Home.

WARNING: 

This post is basically all about Baylor so don't read it if you can't bear it. 

So it's been a while. Like.. longer than a while. Graduating high school took a tad more time & effort than I had anticipated.. so I haven't had much time to myself. Between waking up at noon, working at Super Sno & having a mountain of unwritten thank you notes staring at me, it's taken me a while to find some time to blog. 

I also couldn't really think of anything worth blogging about. Sure, graduation is a big deal, but it's the exact same everywhere you go. How many times does a person really want to read about walking across a stage or throwing a hat up in the air? (Okay, so it was pretty cool, but that's cause I was actually doing it. Reading about it isn't so exciting.) 

Last week I attended orientation for Baylor, where I'll be attending school in the fall. I know everyone reading this probably knew that already, since I only post about my blog on social media accounts & basically 8/10 posts on my social media accounts are, in fact, about Baylor. Those few days I spent on campus with my perfect roommate made me realize how incredibly blessed I am. I hadn't really realized how much time I'm going to be spending at Baylor until recently. That sounds stupid, I know. Everyone knows you live on campus freshman year. This fact doesn't hit you too hard until summer before move-in. I sit around my house & think about how my new home is going to be a small room I'll be sharing with another human for two semesters.

& it honestly could not feel more like home.

I am absolutely in love with Baylor & I don't mean just as a school or a campus. The community of Baylor University is unlike anything I've ever experienced. One of the first things we did at orientation was learn the hymn that was written just for the incoming freshman class. We'll be singing it in Chapel a lot, which is a required "class" for freshmen at Baylor. I'm so blessed to be attending a university with such a great focus on Christianity & fellowship. God knew exactly where I needed to be when he led me to Baylor University.

The people I met at Baylor were unreal. Natalie (my roommate) & I found ourselves easing into conversations with complete strangers who we were soon screaming cheers at the top of our lungs with in McLane & quietly laughing at the total cheesiness of some of the presentations we were given. I've met quite a few people from Baylor already on social media, as well as being part of the Baylor Trap House group message, which now holds about 500 incoming freshmen. Meeting these people in person was so much fun, & I loved every second of it.

I'm taking 15 hours this semester. Approximately 9am to 3pm Monday-Friday. This may not sound like a lot of time but the idea of having a regular school day all week in college isn't exactly what I had in mind. But I also feel like taking these classes will be a lot of fun because it'll actually apply to what I plan on doing for the rest of my life.

This was a super non-enlightening post but I just felt like maybe updating everyone on what's happening in my life. Sorry if this totally & completely wasted your time. 

Thanks & sic 'em. 

Reason to Celebrate.

When Cassie told me the theme for this Sunday, it wasn’t exactly what I expected to hear. I figured I’d be told something more, I don’t know, churchy? Like grace or love or redemption. Celebrate wasn’t something I felt like I’d been taught in Sunday school, not something I’d been preached to about. It hasn’t even been a theme at Lakeview, & trust me, I’ve seen MANY themes at Lakeview. 

​So why celebrate? I spent a few days trying to wrap my head around it, googling celebratory verses found in the Bible, but I still couldn’t comprehend why we were focusing on celebration. Don’t get me wrong, 170 years of this church being in existence is beyond reason for celebration, but how am I supposed to preach about it? 

​I don’t know if y’all are aware, but celebration has changed quite a bit in the last 170 years. If everyone in this sanctuary was taken into Waller Hall to celebrate something, I’m not so sure we’d all enjoy the same kind of party. Speaking for most of the students behind me, we’d like some pretty loud music, flashing lights, & a LOT of food. Obviously that’s probably not the same for a significant number of you sitting in the pews so, again I ask, how am I supposed to preach about celebration when it’s so different for everyone here?

