goodbye norman

Today marks a sad day.

As I am sitting here I am awaiting the tow truck to come and take away my poor little Norman.

And I’m surprisingly really sad about it and I’m not %100 sure why.

It’s sort of weird because I was planning on selling him in a few short months anyway to upgrade to something that would get me to and around Brisbane for the years to come.

But when he started groaning because he couldn’t get past 2^nd gear – I knew something was up and I would have to say goodbye.

I’m not really sure why it’s been so sad to say goodbye.  It’s probably because he was and always be my first car.  But i think what makes it harder is all the memories that is tied to my car.

I wish I could remember and write down everything that went on in my little Norman.  But instead I am going to show you some pictures.

Trip to Neville and Heathers with Emma, Casey and Jono – it hailed on the way..

Miriam Grace and myself just before venturing to the airport to fly to Melbs then onto Adelaide!

 

The girls whom I often went cruising with Georgina, Susan and Maeve…..ohh and Mik was there this time too.

 

Tegan, Georgina, Jenny, Susan and Maeve – late night treks to Tinga Way (scary)

 

Tens Sent Reunion

 

Road Trip to Hobart

 

These are some of many photos that are a snippets of the memories that Norman was witness to.  If you have some stories you remember Norman being part of.

Please feel free to share.

He will be dearly missed.

decide.

Lately I’ve been re-discovering the importance of not doing life alone.  Last night church was amazing.  It was definitely a spirit led service – something I haven’t felt or experienced in a long time.  I knew from the moment I sat in my sit that I needed to get up and be prayed for at the end of the message.  What I’ve been going through or experiencing of late has been an inner battle.  I left my beloved church in June – although it was a hard decision I know it was one I needed to make as I was getting burnt out.  I had also been discovering that doing church is more than going to a service every Sunday.  Church became my friends – doing life with them and catching up, but looking back now I wasn’t really spiritually accountable to anyone.  I didn’t really have people in my life to ask where my relationship with God was at and what He had been teaching me late.  I would go to church when I felt like it.  And I justified in my mind that was ok.  I also started to reason in my head that because I was going to be moving states later on in 2010 I didn’t want to get planted in a church or I didn’t see the point because this would just make it harder to move when the time came.  But last night – I was challenged about this (and many other things) God was like ‘You need to decide’ ‘You need to connect’.

I’ve also been feeling of late that as soon as I take a step forward in my relationship with God I seem to then take 2 or 3 steps back – and I don’t know what causes this.  But I’ve realised me not being connected or having people around me that keep me accountable – doesn’t help this whole deal.

So when Ps Mark asked people to come up who needed breakthrough – I knew I needed to be up there.  And I soon as I stood there the tears started to flow.  And God just started breaking things in me and He started moving again.  I became vulnerable.  I stood there for ages just letter the tears run and for him to move.  I tried to explain it after to one of my very precious friends who just held me.  And I couldn’t  – well not very well.  But even just trying and verbalising it to someone else made it easier.  To be able to voice it.  So someone else knew apart from God and me what was going on.

What now? To be honest I don’t know.  I feel as if God’s working to reveal something big to me and that’s exciting and scary at the same time.  But I do know is that I need to hook in to a church – even if it is just for a few months until I move on.  I need to find people that will keep me spiritually accountable. That will speak the truth in love.

I think that’s something we all need.  To have those people around us that are honest and loving and willing to ask us the hard questions.  That will ask us where we are at with God.

I encourage you and I encourage myself to find that person or those people.

We were not created to do life alone.

the moon is my rainbow..

I like the moon.

No scrap that.

I love it.

It’s more of a recent thing – particularly the last two nights.

Probably has something to do with the full moon.

I don’t even really know what it is about it.

But it just seems to have this wonder about it.

And when i stare at it i struck with awe and amazement.

I race home to take some snaps – pull out my crappy digital and snap away and the photos are terrible. doesn’t even show a little bit of how amazing it is.

I think in a way the moon is my rainbow.  God’s promise to me that He is still there.  Amongst the hecticness of life and the worry of what tomorrow might bring.  That He is present.

He puts that moon out for me every night.  As a reminder of His love and power and creativeness.

what have we learnt..

this is attempt to put on paper (well on screen) what i have been learning lately.

I have learnt that your world can be completely turned upside down in a year.   I look back to the events that have gotten me to the place i am..a whole year later. and it’s amazing. and it’s scary. especially when i look at my 6 year plan i made in Summer and how now a lot of that has been thrown out the window. but i definitely love it. it’s exciting how we can’t count on things always going the way we plan them to go.

