Breaking and Entering

Can somebody tell me why I'm awake right now?

There's not even a single star out.

The wind is howling,

And the shutters are flying around.

Is the scraping noise just in my head?

No, it's the tree branches tearing my roof.

The outside clawing at this shelter made for me.

Making advances toward the inside.

And I'm here in my bed

Hoping, praying, trying to be at peace.

Should I be concerned?

Should I be worried

That life is crashing down right outside my window?

What if I get hurt?

What if that howling, clawing world breaks into mine?

If I scream at the top of my lungs,

Will anyone come running?

Would anybody even care?

Truth is, we're all wondering that same thing.

But we go about our daily lives

Acting as if we’re enjoying the stars,

Acting as if our shelter doesn’t have a scratch.

Truth is, the outside has broken into the inside.

Truth is, everyone has bruises.

But the truth is, we have hope

And we’ve been given the gift of peace

Even in the midst of the storm.

That howling, clawing world will break into ours,

But the redeeming world of love has already broken in.

Should I be concerned?

Should I be worried?

No.

Megan

Restoration: A Reflection

To be honest, I was a little torn of what to write about in this blog post...God's taught me two very different concepts over this past week, one in a dream and one through Restoration this week. I though that I would use this blog post to talk about what I took away from this weekend, and I think it's something that all of us need to hear and be reminded of.

In case you don't know what Restoration is, it is a show put on by The Wesley Foundation and BCM every year to restore dance back to it's original intention - to worship God. In case you didn't get to read about my experience in the dance last year and want to, click here! This year, God continued to remind me of those things, but I also had a really cool revelation on the day of the dance. 

The day of Restoration is comprised of getting ready, roughly 2 separate hours of prayer time, hanging out, and the dancing itself. In the prayer time on stage before the first show, I remember praying something about that the people would be able to experience who God is by witnessing the dancers. And I remember saying something about how we, as the dancers, couldn't do anything unless He showed up. After that, He showed me something pretty cool. 

I saw the show about to start. The curtain opened, and the first dance took the stage. Except when they all got on the stage, everything stopped. The dancers disappeared, and in their place, in center-stage, was a moon. The moon was reflecting light onto every member of the audience, filling all of the Classic Center with light. 

I remember listening to our mash-up a little later that day in the dressing room, and a part of the lyrics caught my attention like they never had before. Now don't get me wrong, yes these are Justin Beiber lyrics, but God can speak however He wants. The line says, "You shine just like the sun while the moon and the stars reflect your light."

I guess this is something I always knew in my head, but when I got that image, it became real to me. It was more than just a good idea for a day. Honestly, it's how we, as believers, should live our lives. He's the sun, and we reflect His light. Another thing that I thought was really cool though was that there were no individual stars in the image I got. There was one moon from the collective unity of all the dancers in that dance. And that, to me, was beautiful. God was basically saying that as we moved together in unity, a reflection of Him was shining from us. 

And you want to know something else that I realized afterwards too? The theme for Restoration as a whole this year was based on Ephesians 5:8-9. These verses say that we are "children of the light." That means that this message that I thought was Restoration-specific is actually for all of us, every day of our lives. 

He has the desire, as we walk in His light, to shine through us.

"All Around the World"

Megan

New York

Wow. As most of you probably know, I spent this past weekend in New York City. I flew out last Thursday morning, and got back in late last night. The reason for my trip was to go see my sister and cousin sing in the Lincoln Center and in Carnegie Hall. And as much as I hated the busyness of the city, a part of me woke up missing it this morning...

Instead of just giving you a run-through of everything I did and saw in the big apple (and I literately saw all the cliche and popular sites between dropping them off at rehearsals and going to performances), I'm going to give you a list of ten things that I loved about New York City.

(1) The food. No, I didn't say the prices, but the food was wonderful! Want some good Italian food? Walk down the road. Want Greek? Hop over a block. Want to stop by some little cafe? Plenty of those. Feeling the pub life? There's one on every corner. Also, the gelato. YES. 

(2) All the culture. This kind-of goes along with the food, but if America is known as the melting pot, then New York is the perfect example of that. (I got to meet a few Aussies, and practice my Italian!)

(3) You can take your camera with you everywhere/anywhere and fit in. Almost everyone has a camera - locals and tourists, and it was wonderful.

(4) The street names. They're all numbers. Feeling lost? Just go to the nearest street corner, and look up. You'll know exactly where you are and how far you are from your destination just by looking at the streets.

(5) The subway. That thing made our lives so much easier, especially being crunched on time. Once you figure out all the lines (and which ones only run express on the weekend), it's not bad to navigate at all. And it's way cheaper than a cab!