​The more prayerful I was about the theme, the more it all came together. Those “churchy” themes I mentioned earlier, grace & love & redemption, those are our reasons to celebrate. Noah seeing the rainbow after all the days of the flood is a reason to celebrate. Moses parting the Red Sea is a reason to celebrate. David defeating Goliath is a reason to celebrate. Jesus Christ conquering the cross & giving us a shot at eternal life is a reason to celebrate. 

​I want to look again at the verse from the New Testament, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Eph. 3:20) That verse is pretty incredible in itself. Through His mighty power at work within US, those of us sitting here today & in every other church & all over the world, is God able to accomplish INFINITELY MORE than we could ever imagine. This is coming from Paul. Paul saw dead people rise. He saw lepers healed & the blind regain their sight, & he is telling us we can’t even begin to imagine what God is capable of accomplishing. That is a reason to celebrate. 

​In Ezekiel 37, this truth is made blatantly obvious. Before Jesus is anywhere close to being born, before the Gospel is ready to be spread around the world, God shows some of His immeasurable might in this chapter. Ezekiel is drawn by God into a valley filled with bones. Dry, lifeless bones that are who knows how old are scattered everywhere. The voice of God calls out to Ezekiel: “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” 

​Ezekiel’s answer to God is pretty stunning to me, he replies:

​“Oh Sovereign Lord, You alone know the answer.”

​Just like that, Ezekiel gives all power & credit to God. He takes the attention off of himself & directs it back to the one who deserves it. 

​This is a common struggle. When we’re trying to love people or make good decisions or do things for others we find ourselves craving credit. We want everyone to know the great things we do instead of directing their attention back to the reason why we’re doing them. 

​I’ve been the pile of bones. We all have. A hopeless pile of dried up carcass that those who pass by look at & think “Oh how unfortunate” or “No getting through to them” or “If God could help him/or her He can help ANYBODY”.

​Here’s the thing. God CAN help anyone. That’s the point of the Gospel. God gave his only son so that WHOEVER believes in him can have eternal life. Not so some people, or the right people, but so ALL PEOPLE are given the opportunity to have eternal life. 

​The amazing thing to me is the way God spreads the life. He tells Ezekiel “Speak to these bones, tell them to hear My word, that I’ll put breath into them & make them live.” 

​God doesn’t just say “Step aside & watch this.” No. He says, “You say it. You preach my word. You spread the life.”

​God is telling us this every single day of our lives. Regardless of where you are or what you do you are being called just like everyone else. It doesn’t matter how old you are or what kind of education you have or how well you know your Bible you are called on a daily basis to spread the life everywhere you go. 

​Are you aware of the things that will happen when you do?

​Because Ezekiel spoke the message. Ezekiel did as God told him and bones rattled, came together as complete skeletons, then were covered in muscle & flesh & then skin. There still was no life or breath in them. So God tells Ezekiel once more to speak His word & tell them the winds will breathe into them so they might live again.

​I love the wording in the verse that follows; “So I spoke the message as he commanded me, & breath came into their bodies. They all came to life & stood up on their feet – a great army.”

​How amazing is that? A great army. Ezekiel spoke the word of God across a valley of dry bones & a great army rose up, ready to continue spreading life across the nations. 

​Being the bones is not fun. Feeling lifeless & having no hope is not a good place to be. We all have the power to do what Ezekiel did. There is enough Holy Spirit in all of us to greatly transform every person we speak to. 

​I feel like this is a huge reason to celebrate. 

​At Texas Youth Academy this past summer, I spent two weeks with the most amazing group of people I’ve ever met. I was finally surrounded by a group of peers, all Methodist, who were beyond excited to sit through two hour lectures from college professors over themes like baptism & incarnation & the principles of Methodism. We were waking up at 6 and going to sleep at 11 for two weeks, & I honestly cannot remember anyone complaining once. While it was nice to be so comfortable with people similar to ourselves, we were constantly reminded that we’d soon enough be released back into the real world. We were told to be like leaky sponges with our faith. When you dip a sponge into water & pull it back up, it’s so saturated with liquid that excess comes pouring out. That’s how it should be in everything we do, our faith should be plainly evident to everyone we’re around.

