January 2012
3 posts
Happy Birthday, Chris!
Hey everyone, it’s @chrismerritt’s birthday!
Chris is one of the most faithful and unpretentious friends I’ve ever had. He says what he means and does what he says. He works hard and takes care of his family. He is one of the most generous people I know. He doesn’t try and change himself based on the people he is around. He has as many firearms as he does tattoos (I...
November 2011
7 posts
Anchors
This time in India has been one of the most challenging times in my life in putting my hope and faith in what I know to be true, rather than just what the circumstances around me would cause me to feel. This has been a bootcamp of “taking every thought captive” rather than allowing myself to be tossed around by every emotion to freak out, get depressed, get anxious…or whatever...
Love is lopsided.
“By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us..
The most definitive act of love in history is also the most unfair act in history.
Love is not about doing equal parts or meeting in the middle. It is not about balance. Love does both halves. Love does for those who didn’t, even when they should have. Love is higher than fairness, compromise, or obligation.
Love is...
1 tag
Manali, November
I guess I’m a little overdue for a general reflective “how are you doing?” update.
I know many of you get my email updates, but I tend to write a little more rambly and conversational here. Neither is more true than the other, just a different flavor.
I hope you have all enjoyed the recent pictures. I hope they can give you a little feel for the scenery and feel of life here. There are...
4 tags
4 tags
October 2011
11 posts
“The secret place is not some place you retreat to…it’s a place that...”
– Rich Butler
1 tag
“I’m doing what I plan to do through all eternity- worship God. When I die...”
– Brother Lawrence
“Every man must choose his world.”
– AW Tozer
Philippians 2.14-15
“Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…”
One way to be a light in the dark is simply to do things without complaining.
September
Two years ago September found me in the back of a Starbucks washing dishes– suds up to my elbows and pruned fingers.
One year ago September found me cutting grass with sweat stinging my eyes.
This year September finds me hanging clothes out to dry on a balcony in India.
Not glamorous, and not exactly what I would have expected after college. But you know, God has been real in those times. And...
September 2011
5 posts
“A man should come to a woman to offer his strength, not to get it.”
– John Eldredge
Manali Update
So I’m back in Manali now, and I am slowly getting settled into what will be my routine for the remaining months I’m here. Yesterday I started teaching English grammar (hilarious..) at the orphanage school. I’ve never really aspired to be a school teacher or to attempt to corral a room full of 5th graders, but I’m thankful for the opportunity to be building a...
1 tag
5 tags
Zanskar & Himalaya
I guess I’m long overdue for an update. Now that I’m back around, I’ll try to catch up.
I spent the first 20 days of September on a trekking trip through the Zanskar valley of the Himalayas of North India. It was everything you might imagine…incredibly strenuous and unbelievably beautiful!
I must say that it almost feels blasphemous to not tell these stories in person,...
August 2011
8 posts
1 tag
4 tags
India Update!
After a crazy week of travel, I’ve made it to India! I did enjoy 3 good days with @SethGuthrie in London. (He is doing well and will be back in the states for awhile soon!) I spent all day Friday flying to Delhi. Then Saturday was spent getting to Manali…first a 4hr train ride and then an 11hr drive up the mountain. But after two days of 5:30am-midnight travel, I finally reached Manali...
Farewell for now, Shotgun.
Almost 4 years ago exactly I moved into the Shotgun.
(For those who might wonder, the name comes from the architecture. I’ll claim coming up with that.)
I remember sitting with William Monts and Sam Mitchell in a little house across from Anderson University and dreaming. We didn’t really know what we were doing, and we didn’t really know how to express what we desired. We...
July 2011
4 posts
“Lovers of God will always out work Workers for God.”
– Mike Bickle
1 month.
1 month from today I’ll be on a plane to India. (AHHH!)
June 2011
5 posts
Honor
Outdo one another in showing honor.
You can’t receive from someone you don’t honor.
May 2011
11 posts
The Fear of the Lord
“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like wild olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.” (Ps 128:1-4)
”..the Lord takes...
a parable
I was made to climb mountains.
Not everyone was. There are some who know the valleys and riverbeds better than I ever will. They are not wrong for that–just different. They need to be there.
There are some who have made peace with certain heights. They’ve climbed awhile and decided that this is enough for them. They’re not wrong for that–just different. They need to be there.
There...
So, I'm moving to India
Many of you know I have been in a time of seeking the Lord on what is next in my life. As I have wrestled and waited, the Lord has opened a door and put it in my heart to move to Northern India from August 2011-January 2012.
I will be going through the organization Crossroads Worldwide. Crossroads partners with a hospital and children’s home in Manali, India. They have an American missionary...
“When people hear “christian” too many think of “the...”
– Randy Hughes
“The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.”
– GK Chesterton
“With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before...”
– Thomas Jefferson, 1775