Catching Clouds

I'm itching so bad to write a new song.
I'm terrible at coming up with good melodies on the guitar because I don't know that many chords and don't really practice enough to stretch the skill. But I love trying to come up with lyrics. I guess it makes sense for my personality and skills.

I'm performing for the Singer/Songwriter Tent at Spring Fling on May 1st, and I realize that I haven't really written a new song since I last performed there last year. So sad. And really, I haven't written a song I particularly really like to perform except "Girl." And I already played that one last year. So now I don't know what to play.

There a few ideas swimming around in my mind, but it's like jumping up and catching clouds in a jar - not really that easy at all. When I think I caught something, I close the jar only to find that the cloud melted into droplets of condensation streaking down the sides of the jar. And the clouds keep moving in the sky even though it doesn't seem like it. I guess I gotta stand still, point at the sky and say, "Ooh, that one looks like a..." And then write it down. See what happens.

Holy, Habit, Humble.

I didn't realize that these three characteristics of spiritual formation keep re-surfacing in my life in many different forms until I started going through Leadership Essentials with Sarah Min.

I don't know if Sarah knows this, but whenever I ask her questions, I ask myself the very same ones. One of the things I asked her was, "Why do you think these three are placed as the first three chapters of this book?" And I thought about how they were sectioned under "Part One: Character of a Leader," and really wondered about the relationship between the three.

The other day as I was reviewing the three chapters, I was thinking about how much growth had come from the first time I went through these chapters with Carrie (and Joanna and Bixler) last year as a sophomore. My eyes were opened in new ways, and the depth of my knowledge increased tremendously. It's amazing to see how God has been transforming my life over this past year. And it's amazing to see how the Holy Spirit has been helping my translate all of this knowledge into action, obedience, wisdom, and discernment.

Not that I'm saying I'm perfect or headed in that direction. It's just that I've been understanding, practicing, and remembering more of what it means to trust God and to be a follower of Christ.

So when I was looking at this whole "Holy, Habit, Humble," thing, I realized God has really been drawing real-life connections for me. One thing I had done while studying this the first time was memorize verses. And as the verses came back to me, they brought new meaning to this new life I've been living.

And it seemed like Holy is the kind of life I should be pursuing, good spiritual, physical and mental Habits are the way to pursue it, and being Humble was the kind of attitude my heart should have in the process towards God and towards others.

And today, after Christina came over my house for dinner and hanging out with me and Pam, I was reminded that being a disciple of Christ is like making a pickle. It takes preparation and time for the cucumber to become a pickle.

It takes much more time for my own transformation to occur. But it's exciting to see how far God has been changing me already...in only a year! Imagine the transformation 5, 10, or 15 years from now??

I'll probably talk more in the future about this holy, habit, humble thing...this pickle-making. I like pickles.