Irish travel

I'm going to Ireland in a little over a month, and I can not wait to get there! Over the past couple of weeks, I've been given some very interesting and quite useful tips on how to prepare, what to take, and what to not say while there...
1. I need to learn to drink. Evidently Irish don't eat, they simply survive on beer.
2. I need to learn to play golf. I was told there's no point in going to Ireland if I don't play the most boring sport ever.
3. The men are all ugly.
4. Take a stick to beat the ugly men away.
5. I was given a CD of Irish Drinking Songs to learn before I depart. The reason? See #1.
6. Last, but most important- Don't ask someone for a "ride." Evidently that's slang for wanting to have some hanky-panky!


I feel so much more prepared and ready to go on my Irish adventure with these great bits of wisdom!

Mysteries

Written by William Cowper, an 18th century American who struggled most of his life with major depression, doubts and fears.

God Moves in Mysterious Ways

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

Predictable buffalos

Saturday night I was downtown with some friends/new people that I had never met before. A few of the people in the group were from out of town, and so we decided to walk around our downtown area showing the "scenic" views of downtown. One of the greatest features of our downtown is not the skyline, or the beautiful riverwalk, or even the beautiful Bricktown area, but rather these lovely metal/tin statues of buffalos that are liberally "sprinkled" around the area. Yes, welcome to Oklahoma. We have tin buffalos in our capital city.

Anyways, one of the visiting girls sees one of those tin buffalos, and she goes running up to it and is playing around and posing for a picture. Suddenly, we hear this deep voice coming through loudspeakers, and he just says one line "That's very predictable."
We all burst out laughing when we realized he is referring to this girl posing with the buffalo, and even funnier was when we realized who was talking to us. It was a cop! He was sitting in his squad car off to the side and we hadn’t noticed him, but I guess he had been watching people take pictures with that buffalo all night and was getting pretty bored with it all.

We decided we better move on rather quickly since the cop was obviously watching our every move, but we laughed at the absurdity of it for quite a while.

Disappointed hope

My friend said it best... 'It's not so much that I'm disappointed in the situation as much as I am disappointed in the hope of there being that situation.'

For anyone who has ever wanted something to occur, or waited for a possibility to become reality, or stayed up late anticipating what might happen when you wake up the next morning, then you know, that perhaps what hurts worse than the loss of that reality or actual event is the loss of the dream. When you no longer have a reason to think ahead and smile, when you no longer have a reason to impatiently wait for that special possibility- that just might become reality, or when you realize that no matter how special that hope was, it was in fact a false hope, that is when the pain hurts most deeply.

So much, if not all, of our lives revolve around hope. We hope for good days at work, or at least a better day tomorrow than there was today, we expect (hope) for fun-filled weekends, we anticipate our life goals being accomplished, we hope for dreams to be fulfilled.

What do we do when those hopes return empty? When possibilities can't become reality and expectations become disappointments?

I know at this point I should start quoting verses about my eternal hope in the Lord, which, I do believe with all my heart. But sometimes, rather than needing words of affirmation, I think I just need solace through silence. For in the silence, I know He understands. He cries. He listens. He waits.

And ultimately, one day He will move- eventually renewing my hopes and granting me new dreams.
But for right now...........
He just sits with me and lets me mourn the disappointing loss of a dream.

the hall dance

There is one dance that everyone, red, yellow, black, and white have all danced, regardless of style - ghetto, graceful, or 2 left feet. It begins when you are headed to a meeting, class, or simply to the room 15 feet away. You enter a long narrow hallway only to see, that coming down the opposite end of the hall is a colleague, fellow student, superior, or complete stranger. This dance is no respector of persons. As you approach each other, initially there is the quick glancing that takes place, you know the kind. It's when you're too far away for it to be obvious that you're looking them up and down, but you're not close enough to look away. If it's an attractive stranger, then the glancing turns to an appreciative/flirting gaze. The steps quicken. If it's a boss or creepy weirdo, then the gaze quickly goes to the wall, the ceiling, the paintings, or the tiled floor, anywhere but straight ahead, and the quickened steps are for an entirely different reason.
You're drawing closer.
Then comes the game of chicken. You're both walking down the middle of the hall, wondering who is going to be the first to give in and slide towards the wall. The person with the louder shoes usually wins this one. Girls in stilettos going down a tiled hallway seem to just own the hall. Guys and girls wearing flats slink out of their path.
You're passing each other.
Both glance towards each other out of etiquette (unless you have the attractive stranger or the creepy weirdo situation), but then, as soon as you make eye contact, you break it. One must always remember the golden rule of eye contact- never more than 1.8 seconds in a narrow hall!
Whew. You're done. Both parties are safely out of the hallway- done with the most awkward stretch of 20 feet in the entire office.

Matchmaking at its finest

The CEO of the company I work at is a very interesting and unique 70 year old man, who has more money than I would know what to do with. Case in point: he just bought a 2009 Jaguar. Just cause he can. Can we say jealous??
Anyways, he's only at the office about four months a year- basically during football season. He is a huge fan of our college team, and holds season tickets. Outside of football season, he is usually at one of his two lake homes.
This past week he was in one of my co-worker's office and evidently my name came up in the conversation. The conversation went something like this:
CEO: Does Holly have a boyfriend?
CO-W: No, she's single right now.
CEO: Well, why on earth not?
CO-W: I don't think she's met anyone she's very interested in.
CEO: That's a crying shame. She's cute as can be and has a great personality. She should have a boyriend.
CO-W: I wish I knew someone to hook her up with, but I don't.
CEO: Well, is she bringing a date to the wedding?
**SIDENOTE**: the wedding was the wedding of another co-worker that was taking place that Saturday evening
CO-W: No, I think she's going to come by herself.
CEO: Well, if she shows up alone, then I'm going to hook her up with someone!

