Life in the Desert.

"See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him." 

-Exodus 23:20-21

The Israelites were given freedom. The Lord removed them from a life of slavery and condemnation and led them into the desert to be given a choice to follow Him and His angel in a promised land or to worship other gods and live a life of idolatry and suffering. His covenant with Israel was strong and promising, but the Israelites were frustrated.

Why so many years in a desolate land wandering and waiting for the land promised to them'?
Was there no promise at the end of this road?
Was the blessing not even within grasp?
Why listen to and follow something so unknown?

With lost faith and earthly needs, the Israelites turned and looked towards idols in order to take control back into their hands instead of God's. If they saw an issue within their life, they created a god to "fix" it. They saw their strength being far more superior than the God who brought them out of Egypt.

Is this not us?

As a college student I learning much more each day that the future is so unknown. Where am I going to be two years from now? What will I be doing? What issues will happening in my life then that I should account for now? What can I do today to affect my tomorrow? I'm realizing there's nothing. Nothing, but be present today. You see, I like control. I like knowing what tomorrow or next week will look like. I like to use my own strength and abilities to assure me that I am in control. The Israelites wanted control. They wanted to know that even though they are wandering in the desert that they could create their own perfect, sustainable life now. They wanted all the blessing and all promise right now. Since God wasn't giving it to them now, why not do it themselves? So they used other gods and idols to create control where they felt its absence and no longer a sustainable promise.

I try to use my strength to make my own promises for my future. If I can control my day and life why do I need a God to make these distant promises?

Because my own strength fails.

When we surrender our control and all our preconceived ideas of what our promise should look like, there is nothing left but God. By moving the Israelites from Egypt into a desolate land, God wanted to show them that by trusting in Him, His strength would sustain them. If He could take care of them even in the most severe environments, then He would always be enough. In our most uncertain and scary moments, God wants to show us He can always be trusted and will guide us back into His promise. I create my own strongholds to clutter my life with little idols for this and that, when it could be so simple to just drop my control and let Him lead me.  My strength and need for control is excessive and unnecessary because God has a far greater promise and life ahead of me than I could ever create for myself.

"So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of Egyptians and to bring them up out o that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing of milk and honey." -Exodus 3:8

Essential over the Excessive.

Many people believe that being a minimalist means removing everything from your closet and living with only a hand full of things. While this potentially could be true (very much an extreme though) this is not the only way that minimalism can be practiced. What if minimalism was applied to time? What if by cramming our schedules with minute by minute activities we are losing rest and quality in time?
Time is precious and I am finding more and more how precious it really is. By slimming down our schedules and deciding what is essential over what is excessive we can invest more of ourselves into each thing we do whether that is our homework, our relationships and friendships, our jobs, or creativity. Spending time choosing what matters and removing what is just too much can allow you to find more time in your day to rest, to sit down and have a cup a tea with a friend, or enjoy a book. When we cram so much into our schedules we feel as if we are achieving some kind of honor for having the longest to do list, but is really everything on that list being done with the greatest effort? I want to make sure that each day I am choosing to be all present in each thing I do. When I sit down and read my Bible I want to be all there and investing all the time needed in the Word. I want to sit down a with a friend and not be concerned about crossing things off a to do list, but to be totally focused on investing in them. Time is not ours. We are blessed with time to share and enjoy. I want to give my fullest into each thing I choose to spend my time doing.

Enjoy your time!

A Road to Minimalism

Every summer my family travels to De Soto, Wisconsin. We simply enjoy life on the river, relaxing, fishing, and boating. Not a single care to have. Life is easy there. It’s peaceful. I walk out my door to nothing, but a vast and mighty river that can be as still and gentle as a tender touch. Its beautiful here. God’s glory is definitely revealed in this simple life. Key word simple. We stay in a small fishing cabin with only the essentials we need for our 10 day trip. Clothes, suits, food, water, some good books, and a camera. There is no cell service here and very little wifi. We are relatively very disconnected from the world. It’s a new world here. But its a simple world. There is no clutter or worries. I tend to wear the same things everyday. I spend a significant amount of time in close quarters with my family. I have obvious and much needed time with God. One day during this week this past summer I sat on the dock and read through Lamentations. I’ve never actually sat down and read through Lamentations honestly. Truthfully I’ve only heard the good parts about God being faithful, which is the most hopeful part and extremely encouraging, but these verses are only found in one of the five chapters. There is a lot more “hard stuff” that runs through these pages. Basically to sum it up, Jerusalem messed up. Big time. Time after time they screwed up and finally they fell flat on their face and God was over it. He warned them what sin would do to them, but they didn’t listen. Lamentations confronts that regret and deep wound in their hearts and their now suffering for their convictions. They are words of lament. It’s a hard book to sit and read. You really begin to feel the weight of their sin and the conviction in your own life.

"Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness, she herself groans and turns away. Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her." 

