The Importance of Getting Lost

    Imagine starting off a very exciting trip. You have the address of your destination programmed in your phone. Your best friend is sitting next to you in the car. Your favorite song is blasted so loud that your sister's husband's cousin's neighbor's cat can hear it. You're trying to hear your nice GPS voice over the song, but your favorite part is coming up and it's on the radio, which means-no pauses! You figure that you've been driving on the highway for two hours and you'd be fine. You thought wrong. All of a sudden, you are in a different state. You don't recognize anything and your phone has lost its signal. You look at your friend in a sudden panic. Looks of "Where are we?" and "Did we mean to go here?" are all over her face. You both look at each other with the same thought clearly viewed across your face says "We.Are.Lost."
    What would you do if you were lost? Remember, your phone has no signal so you can't call your older sister or mom. It's just you and your best friend in a car in the middle of nowhere. Neither of you can see anything ahead of you. At least your favorite song is on, right? You could see this event from two different perspectives. Let's call them Polly and Ollie. 
    Polly would view this event as a terrible thing. She would be extremely uncomfortable and terrified. She would have a lot of anxiety and not know what to do. She would see all of the cars fly by her and focus on the fact that she is not like them, because she has no idea where she is at. Polly would view getting lost as an unnecessary thing in order to grow personally.
    Ollie would be almost the complete opposite. He loves getting lost! He does it quite often, actually. He thinks that he gets in touch with himself when he doesn't know where he's at. He loves looking at the strangers around him driving around and enjoying life. Ollie would say that getting lost is the best thing he's ever done in his life.

     Maybe you've caught on to the fact that this post isn't about getting physically lost. Maybe you've picked up on the fact that I'm not talking about getting lost on your way to vacation. Maybe you even know what I'm talking about. I am talking about getting lost in worship. 

"Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods.  Rather, worship the LORD your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies."
                                                          2 Kings 17:38-39 

"All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name.  For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God."
                                                          Psalm 86:9-10

"He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water."
                                                         Revelation 14:7 

     There are so many verses in the Word that talk about worshipping. As a Christ follower, I am required to worship God. I've never seen it as a requirement, rather something that I look so forward to doing. My title is something that I like to remind myself to do. I remind myself to get lost in worship. I don't understand how people DON'T worship! I look around my life and see so much to worship for. I've always been musical, and I really enjoy singing, so vocally worshipping during the week is one of my favorite things to do. I can get so lost in a song, and its lyrics that I believe that I'm not in my room, or in the sanctuary on Sunday. I'm just lost. 

    I like to remind everyone to do this. I hope that everyone experiences getting lost in worship. Here are some practical things that I have found during my high school and college career that have helped me continue to worship The Almighty: 

1. Make a worship playlist for your car or your phone. This is so simple, yet so impactful. It was one of the best thing's I've ever decided to do while going to community college. Worshipping in the car was a good use of 15 minutes and always put me in a grateful mood. 
2. Find other ways to worship. Maybe you don't like singing, or singing in large crowds. That's fine! I knew someone who loved worshipping by drawing. She would "draw things to God"-pictures or images that reminded her of Him. Whatever you love to do, you can dedicate to Him and encourage others to worship along with you. 
3. Pray in the car. When your phone dies, or your cd skips, it's easy to just turn on the radio (maybe to a secular radio channel, too!) I decided to take this time to pray. It's nice to do in the car because you're most likely awake (I hope!) and you could be alone. It's a perfect time to talk with your God. 
4. Listen to worship music while doing homework. For those who don't like to sing, you don't have to! Simply listen to songs that glorify God and it will change your outlook. From personal experience, I have noticed that listening to Christian music puts me in a better mood, and I am more susceptible to praising God throughout the day. 

 I pray that we all will remember to get lost in worship daily. Look around and observe all that God has gifted you with. See a beautiful flower? Praise God. Your parents love you and bless you with all you need? Praise God. Your friend decides to check out "this Christian stuff"? Praise God!! Praise Him in all you do and for all you have. Trust me when I say it will better your relationship with Him and you will be blessed in return. 

 

In Him forever & always,

Cassandra 

                                          ^I took this picture of a friend worshipping when we visited Hillsong NYC

*Songs that I'm loving to worship God to these days: 

1. "Lord I Need You"-Matt Maher
2. "Remind Me Who I Am"-Jason Gray
3. "Lift My Life Up"-Unspoken
4. "Oceans"-Hillsong
5. "Anchor"-Hillsong
6. "Sinking Deep"-Hillsong Young & Free
7. "10,000 Reasons"-(covered by) The Rend Collective
8. "In Christ Alone"-(covered by) Owl City
9. "One Thing Remains"-Jesus Culture 
10. "Take Heart"-Hillsong 

"Pure As Transparent Glass..."

   It was 2009. My teenage self was hyper-venelating. My best friend and I had somehow convinced her mom to get us all a hotel room in New Jersey. We had somehow convinced her to take us to the event of the century. Our hormones and emotions were flying around like kites in the sky. We were sweating. We were screaming. We were crying. We were laughing. We were at the Jonas Brothers concert. 
    