I have learnt that even after 2 years that it is possible to miss your best friend more than ever.  and that it doesn’t really get easier.  maybe even harder.

I have learnt that night time is amazing. I love look out to see how many stars are out and to see what the moon looks like and get pretty disappointed when it’s just covered with big gloomy clouds.

I have learnt that I really like planning and talking about the future…although as stated before…it may not always happen like i plan.

I have learnt that I’m not as strong as I would like to think I am.

I have learnt that the spiritual battle is real and raging within the world and within me. and that scares me. when it probably shouldn’t. because i know i’m on the winning team.

I have learnt that sometimes people surprise you. sometimes good. sometimes bad.

I have learnt that I need to be inputting into my relationship with God.

I have learnt that God is faithful beyond compare or belief.

I have learnt that I am blessed – beyond what i will ever be able to imagine.

learning

I was asked the other day what has God been teaching me lately. And for once in a pretty long time I had nothing. And I think that scared me a little bit.

Since then I’ve been thinking a little bit about it. And why it is that God hasn’t been showing me anything.

I haven’t had anything amazingly drastic that would turn my world up side down happen to me in my life time. But I have had my own share of personal struggles and in and through them I have always seen God moving and teaching and challenging me. I have also had some amazing things happen and some amazing people come into my life. And I can see God in that too.

But at the moment my life is pretty cruisy. Nothing huge is happening. And it’s made me think…does that mean God’s not teaching me anything at the moment? Or does it just mean that I haven’t been attentive or open to the things that God has actually been showing me.

So the more I thought about it the more I came to realise that it isn’t God who hasn’t been doing anything in my life it’s me who hasn’t been seeking or listening.

I think being a Christian is about many things. But something that I have now realised is that we need to learn to recognise who and where God is in every circumstance. Not just when it’s hard or when things are amazing. But when things are just normal or cruising and nothing huge seems to be going down. God’s still in that.

this is the day

Max Lucado is one of my favourite authors.  I have been sorting out all of my folders on my computer and I came across this excerpt that I had typed up and saved from one of the Word for Today readings.  It is taken from Max Lucado’s book ‘Every Day Deserves a Chance’.

I wish I wish I could take the credit for writing as well as he does….who knows…maybe one day I will.

But for now…read this. I hope it challenges you like it did me.  To know that ‘This IS the day and we WILL rejoice and be glad IN it’ Psalm 118:24

Some days the road seems too long and the climb too steep.  Max Lucado describes them as days when “Hope is hidenberged by crisis.  You never leave the hospital bed or wheelchair.  You wake up in the same prison cell, the cemetery dirt is still fresh, the dismissal letter still folded in your pocket, the other side of the bed is still empty.  ‘This is the day’ includes divorce days, final-exam days, surgery days, tax days, sending-your-first-born-off-to-college days.  God made this day.  He knows the details of each wrenching moment.  He isn’t on holiday.  He still holds the conductors baton, sits in the cockpit, and occupies the universe’s only throne.  “We will rejoice and be glad in it!”  Oops there’s another word we’d like to edit: in.  Perhaps we could swap it for after? Or though, or over.  ‘I’ll rejoice when this day ends!’  Pail rejoiced in prison.  David wrote psalms in the wilderness; Paul and Silas sang in jail; the Hebrew children remained resolute in the fiery furnace; John saw Heaven in his exile, and Jesus prayed in the garden of pain.  You no longer have yesterday.  It slipped away as you slept.  You don’t yet have tomorrow.  You can’t spend its money, celebrate its achievements or resolve its riddles.  Days are bite sized portions of life: 84,000 heartbeats, 1,440 minutes, a rotation of the earth, a sunrise and sunset, a gift of 24 unlived, unexplored hours.  And if you can stack one good day on another you’ll link together a good life.  ‘This is the day”, live in it.

lauren

The night of Saturday the 17^th of October was the party of one special lady’s 21^st birthday party.

Lauren McCorkell is one amazing young woman.  I have known her since high school and has been a very dear friend to me for a long time.  She’s one of those people that you can’t help but smile when she is around.  Lauren has one of those personalities that everyone loves.  She is one of those friends that if you don’t talk or see them for a while and then catch up it will feel like old times and you could talk for hours on end about anything and everything.

Lauren I could go one for ages about the things I love about you and what an amazing friend you are.  But I will just make this short and simple:

I love you. I think you are absolutely incredibly and I count myself very blessed to be able to call you a friend…and an amazing one at that.

