Not only are the cymbals loud, they're damn heavy.

"When I am talking to somebody there are always two conversations going on. The first is on the surface; it is about politics or music or whatever it is our mouths are saying. The other is either communicating that I like the person I am talking to or I don't. God wants both conversations to be true. That is, we are supposed to speak the truth in love. If both conversations are not true, God is not involved in the exchange, we are on our own, and on our own, we will lead people astray. The Bible says that if you talk to somebody with your mouth, and your heart does not love them, that you are like a person standing there smashing two cymbals together. You are only annoying everybody around you. I think that is very beautiful and true."

-Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, pg. 221

These thoughts have so much implication for the way we interact with every last person we encounter.

I was just hired at a great coffee shop to be a barista and take peoples' money. I'd bet about 50-80 people come through per every 6-hour shift I work. I have an average of 3 minutes that each one is in the shop to let them know I love them.

High calling.

But it is the Christ calling, and therefore, my calling.

Everyday faith

"Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Waling on the water is easy to impulsive pluck, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a different thing. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he followed Him afar off on the land. We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through the drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes."

- Oswald Chambers

My Utmost for His Highest

Entry for October 21

*full*

"For the word of the LORD is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD."

-Psalm 33: 4 & 5

That pretty much says it all.