On July 7, 2002, I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart.
Today, 10 years later, I gratefully celebrate His presence and His work in and through my life. (Read my testimony of God's awesomeness here!) Praise be to God for redeeming and illuminating my life with His great love, mercy and grace!
It is mind-blowing to reflect on the person I was 10 years ago (not to mention how mind-blowing the whole "decade of life" thing is) and how dramatically God has changed things for the better in my life since then. The girl I was at seven years of age seems like a distant memory of another life; yet at the same time, it feels like only yesterday that my mother was kneeling with me beside my bed, assuring me even at such a young age that the reason I was sobbing uncontrollably and felt terribly afraid of asking Jesus into my heart was because the devil was trying to stop me from doing it, because he knew that if I did, really good things would happen. I am so thankful for my mother.
The day that I took my first breath, it was 7/7 and I was seven years old; today, it is once again 7/7 and I am seventeen years old. Seven is the biblical number of completeness or perfection. God has been and continues to be so incredibly gracious every day to bring everything to completeness and perfection in Him. His Word promises that "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6), and just today Jesus said, "I've brought you this far; I'm going to lead you through." It is so wonderful to know that there is a God who loves us and who will not EVER give up on us, and who has a perfect, ingenious plan to give each of us hope and a future! He has created a brilliant masterpiece with each of our lives that is far more wonderful than we could ever ask or imagine, and He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23) to accomplish it!
Glory to God, not only for the works of His hands, but also for the perfect love and beauty of His heart.
He is faithful to the end!
God bless,
Rachel Lauren
I was so deep,
So incomplete
Til' You rescued me
Yeah, You rescued me
You rescued me
You are mine, I am Yours
You rescued me
And I am Yours forever
You saved me, remade me
-TobyMac, "Me Without You"
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Sky is Vast. (perhaps too vast to analyze)
Lyrics to Fuzzy Blue Lights by Owl City, from the album Of June.
If I could look across the country
From California to New Jersey
Then I would count the parks and lake resorts
And number all the jets and airports
All those rather dreary rain clouds still bother me
Cuz I look through the camera eyepiece and cannot see
If I could open up my window
And see from Tampa Bay to Juneau
Then I would survey all those open miles
And line them up in single file
Everywhere I look I see green scenic sublime
And all those oceanic vistas are so divine
If I was standing on the balcony
And you were walking down below
I'd feel rather depressed and out of place
And lonely just to watch you go
If you were swinging from the highway overpass
Within the western hemisphere
I'd feel rather afraid and insincere
If you began to disappear
If I was walking through a sad art gallery
And you were driving through the night
I'd feel rather alone and ill at ease
Beneath the brilliant showroom light
If I was flying on a plane above your town
And you were gazing at the sky
Somehow I'd feel intact and reassured
If you began to wave goodbye...
If I could look across the country
From California to New Jersey
Then I would count the parks and lake resorts
And number all the jets and airports
All those rather dreary rain clouds still bother me
Cuz I look through the camera eyepiece and cannot see
If I could open up my window
And see from Tampa Bay to Juneau
Then I would survey all those open miles
And line them up in single file
Everywhere I look I see green scenic sublime
And all those oceanic vistas are so divine
If I was standing on the balcony
And you were walking down below
I'd feel rather depressed and out of place
And lonely just to watch you go
If you were swinging from the highway overpass
Within the western hemisphere
I'd feel rather afraid and insincere
If you began to disappear
If I was walking through a sad art gallery
And you were driving through the night
I'd feel rather alone and ill at ease
Beneath the brilliant showroom light
If I was flying on a plane above your town
And you were gazing at the sky
Somehow I'd feel intact and reassured
If you began to wave goodbye...
Monday, January 16, 2012
I Have A Dream.
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I thought I'd post a little something. Back in the fall, when the 2011-2012 school year first started, my AP Language Arts class was given an assignment: we were to use parts of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech to write a speech about a dream that we had, mimicking King's writing style. I wrote the following speech in response to that assignment.
It's fun to look back and see what was going through a person's head during a particular season of time. It's also a good way to maintain focus. And stay grounded.
Enjoy.
I Have A Dream.