​God can take dry bones & turn them into living beings again. Imagine the incredible things he can do through you for other people. 

​When I was at Passion in Houston, I sat with 14,000 other students ages 18-25 & listened to Christine Caine lecture us on our laziness. My generation likes to hone in on the promise that God has everything under control, so we can just lay back & expect it all to be done for us. Then she said something that really caught our attention:

​“We are responsible for the complete evangelization of the planet before the second coming of Jesus Christ.”

​Now, while I have grasped at this idea for a while, I never heard it put that bluntly until that day. It seems like way too much to accomplish. We’re all looking around going “I’m eighteen years old. I haven’t graduated high school. I barely have a say in whether or not I can go to the bathroom most of the time, & you want me to do what?”

But I heard an incredible sermon at the Texas Youth Academy reunion over Christmas break. Thera Freeman is our TYA director, & she gave the message for the night. She spoke about how scientists say that the water on Earth is the same water that’s always been on Earth, that we currently use the same water as people throughout all of history used. If this is the case, there is a very good chance that all the water we use has, at one point or another, been blessed in some way. You could very well be bathing in some of the water Jesus was baptized in, for example. Also, we ourselves are made up of about 70% water. Assuming most of water on Earth is holy in some way or another, who are you to think yourself unable of accomplishing things God asks, such as spreading the Gospel to the entire world.

​We look to the valley of dry bones for something worth celebrating. What better reason to be overwhelmed with joy than the fact that God can turn even the most hopeless cases into something useful for his kingdom?

​What better reason to celebrate than knowing God has equipped all of us to do the very same thing? 

​You are just as capable as Ezekiel of bringing the dead to life. You have the power to completely transform someone from dry bones to living flesh. You can give someone the same words God has given you & bring them out of the valley & into the army. 

​If that’s not reason to celebrate, I don’t know what is. 

It's Who You Surround Yourself With.

I really wish I was organized enough to sit down & plan out blog posts. Honestly for the most part I just type whatever random information comes to my mind, usually go on a small rant & then slap on a really terrible ending that isn't really conclusive at all. So if you suffer through these, bless your kind soul.


I spend a decent amount of time by myself. I don't mean that in a 'lock-myself-in-my-room' kind of way. It's just that most weekends I stay home, watching TV while my parents drift in & out of the house accomplishing grown-up things. Honestly, my baby sister has more of a social life than I do. I'm completely okay with this, seeing as how I'm a very lazy person & going out takes at least a small amount of effort.


Some weekends it's a little different. I spent the past two days with some of the most incredible friends I could ask for, & it was definitely a perfect way to spend my time. We played Guitar Hero (which I'm terrible at) & Super Mario Bros (even worse, if that's possible), watched movies & just enjoyed being with each other.


One of my friends stayed longer than the others & we found ourselves in a really deep talk about our faith. So deep that when we realized it was 1:15am, we made plans to meet up today & continue our conversation.


Sitting in the high school parking lot (with the windows down, can we take a moment to appreciate the glorious Texas weather we've been blessed with this weekend?) waiting for her to arrive, I thought about the circumstances of our get together. Most teenagers our age don't say "Hey dude, let's get together tomorrow for pizza & Jesus talk." It is done, but it's a rarity. Although second semester of my junior year was filled with lots of Bibles & Frisbees, which was pretty amazing.


My family has always told me that you become like the people you surround yourself with. I'm pretty sure this is basic knowledge & advice for anyone: Don't hang out with bad people if you don't want to be a bad person. The people I surround myself with are such a blessing & I thank God for putting them all in my life every day.


The big question is, what do you do with the people you have to be around? What about the kid who sits next to you in class, or the girl on your soccer team? What happens when you don't agree with the choices someone else makes, but you have no choice but to be around them?


