Prayer for Isra

Hello friends, I am asking for your thoughts and prayers for a friend of mine named Isra.

Isra was struck by a car while riding his bike on Monday and is in severely injured - I'll post the official article here.

Isra is currently unconscious. They are keeping his body at a lower than normal temperature to help keep his brain from swelling. He also has chemicals in his body to keep him numb. The major area of concern is swelling in his brain. They will keep him cool for at least 24-36 hours, more likely 72. They won’t know if he needs brain surgery or not until then.

Isra is a friend of mine from Navs and is such a joyful, unique, and obedient follower of the Lord. He spent an entire evening this summer teaching Ben and I how to swing dance and is always willing to do whatever he can for his friends.

There are hundreds of people praying for him all over the globe (there is a facebook group with updates on his condition and the state of his parents who are flying in from Thailand), but he can use all of the prayer he can get!

Thank you.

Everybody

“Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons.”

― Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Snow Patrol also told me to Just Say Yes

As far as 20 year old wisdom goes, most of mine revolves around my the best time of day to people watch at Starbucks, how many pretzels and peanut butter is too much (no such thing), and how to organize a bookshelf so it looks organized, but not like you tried too hard.

My wisdom has not quite cultivated it's two most essential nutrients: time, and plain old life.

I have, however, been taught by a God that does not require my false wisdom to be given his unfathomable truth. His wisdom. His understanding.

All I know is to say “yes.”

To say yes even when I don't realize I'm doing so.

To say yes to the inconvenient, the taxing, the uncertain.

To say yes to the sloppy, the time-consuming, the ordinary.

I think of all of the moments spent drenched in God's grace, the intimate moments, the ones where your heart hurts because it dawns on you there is, in fact, a God, and He takes you very seriously.

All of those moments, for me, were followed by a "yes" of some kind.

Each yes to God led me to something greater, and each nod of my reluctant head brought me into plans even the most efficient advisor/travel memoir/Jane Austen quote, or whatever else I turn to for advice, could offer.

I so desperately wish I could sit with you at my kitchen table, mugs of coffee steaming in front of us (or tea, whatever you prefer I suppose), and trace where I am now back to where I said "yes" to the holiest of holies, years ago, days ago. Honestly, even a resounding "no" lead to a "yes" eventually. No matter  each of them always leads me back to Him. 

Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon. 

 ― Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on ChristianSpirituality

 I love this because this God, this savior of mine, He entered to my life and a series of apprehensive and curious "yes's" beginning at the sassy age of three asking my mom while sitting in church, "what is this place?!?" And the thing is, this place is His, and He shares Himself with me every day, even when I'm to selfish to acknowledge it.