(6) How there's always something to do. NYC is truly the city that never sleeps. You can be out in the middle of the night, especially around Times Square, and you still have to push through the people.

(7) Which brings me to number 7. I loved the areas like Brooklyn Heights. They were far enough away from the city to not be crazy, but close enough to quickly get to.

(8) The green spaces / outdoor culture. It was nice to just be able to sit down in little areas that were designated parks. Most people automatically think of Central Park, but there are places like that all over.

(9) The dog population. They are everywhere! Most are small, but I did see quite a few larger dogs too. (We also saw MJ's twin!)

(10) The architecture. It makes for beautiful pictures, and great aesthetics. You can go from city apartments to shops to cafes to the Lincoln center to a beautiful church in a matter of 5 minutes.

So there you have it. My top 10 things about NYC. Here are a couple of pictures, but there will definitely be more on my Facebook page.

Flying into NYC

Times Square

Looking Down to Times Square

Brooklyn Bridge

Empire State Building & Macy's

Grand Central Station

Museum of Natural History

Megan

Sword

I mentioned a couple of posts ago about how I had re-discovered some of my older work. Well, here's another one of those poems from August 2007. Someone in the reviews/comments section mentioned that it reminded them of Proverbs 27:17, and I couldn't agree more.

Sword

Honor, boldness, courage;

What to you is the strength of a sword?

It can cut down or bring up.

For it has the power to cut through anything,

Even through your heart.

---

The words you say,

The thoughts you think,

The choices you make.

What kind of sword are you?

---

Do you lift others up when their spirit is down,

Or do you try and be cool to fit in with what's around?

Do you offer that little kind word

When nothing else is spoken?

---

A lot of people can think good things,

Say good words, and do good deeds,

But do they really do them from the bottom of the heart?

I will ask it again,

"What kind of sword are you?"

Megan

[I'm putting a plug here just because I can. Y'all check out my new photography website I made instead of studying...no procrastination here - http://mnm2206.wix.com/megannicole.]

Break My Cup

Am I empty? No.
Am I full? I'm filled, but not full.

Let me explain. (Or at least try to.)

Last week was crazy. And by crazy, I mean two things. First off, I slept hardly ever - there was an all-nighter in there for one night and a couple of staying up until 3 or 4am nights in the mix too. But now for the second part. I experienced a peace and a joy through last week that I can't explain. In the midst of the craziness, I knew in my innermost self that it was going to be ok (well, actually better than ok).

Where to even start...

I want to begin by sharing this journal entry I wrote while I was in the middle of a prayer walk last semester: I'll fill up your cup to the top until its overflowing. The problem is that you think it stops there but you can glance back down only to find that the cup has gotten bigger. There's more room yet to fill...and that's how it keeps going. It's ok to ask for more. You might have grown up thinking that it's rude or disrespectful to ask your giver for more. Here, it's different. It's ok to ask for more - in fact, I WANT you to ask for more so that I can GIVE it to you. (10/24/13)

Fast-forward to the week of 3/26/14. 

I'm scrambling to write papers, study for tests, and do everything else I need to do to live...like eat and sleep, for example. I was debating going to Wesley on Wednesday just because I had a meeting that went until 8 on Wednesday and I needed to finish a paper. But I went. To be honest, I wasn't fully there in the worship. Sure, I was physically present; I was singing, but I wasn't mentally or spiritually present. One of the interns got up to share her testimony. I listened, but I was still not there. Bob spoke. Still the same thing. But then...something strange happened that I can't quite explain. It's like, even though I didn't think I was listening, my spirit was responding. It was like I could feel something within me responding. I told you - I can't explain it, but it was something quite like I've never experienced. The closest thing I can relate it to was what I experienced when I got prayed for after I was baptized.

To make what could be a long story short, I fell in love again on Wednesday night. I got an image during the worship after the service as I was just sitting in His presence. I saw myself standing and holding a cup. (Now, mind you, I didn't even remember the journal entry from October until Friday.) I then dropped the cup to the ground, and it smashed into a thousand pieces. But right as that happened, it started to rain. Every part of me was getting soaked.

Now I didn't need an interpreter to tell me what that meant. I knew. And I wanted/want a downpour in my life. I want that storm. I want to live in the rain forest of His Holy Spirit. And I want to live in joy and live with passion. And I want to take off the limits.

I went up and got prayer after the service. I also can't put that into words, but I'll try and talk about it if you ask me. I guess I would say that it started to rain, so to speak.

So that's where I am right now. I'm amazed. And I never want to lose the wonder of Him.



Megan
(And, happy April 1st!)