Cold Tangerines

"I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift, who will use it up and wring it out and drag it around like a favorite sweater." Shauna Niequiest (from the book Cold Tangerines)

I just finished one of the best books I've ever read, "Cold Tangerines." A friend of mine sent me this book after I had Cadence and I just finished it. I am not a fast reader and I haven't had a lot of time to read lately, but I am so thankful for my friend, Emily who thought of me when she read this book and mailed it to me. The book is about just living life to the fullest, soaking in every moment that God has given us, using our talents and making God proud. The paragraph I wrote at the beginning is exactly what I desire for my life to be. I don't want to waste a single day. I don't want to be caught up in negativity, sadness, etc. I want to see good in every situation. I want to be reminded daily that God is good and His plan for my life is perfect (even in the midst of uncertainity and the bad). I want to share Jesus and see people come to Christ.

I feel like this was my desire while I was in college. I prayed for people that I passed on the interstate. I witnessed to strangers. I saw the good in the midst of the bad. What has happened? Is it because I am no longer in college, surrounded by no responsibility and pure fun? Maybe. But, look at my life now. I am living my dream-my heart's desire that God recognized and gave me. I am a stay at home mom, raising a precious daughter. I am a wife to a fun, wise, godly man. I need to be living that paragraph more than ever. I think I struggle sometimes, because it was so easy to share my faith and "see God at work" in college. I went on numerous mission trips, surrounded myself with hundreds of believers every Thursday night at FCA. I sometimes think, "how can I make a difference now?" I've realized that is a question straight from the devil. I can make a difference anywhere. I have neighbors who aren't believers, I have people I see every week at the grocery store who are lost.

Okay, my thoughts are going crazy right now-sorry. haha. I'm just excited. This life is all about Jesus and making a difference for Jesus. One day, I will be standing infront of Him in heaven giving an account for my life. Nothing else will matter. So why do I let little things like washing the dishes, cleaning the house, etc. consume me and give me excuses for not having time to glorify God. I can glorify Him through everything I do. I need to make the time. I want my life to be consumed with love and with joy and with a broken heart for the lost.

The end of my new favorite book reads like this:
"What if, all at once, all the shabby, tired, used-up bodies and minds start to wriggle and pop, like they've been dropped into a deep-fryer, sizzling and dancing, transformed into motion? And something that has been deadened and distracted by the tension and noise of this world comes to life anew, wakes up and wiggles like a fritter in a frying pan, anointed, and taught to dance. Because we were made for motion, for arching up toward God with all the energy and passion of a thunderstorm, lightning slicing through a sleepy world to remind us that we serve a fast-dancing God, a God who set this world whirling and crashing through space so that we could live from our toes and drum out the pulse of a billion veins carrying lifeblood to a billion hearts, temples to a God that got his hands dirty making us from dust. Let's get dirty, in his name. Let's sizzle and pop in his name. Let's dance and shimmer and scrawl out our stories across the sky, like he taught us to. Let's echo his words, and let our lives speak those words: It is good."

Jesus, I want to sizzle and pop in your name. I want to dance and shimmer and scrawl out my story across the sky. I want to echo your words and let my life speak your words, "It is good." Amen.