Analyze much?

My bestest friend and roomie Keila (who has a rad blog BTW) once told me that I analyze everything.

EVERYTHING.

Some of you are are laughing already because you know this to be true; but oddly enough I didn't REALLY know I analyzed in an abnormally intense way until Keila "tested" me.

One day we had been kinda talking about how I analyze things until they can be analyzed no more and I believe I was being stubborn (what?! stubborn?!) and refuting the idea that it was abnormal...

UNTIL SHE ASKED ME MY FAVORITE COLOR.

My answer, without even thinking about it, was ::

"Hmm, well. I don't really have a favorite color. Well ok, I used to like purple but UGH I painted my room ALL purple once and now I can't stand the color purple. I sorta like green. And I sorta like blue! Well, I don't really like GREEN-green, or BLUE, blue. I actually really like... like a greenish-blue.

so like...TEAL! yeah, I like teal."

this was normal to me. and Keila just started laughing.

Point proven. (thanks Keiks for shedding light for me) :)

//meg

Effective Communication + Speed Dating

Last night me and my roomie Stephanie went to our very first "Effective Communications" class down at the Biblical Studies Center. This class is communications but with an emphasis on preparing and giving sermons!

Biblical you say? Sermons? aaand you mention the term "speed dating"?
Scandalous right?

Well, here's what happened. We walked into the Biblical Studies Center and into the class to find our 3 classmates. All guys ranging ages from age 14 to 22ish. Alright I guess there's not really a "range" with 3 people. One was 14, the other about 20, and the last was about 22.

So a class of 5 people...(i know, it's a small program).

Professor Kevin Skidmoore gave us this exercise where we partner up with another member of the class and create dialogue about a certain question he was to give. There was a time limit and then we were to switch partners until everyone had partnered with everyone.

[As if being the only girls in a class all about preaching wasn't funny enough.]

Needless to say, it seriously felt like a version of Christian Speed Dating... especially with the question "what are 3 of your personal goals you hope to accomplish in the next 5 years" and 2 of the 3 guy's answer being "I hope I'm married."

//meg

[ pupper borroweR(s) ] installment 3

He came, He took care of business, He conquered.

[ if you missed the previous blogs about Agassi, visit puppy borroweR (s) and poop tally to get caught up! ]

It's our second day with Agassi. This mini sized but fully confident pup has taken over our hearts&home(I said that for dramatic effect), taken ground(tally it up), and taken.... an orange feather duster?

As with little children, when it's quiet they're most likely up to something. I came around a corner to find Agassi proudly holding a feather duster. I don't know where-- YET SOMEhow, SOMEwhere the lil guy found this orange feather duster and surprised me with it!

//here is a pic by pic of his conquest//

First he ran around with it...

then he chewed it a little...








like this....

// and so goes the story //

//meg

[Chicken buzz]

Yep, I said it. CHICKEN-buzz. I also call it a Chicken 'hangover', none the less, it's real. For me at least.

I am 'allergic' to chicken.
Yep, I said that too. 'Allergic'. As in... when I eat it I get a bad headache either 5 min after eating it or the next day! Weird, right? I know!

[explanation]
BASICALLY and simply, because of my blood type, when I eat chicken my blood reacts to a protein in chicken; and it thickens my blood causing a headache.

Do you you know your blood type?? It's actually a wonderful piece of information to obtain and learn from! I never knew my blood type until about 6 months ago and it wasn't until I started noticing certain health patterns connected to my eating that I even paid attention, really! My mom and I have the same blood type (which, if you have studied Biology at all, is not all that common!) We are both B Negative. We both get headaches from chicken, aspartame, MSG and various random things like, some cheeses. :)

If you've never checked out the book "Eat Right for Your Type" you should stop by the local bookstore and take a look! It's actually crazy how accurate it is! I don't LIVE by it, persay, but I have DEFINITELY benifited from knowing what foods react with my blood type!

Click HERE for a general overview of blood types:: check it out!

//meg

puppy borroweR (s)

This is 6:22 am...










