Loooooong Suffering

In Galations, one of the fruits of the spirit is long suffering. It's basically another term for patience and it's probably the hardest one to master. Regardless, with all of the dismay over the movie theatre massacre in Colorado, I wanted to share this passage from Joyce Meyer in my daily devotional, "Battlefield of the Mind." "The time between suffering and thanksgiving is when the devil truly attacks our thoughts. He may begin by saying, "If God really loved you, you would not have to go through this." The truth is, we'll have problems if we're believers; we'll have problems if we're nonbelievers. But as believers, we'll also have victories. As believers in Jesus Christ, we can have peace in the midst of the storm. We can enjoy our lives during the hardships because we truly believe that God is working on our behalf to bring deliverance." Amen!

A Little Sumptin Sumptin'

"An intellectual is someone who says a simple thing in a difficult way;

An artist is someone who says a difficult thing in a simple way."

-Charles Bukowski

"Language and magic. Where is the connection?  Think about it this way: 

When we form letters to write words, we create something out of nothing,

so that the still air or the empty space on a page fills with meaning,

as if a wizard created a blizzard out of a clear blue sky.

-Roy Peter Clark, The Glamour af Grammar

The Donkey in the Well

In my daily devotional for today, Joyce Meyer wrote:
"One of my favorite stories is about a farmer's donkey that fell into a dry well. The animal cried pitifully for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do for his poor donkey. Finally, he concluded that the well was too deep, and it really needed to be covered up anyway. Besides, the donkey was old, and it would be a lot of trouble to get him out of the pit.
The farmer decided that it was not worth trying to retrieve the animal, so he asked his neighbors to help him fill in the well and bury the donkey.  They all grabbed shovels and began to toss dirt into the well. The donkey immediately realized what was happening, and he began to bray horribly. Crying would be our normal response if somebody was mistreating us this badly, so this donkey was responding the same way we would at first, but then he got real quiet.
A few shovel loads of dirt later, the farmer looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw.
With every shovel of dirt that hit the donkey's back, the donkey would shake it off and step on top of it.  As the neighbors and the farmer continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he continued to shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon the donkey shook off the last shovel full of dirt, took a step up, and walked right out of the well.
We can learn so much from this story. When trouble comes, if we will get still and listen, God will tell us what to do." It was too good to keep to myself!
Hope the next time trouble comes, we stay still and listen to God.
Amen!

My Fergie-like Rap

The other day at the bar I work at, I told a bartender to,
"pour that beer into that cup!" just being silly.
But the cocktail waitress I was working with laughed at me and said, that sounds like a rap.
So I started saying it over and over fast and we all laughed and smiled.
The next morning, I woke up in a super good mood and was getting ready to go volunteer at the Rock Thrift Store when I remembered the bar rap. I thought about God and how I could reword it to be Christian.
So this is what I came up with:
"Pour His love Up
in your cup
In your cup
In your cup 

And drink it up
Drink it up
Drink His love 
Up out of your cup!"

Haha! I think it sounds like Fergie from the "Black Eyed Peas" especially if you compare it to the "Humps" song.

Here's the official video for those of you who don't know who Fergie is - or the song I am speaking of...

 

Anyway, I can't get it out of my head, so I wanted to write it down here!

Hope you have a great day!

xOx,
Ms. Panda

This is the Stuff I Live for...

Last Thursday, I attended my fourth DJ class as provided by the Rock Church's Cross Fader Ministry. Every since I joined the Rock Church in San Diego, I have been wanting to learn how to DJ so that I could produce electronic Christian music.  I like dancy-type club music and have felt a calling to mix up the two genres - I even blogged about it back in May.

So for Thursday's class, we were challenged to bring as many guests as we could and the person with the most people would win a prize.  I woke up dreaming about my teacher asking me to name five guys and five girls that I could text to come to our class.  I started rattling off names, but then I got stumped.  In my dream, he began to hand out prizes to others in the group.  I woke up certain that I would not be the winner, but started texting friends to come with me anyway.  Out of 25 or more texts sent out, I had a few "maybes" but only one person followed through.  I told my teacher about my dream and we laughed about it together.

Class was awesome!  It was a smaller group than normal, so I got a 20 minute personal lesson on a set up I had not learned yet.  I learned scratching techniques, like the "stab" and the "orbit."  I talked to the DJ I was learning from about my dream of mashing up secular music with Christian music - especially since the club music seems to ask all of the questions that Christian music answers.  It's like the two genres are screaming to be mixed up together!  Plus, no one is really doing it - so the DJ pulled up a song called, "Sandstorm" which has a popular club beat, and once it reached it's peak moment, he set up the Christian song, "He Reigns" to play its chorus Acappella.  It was EXACTLY what I was talking about and we were all dancing around like maniacs bouncing and smiling!  It really fired me up!

Just then, my other teacher stopped the group and announced that he wanted to change the rules for the contest that night.  He mentioned that there were two students who had made it to every class and wanted to suggest a DJ "Battle" between them.  MY heart immediately began to race.  He chose this one other student first and then walked over to me and called me out!  I was scared to death, but also excited and honored all at the same time!

The other student and I "Rock Paper Scissor"-ed to see who would go first and I won, so I gave him the honor.  I stood behind as he demonstrated the skills he had learned in class for one minute straight and then it was my turn!

During my one minute showcase, I danced and wiggled that record back and forth to "Scratch" and smiled so much!  It was such a great time!  The class cheered for me and through audience applaud I took the title of the first  "DJ Battle Champ" of my class!

That night I couldn't wipe the smile off my face and I thanked God over and over for the opportunity.  It reinforced my path and recharged my spirit!  I am already trying to get into private lessons with a couple of my teachers, as I hear that in the next few months, the class may offer a set of tables to the most promising student. 

Life is a journey and you must take steps to fully utilize the spiritual gifts that God gives you.  As I overheard in church on Sunday, every single person on this planet is part of a body.  While you may be the mouth, she may be the heart, he may be hands, and I may be the voice - we must all perform individually to make up that smiling, loving, singing wholeness that is what God intended when He made us. 

What are you waiting for?  Find out your part here.!!!!

Til next time...

xOx,
Ms. Panda