Joyness the dreamer (and I mean the asleep kind)

I have been having the WEIRDEST dreams lately… maybe I’m really tired? Maybe I’m eating before I sleep? Maybe my sub conscience is overworked? I don’t know. But… they’re just really weird.

In the last week I’ve dreamed about; murder mysteries, pro football players (those two were in the same dream), Wearing bathing suits in the snow, theater criticism, and… Marmots.

For your entertainment, I include my latest dream.

It was a sunny summer day and my sister and I decided it would be a great day to hunt Marmots (it made sense in my dream…). So we went to friendly looking bridge and started our hunt. Did you know that in my dreamworld, marmots live in the water? Well, they do. Unfortunately, all we could find were weasels. This was very disappointing to us, so we decided to give up hunting marmot, and fish instead. So someone gave us this big black stick and we started spearing fish. We were pretty good at it too. We speared one, which a very nice gentleman went and retrieved for us. It was apparently a “princess fish”, which was the very nicest kind of fish we could ever find in this pond. We were very pleased. But in all our confusion and excitement, we knocked a man over with our fish-spearing-stick. Silly us.

The dream then took a turn for the literary, and I was living out “To Kill a Mockingbird”, I was scout, and … get this… Gus from “Psych” was Tom Robinson. It was royally depressing, and Shawn (whom I think was Atticus… isn’t that just un-holy?) couldn’t think of a way to get Gus out. So he died. I was most upset.

So. That’s what I dreamed last night. I can’t decided if it’s awesome to have such vivid dreams, or awful. But, eh. It is what it is.

So tell me.. Do you have strange dreams?

Love and all that,

Joyness the dreamer.

It’s a loud loud world.

With the bravery of the fellowship of the ring we trudged up the mountain. It was an unusually sunny day, and there was a pleasant kind of breeze that played with my hair, and made the world seem like an adventure. At the top of the hill, we climbed on top of an outcropping of rocks called “Pulpit-Rock”, and plopped down for a picnic. We laughed, and stuffed our faces with sandwiches and chips and apple cider, and talked into a happy oblivion. Then there came a moment where we were all quiet. Just looking around at all the beauty, and breathing it in like oxygen for our souls.

You could see around 50 miles from where we were. Really. I’m not exaggerating. I could see all the way from Monument to Peublo. The landscape stretched out beneath us like a patchwork quilt, and through it ran the highway. It was strangely lovely. The ever flowing river of cars and trucks. And then I noticed something…The sound of the highway. I almost didn’t notice it before, my ears were so used to the constant song of the freeway, but all of the sudden I became keenly aware of it. And it hit me like a car-pun intended-My ears are so accustomed to the sound of the freeway, that I wouldn’t know what the world would sound like without it. That I didn’t really know what silence sounded like. I don’t really know what silence sounds like.

It made me think of this story….

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

 

Elijah goes to the mountain to find God, with questions for Him. He waits and waits. All these LOUD things happen. But God wasn’t in any of those. God was in the gentle whisper. 

Sometimes I feel like Elijah. I wait for God, to talk to Him. I listen and listen, but I can’t hear him in all the loud things, whether it be the freeway, or conflicting ideas, or people and their problems, or my own hurts and struggles and worries… God is not loud. He is almost frustratingly quiet. Yet the world around us is loud. Just think about the freeway. There’s nowhere I can go to be silent. There’s always noise. Sometimes it feels like God is the quietest thing in all the world.

I thought about that as I sat on Pulpit Rock, with the hum of the freeway in my ears. I wondered if I could really hear God if I could ever be in a place that was silent. It seems sometimes like the hum of the world is to loud to hear the gentle whisper. But then I thought of the strangest thing… I’m glad that God is sometimes silent. It can be comforting. When all the world rages with noise and calamity, God is the quiet voice. When everyone screams oppinions and ideas, God is constant and still. When I can barely move in my cacophony of confusion, God is hushed.

Sometimes, God is even silent.

But I find comfort in that silence, because I know that God didn’t come in the wind, God didn’t come in the earthquake, God didn’t come in the fire… But He comes in the still small voice.

So there you have it. There are my thoughts. I want to encourage you, oh ever vast world of bloggers, that if you ever feel like God is silent, rest in that silence. God will come, but it may be after the wind and earthquake and fire. Make places in your life to listen to the silence, apart from the deafening roar of the world. Sometimes, God speaks to us through silence.

I’ll leave you with this song…

Love and all that,

Joyness

New Years! :Owl Mugs, Speech, Verses, People and much much more!

Hello, World, and happy New Year!

In years past, my new years have been quite strange. From blizzards, to the stomach flu, to injuries… My new years never cease to ring in with some strangeness.

All this considered, I still love New Years. There is something so refreshing about leaving behind the old year, and ringing in the new. Remembering the good, waving goodbye to the bad, welcoming the new. It never ceases to remind me of the newness Christ brings into my life as he draws me closer to him, and makes me his new creation. It makes me think of verses like:

Isaiha 43:19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Isaiah 43:18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Newness! Redemption! Grace!

It’s exciting to think that today marks the beginning of new adventure with the Lord. I trust it will be exciting, and from the big things to the little, and I am simply itching with eagerness to jump into 2012! So, I’ve made a little list of my top 10 things I am excited for. Let me share! 😀

1-My Owl Mug

It’s the little things in life, my friends. My mother got me my charming little owl mug for Christmas, and it makes me smile to think of getting up every morning to have my quiet time with God, with my owl mug in hand.

2-Speech (and maaaayyyybeee debate)

I just joined a speech and debate club in December, and since then have been scrambling to write speeches, do research and generally prepare. It’s a lot of work… but I can’t express how excited I am to compete! Not to mention that the people involved in it are awesome. Altogether… I’m pretty darned excited!

3-My One Year Bible

This afternoon I read my first reading of my “One Year Bible”. It was very satisfying. Like VERY. I can’t wait to adventure into the word this year!

4- PEOPLE!

I like people… a LOT. And I have a feeling that this year I will meet a lot of new people, which I can’t wait for. YAY PEOPLE! (Can you tell I’m an extravert?)

5-College

People… I’m going to College this year. Isn’t that just MAD? But, oh my glory! I am excited. Learning, thinking, meeting people, new places, adventures…. gee wilikers! My skin crawls to think of it! 😀

6- Traveling

Traveling is on the agenda this year, and a plenty. I can’t wait. I love new places, and I’ve been around here too long. Someone take me on an adventure!

7- Books

This evening I sat down for a good while with “Peace Like a River”. I love it. I love books in general! And I can’t wait to devour piles of them!

8-Unexpected Things

This year has been full of unexpected, unplanned for surprises. I am in awe of God’s incredible handiness at pulling surprises out of His sleeves. This year… I can’t wait to see what else he has up his sleeves.

9-Music!

I plan on making an EP this year of my music. That excites me. I do love music! It’s an expression of my soul.

10- ADVENTURES!

What I am most excited for is not anything in my control… it is the grand adventure I know God has planned. I love going into the unknown of 2012. I can’t wait till New Years Eve of 2013; I can’t wait to reminisce about all of the adventures, glorious moments, smiles and memories that happened this year. Come at me 2012! 😀

Well… It’s getting late, and I’m really not thinking very straight. I apologize for my hairbrainedness. Love me anyway? I thought so.

Well, be blessed World! God loves you! Good luck with the new year!

Love,

Joyness

PS-If the Mayans are right… this is our last year…soo LIVE IT UP!

heh… Just kidding. ;P