The CEO then proceeded to march out of my co-worker's office, and she proceeded to come straight to mine laughing hysterically at the prospect of this 70 year old man hooking me up.

I found it quite humorous myself but realized this might prove to be a great source of embarrassment. When the CEO drinks enough, which he does quite regularly, I could totally see him grabbing the mic at the reception and asking if any singles guys in the room would be my date for the night. He has no inhibition or shame! I said this to my co-worker and she laughed even harder and said, "You're right, he would totally do that!!"
I grimaced. Oh the joys of fighting of unwanted dating help.

The next day brought a situation that I never would have dreamed I would be in, that of turning down a "date" with a 70 year old, married, multi-millionaire. Yes, it's true. The situation... how should I put this? ... "heated up."

The CEO was back in my co-worker's office talking about the wedding.
CO-W: Is your wife going to be to make it to the wedding?
CEO: No, she's still at the lake house. She won't be back in time. I'll be going by myself.
CO-W: You should take Holly!! She's going by herself.
CEO: Nah, she wouldn't want to go with an old guy like me.
CO-W: Well, she might not want to go with you, but I bet she would love to ride in that car of yours!
CEO: Nah, I'll be drinking, it probably wouldn't be a good idea.

At this point, my co-worker came in and told me what she had suggested to our CEO and I could have killed her.
"Allie how could you suggest that to him! I'm going to kill you if he actually asks me!" She just laughed without mercy. Neither one of us actually thought anything would come of it however.

An hour later, in walks the CEO.
CEO: Do you want me to pick you up for the wedding on Saturday?
ME: After almost choking on my own saliva for swallowing suddenly proved very difficult...
"Oh, well thank you so much for the offer, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to stay very long at the reception, so I probably should just drive myself."
CEO: Okay.
He then turned and walked out the door.

I contemplated the fact that I just told the 70 year old, multi-millionaire, married CEO of the company, where his word is law, "No." Not many have done that and survived.
I hope I still have a job tomorrow.

The forbidden word.

Desire.
When a Christian single uses that word, it usually brings a "tsk tsk" and gentle, yet biting rebuke. Example: If a Christian single woman says, I desire to be in a relationship/marriage. What is the response? We've all heard or said it. It goes something like this: "Now Laura, you just have to be content in God. He'll provide a man in your life when you finally stop looking for one."
I am finally proclaiming how much I disagree with, and usually, detest that second sentence. Desire does not automatically equal lack of contentment. That line of reasoning basically states that when we as Christians desire something, God will only grant it to us when we stop desiring it. Then that means if we become unemployed, we should never look for a job. If we try but can't have a child after marriage, we should never look into adoption. If we desire an 'A' in class, we must learn to be content with a 'D'. If we feel God is calling us to a ministry, we should never search one out. By this line of reasoning, God always drops everything we desire directly into our laps, but only when we have reached the proper level of contentment in a vague "content" measuring thermometer.

I have known many girls who sincerely desired a relationship and in fact were looking for that special man, found him, and are now married to him. Does that mean they were not following God's true plan for relationships because they were looking for one? Or were they just at a better level of contentment and so God 'rewarded' them with a relationship? I don't think I'm the only one who sees the lack of Biblical truths to support that reasoning.
I am not saying that singles do not need to be content first and foremost in the Lord. I do believe that lack of contentment in God is the reason at times for singleness - God is teaching contentment outside of the opposite sex. It is an extremely important lesson to learn, because I realize that a spouse will not bring true contentment in this life, only the Lord can fill that role.
However, I also believe that God does not ask us to totally abandon all of our desires (the godly desires) in the name of "contentment." My sister said it like this: "God does not necessarily ask us to give up our desires, but rather to realize that He is worth more than those desires." It doesn't have to just be about desiring a relationship (the desire for a godly marriage is usually a good thing!); it might be desiring a child, a job, a ministry opportunity, a move closer to family - it could be any good desire that has not come to fruition in our lives. What we must come to understand is that whatever prayers we have, God answers based on what is best for His glory and our sanctification, both of which ultimately mean our best interest. God saying "wait" or "no" is not necessarily a judgemental statement, punishing us for lack of contentment or faith. Instead, He is saying "Yes" to a situation that will make us more like Him, or He is having us wait for a situation that will bring us more joy than what we originally asked for. We must keep in mind that every desire that He says "No" or "Wait," He is saying "Yes!" to something far greater.
Hannah desired to have a child for years, and finally God granted her prayer. He was not waiting until she no longer desired a child, He was waiting for the perfect time to grant her request. He said "No" for years so that when He did say "Yes," Israel would have one of the greatest prophets who ever lived during one of the most important periods of their history - the transition to the reign of human kings.

So, next time a Christian tells you that you need to learn the true meaning of contentment before God will grant your desire, keep in mind the true reason for the wait. You might be waiting to marry the next Billy Graham or Beth Moore, or you might be waiting to give birth to a future President of America. God's "no's" always lead to far greater "Yes's!"