This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Sometimes it’s nice to remember that God puts reminders in the Bible that we should be glad and happy! I’m not very good at this when something’s weighing heavily on my heart, but when God tells me to be happy, who am I to argue?

We (mom, dad & I) just returned from a really nice weekend at Grandpa and Grandma Regehr’s new house in North Newton. It’s not just Newton, it’s North Newton. It was such a nice relaxing and refreshing time for me, surrounded by people that are so encouraging and loving. And also, I have to say that there are few things that I love more than seeing a field of wheat swaying silently in the breeze as the sun is lowering in a Kansas sky, and the birds are sweetly chirping as they make their way through the soft grass.

Hello everyone, how are you, lovely to see you.

If you wouldn’t mind praying for me, I’d appreciate it. I have some things coming up that are interesting, and I really need some prayer for guidance. Job interviews, etc etc. I’ll fill you in when I know some more info.

In the meantime, I feel the need for some relaxing thoughts, and so I’m going to put some pictures up of my grandparents’ farm in Kansas. It’s one of my favorite places, and it helps me to relax, just thinking about childhood memories there…ahh….I hope it helps you relax.

I’m sorry I had to make it so small, but you can get an idea. This is a picture of all of the feet pictures I have so far, at least I think it is.

(click on it for a better view)

There are 13.

From left to right:

Colorado
Kribi, Cameroon, W. Africa
Kribi, Cameroon, W. Africa
Bamenda, Cameroon, W. Africa
Grand Canyon (guest spot by Lea O’Dell/Gottry)
Riding in a rickshaw through Beijing
Great Wall of China
Cologne Dom, Cologne, Germany
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany
Arc d’Triumph, Paris, France
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
Moulin Rouge, Paris, France
Sacre Coeur, Paris, France

I will probably get some up on Shutterfly or something, because I can’t even begin to pick out a few that can represent the whole, but I’ll try for my weblog. Don’t forget to read my other posts down below!

Arriving, and driving through Paris in our bus.

The Arc d’Triumph, as viewed from a stoplight!

Myself and the Arc. You can at least get an idea of how grand it is in scale.

Some beautiful flowers I happened upon in a park across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.

Me, and some tower.

Such beautiful tulips everywhere in the city. My favorite flower…how wonderful.

The Musee d’Orsay, as viewed from along the Seine.

The Sacre Coeur, an amazingly beautiful church, with one of the most famous views of Paris from the top. This is also close to Montmartre, the artistic section of Paris where the artists hang out, and the people sit at the little cafe

A young girl outside of the Sacre Coeur. I hope that I wasn’t invading her privacy or disrespecting her by taking a picture of her while she was asking for money, but I thought it was an interesting picture.

The beautiful Eiffel Tower at night. It was so romantic, except I was alone! Ahh! It’s almost blasphemic. Anyway, it was a beautiful evening.

Parisian lovers, enjoying the warm spring evening, and dusk under the Eiffel Tower.

I took a little stroll while I was waiting for it to reach 10:00, so that the tower would begin to light up.

After the Tower lit up for about 8 spectacular minutes, I walked across the street to get a picture of the carousel.

I also visited the very famous cemetary in Paris, full of artists, and painters, and composers.

MOULIN ROUGE! Need I say more…If you haven’t seen the movie with Ewan McGregor singing about how his gift is his song, you won’t understand.

One of my favorite pictures from inside the Notre Dame. Unbelievably beautiful. They were also holding mass as I was walking around. It was pretty beautiful.

The metro entrance in Montmartre.

3 amazing French men (there were a lot of those) discussing life in the Tuileries Garden near the Louvre.

I bought a beautiful painting from this fabulous painter. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do if I made it to Paris. He gave it to me for almost half of what he wanted, what a great way to end the trip!

I was reading in Donald Miller’s, “Blue Like Jazz” and there is a passage that says the following:

“There is this lie floating around that says I am supposed to be able to do life alone, without any help, without stopping to worship something bigger than myself. But I actually believe there is something bigger than me, and I need for there to be something bigger than me. I need someone to put awe inside me; I need to come second to someone who has everything figured out.”

I was debating this passage with someone who says that this need is from a selfish point of view, that wanting to believe, and therefore believing, is from a selfish and egocentric standpoint. The point is that Donald Miller was saying that he had a need to believe that there was God so that he might not have to consider the possiblities of there NOT being a God.

What do you think? Do you feel this need to believe? What does that mean? What does it mean to need there to be a God? How does that affect our view and beliefs of God?

Personally, I don’t think that Miller is saying that he “needs” it because he wants to feel
justified and safe as a human being, etc. But I think that he is describing this intense and beautiful desire that our hearts have to get to know the Creator and Lover of our souls, who makes our hearts come alive with awe and wonder because He created us to love him and love others, and love our lives that are full of mystery, exploration, discovery, love and relationships.

It’s like this. I feel a need to be loved and to believe that some day I will have a best friend and husband to build and share a life with, but that doesn’t mean that I am going to build a cardboard man and act out having dinner with him and heartfelt conversations with him because of this need, or to make myself feel better. I’m going to pursue a real relationship with this person and get to know him daily, and listen to what he says, and to his heart, and trust him and fall in love with him because he is a person, and I want a relationship with him. There are no rules, I don’t have to approach him in a
step-by-step manner.

I have so many thoughts, but I’ll stop here to keep it semi-focused…