The Swim Practice Where God Is My Coach

From a young age competitive swimming consumed many hours of my life. I have swam countless laps in a pool, down and back, down and back. Time after time. Why did I do this? To become better. Better at swimming. Of all things in life, swimming. I can remember practices where I would work so hard that I could taste puke in my mouth. This was the true feeling of pushing myself to the limit. Practices like that were hard and painful.  I poured my determination in to the repetition of down and back because I knew that I would improve, I would eventually PR and ultimately beat out everyone else if I just put in the effort and time. And time and effort is what I invested in this sport that now, holds little meaning in my life.

In my walk with God right now I feel like I have been going down and back. And like in swimming, I feel tired, like I want to just give up and get out of the water. That would be a lot easier. In James 1 it says, “ Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” I have had to remind myself of this many times lately.

In January, I prayed that God would point out the areas in my life that need improvement. I have also asked a few people that are close to me to tell me when they see weakness in me. I honestly had no idea what I was getting my self in to when I prayed this. It feels like I am in the middle of the most grueling swim practice of my life. I can’t even put it in to words what it feels like. The constant prodding that comes from God is like no other feeling I have ever felt. He has put people in my life that I have to learn how to work with and deal with.

In any good swim practice, the coach writes a workout that consists of different sets that focus on different aspects of swimming. Maybe it is a sprint set to increase speed or a distance set to improve endurance.  Here are the different sets in my workout with God as my coach:

*The Warm Up-Identifying the problem areas. This part has not been that difficult. I knew a few in the back of my mind. My good friend also has told me what she thinks. Sometimes her pointing them out hurts, but I asked for it so I am thankful for it.    
*The Trust Set-I have known that for a long time that I was not good at trusting people - or even God for that matter. I think this issue stems from seeing betrayal in my parents relationship as a young kid. I honestly find it easier to just do things my self rather than rely on others to do them just because I don’t know if I can trust them to get them done. Because I just would rather do things my self, I get tired and burned out. I can’t do everything. The other side of this trust set is me trusting that God has a plan that is better than mine. I like to be in control. I don’t just like to be in control, I have a need  for control.  I am slowly learning that God has a great plan but he doesn’t reveal it all at once. He slowly shows me     where to go next. I don’t get to see His plan in its entirety. I have to learn trust.
*The Mercy Set-Mercy is defined as “compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power;” so I looked up forbearance and found this, “abstaining from the enforcement of right.” I have always loved to do what is right and I have never understood why people could be okay with messing up. I am not saying that I am perfect - because I most certainly am not. When people wrong me, I don’t show them mercy like the Heavenly Father has shown me when I mess up.
*The Grace Set-Grace and mercy go hand in hand. Grace seems like a prettier word for mercy but it differs in that when God had grace on us, He already knew we were gonna mess up but He was ready to love us anyway.
*The Dealing Set-I let too many people annoy me way to easily. I am being forced to ‘deal’ with this in my life from what seems like all aspects. From the girls I live with, to people at school, and to the people I serve with at church. People are a fact of life and I need to see that God has put them in my life for a reason and I need to show them love, no matter if I feel like it or not.

I also know the feeling of finishing a race and knowing I gave every practice, up until that meet, my all. When my hand would hit the wall, feelings of accomplishment would flood over me. I would know that my hard work had paid off. God has a plan for me. My hard work in Him is going to pay off. One day, I will be glad that I am learning these lessons now. Like James 1 says, I will become “mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” I love God’s promises.

Resting in the Stars

You know, God was pretty stinkin' creative. In reading Genesis 1 & 2 today, that became pretty evident. He worked hard and was very thoughtful in His design. There were two major things that popped out to me:

1.) Even though I have read this passage before and seen it taught in Sunday School since I was small, I found it refreshing to read again. Resting. God created and worked hard but then he also took a day to rest. For the past few months I feel like I have been going non stop. I go to school 5 days a week, on the weekends I am pouring a lot of time into church, occasionally I have church meetings during the week, then there is work that I have to fit in somewhere. I just feel tired. My 7 days of the week are pretty full, now I am not creating the world but I am also not taking a day out to just rest either. So, I shall create time for rest.

2.) In Genesis 1, there is a chunk that talks about the stars and the moon. When you think about all the things that God created, animals, trees, the ocean, people; those things can all be captured in pictures. Not so with stars, well at least not very well. It is ones memory that captures their true essence. Looking at the stars in one of my favorite things to do. It is something in life that I really love to do. (Not just love like,"Oh, I love this taco," but I actually have a passionate love for star gazing.) In August, I love watching the meteor showers. My best summer memory was laying out in a field late one night watching the stars fall from heaven with my best friend. We talked about everything and dreamed about where life will take us. I think stars have that affect on people, the affect that causes you to reminisce and dream.  God really was creative when he dreamed up the world.

Life Lessons From the Big White House (Post 2)

Details matter. Plain and simple.

Painting a kitchen red will teach you this. If you mess up with red paint, even just a little bit, it is very noticeable. In life, it is the small details of relationships that matter, that make or break it. Do you make time for the small conversations, time to listen to the what may seem like a long story, to have a fun night out? Or do we ignore those small details? I am not just talking in a romantic relationship but in friendships or in relationships with family. If you don't pay attention to the details, the relationship crumbles. Therefore, details matter.

 Just the start of the red kitchen.

 Rachael is the best painter I know. She added some nice streaks to the wall.

The finished product, in the back ground.