-Lamentations 1:8-9

I can tell you right now, I have felt like Jerusalem. I have make choices everyday that impact my life both indirectly and directly. I felt so brutally connected to Jerusalem reading through her heartache and cries because that is me. That’s me once or twice or a hundred times a day. I’ll admit it. It causes my “heart to grow faint.” (Lamentations 1:22) But how great is the great love of Christ that grace can cover a multitude of sins? Now in my life, I’m on the journey of understanding grace. It’s tricky for me to allow myself to receive, but it’s good and I need it. Lamentations though hits that path hard. I'm sure this will be a continuous beautiful battle I will encounter I will have.  

"O Lord, you took up my case; you redeemed my life." 

-Lamentations 3:58

He meets me in my woes and regrets and listens to my pleas and forgives. The grief and affliction will come, but they are not forever. For great compassion will follow. Grace meets us right there. Right in the midst of hurt, regret and lament. Grace doesn’t mean you will not still have heartache and pain, but that you have a future and light that is greater than the darkness you’re in now. There is a great hope we can have amidst troubles.  

As I’ve been writing this you may wonder how it relates to minimalism, but I do believe this to be a stepping stone in my heart to wanting to be a minimalist. In the simplicity of life of that time on the river, I developed a deeper and greater understanding and yearning of Christ. I hear my God far louder and clearer when I’m immersed in simplicity. Living without the distractions of everything else reminds me of the great need for time alone with God. Allowing myself to live in the silence and stillness I have the most refreshing and nourishing drink to quench a tired and faint heart. Alongside of all this, I have been reading Living with Less by Joshua Becker. The entire book is a journey of the biblical connections of life as a minimalist. As I venture through the book, I am finding the great calling to minimalism has on people. It may not be for everyone, but it is a life to be considered  if you are noticing the distractions the world has in your walk with Christ. My own convictions of comparison and material obsession has led me to thoughts that maybe instead of wanting more things, I could want more Christ eliminating the unnecessary. Just as Jerusalem became so consumed in their sin, I believe we all have the capability to do so as well.

"With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children." 

-Lamentations 4:10

Surprise! I bet you didn't expect that verse. Though this is a great extreme…it reminds me though that even good people are capable of doing really awful things. Good people fail. I fail. I believe we are called to do whatever takes to follow after Christ. So maybe for me that means clearing up my schedule by eliminating some of things that distract me. This minimalist lifestyle is very different for me and honestly a little scary, but I believe it is a healthy lifestyle Christ encourages us to live. So as I clear out my closet and drawers I will yearn to follow Christ with my time and energy more humbly and intentionally. 

Simply,

MDH

 Here's our little cabin we rent! 

Just a little family pic (:

Sabbath

There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:9-11

Week after week I am finding the great need and importance for rest and how easy it is for rest to be lost in the daily hustle of life. Rest is good. It's okay to step back and breathe. God called us to rest. He gave us 6 days of work and one day to just rest. That day is intentional and necessary. Find a little rest in your everyday. Walk to class and enjoy it. Walk with prayer and gratefulness. Invest in someone and be invested in. Be creative. That's my challenge every week for myself. I want to create 2 things every week that are not for a class or project, but are for my rest. Find your rest and take it. 

Enjoy Sabbath. 

Who’s the artist we talked about today........Pistachio!

For the past 3 weeks I have been teaching third graders in an after school art program. We have talked about everything from Picasso and Cubism to symmetry and pattern. This week was all about Michelangelo. Being very hesitant over this artist due to the fact that pretty much all his images of people are in the nude, I wasn’t sure how kids would respond. So I did my best and made sure pictures were slightly blurry and taken from far away...far away. The last thing I need is foe kids to go home to their parents scarred with the image of Adam totally exposed. Yikes. I think my blurry and distant pictures did the job just fine. Anyways...part of the project was to create a story as a class. We pieced this story together with students wanting to include fire breathing dragons, elephants stealing peanuts, and princesses falling in love. It was quite a story. After the story was together I had the kids draw the story as if they were drawing it on the ceiling aka under tables. For the first few minutes I got a lot of “this hurts my neck,” or “this is so hard!” Then after a couple of minutes of finding their groove I think they started to really enjoy it!  By the end one girl shouted, “I can’t believe Michelangelo did his on a huge ceiling!” They totally got the idea. Accomplished. I wanted them to try something new and to be challenged. To care less about the end product and more about the process of learning. Always an important discipline to practice and encourage. 

At the end of class as we went through a quick review of what we learned. I found out that Michelangelo could also be called pistachio and he painted in the Sixteen Chapel instead the Sistine Chapel. 

I give it to them. They’re adorable. 

1441 Collection

Here's an awesome artist to check out! Not only is she my best friend, but also a creative and beautiful soul that has inspired and challenged me throughout our friendship.

Check out some of Danielle's beautiful jewelry!

http://1441collection.tumblr.com/

Blessings,

MDH

Like Jewelry?

Go check out MarielDayleJewelry on etsy! 

Enjoy (:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MarielDayleJewelry?ref=si_shop

Amoeba Tag

So Dani and I do this little thing called Basics Jr. It's a bible study for elementary school kids where they sing praise, study scripture, and run. Lots of running. It's awesome. I have learned so much from my little group of first grade boys and have been unbelievably blessed by each one. 

Here's a little pic from last night's amoeba tag game. Not sure if there was ever a winner. I think they were just happy to run in circles (: