Or something close to it... I doubt I have time to write a thousand words for one picture, but we'll see how close I get. :)
So.. The point of this blog - I was "Tagged" by my lovely sister, Sissy (or Jacqueline for all you other peeps), so I now need to complete this blog. The Rules: you have to go to the fourth album in the pictures on your computer and upload the fourth picture in that folder. Then, write a blog about it and tag four people to do the same. Get the idea?? Awesome.
So as I sit here, in my PJ's, sipping a cup of strawberry mango tea before bed, I'm contemplating just what there is to say about this picture. So many thoughts and memories try to spill out all at once when I think about it. First of all, it is the picture of the road (Blackbull Rd.) that is at the bottom of the street my house is on. If you turn right at the street in the foreground, about halfway up is a pink house on the left; number 49. That is where I currently live.
Other than just a place in Folkestone, England, this picture portrays lots of thoughts and memories into my mind's eye; like the many times I've walked this way into town with my awesome friends, or to the train station to go to London. Also, times when I've experienced something tough in life and walked this way with my Ipod blaring just praying for the strength to go on. Above and beyond all that, it reminds me of the amazing work that has started it's work in my life this year in good ole' Folkestone. Who knew?!
In order to fully appreciate the next bit I will share, I'd first like to share a memory that has nothing to do with the picture, and actually isn't my memory at all; rather the memories orally portrayed to me by members of my family. In 1992-ish (possibly 93) my grandfather had to undergo open-heart surgery. Without it, plainly, he would've died. He had to have his chest opened up, the most vital section of his entire body, and his tender heart taken out and worked upon. It was that intense moment in his life that everything changed. He had to undergo having his entire BEING opened up, becoming exposed to the onlooking doctors, in order to go on with his life. Luckily, everything went very well and he lived for another 14 years after! Incredible how things work out.
That having been said, this picture reminds me that I've undergone an open heart surgery of my own this year. Yet, not in the literal sense of my heart being ripped from me, in the natural, and worked on on an operating table, but in the spiritual. Without coming to Bible school this year and letting God do His work in my life, I don't know if I would have much longer to live right now. He, as the master surgeon, opened up the most vulnerable part of me, looked inside, and started to cut out all the tumors and impurities that had built up inside me. He took out all that was old and decayed and replaced it with that which was new, healthy, and of Him.
It hasn't been easy either! Having life as I knew it put on hold, moving half way around the world from my home, family, and friends to come to Bible school. At first I really didn't want to come. Only the fact that it was in England urged me forward,(that and the helpful words of my parents ;) ) but now that I'm here and God is doing His work, I see that it was imperative for me to leave EVERYTHING behind for Him to work through me. England is my operating table. Where He is opening me up, taking out all the bad, and preparing me for a long, healthy life in Him. It is where I'm getting the training I need in order to go and impact a dying, hurting world. Without my time here, I would have slowly worn out to the point of expiration, but with His life found in me, I know that I can now do ALL things through Him that gives me strength. (Phil. 4:13)
SO not only does this picture represent where I live, my time in England, or the fond memories I've had since I've been here, it represents that NO MATTER where you are in your life, NO MATTER what tumors and impurities have crept in and implanted themselves in your inner most being, there is ALWAYS Hope. Hope for God to come in and wipe it all clean. Hope for Him to turn your life around for good and to operate on your core so you may go on with assurance and strength. Hope for salvation and rest in God.
