You Were Made to Meet Your Maker.

"For of what use is the existence of the creature if it cannot know its Maker?"
St. Athanasius.

Well, hello there.
So, I've been thinking lately.
A lot has been about that there quote up there.
A lot has been about some other things.

I think I have a little bit of a confession. Or something.
I think I like to put things on here that I think about, and that should change me, and that could change me. And I think I like to make observations about my life and how it should be different. And I think that I like sometimes for this blog to look like I am really thinking things that are affecting me and effecting change.
And I do think those things. Otherwise, they wouldn't be here.
But a lot of the problem is the effecting change.

For example, a couple o' blogs ago, I talked about doing things to help the poor and the orphan and the widow. You know, James 1:27.
But I didn't do anything.
I didn't do anything.
I didn't do anything.


I've been reading loads about poor people in Isaiah, and God's heart for them is so evident.

For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
Isaiah 32:6.

On my way home from home last week, my iPod went out and on the radio there was this cheesy preacher talking. But for some reason I stopped and listened for a minute.
And he said something quite poignant, "Prayer can become a copout for not offering direct aid."
I think that is a very true thing.
A lot of times we offer prayer or money for those who are doing something, and those things are wonderful and marvelous. Truly, almost no one could really help someone without prayer or money.
But, I think it's very important to actually help out, to get your hands dirty, to do.

So this is me. Telling you.
I'm going to do something.
Sure, I can offer excuses. (I have a list of them forming in my head right now.)
But I won't. I'm going to move.
I won't leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied or deprive the thirsty of drink.

I should probably tie that first quote into this now.
Here it is again so you don't have to scroll back up.
"For of what use is the existence of the creature if it cannot know its Maker?"

St. Athanasius.

The more and more I think of it, the more I want it tattooed across my forehead.
I am nothing if I cannot know my Maker.
If I am not living and doing for Him alone, I am nothing.
What's the point? It will all amount to empty earthly dead praise and love and pride.
But I don't want to see me from earth's standpoint.
I want to see me from my Maker's standpoint.
And my Maker's standpoint, at least in part, is telling me to love the poor, to love the ones I don't want to love, and to live a life contrary to the empty and futile one into which I so often fall.

"In these bodies we will live;
In these bodies we will die.
Where you invest your love,
you invest your life."

"Awake, my soul. You were made to meet your Maker."

Awake My Soul. Mumford & Sons.

The Naming of Things

Today I just wanted to say why my blog is named, "Cut Out All the Ropes and Let Me Fall".

First things first. Skinnny Love, Bon Iver. That is the song from which my blogging title is derived. Enjoy it. Feel it. That song is one of the good ones that you can feel inside your bones.

Well. Once upon a time, I went to a little country called Costa Rica. My high school youth group took a trip there to share our Jesus. We met some kids in a slum called La Carpio and we took them on a trip to a camp in the mountains and had a week of overnight camp there. My youth group was dedicated to loving in deed and in truth, according to 1 John 3:18.

1 John 3:17-18 (English Standard Version)

¹⁷But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.


This is why I miss my youth group a lot. It was so scriptural. 


So, as per 1 John, we loved in deed and truth. Not only did we share with them the Gospel (truth) we gave them backpacks full of new clothes and toothpaste and such (deed). And 17 of those beautiful little kiddies were saved to a new hope in Christ Jesus our Lord.


So, yes, we were in Costa Rica. And I did a lot of learning there. The thing that stood out the most to me was learning to trust. I learned so much about trusting God in Costa. Although I am so imperfect and fail everyday to rely fully on Christ, I am trying and I am growing in my trust.


One of the biggest ways God speaks to me is through music, although not usually through Christian music. I kind of hate Christian music actually. But that is another topic for another day.


But in Costa this song kept coming into my head, especially the line that says, "cut out all the ropes and let me fall." To me, that is about trust. Not relying on your own ropes, whatever it is that you put your trust in, money, your face, boys, whatever, just cutting out the ropes and falling into God's ridiculous love. It's beautiful to me.


So, now in my life, I want to trust entirely in my Jesus. So that's why this blog is named that. Trust.


On the cover of my notebook that I write all of my thoughts and my words and my Jesus times in is taped a note from my friend Meg. It says, "Dear Becky, Rest in Sovereignty." That's where I'm at. Resting, Trusting in the marvelous sovereignty of my glorious and holy God. He's got the whole world in His hands, right?


Psalm 91:2 (English Standard Version)

²I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress,
   my God, in whom I trust."

P.S. This blog is named after a song by a wonderful boy named Andrew Bird. To learn more about this, click Archipelago. Also try "Heretics" and "Why?".