An Alison Gallaher 'Top 5 Must Downloads' For February

If you are looking for some great tunes to turn on here is my top 5 list to download:

1. Windows Are Rolled Down-Amos Lee
2. Sweetly Broken-Jason Riddle
3. In The Dirt-S.Carey
4. Lift High-Eddie Kirkland

       -And just to make you question my judgement of music-

5. Any song by Ke$ha (They are really great songs to dance to, just make sure you get the clean versions)
 

Spontaneity Paid Off

At the end of my last post I said that when I was done moving I was going to go to the beach. Well, I couldn't wait! My drive home from class went about like this:

Rachael: "Alison, What color is the ocean?"
Me: "Well Rachael, what kind of dumb question is that? Wait a second! Let's go to the beach today! Do you want to?"
R:"No."
A:"What? It is way too nice of a Feburary day to spend it in our tiny apartment. I am going!"
R:"Oh, ya, I will go too."

And it is all history from there. We packed a lunch, got gas and we were off. It was the most beautiful day I have ever seen in February at the Oregon coast. I could go on and on but I will spare you. Basically, if you weren't at the beach today, you missed OUT!!!!!

Now to make you jealous, I will post some pictures.
OH! I almost forgot, I flew a kite for the first time today!!!! I tired something new!

Basically, a freakin' awesome day enjoying God's creation with my best friend!

Life Lessons From the Big White House

So it is time for some big news! I guess it is not that big of news. I am not getting engaged, married or having a baby (thank goodness!) Those are the BIG news events in life (I think.) It isn't really that.

The news is I am moving! And by I, I mean we (Rachael, Katy and myself). Our church owns a big white house next to their building that we have the opportunity to rent for very cheap. This house is old and needs a lot of work. It is a big project. We made a To Do Before We Move In  list and it is LONG! We gave 30 days notice on our apartment yesterday in Beaverton.

Oh, Beaverton. I thought I was going to love living in the city and I was 100% wrong! I hate it. It takes forever to go just 5 miles. Traffic sucks and neighbors are noisy. Morning drives to school take 20-25 minutes and we are only 5.7 miles away.  I am very happy to be moving to Scappoose and the drive to school will be just about as long, just more miles. I only lasted 6 months in Beaverton but I am very ready to be in a small town again.

So the fun work began yesterday. Rachael raked the lawn, which was caked full of leaves from months ago. We actually discovered that there was flowers trying to bloom under all that junk of rotting leaves! I started in the kitchen (go figure, I love cooking and I think a lot of life happens in the kitchen.) I was just planning on scrubbing the floor really, really, well but as soon as I moved the oven away from the wall, a few floor tiles came up thus prompting us to rip up the entire kitchen floor. This opened a whole new can of worms.

 Progress!

(More pictures to follow, when more progress has happened.)

In ripping up this floor, I thought of all the times in life we sometimes only plan on temporarily fixing things but in order to really get to the root of the problem, we just need to rip away the trash so things can get better. One specific time that I can apply this lesson to is a friendship/acquaintance with a girl who shall remain unnamed.  There was one incident that really made her upset at me, but I knew that what I was doing wasn't at all wrong and that I made the decisions that needed to be made but that really ticked her off. Since then, she has gotten very upset at me over meaningless things. I realize that I have only put a temporary fix on the root problem and never took the time to rip up the crap and deal with the real problem. Maybe ripping up this floor has given me the ability to deal with this, only time will tell.

Moving in to this new/old house is going to be a lot of work but if I continue to learn life lessons from it, then I am very glad we are moving. Another added bonus is that I will finally live in the same city that I go to church in, something that I have never done my entire life!

And, when this move/house up-date is done, I promise myself a trip to the beach. I am long over due for a nice walk on the sandy beaches of the pacific.

From Temporary to Eternal

Time after time I am continually amazed at how God continues to reveal Himself and I continue to grow in the things of Him. When I shift my views away from the temporary things of this life to focus on the eternal, everything in my life gets rearranged. This is a concept that they have been talking about at church lately and I am really starting to grasp it.

When you stop and ask yourself questions like 'What is truly important in life?' & 'Does this temporary thing really matter?' You start to unpack how eternity impacts our everyday lives and choices.

Yesterday I read all of my journal entries for the past year and a half. It was really neat to see my perspectives change and see how my life has changed because I chose to just do the next thing I knew was right. In looking back, it caused me to look forward and ask myself where am I going and am I still following what is eternal or am I caught up in the temporary?

The theme of this year so far has been LOVE, how do I receive love and how do I live love. Often times I forget that worship is not just about me telling God how much I love him or thanking Him for all he has done. Don't get me wrong, that is important but I am seeing that worship is also about letting God invade my heart so I can feel His love for me. One of the neatest ways I have seen God's love displayed for me is on my runs. I see how creative my God is and how His love is displayed for me in nature, whether it is an amazing sunset or a breathtakingly sunny afternoon in January. These are His love letters to me. Now the other aspect of this is how I am living love. This part has proved to be somewhat challenging for me. I serve on Impact Team at church (Impact Team means that we are the first people that churchgoers see, either a greeter or someone serving coffee. The coffee happens to be my job.)  I used to feel very pressured and uncomfortable having to prepare coffee for hundreds of people and then stand behind a cart and be happy and cheery. I think when I first started doing this job, I must not have smiled very much or talked to very many people (which is basically my job.) Long story short I am really learning what it is like to live love, to serve people and to not be soo self centered.

God continues to amaze me with how He continues to unfold his awesome love in my life.