Listening music

So I found a cool new option on my blog. All the way at the bottom of the screen I've added a playlist of songs that I've been listening to lately. I specifically chose ones that either lyrically or just by the "feel" of the song complement the things I write on here.

If you'd rather read in silence, feel free to scroll down and press pause. Also, you can fast-forward or skip a song or whatever if you and I don't have the same taste in music.

A few things about the playlist: I'll be choosing new songs pretty frequently. I love music and as I hear new stuff that I really like, I'll be adding it to the list. And the music I choose--think of it as stuff that would come on at coffeeshops. Pretty laid back, chill music that won't interrupt your mood as you read. Also, the music isn't necessarily Christian or secular or whatever--it's a mix of both and it was chosen because I like the song.

You can create your own playlist at playlist.com. It's free. And if you have a blog and want to add it, let me know and i'll walk you through the steps.

Okay. Enough. Enjoy reading and listening!

(And I suggest you read with a cup of coffee... Good music and coffee always make reading better.)

What I'll be doing August 1st...

"The mind of man plans, but the Lord directs his steps." -Proverbs 16:9

Yeah he does.

A while back I wrote a post about growing up and trying to figure out life. I was wondering about what was gonna happen after I graduated. I was wondering about career paths and about having money and about being a man who had his junk together. It's one of my favorite posts I've written because I think it really captured my heart at a very difficult moment in time. I think you should read it.

It's been about eight months since that post. God has shown up big in the meantime. Very big.

This past weekend I spent on the lake with 10 amazing men and women who share a vision of what life is all about. We swam in 50 degree lake water (brrr....), ate like kings, played some hilarious games, and laughed more than I can remember laughing in recent memory.

And we dreamed together.

It's a beautiful thing when people share what keeps them up at night and what gets them going in the deepest places of their soul.

Here's a passage that we are sorta stuck on lately. It is messing us up. This is our dream.

2 Cor. 5:

"The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

Christ died for all...

Those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died...

God gave us the ministry of reconciliation...

God was reconciling the world to himself...

We are ambassadors for Christ...

A few others:

John 3:16--For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...

Matthew 28--Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations...

Isaiah 6:8--Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for me?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

In the city of Hong Kong, there are 7 million people. Only 4% of them are Christians.

In the city of Hong Kong, there are 1.8 million people between the ages of 18-29.

In the city of Hong Kong, there are 7 major universities.

In the city of Hong Kong, college ministry is virtually nonexistent, and college students are widely considered to be the largest unreached people group in the city.

So.

As of August 1st, I'm gone. After lots of praying, seeking the advice of godly counsel, waiting on God, and hearing an emphatic "GO," I'm moving across the world. I'll be spending at least two years as a missionary to college students in one of the world's most influential cities. I'm going with a team of 11 who share a dream of seeing a nation changed for the glory of God.

Wow. God is big.

He definitely enjoys surprising me. This time last year I thought I'd be getting ready to get married and scurry off to seminary or law school. Instead, I'm on my way to China.

Please be praying for us. This journey is more exciting than we can say, and I'm sure that Satan isn't thrilled about it.

Our group is called Grace Campus Ministries. Our website (which will be updated shortly) is here. Matt Dean (what a stud!) is our fearless leader. Check out his blog here.

I'm sure that over the next several months I'll be blogging more about this journey than about anything else. Stay tuned. God is doing amazing things.

I'm supposed to be writing my thesis...

...but the thoughts just aren't coming.  I'm sitting in my favorite chair in my favorite coffeeshop looking at a blank word document.  

The hardest part.  

I normally get in a zone when I write.  This is my 54th paper during my time at Auburn (I just counted--they're all saved in a folder on my laptop), and I can honestly say that for almost all of those, I normally find some stretch where I hammer out 75% of the paper in one sitting. It's glorious.  The thoughts come and come and you sorta just move your fingers and let them out. The ideas have been up there percolating for days (or weeks, if I have done a decent job of not procrastinating) and they take shape almost on their own.  It's like turning on a faucet and having them spill out, my task becoming simply to give shape to the puddle.  