Go back to freedom, go back to our passions, go back to who we truly are, to the glory of our true identities, go back to that inner man which we have kept hidden for so long in a cage of fear and isolation, go back to being ourselves, go back to chasing what really matters, go back to hope, and love, and joy, and peace; go back to dreaming big.
Dreaming big means that no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible circumstances become, we as dreamers keep moving forward and press on with confidence and optimism in light of the knowledge that this hardship is not the end and that there are indeed brighter days to come. Dreamers do not simply ignore the troubles of life, but they believe in spite of them – they believe that in the coming days, their dreams will indeed come true, and that everything they have hoped for will finally come to pass according to the great and glorious promises of faith.
I have a dream that one day every dreamer will rise up and live out the true meaning of who they are, of their wonderful identity as a dreamer. Our potential is incredible! We were born to do great things, and we can and will do them.
I have a dream that my generation will be the generation who makes the choice to dream big – that they will be a generation who intentionally pushes past anything and everything that tells them that they can’t do it, that they aren’t good enough, or that their dreams are too impossible or too wild to ever come true, a generation who against all odds will pursue their dreams to the end of all things and back again because they have such great faith in these dreams that they recognize them as an unfolding reality rather than a far-off fairytale awaiting the arrival of its happy ending.
I have a dream that even in America, where our identities and paths in life often seem to be decided for us by powers such as culture, media, industry, money or even our own families, that even in a place like this, the true dreamers will come out of society’s molds and step forth into the brilliance of their true selves, independent from every sense of fear, insecurity and pressure to be someone they are not, because they have finally realized that who they are is immutable, and that their dreams mean something, that they can change the world.
I have a dream that every lonely dreamer will come together and with all their individual dreams, build a bigger dream that could revolutionize the way we think and dream forever.
Friends, when nothing seems to work out, the answer is to dream and dream big. Every mountain can be toppled, every valley raised up, and every rough road be made smooth with a dream; and when we let ourselves dare to dream big in every area of our lives, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing with joy, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”
It's fun to look back and see what was going through a person's head during a particular season of time. It's also a good way to maintain focus. And stay grounded.
Enjoy.
I Have A Dream.
Go back to freedom, go back to our passions, go back to who we truly are, to the glory of our true identities, go back to that inner man which we have kept hidden for so long in a cage of fear and isolation, go back to being ourselves, go back to chasing what really matters, go back to hope, and love, and joy, and peace; go back to dreaming big.
Dreaming big means that no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible circumstances become, we as dreamers keep moving forward and press on with confidence and optimism in light of the knowledge that this hardship is not the end and that there are indeed brighter days to come. Dreamers do not simply ignore the troubles of life, but they believe in spite of them – they believe that in the coming days, their dreams will indeed come true, and that everything they have hoped for will finally come to pass according to the great and glorious promises of faith.
I have a dream that one day every dreamer will rise up and live out the true meaning of who they are, of their wonderful identity as a dreamer. Our potential is incredible! We were born to do great things, and we can and will do them.
I have a dream that my generation will be the generation who makes the choice to dream big – that they will be a generation who intentionally pushes past anything and everything that tells them that they can’t do it, that they aren’t good enough, or that their dreams are too impossible or too wild to ever come true, a generation who against all odds will pursue their dreams to the end of all things and back again because they have such great faith in these dreams that they recognize them as an unfolding reality rather than a far-off fairytale awaiting the arrival of its happy ending.
I have a dream that even in America, where our identities and paths in life often seem to be decided for us by powers such as culture, media, industry, money or even our own families, that even in a place like this, the true dreamers will come out of society’s molds and step forth into the brilliance of their true selves, independent from every sense of fear, insecurity and pressure to be someone they are not, because they have finally realized that who they are is immutable, and that their dreams mean something, that they can change the world.
I have a dream that every lonely dreamer will come together and with all their individual dreams, build a bigger dream that could revolutionize the way we think and dream forever.
Friends, when nothing seems to work out, the answer is to dream and dream big. Every mountain can be toppled, every valley raised up, and every rough road be made smooth with a dream; and when we let ourselves dare to dream big in every area of our lives, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing with joy, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”
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