This is Agassi...on our adventure to Starbucks before work...



[Look at his sweet lil face!]





This morning (at 6:22am) I woke to a knock at my front door. Well, there's a possibility that it was several knocks, but I am SUCH a hard sleeper that I really don't know.

Anyways, I eventually stumbled to the front door (sorry Trace). I opened the door to beautiful Tracy and VERY excited-about-life-&-morning Agassi :) Me and my roommates (Keila and Stephanie) are puppy sitting for a week; HOWEVER this morning it was just me...but that's a minor detail.

I've personally ALWAYS wanted a little puppy to call my own. Perhaps a Yorkie, or a Malti-poo like Agsters; and this week I feel like I'm on some version of "Baby Borrowers." This morning it was more like Puppy BorroweR. (singular) but the (s) will come... (right roomies?) :)

It's like having a child! Up early, feed, monitor-while-outside, pack up all his belongings for a day at the office; but I really love the lil pooch. We'll have a good week. Look forward to pics of our adventures with Agassi!

//meg

:: a world of presence ::

"To experience presence is to enter that far larger world of reality that our sensory experiences point to but cannot describe- the realities of love and compassion, justice and faithfulness, sin and evil...and God. MOSTLY God. The realities that are Word-evoked are where most of the world's action takes place. There are NO "mere words."

Last night I got caught up in the book of Micah, a book of metaphors. A book filled with prophecy and remembrance, teaming with the power and justice of God. The opening excerpt is a portion of the forward to this book that so beautifully and eloquently records the masterful composition of the words of Micah:: "A master of metaphor. This means that he used words not simply to define or identify what can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted, but to plunge us into a world of presence."

The most brilliant aspect of the book of Micah is that is wasn't just the book that was filled with prophecy and remembrance, and teaming with the power and justice of God; but Micah's very life beat to that anthem. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks"(Luke 6:45). I want to plunge into and live in this world of presence; I want my words to be purposed as agents of change as Micah's were. In that desire there is the element of prophecy required to sustain it. Too often we rely on our senses to equate our reality.

There is SO much in this book that catches my attention, and challenges my spirit. Even more so challenges my dependence or outlook on sensory dependency, even what we call "sensing in the spirit."

In the next several days I'll be writing on a few of these ideas swimming in my head; but in the meantime perhaps Selah on the challenge of Micah's words, as I am. Purpose your words to be agents of change to "rebuild what human disobedience and mistrust demolished."

//meg

::this morning::

Sorry subscribers. blogspot can be frustrating when it POSTS a post as i'm still working on it? or maybe it's my MacBook. Either way, a combination of buttons prematurely posted my "::this morning::"...so you probably see two. :)

Aaannyways, as i was saying, THIS MORNING
I am headed to "non traditional" orientation for the fall semester classes at BSU...which I find inconvenient.

I'm also going with my aunt. :)
"How?/why?" you say? "are you afraid //meg??"

No no, yesterday I found that my aunt (respectably, yet not extremely older) is ALSO just beginning her adventure to a degree. and she needed a ride. In respect I must say that this is also inconvenient.

As the alarm went off I was just thinking to myself, "This is going to be interesting. Today is SUCH a non traditional day!" Then I was convicted about the love of God.

It's NOT traditional. If it were, non of us even deserve it. Alot of times In our humanistic minds, our first response to love is to love those that give us a reason to love them...or when it's convenient.

How selfish. I'm glad Christ doesn't love us only when we give him a reason to. I want my life to be Non traditional in the sense that I LOVE unconditionally, like Christ does. In my job, in school, in my family, with my friends...with complete strangers. I want to MAKE that my tradition. Not so I live by tradition, or condition; but that I live in SUBMISSION to the example of Christ. I believe that there is a level of God's love that we can't understand until we begin to practice it.

I love the message translation of the Bible. It also is so non traditional.
John 3:16-17"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

Have a NON TRADITIONAL/NEW TRADITIONAL day!

//meg

Look!

