--just to makes sure we're all still there. I have a dog who considers it a priority to keep in touch with her family. Score.

Soul Whispers

There's a certain peace you can find if you sit long enough by a body of water and just listen. If you are able to silence all of those rambling thoughts your mind is spitting at you, you can hear it. It's an inner knowing deep in your soul. And if you listen very closely, sometimes it is laced with whispers from the heavens. 

Coming Untrue

The winter can make us wonder
If spring was ever true
But every winter breaks upon
The Easter lily's bloom
Could it be everything sad is coming untrue?
Could you believe everything sad is coming untrue?
-Jason Gray

Just Because

My truck battery was dead. I left a dome light on, and I knew if my dad ever found out, I would never hear the end of it. The first person that popped into my head was an old friend from high school. I called him right away. He came, snickered at my headlamp, jumped my truck, and got back in his car to leave. I told him that I definitely owed him. "If there's anything I can ever do to pay you back, let me know."

"No Emily. Friends don't owe friends." 

It was that light-bulb moment Gru has in Despicable Me. 

Friendship suddenly made sense. 

It's that relationship where if they need something, you're always there--because you want to be. They're the first person you call when you need help, and you're the first person they tell when they get great news. 

I hate making obvious connections, but this is totally what Jesus does. He's that guy who did us a favor we can never repay him for. It doesn't matter though because we're friends with him, and "friends don't owe friends." But knowing he did that for us stirs inside of us a love for him. And so when he 'calls in a favor' to us, asking us to come with him, completely trust him, and follow him wherever, we do. Not because we feel like we need to since he died for us, but just because we want to. 

Swept Away by His Love

"I was carried to the table
Seated where I don't belong
Carried to the table
Swept away by His love
And I don't see my brokenness anymore
When I'm seated at the table of the Lord
I'm carried to the table
The table of the Lord."
-Leeland