Don't Look at the Waves

Matthew 14:29-30 - He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me." 

Hebrews 12:1-2 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Philippians 4:7 - And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Dear God, I am afraid. I am more worried than afraid. I know that at this point in time, it looks like that the only way things with Tom will be dealt with properly will be for the presbytery to do something. It doesn't make it any less painful or scary or uncertain though. What he did was wrong. Period. He has not evidenced repentance for his own role in things and he has caused a lot of real damage not just to me emotionally or relationally, but to others as well. To progress that had been made and that he KNEW existed and was real. God, I am scared. And I feel alone. But I extended more grace than he deserves and gave him every opportunity that I could. So now comes the hard part. I don't even know when the presbytery will meet. All I know is sometime next month. I struggle to trust You because of what he did to me and the way that he did it. I struggle to believe. I want to, but I am too afraid because of the hurt he caused me. Like Peter, I am afraid. Lord, help me! In Jesus's Name, Amen!

Walk On the Water by Britt Nicole (YouTube)

You look around 

And staring back at you

Another wave of doubt

Will it pull you under?

You wonder

What if I'm overtaken?

What if I never make it?

What if no one's there?

Will you hear my prayer?

When you take that first step

Into the unknown

You know that He won't let you go

Chorus:

So what are you waiting for?

What do you have to lose?

Your insecurities they try to hold to you

You know you're made for more

So don't be afraid to move

Your faith is all

It takes 

And you can walk on the water too

So get out

And let your fear fall to the ground

No time to waste

Don't wait

Don't you turn around and miss out

On everything you were made for

I know you're not sure

So you play it safe

You try to run away

But when you take that first step

Into the unknown

He won't let you go

Chorus

Bridge:

(Step out)

Even when it's storming

(Step out)

Even when you're broken

(Step out)

Even when your heart is telling you, telling you to give up

(Step out)

When your hope is stolen

You can't see where you're going

You don't have to be afraid

So what are you waiting for?

Chorus

StadiumFest Part 2

Aside from some lady claiming to be a Christian complaining about noise on the StadiumFest Facebook page (wah!!), tonight was awesome!! By the way, in defense of the event staff, Spain Park is the most centrally located venue in the Birmingham area. The Hoover mayor was there and Hoover police was there as well. And no noise ordinance laws were violated. So the woman complaining won't change anything. God still used the contemporary Christian "noise" as she called it in a "neighborhood."

She actually had the gall to assume I'd complain if a rap artist was in my "neighborhood." Nope. Because if I know about it as was the case with her knowing about StadiumFest, I have options. Stay home and complain or attend or make other plans.

StadiumFest is like the Christian version of Alabaster CityFest. Every year, CityFest diverts traffic and I can hear it if I go outside at my house. But rather than complain, I can either go or I can make other plans.

I'm laughing at the fact she has complained on their page and complained and argued on every post defending the event and praising God for what was done through this one channel!

Anyway, Britt Nicole was awesome. A little hot from the warm Alabama temperatures today but still awesome. I don't know many of her songs though, but she performed "Gold," of which Nickelodeon has been airing the video. Favorite line: "You're worth more than gold."

I wasn't very interested in the acts that followed although I did enjoy Crowder's performance of "I'll Fly Away."

Newsboys? I was up there close with the crowd! They did old favorites like "He Reigns" as well as new favorites like "God's Not Dead." They really rocked it!

And let me remind you that contemporary Christian music is just as much a channel for God's voice as grandma's old Southern gospel hymnal music. It happens to be more appealing to the younger audiences (guessing the 50 and under crowd although a much older man screamed louder than me!).

Anyway, I will actually do one more post to follow because I need to get some sleep so I can go to Sunday school and hopefully church in the morning!

StadiumFest Part 1

I have to say Jamie-Grace was the best so far. I couldn't stay past her set tonight. Apparently hay showed up around the scene and I had a reaction. But she performed several great songs off her CD, including God Girl, Hold Me, and With You. She also shared a little about how she struggles with ADD and Tourette's as well as anxiety. For me, this hit home as I have my own challenges to learn to overcome. One of the most recent diagnoses was the autism (which you can now see some videos that demonstrate the episodic meltdowns on my YouTube channel. I decided to get really real in them.).

Tomorrow, I return to StadiumFest to help in the children's area (although if I react too badly to the hay, we may have to get creative and reassign me somehow). Britt Nicole and Newsboys are my two artists tomorrow that I look forward to seeing.

One thing I want to note is how the event is not the most sensory friendly, and I will either do a vlog or a blog post about sensory friendly next week.

So meltdowns. It has been a frustrating week all around. I've not been feeling too well (sinuses again), allergies, weather changes, traffic and road construction, a friend and the fact that I'm frustrated he has yet to answer a couple of questions I've actually had the past two weeks, who so far has just been all "stop with the drama," still no answers though, VR related stuff and being called "unwilling," which was a misjudgment of unable due to recurring infections. But I committed the other day to capturing some of the meltdowns and stims so people can get a better idea of what those are like.

Oh, and yes, at concert events, you'll often find me on my feet moving to the music, singing, and flapping or tapping. But at church, if the music isn't upbeat enough (translation: if the music is what my grandmother would have sang in the 1950s), I'm too understimulated and likely to be found slapping myself or trying hard not to vocally stim). Again, more about that next week as well.

I do look forward though to posting more tomorrow after StadiumFest.