lund, early morning skypes, and Jude.

Looking back on this weekend, I can't help but smile.

Friday...so I was at work the whole day, which was ok I guess, but at night I went to my youth group, and it was testimony night. I LOVE LOVE LOVE, testimony nights. Hearing how God is at work in other peoples lives. Gosh, I just came away with my heart full of joy after I'd heard everyone get up and share snippets of the faith. It's so encouraging.

Saturday...my phone goes off at 7am with a text. I kind of roll over in bed and ignore it. It goes off again a couple of minutes later. I grumble again, thinking 'it's like 7am..shhhh'. And it goes off one more time. I think, OK, lets take a look and see which crazy friend of mine is up at silly o'clock on a Saturday morning. Turns out my friends aren't up at 7am on a Saturday morning, but still up at like midnight Friday night...IN CANADA! So I jumped out of bed, made myself a cup of tea, and skyped them for 2 hours solid. Best spontaneous early morning skype ever.

The rest of my Saturday was kind of chilled. I went to a coffee morning and ate some cake and drank some tea. I came home a painted a little. And then in the evening I went to work.

Sunday...this week at chapel was our chapel anniversary, and our speaker, Ruth Dent, spoke on the book of Jude. And it was just so good. The theme was a call to persevere, such an appropriate topic for an anniversary service. I've never really read Jude before, I mean, it's tucked right at the back of the bible before revelation, and its only like 25 verses long...it's easy to miss right?! But there are some great verses in there. '

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore! (Jude 20-25)

All in all, it was a top weekend.

Stanley Park

Every now and then I start work a little later than usual. For those of you who don't know I'm currently working at Blackpool Hospital, which I enjoy....but which is a fair commute away from where I live. Not ideal. We usually all start our shift at 8am, which means that I tend to set my alarm for around 5:45, snooze for 10 minutes or so until just before 6am, then drag myself out of bed ready to hit the road at 6:20. 

Today however, I started work at 9am. Now, I can hear you thinking...hey Steph, that means an extra hour in bed, score. Wrong. It actually means only an extra half hour in bed. Why?! Well, today was a great example of why. Blackpool hospital doesn't really have a staff parking (...well, it kind of does, but I don't want to pay for a permit, and you don't really gain that much having one in my opinion) so I have to park on one of the streets around the hospital. When I start at the usual time of 8 I'll usually have around a 15-20 minute walk to work after I've found a park. When I start at 9 however, all the good parks are long gone. Long gone.

Today I had to park the furthest away form work I've ever had to park. Thankfully, I'd set off in good time, and kind of had a heavy foot as I was driving, so I knew I wasn't going to be late; I was just kind of annoyed I had so far to walk.

I figured the fastest way to get to the hospital would be walking through Stanley Park. I'd never been in the park, I usually park along one of the adjacent roads, so I wasn't entirely sure where I was going, but my sense of direction told me it was defiantly the best move to go through the park rather than right around it.

And it was the best walk to work ever. Sure, it's maybe not the most glamorous of parks I've ever seen, but it is kind of pretty. And after a long and tiring day at work, walking back through the park in the spring sunshine, with daffodils popping up through the grass, and blossom trees coming into bloom, was just what I needed. 

may I never loose the wonder

Recently a friend has asked me if I would like to paint her a piece of art for her room. Now, I used to LOVE art, I did it for GCSE and A Level, and they were always my favourite lessons. I found it so relaxing to just sit there with a ton of paints, and a blank sheet of paper or canvas, and just create something, and feel the sense of pride when your piece was finally finished.

I remember during my A Level course, I got to choose the topics for each of my projects. I ended up doing a number of different things, one project I focused on the theme or racism, one I think was a general landscape theme, another was on nature. But my favourite one I decided to focus on the cross, and I ended up creating possibly one of my favourite pieces which I get to see every Sunday as it hangs in my church. 

Anyways, so yeah a close friend of mine has asked if I'll paint her a little something for her to put up in her room after she has decorated it. She said she would quite like to be something based on one of her favourite hymns, The Wonder of the Cross. And I was like 'yeah, thats an awesome idea, it's such a great hymn!'. 

Its been in the back of my head for 2 or 3 weeks now. Every so often I have a little think about what I could paint, what kind of colours I could use, things like that. This afternoon I though to myself, right, lets get out my sketch book again, sharpen my pencils, and get sketching (...because I feel a little out of touch at drawing at the moment, its been a while!).  I put my worship music on my laptop, got all comfy on the sofa, and decided a good starting point would be to write down the lyrics for the hymn. I thought I kind of remembered it. Well, I knew I at least knew the chorus part... 'may I never loose the wonder, the wonder of the cross'. But as I googled the lyrics, and I was writing the down, I realised just how great this hymn is. I'd totally forgotten the rest of the song, and as I reminded myself of these amazing lyrics, I couldn't help but totally agree with them. 

I think we are totally prone, or at least I know that I am, to forget the amazingness of the cross. We downplay it. We are like "yeah, the cross is great, Jesus died for me and now He is alive". We know it, but do we sometimes get blasé about it? Do we sometimes forget to recognise the immensity of it? I know I do. 

As I was reading through these lyrics, God reminded me once more how much he has done for me through Jesus. How much he loves me. And how awesome what happened at the cross is. 

And as I was sat there comfy on my sofa, I though to myself 'gosh yeah, I hope I never do loose the wonder of the cross. I hope I remember every day. How different we would live our lives if we were constantly in awe of God and His work there at Calvary'. 

Oh, precious sight, my Savior standsDying for me with outstretched handsOh, precious sight, I love to gazeRemembering salvation's dayRemembering salvation's day
Though my eyes linger on this sceneMay passing time and years not stealThe power with which it impacts meThe freshness of it's mysteryThe freshness of it's mystery
May I never lose the wonderThe wonder of the crossMay I see it like the first timeStanding as a sinner lost
Undone by mercy and left speechlessWatching wide eyed at the costMay I never lose the wonderThe wonder of the cross
Behold the God man crucifiedThe perfect sinless sacrificeAs blood ran down those nails and woodHistory was split in twoYes, history was split in two
Behold the empty wooden treeHis body gone, alive and freeWe sing with everlasting joyFor sin and death have been destroyedYeah, sin and death have been destroyed
May I never lose the wonderThe wonder of the crossMay I see it like the first timeStanding as a sinner lost
Undone by mercy and left speechlessWatching wide eyed at the costMay I never lose the wonderThe wonder of the cross

hello shiny MacBook

I've finally joined the MacBook family.

Goodbye Windows.

Hello Apple Mac.