But this--the beginning--is the part about writing that I hate most. Coming up with an outline, or even just a small collection of thoughts from which to catapult, can take more time than writing the rest of the paper.  I will stare at the screen and write sentence after sentence only to roll my eyes and erase it and laugh at myself for how awful the preceding thought just was.  It is a frustrating process mainly because I am a perfectionist.  I don't ever have "rough drafts";  I never have been someone who could do that.  I stay on a sentence until it is (in my mind) perfect, and by the time I am at the end of a paper I have compiled a unified, grammatically correct series of "perfect" sentences that work together nicely and combine the right amount of academic bulls*** with real, tangible thoughts.  I put it to bed and turn it in and trust that the process has resulted in something worthwhile. Occasionally I will go back through and change a word or two to impress professors ("commonplace" becomes "quotidian"; an "opponent of specific Catholic doctrine" becomes "antitransubstantiationionalist" and so forth).  And if I'm feeling really bold, I'll throw in a curse word or two to be edgy (but not a real bad one...).  

But not for this.  I am about to write a 35-40 page thesis, a project on which I've been working for close to a year.  I've read about 40 books now and have underlined and highlighted and annotated to the point of exhaustion.  It is going to be written in chapters (each of which will be 10-15 pages) and will be, rather than a puddle of Micah thoughts, the collective knowledge of a smattering of philosophers and literary theorists from the better part of two centuries.  

So I can't really stop and knock this out in a sitting.  Or two.  Or ten.  

It's scary--I'll probably be devoting several hours a day for the next month to this enterprise. I'm hoping that the groove I normally fall into will be prolonged for a series of weeks.  Because otherwise, the sun is coming out and Brett always text messages me for volleyball.  And it's hard to say no when you know nothing is coming and that your doubles partner needs you.  

Okay.  Back to rolling my eyes and laughing at myself.

      

Gabe Brake

...is ELITE.

Yesterday my brother's basketball team made it to the Elite Eight in the state playoffs. Gabe had 18 points. He is the captain of the 25-5 LAMP Golden Tigers.  For a link to the article discussing the Tigers' awesome playoff game, go here:  

Montgomery Advertiser Article

LAMP plays Saturday at 5:20 at the ACADome in Montgomery vs. Lafayette.  

Also, yesterday he became one of Auburn University's Freshman Elite Scholars.  That's the biggest scholarship he could win as an incoming freshman.  He was one of six chosen out of an incoming class of over 6,000 (that means he is the top 0.1% of his class... ridiculous).  

Proud of you, Gabe!  

This is how you should pray...

Found this on my pastor's blog.  God must be smiling.  

...Faith like a child...

Catching up

Wow.  January 4th was my last post.  Entirely too long.    

I'm changing.  Maybe that's why I haven't blogged in 45 days.  When you write, you're supposed to have hammered out all the rough patches.  My life right now is rough patches.  Not rough as in "bad" ("rough day...").  No.  Rather, it's rough in more of a "rough draft" sort of way.  Being refined.  Being considered and reconsidered.  Being worked through.  

I'm knee-deep in my last semester at Auburn.  That is a difficult thought to process.  Auburn is home.  Auburn is family.  I'm trying to take it all in--the people, the places, the atmosphere, the tempo of my town.  Spring is much different than fall.  Fall is hustle and bustle and football and tailgates and bands at Supper Club and Thanksgiving and holidays and parties. Things slow down as spring hits.  Days are spent in coffee shops or reading on Samford lawn or meeting friends for leisurely lunches and quiet nights.  I enjoy the change of pace.  It is a fitting end--slow enough for me to really pay attention and take hold of these last memories... the last rounds of frisbee golf... the last worship services... the last bible studies... the last meetings with friends.  I run into people in the halls of Haley and wonder Will I run into this person again?  Is this our last conversation? It's an eery feeling.  Life is changing.   