Here are some stolen pics from the night as i was too slack to whip out my camera.

My lovely friend Della Smith

Elliot Kidd – He’s the best there is.

Some birthday lovin’

Jayden – although I say i want to fight her all the time, she’s pretty cool.

Lauren and Myself – oh I don’t think i mentioned before it was a masquerade party..and it was fun!

unconditional

At the moment I’m reading ‘A Love Worth Giving’ by Max Lucado. It is an amazing inspiring and challenging book taking a deeper look into 1 Corinthians 13. Last night I was reading this book and I got to this verse:
“This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us in sending His Son to be the way to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:10
It made me stop.
And it made me think:
‘What an amazing love.’
But it also made me think deeper than that….and this is what I thought, and what I still think.
God’s love isn’t dependant on our love. If we didn’t love God – His love would still remain the same.
God’s love isn’t conditional. If we screw up He doesn’t just decide ‘Well they’re too far gone now – I can’t love them anymore.’
God doesn’t want to have a relationship with us for what He can get out of. (He’s the creation of the universe; He could have whatever He wanted)
His love is unconditional.
Overflowing.
More than what we will ever need.

After taking a look at that example of love – doesn’t that challenge us to look at our relationships, our friendships and how we love them.
Do we just love our family because we ‘have to’?
Are we just friends people to see what we can gain from them? But when they stuff up or no longer have anything to offer us – we just bail?
We need to stop being selfish.
And start being selfless.
Start thinking about what we can do to help others.
Not what others can do to help us.
Our love needs to turn from being conditional to unconditional.
It’s a hard change.
But I think it can be done.

But lets take it another step further than that:

Matthew 5:43-47
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?’

Let this be your challenge.
We’re never going to get it right all the time.
But should that stop us from trying?

Ohh and as a side note if you haven’t read ‘A Love Worth Giving’ – I definitely recommend it.

content

I am finding myself continually amazed when I see people trying to find their fulfilment in things or in people. I am becoming more and more frustrated by girls who say ‘when I get a boyfriend then I’ll be complete’…or when I meet ‘the one’ then everything else will sort itself out.

 Don’t people realise that when they keep searching and looking they will rarely find it or that person. Or that they will be looking so hard that when it comes a long they will miss it all together.

I think we need to become content with what we’ve got.

Not complacent. Content.

I’ve heard story after story from ladies who gave up their search for ‘the one’ and decided to focus on their relationship with God instead. And went on the journey of learning what it’s like to be content with God and God alone, and then whilst they were learning this, and their heart wasn’t aching after that guy anymore that guy comes a long.

I think this can be true in many aspects of our lives. When we put everything else aside and just trust God and not worry – that is when he comes through for us. God tells us not to worry, for He is in control.

We need to stop asking and worrying.

And start being content and working on our relationship with God.

i want to know what i’ve got..

‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’

 

I guess you could say that it’s a pretty coming saying around the place, it’s even inspired a few great songs. 

People often say it to you when you’ve lost something important to you.  Like when the big yellow taxi takes your girl away.  Or when you loose your phone and you hadn’t realised until then how much you relied on it.  Or when one of your friends, maybe not even one of your really close friends move away and one day all you want to do is hang out with them.  Then you think to yourself – man I didn’t realise how much I loved spending time with them, until now. When they’ve gone.

 

I’ve been thinking about this saying a lot the last few months.  And one day I decided I don’t want this to become the mantra of my life.  I don’t want this to be something I say regularly because I never realised what things or people meant to me until they went out of my life

 

I want to be known as someone who appreciates people.

I want to be known as someone who genuinely cares.

I want to be known as someone who loves unconditionally.

 

I don’t want to be someone that takes people for granted.

I don’t want to be someone who just brushes people aside.

I don’t want to be someone who doesn’t know what they’ve got until it’s taken away from them.

 

I could turn this into one of those blogs that writes a sentence or paragraph about each of their friends and why they love them.  But I cannot do this in fear that I would miss someone out who is incredibly dear to me.  If you really want to know why I love you being the friend you are to me – ask me and I will most definitely tell you.

 

But I do want this blog to be maybe just a little bit thought provoking.  That maybe, someone, even if it is just one person will realise, like I did, that I don’t love and appreciate people as much as I should.  And that from today on I will try more to tell and show people why they are such an important part of my life.

Because if we are honest – none of us got here on our own.

We are all the people we are today because of the roles some amazing, selfless, encouraging people played in our lives.

And I think they deserve to know that.

 

We need to realise that we are incredibly blessed. And be thankful for it.