The biggest place to find answers to all this is, of course, the bible. We're called to love people the way Jesus loved people. In case you weren't aware, this is a really big call. Jesus loved everyone. Like, even the weird kid in class & the friend who texts you twenty times a day & the person yelling at someone in the parking lot. Jesus loves them all.


So, wait. That means.. I have to do the same?


That's a big thing. Luckily, I have a lot of help from the way my friends treat me. Even when I'm having an awful day or I'm just being a huge jerk, they love me through it. In fact, they love me enough to tell me to snap out of it. Who I surround myself with makes a big difference on the way I treat others because I model it after the way they treat me.


Again, I'm so ecstatic about all the bestfriends I have that want to read scripture together or jam to KLOVE in the car or just sit & talk about how amazing Jesus is. Being surrounded by these people is so comforting, but remembering to step out of my comfort zone & love others who don't necessarily love (or even like) me is a challenge. I'm hoping that I can work on that & show people how awesome it is to just love radically, all the time. I'm going to fail miserably at it several times a day, but I'm going to give it my best shot.


I want to be someone you want to surround yourself with.

Jesus Prom.

"The quality of your life is tied to the quality of the love you give to others. God has placed many people around you who need to be exposed to a higher quality of love."
               -Jon Weece, Jesus Prom.


I read a lot. The summer between seventh & eighth grade I read somewhere around 30 books. English & writing have always been my strongest subjects in school, numbers are not my thing at all. Right before my Jesus summer, which I'll probably blog about at some point, I started reading Christian books. You know, like, other than the bible. Being the extremely color coordinated person I am, the Jesus books I own are marked with basically every color of highlighter Sharpie makes, & underlined terribly so that it's almost hard to read some parts. Yes, I am quite the dork. It's a thing.


One of the first Jesus books I read was Love Does. Bob Goff tells numerous tales of the absolutely incredible life he lives, and how love is something that actually does things, not just proclaims them. It's one of my top books I've ever read, religious or not, & I highly recommend it.


Going off of that, the day after Christmas I was in Barnes & Noble, Starbucks in hand (judge me), looking for new books that needed a little more color between their covers. If you go book shopping, you know how overwhelming it can be searching for a new read when you have no idea what you're looking for. Somewhere in the sea of "guides to new life" & "find the soulmate God wants" & "my dog is a prophet" I saw a spine that read Jesus Prom.


I'm sorry.. what?


Once I realized this was the actual title & not something I had made up in my brain, I picked it up. Jesus Prom: Life Gets Fun When You Love People Like God Does. I was extremely skeptical until I saw some small print at the bottom: Foreword by Bob Goff, New York Times Best-Selling Author of Love Does.


I was pretty much sold at that point.


I'm not finished reading Jesus Prom yet, but I'm pretty close. Today in class I read a few chapters that made me feel so much I couldn't wait to type out what I thought. I only want to say a little about it right now, & follow up once I've finished the whole thing. But you guys.. this book is absolutely incredible.


One of the things I mentioned in my first post was how interested I've been in the concept of love lately (& how badly I screw it up on a daily basis). It really has been on my heart & mind a lot how much love is so underestimated today. This book focuses on how nouns need verbs to function properly. A Christian (n.) is a person who loves (v.) & talks (v.), & a church (n.) is a place for people who love (v.), give (v.), & go (v.).


The quote at the top is what my mind has been thinking about since I read it. The quality of your life is tied to the quality of your love. The type of love you give out to people is directly connected to the type of life you live. I don't know about you, but based on that truth my life could definitely be a lot better. If we're called to be like Jesus, doesn't that include loving who He loved? The man who dined with the poor & spoke with the sick & used sinners as His closest companions is who we're called to model our lives after. How we would treat Jesus Himself is the same way we're called to treat those who society deems unworthy of any love at all.


