Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Than Sparrows?


Thanks to summer with Biology 110, today I learned that birds and humans are the only ones who roam this earth with 4 chambered hearts.
As I saw a bird fly across an open field today, I began to wonder if that was all the Lord had for us to share.
                 Naw, it can’t be.

Birds seem to be the last creature we compare us humans with. Although songs such as “I’m like a bird,” “I believe I can fly,” and “Freebird,” all may try to depict a close relationship between us, truly, they only dream up the fantasy-like sensation of what it may be like to have a bird’s daily life.

Come on Nelly, we aren’t like birds; we all really know where our home is.  
Come on R Kelly, we aren’t like birds; we can't really fly.
And come on Lynyrd Skynyrd, we aren’t like birds; we aren’t really free.

Or are we?

In Christ, aren’t we… free? (John 8:36)
Because of Him, won’t we one day… fly away? (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
And when we do, won’t we be… home? (Psalm 26:8)

I think, maybe, God did indeed want us to make a stronger parallel than just our 4 chambered hearts.
Come on, Cass.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Childish

“I tell you the truth,
anyone who will not receive
the kingdom of God
like a little child
will never enter it,”
Luke 18:17




I've been trying to identify, define, understand this specific aliveness that's come over me lately...

Lately I just don’t want to buy pre-opened nuts. I want to bust open pecans and walnuts and wonder over the designs inside.
Lately I want to rejoice over the brilliance in ribosomes and the endoplasmic reticulum.
Lately I want to sit on my knees and gaze at the sunrise and I want to look at cells under a microscope--utterly captivated--like it’s the best scene of a movie.
Lately I want to compare the infinitesimal size of those same cells to myself-- marveling over how small I must be in His hands.
Lately I want to go on a Daddy-daughter date night with my Father and dance the night away.
Lately I want to greet Him with "Goodmorning," when I wake up, and a close the day with a "Goodnight," as I fall into sleep.
Lately I don’t want to run on the sidewalk or a path, I want to run through the grass with no destination.
Lately I want to hold His hand in worship and tug on His sleeve in prayer.
Lately I don’t want to journal--I want to write Him letters.
Lately I just want to make God smile.

It might sound childish.
But lately,
I feel like that’s love.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Full Ride

“Blog, Cassie.”
“Hey Cass- blog.”
“I’ve said it, blog.”
“Blog-now.”
“All those thoughts- blog them.”
“Everything I’ve told you- blog it.”
“Not paper, not your journal- a blog.”
“You’ve written columns- blog.”
“I’ll help you- blog.”
“Blog.”

He’s told me. I’ve checked, re-checked, tripled-checked, and even fact-checked this whisper. And, I admit, this was not entirely because I wanted to be sure of His will for me.
I’ll tell you why…


I don’t know why.
I can’t give a full explanation as to why I let a combination of procrastination, doubt, and fear keep me from exposing
the daily interceding of my deepest passion: Jesus,
by means of the passion He instilled in me: writing.

In fact, I can assure you that there will be times in this partnership between the Lord and my typing hands where I am incapable of giving a full explanation to a lot of things.
Does it connect with the reasoning why it took me 9 of the 12 months I had of column freedom in high school, to muster up the courage to write about Him? Am I still held captive by that foolish bashfulness?

Again I am unsure. But, here you are, reading the happenings of my heart, mind, and soul- the contemplations and contradictions of my insides.

But hey- this is it.
Some see it as an escape for those “nerds,”
a disposal bin for those “thinkers,”
a release for those “tensed,”
a fantasy time-filler for those “writers.”
A journalist’s first step.
An adult’s MySpace.
A technological chalkboard.

Forget it all.
For me, this has to have nothing to do with me. No, not at all.
But, it has everything to do with someOne.
The One.
The One who is, has, and always will be infinitely more than I could ever write about.
Or, hey, even think about!

So, if you’re a Horned Frog, or any other symbol you choose to take pride in, many of us attend a university in which we pay more or less than $40,000 a year to learn x, y and z to do who knows what we want.
We shovel information into our minds as if we had room for it all. We jam pack our brains with knowledge we either know we will dispose of, or strive to keep a tight grip on.
Taught. Taught. Taught.
Shovel. Shovel. Shovel.

However, and I might just be letting you in on a juicy secret
(in which case I strongly suggest you to do your personal best to keep secret as OPEN as possible),
our God invites us into his wisdom- daily.
The God of all.
He will teach you something.
Not by means of a monotone voice, books, numbers and white boards, either.
It’s more like…
revealing to you a piece of His beauty,
unveiling to you a shrivel of His being,
letting you taste a bit of His goodness,
smothering you in His love.
Yes, little do we know, right before our eyes, every single day, is a God who is teaching us something extraordinarily personal, exhaustively profound, incredibly liberating, purely elucidating, uncommonly true, overwhelmingly peaceful- every single day.
Did I mention, this occurs every single day?

Oh yeah,
and it’s free.
One hundred percent zero cost.
No school supplies, not even a lunch box.
And, just maybe, if we keep our ears clean and our eyes wide, there will be much more than just one snapshot of His wisdom and love each day.
If we let ourselves, if we submit our minds and hearts this will be around every corner and under every footstep.
Every single day,
for all our lives,
for free.
Now, that is what I call a full ride.

And that is what I feel called to share with you: my full ride.
The entirely random yet purely divine lessons He is teaching me, whispers He passes through me, and simply the instances that indubitably show me how I am continually blessed by bearing the name of His child.

School may be out, but I’m still learning.
Learning, and delighting in every moment of it.

May you delight fully in whatever amount of Him you allow.
With His Love,
Cassandra Castillo