It's been a semester of spiritual growth so far for me.  I've had some experiences that have caused me to hunker down and get to that place of quiet rest and patience and trust.  I'm growing up and realizing things about myself and about God that I've been too busy to notice before.  Change can do that to you.  You realize God has always been there but you've never had to pay attention because you've been going on normal and unremarkable.  Then the abnormal and remarkable hits and you wake up.    

I'm seeing Him differently these days.  I'm learning dependency.  It's one thing to depend on Him when stuff is do-able in my own effort.  Completely different as you realize He is the one constant as everything else in life is beginning to shift.  Friends leave.  Relationships end.  You move.  

God is there.  

It hits me differently most days.  Some days I can almost hear his voice, like he's whispering from just around a corner telling me to follow.  Sometimes that closeness is so profound. Other days it is a journey in trust and in faith, wondering, thinking, reflecting, searching.  Literally forcing yourself to know things in a way you have never had to know them before.  

"When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay."  

"In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight."  

"I will never leave you, Micah, nor forsake you."  

In those times, I feel like I grow most. Sometimes I think He lets me wander, never far away, always watching.  Because in the wandering, I'm learning.  And He is good.  And He loves me.  And He is preparing me for the next journey.  

I'll try to get back into this blogging thing in a more regular fashion.  It's raining outside and I want to be reading a book with a cup of coffee now. But I've been mulling over some big life decisions.  I may have to mull on here a little bit...

Starbucks Loveletters

I was standing in line at Starbucks the other day and I was looking at the selection of Tazo tea flavors.

African Red Bush.

Wild Sweet Orange.

Berryblossom White.

Calm.

Sweet Cinnamon.

I ordered my hazelnut latte and sat down to write on my broken laptop that is in various stages of needing to be thrown in the garbage because it is old and dilapidated.

They played the music too loud. (Greg, I wish you were still the SS at Opelika so that I could get my coffee for free and tell you to turn the music down.) It was old sappy love song stuff that is too much crescendo in all the wrong places and totally lame on the lyrical predictability. I was distracted.

At the table next to me there were two people who were totally cheesy and playing footsy and holding hands and looking longingly into each others’ eyes and whispering and giggling and being all sorts of gross if you aren’t in the mood to see that stuff.

Eye roll.

So I sit and don’t write on my broken laptop and throw up in my mouth while the music is too loud. Coffeeshops should come with rules against such nonsense.

I started thinking, though, in the midst of all my distraction, that I was ironically in the perfect place to write a heck of a love letter. The cheese oozing across from the table next to me combined with Tazo tea flavors and the rest of the menu and the song lyrics make for a wonderful array of sweet nothings to say to your honey.

So, for all of you young fellers out there who are having difficulty writing nice things to your sweetie, here is my Starbucks compilation. I am working on the patent but feel free to copy for now. It’s just a combination of Starbucks-y goodness and loudspeaker music.

My white berryblossom,

You are the wind beneath my wings. It’s all because of you that I believe I can fly. If I were my laptop you would be my missing Z key because You Complete Me. My sweet pumpkin, You are my fire, my one desire. If I were oatmeal, you would be my brown sugar because you add spice to my life. My extra-hot sweet gingersnap, I swear by the moon and the stars and the sky that I can love you like that. If I was a cinnamon roll, you would be the secret microwave in the back that customers aren’t allowed to know about because you make my heart feel warm. My creamy sweet peppermint, you are like a sip of iced passion tea lemonade—sometimes sweet, sometimes unexpectedly tart, but always refreshing. Your cinnamon buns make me hot like chocolate. If I am not doing something right, please let me know, and I would love to do it again for you—that is my guarantee. You nourish my heart like a Vivanno nourishing blend. I love you truly, madly, deeply, forever and ever, amen.

Your Muffin