The book asks what would happen if we all invited an extra person to our dinner table, someone others wouldn't necessarily expect you to hang out with. Personally, I can talk the ear off anyone I meet.. but that's if I'm willing to do so. I'm so guilty of only giving love to people who I think deserve it. I don't reach out to others like I should but it's definitely something I'm working on. They say the best way to love like Jesus is to understand how you're loved by Jesus, & I think I'm finally starting to.


I hope that with some extra effort on my part I can do a better job of loving people the way I'm loved by Jesus. Feel free to hold me accountable to that, seriously. If you ever have questions about something in a post or have something you want me to post about or just want someone to talk to in general, you know where to find me. (Twitter, obviously.)


"& you'll see why who we love is always more important than what we love."

I'm Bad At Introductions.

I know what you're all thinking. "Oh my gosh YES, another girl trying to make herself seem all sophisticated with a blog that no one is going to read." (Jordan if you're reading this, I check your blog religiously & that was not by any means meant to be offensive. I love you.)
Anyway, yes. I am trying this whole blog thing. I've really debated it, because honestly, who wants to post their personal ideas & information about their daily lives somewhere for everyone to see? Our generation is based on perfectly filtered Instagram posts & tweets we proofread more than our English assignments. How in the world am I supposed to think of things I'm okay with posting to the public when some people I consider my close friends don't even know everything about me? Well, that's a great question. At this point I'm really not sure if this whole blog thing will last, but I'm going to give it a try & we'll see what happens.
Lately, I've been really intrigued by the whole concept of love. Love is about forgetting yourself & focusing on others. I am particularly bad at this. I buy into the idea that my life is about how I look & what I wear & the things I have, but that's completely wrong. My life is about the God who created & loves me, the people He created & loves, & all the different ways I can use myself to glorify Him. I fail at this, miserably, day after day after day. But I'm working on it, & before I die I hope to be closer to God than I am to this world.
Being busy is definitely something that gets in my way of focusing on what I should focus on. As I'm sitting here typing, it's 11:48pm on a Saturday night. My sister is yelling at me to play her back in Trivia Crack, my phone has Twitter notifications popping up & I really, REALLY want to watch Netflix until I can't keep my eyes open. Obviously none of these are valid excuses, & there are more reasonable ones like school, extracurriculars & all that slightly more productive stuff. The thing is, being an eighteen year-old in a world full of social media & technology can really pull you into the normal swing of things. I don't want to be normal. I want to be stupid happy all the time. (If you know me personally, I know you're laughing at that.) I want to love everyone like they're the most important person I'll ever meet. I want to treat people better than they treat me. & above all, I want people to wonder why I act the way I do. I want to run recklessly towards Jesus, grabbing the hands of everyone I meet & bringing them with me.
I am very aware that I don't resemble any of the things I just described. I'm a complete grouch in the mornings. I have a bad habit of being rude to people who have hurt me. I'm entirely too judgmental, I don't like being told what to do, & I am just about as stubborn as they come. The list goes on & on & on. I fail at being a perfect model Christian every single second that my heart is beating. I never, ever, EVER claim to be perfect, or anywhere remotely close to perfect. Honestly, sometimes I'm afraid to even tell people about my faith because I know how many times I fail on a daily basis. But maybe someone else is afraid too. Maybe someone has struggled with the same things I struggle with, & are looking for someone to talk to about it. The thing about Christianity is it's not based on perfection, it's based on love. It's about showing people how much they're worth & how important they are. It's about reaching out to people in your community, your state, your country, & overseas. It's about not knowing what you have to say but trusting God to give you the right words. It's about watching door after door close & feeling like there's nowhere left to turn, only to remember that there is a God who knows you by name, holds you in His hand, & has set you apart for bigger & better things.
I don't know where this blog is going. I don't know what I'm going to write about or if I'll ever have anything of value for you to read. But for right now, I'm here, & I'm speaking. That's as big of an accomplishment as anything.
Oh, by the way, hey. My name is Janzen.