Gather ye Rosebuds

Tonight after I finished my homework I decided to settle down, allow myself to take a break from thinking and other academic stuff, and watch a movie with my wonderful boyfriend, Ty.  Unfortunately, being the literary nerd that I am, I couldn't help but to be drawn to the literary allusions that were present in the movie (its my fault for renting a movie about an English teacher.)

The underlying theme of the movie was the philosophy of "carpe diem".  This is a Latin term that simply means "seize the day."  In the film, this philosophy challenged many young men at a boarding school to step out of their comfort zones and do something different with their lives; to embrace the principle that if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten.  They were inspired by this philosophy to be moved to change, to become better versions of themselves.  I think this principle is both overlooked and imperative in our Christian walk.

It is so easy to put off tell people about Christ until tomorrow.  Tomorrow i will be more prepared, tomorrow i won't be so tired, tomorrow i will have the courage, and the best thing about tomorrow... it's not today!!!  But if we keep putting off what we know we have to do, we may never have the chance to do it.  I should know, I am just as guilty.  

See, I used to pray, "God, give me the opportunity to witness today," and every once in a while I would be given one.  But one day while praying at War On the Floor, God spoke to me and said "why are you waiting for an opportunity?  Make one goober!"  I am unsure if god really called me a goober, but the point was clear; I know what I have to do, I know I haven't been doing it to the best of my abilities, and all I have to do is step out of my comfort zone and seize the day.

I would like to end with an excerpt from a very famous poem by Robert Herrick (1591-1674):

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day

To-marrow will be dying.

So anywho, let now be the time that you call that person you have been thinking about and invite them to your church the next time the doors our open.  Gather ye rosebuds, and seize the day, friends!

Peace,

Sister Mauldin

Saturday in the Park

Okay here goes nothing.

As I embark on my first attempt at creating a "blog" as you crazy youngsters call it, I must take time to make my audience wary of the fact that I am not only awful at spelling, but even worse at catching any mistakes that spell check passes up.  So I aplogize in advance.  No really, sometimes I spell so bad that spell check doesn't even catch it, so if all else fails, sound it out!!

I have no idea what I am supposed to write about so I'll go off of what pastor Rick's blog said.  Yesterday started out fantastic.   Our youth group had planned a day at the park where we all got together to have fun and bond.  I awoke to a beautiful day, sun shinning, not a cloud in the sky.  I was so excited to have left winter behind as I prepared for a day out in the sun.   For four long summer months, I had been hoping that global warming would finally kick in and I would get some weather that would at least burn me or something, so I was a little disappointed when it my sunny sky turned out to be accompanied by THIRTY FOUR DEGREE WEATHER!!!! Oh well, minor set back, nothing that a little bit of running around can't fix.

After showing my wicked awesome football skills while warming up, we finally decided to play an organized game.  You could tell that both team captians really wanted me on their team because, you know, I'm amazing.  But being the generous guys they were, they didn't pick me till like seventh because they wanted everyone else to feel like they were good too.  Who can blame them? I'm a beast.

I decided not to steal everyone's thunder, because the day wasn't about me.  So I allowed this old guy on our team be the "coach" and after scoring a Heisman-worthy touchdown which propelled my team to the inevitable greatness that the had for acquiring  a player like me, I decided that my duties were accomplished and I could let other people play.  I mean, they all did well, but no one could touch my athletic skills.  I even fumbled a ball so no one would be jelous of my obvious talent!  

Anywho, I said that to say this.  There is a famous quote that says "You can learn more about a man in one hour of play than you can in one hundred hours of conversation."  I think that holds true to many situations.  Sometimes we get to know each other better when we let loose a little, set aside differences, forget formalities (like forgetting that the old man is your Pastor) and have fun together as people, as a body.  I think it's important to have that balance of serious and not-so-serious, and to have a day to spend with old friends and meeting new ones.

Peace,

Sister Mauldin