I think it's a giraffe?!
...
No.
...
It's a...well it's a shadow puppet of some kind?!?
...
NO! no! oh i see! It's a WAVE! She's waving back at me!

Precious.

Have you ever tried to wave back at someone when they let you into the next lane? I was on the freeway, trying to squeeze my way into the right lane and the man behind me was kind enough to let me in...

So, naturally I tried to wave out of courtesy... my windows were rolled up so i resort to waving to the back window; but i realized that what my wave probably looked like was a very disfigured-flapping hand.

Next time I guess I'll resort to the "bro wave."


//meg

the blog clog

So I've discovered something about blogging. Sometimes it's really difficult to keep up with my thoughts! I've literally had 3 or 4 ideas to blog about in the past week, but they just keep piling up without action.

And when I DO sit down to blog, I discover that all my thoughts are clogged.

I need a blogging cleanse. Do they have those Abbreviator?

HOWEVER! I'm cracking down, so to all those who subscribe, I apologize for the influx of posts. :)


//meg

$4.80

Hi, my name is Meagan...and I have old clothes.

*silence*

In unison: "Hi Meagan."

Thank you, thank you for the warm welcome.

I just left the proverbial "nest" and am settling into my newly found home. You know, the kind where it's not free and you realize it doesn't come with food. Well, today I set out to sell some really old clothes, that i haven't worn in literally... years. Not really FOR the money but hey, if you're gonna get rid of it you might as well make a profit! I dropped the clothes off for a few hours while they sifted through to pick and choose. And then i made the call...

me:: "Hi! I'm just checking on the clothes i dropped off earlier this afternoon! The name is Meagan."

Plato:: "Hey Meagan, well it looks like you had some really great stuff, but we had to pass on alot of it because it was more then 18 months out-of-style and a few items had holes. But it looks like we can give you four eighty for a few of the items."

me:: "Oooh. awesome....? "

Four eighty? did she just say four eighty? Like $480.00?? did Jesus multiply the clothes? Did he give me supernatural favor?? Was i REALLY that stylish of a 15 year old????



no no... not quite. more like "$4.80-here-go-get-a-starbucks."
i like starbucks. it's all good.

oh well...needless to say me and my large white plastic garbage bag of brand name rejected clothes and $4.80 took the "Plato's closet walk of rejection." Out the door, and past the employees in their "gently used brand name" wardrobes.

:) //meg

.:testimony moment:.

//contend in faith, hope in healing, rest in grace//

The faithfulness of God leaves me speechless and there aren't many things in life that do. In opposition to my analysis about everything under the sun, the will of God is unmatched and to fully comprehend it sometimes seems impossible. I'm so thankful that the sovereignty of God overcomes my sin, and that my faith response overcomes science.

I'm not sure that I could fully explain how God has been moving in my life the past month, or even 10 years; but I can start by a little background. I was diagnosed at a the age of 1 with a form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in my left wrist and it flaired 2 other times in my knees between the ages of 7 and 14. As a little girl, i remember praying every night that Jesus would heal me. Thinking back (not in pride, but in amazement) i think about what God formed in me during that time and HOW in the world a 12 year old girl would even think to intercede in this capacity. I'd wake up every morning and either jump out of bed and look at my knees to check if the swelling was gone, and some days just slowing move back the sheets, only to continually find almost soft-ball sized knees. Simple child-like faith, that had to be developed into an adult. Such a process.

I declared my supernatural healing when i was 15, and it wasn't until this last month, at 20 years of age that science has submitted to it's maker in my body. I already knew i was healed, but the doctors wanted to "double check." I received blood work back confirming that i no longer even have a trace of rheumatoid arthritis! Praise God!

In addition to physical healing, God's been doing alot of heart-healing too... and heart testing ...and heart conditioning. Needless to say with faith should come obedience, and with obedience is revealed truth, and with truth is the greater revelation of God's presence in my life and his hand on my destiny, and in the presence of God there is freedom.

2 Cor 3:16-18

"Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him."

//meg