All on a sunny afternoon...

Today was absolutely gorgeous and not a cloud in the sky. I walked to Gasworks Park (hence all the pictures) I love days like these...

More quotes from Blue Like Jazz that dug deep into my thoughts.. "'And a person who thinks himself unlovable cannot be in a relationship with God because he can't accept who God is, a Being that is love. We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people,' Paul says. 'That is why God tells us so many times to love each other.'"

"The problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money."

"I never chose not to like the guy. If felt more like the dislike of him chose me...I rolled my eyes. I gave him dirty looks. I would mouth the word loser when he wasn't looking. I thought somehow he would sense my disapproval and change his life in order to gain my favor. In short, I withheld love" (emphasis is mine)

'That is, instead of withholding love to change somebody, I poured it on, lavishly...I loved the fact that it wasn't my responsibility to change somebody, that it was God's, that my part was just to communicate love and approval."

And I laughed out loud at: "I thought about that movie A Beautiful Mind and wondered whether any of my housemates existed or whether those guys who kept following me were in the FBI"

This is such a phenominal book...I reccommend it to everyone. Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller

My class Christian Scriptures also stirred new meaning in my beliefs this past week, we were talking about the belief that God "knows everything you will do" Dr. Nienhuis said: "It is like a play, God set up the setting, the characters, the music, every element but the 'actors' are improvising and don't always stick to the script. It is not that God has mapped out every move we will ever make but that he knows us SO well that he can ultimately see what we will decide."

Last night I went to an event on campus called Step Up. It was amazing! It challenged me in so many ways. The night started with worship then Leonard Weaver (fullback for the Seattle Seahawks) came and gave his testamony and talked about how he had to "step up" in his faith and his career. He was hilarious and really inspiring - Shaun Alexander was there as well! The Katina's preformed and were sooo wonderful! They were so full of energy and played all of my favorite songs. Another key speaker spoke after that: Mike Silva, who told us the story of Jesus and Peter in "Hawaiian pidgin" which was entertaining, "Yo Peter...John's boy" (that was my favorite) - this was all taken from "Da Jesus Book" The best was Peter's answer to Jesus' question of "Do you love me" was "Fo sho boss"

Then he told this story: (I can't tell it quite as well...)

"There was once an old man and his son. The son had a knack for spotting great art so they would buy it at a low price and be able to sell it high. The old man loved his son and was heartbroken when his son was called off to fight in the war. Years passed and one day the father received the news no father wants to hear, his son had died while saving the life of another. The old man's grief consumed him and he shut himself in his house. A few months later the old man heard a knock on the door. He opened the door a crack and asked, "Who are you?" There stood a young soldier who said, "Sir, you do not know me, but I am the man your son died to save and I have brought you this..." he handed the old man a painting of his son. It was not a professional painting but the old man began to cry and invited the soldier in. They spoke and the soldier told the old man how much he had cared about his son. Someone had painted the portrait and he wanted the old man to have it. The old man cherished the painting and displayed it over the fireplace. Time passed and the old man died. The art community was full of excitement because they knew the man's collection of artwork would be auctioned off. At the auction all the paintings lay waiting and many eager attendants were ready to begin. The auctioner brought the first painting up, it was the portrait of the son." "We'll start at $1,000 anyone...$1,000" no one raised their hand, one man commented, "We don't want that! It is not even good!" The auctioner took to price down and down until he was at $100 and still no one raised their hand to bid. "We have to sell this piece before moving on!!" the auctioner said to the silent and angry crowd. A hand in the back tentatively went up, there stood the soldier who said, "Sir, I don't have much money, in fact all I have is $7.25 but I would like to buy that painting" The auctioner said, "I have 7.25, anyone for $10? No going once...going twice...SOLD to the young man in the back for $7.00 and some change" Then the auctioner started packing up and said to the crowd, "thank you for coming this concludes the auction" the crowd became angry, one man shouted "What do mean it's over?? There are still all the paintings to auction off! That's what we came for!" The auctioner said, "The old man wrote his will on the back of this painting of the boy and said that whoever buys this piece receives the whole collection. Whoever receives the Son, receives it all."

Whoever recieves the Son. Receives it all. Step up and be a Christian. Step up and take a stand. Step Up and live your faith. Step Up.

Step Up.