   NK and I had a deep, deep love for three brothers that were from New Jersey. The ultimate thing that we were attracted to was their faith in God. We personally do not know their relationships with The Father, but we did know that they were some of the few that publicly gave glory to God. It was their world tour of 2009. I would be comfortable saying that it was the prime of their careers. I can remember NK and I looking up all of members of the tour we possibly could. Then we found her. We found one of the instrumentalists on their tour. Their violinist, Christa Black. We did a lot of research on her, and to our excitement, we found out that she was a sister in Christ! We were so happy to know that one of our sisters would be representing The Father on that tour. Here is a little gem that I found in an album titled "THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE" of NK and my stalking abilities: 

    That woman behind John Taylor (JB's guitarist and musical director) was Christa Black. After their tour was over, we continued to follow Christa Black around on social media. It was later that I found out that she had a blog. I began to follow it, and  I will say that it was very inspirational. Then, I remember she came out with a book! I begged my mom to get me a copy of it off of Amazon. She got it for me as soon as it came out. I can specifically remember laying outside tanning, reading "God Loves Ugly". This book changed my life. I began to forgive myself for my past, and starting embracing the fact that the Heavenly Creator loved ME!! From this book stemmed a new kind of relationship with The Father. It helped me think of how I really wanted my relationship with Him to look. A few years later, I began working with the youth at my church. My copy had circled around 15+ girls within a few months. I shortly began to realize that this book was not just inspirational, it was life-changing. It wasn't just for me, but for younger girls, and older girls, and everyone in between. I began following Christa more on social media and regularly reading her blog posts. I even had the opportunity to see her speak at the Revolve Tour in 2013. In a crowd of emotional girls, I saw her, and I pushed my way through security guards for her to sign my book. She pointed out that it was an original copy and I pointed out that she was even more beautiful in person. Even though I don't know Christa personally, I have some strange sister-of-Christ bond with her that I can't explain. I guess you could say she is a role model for me, or just simply a professional violin player that helped me with the most important thing in my life: my role as a servant of The Almighty.
  
  So, you might be wondering why I am talking about Christa Black and the Jonas Brothers, and other crazy things that I did in my teen years. I assure you, there IS a point to all of the madness! Like I had mentioned earlier, I feel as if I have this strange bond with Christa. Her story and ministry is amazing, and something that I think every single teen girl needs to know about. A few weeks ago, Christa lost her baby girl. You can read about her story here. Luca Gold Gifford was her little baby girl who died just forty minutes after birth. I've read Christa's blog posts and instagram posts about her and her family's loss, and every time I read something, it breaks my heart. I think being an aunt of three boys and one girl all under the age of two gets my heart to tug harder when stories like Christa's comes along. Something that I took out of Christa's book was that she experience a lot of hate in her life, and a lot of hurting. She later decided to cling to Christ and have her life changed forever. God pushed her through the terrible moments of her life, and gave her a new life. As I read through Christa's words, I am so inspired and touched by the love that she has for God. In this time of her life, it would be SO easy to curse God and fall back to old habits. She has clung to Christ during this time and He has started to heal her through Him. This is an amazing thing. When someone experiences such a tragedy; especially to their daughter, naturally, humans tend to shut down. Christa has been so open about this experience, and she has not seized to praise God through her storm. 

   Christa herself may never read this post, but I know that others will. As a Christ-follower, I am constantly asked the question that says something like "If God loves the world, why does He allow suffering in it?". I'm not sure of the right answer, and no one but God does, but I have my own interpretation of it. In 2 Corinthians 1, it talks about "...The God of all comfort...":

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort."
                                                                 2 Corinthians 2:3-7 NIV

   This is probably my favorite passage in the Bible because of how much hope it brings. I believe that the reason that God allows us to go through suffering is so that we can feel his mercy, love, and comfort, and then relate to others who are going through the same suffering-showing them all that The Father showed to us. For an example, my mom had breast cancer for many years when I was young. We know a woman who was just diagnosed with breast cancer and my mom has been able to reach out to her and walk along side of her during this time, because she knows exactly how it feels. I'm not saying that this is exactly why we go through hardships, but I think it is one of the reasons we do. Christa has already used this opportunity to reach out and love others because of this experience. I pray that all of us can act as Job did, and praise God through the storms. 

   Please join me in constantly praying for Christa, her husband Lucas, and their son Moses during this time. I pray that they will all continue to lean on the God of all comfort. I also pray that The Lord directs their family in the path that He wants them on in the future. Christa: know that you are an inspiration to many. You have changed lives simply because you chose to have Christ change yours. Thank you for all you have done for girls across the world. 

    "The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass."
                                                                        Revelation 21:21 NIV

      The book of Revelation talks about the gold streets in Heaven. They are described as pure and transparent. The streets could have been made of anything, but God chose gold. He chose gold to have the most Heavenly, Perfect, Amazing, Almighty God walk upon every single day. I believe that Luca is now in Heaven, walking along those streets with Jesus Christ, and is as pure as the streets are. If you would like to learn more about Luca Gold's life and to contribute to a healing fund in her honor, you can find it here. 


In His Love Forever & Always,
Cassandra 

What I wish I Realized in High School: The Garland & Chain

       I can remember my youth pastor giving lessons on the importance of a good relationship with our parents. As a young, somewhat-rebellious, over-excited teenage girl; this is not the kind of lesson I wanted to hear. As a teen, you often feel as if you don't have time for your parents, or you simply just don't care. After all, they are "life-ruiners" and two people who ground you on the weekends. I could have titled this post "What I wish I Knew in High School" but that wouldn't be an accurate depiction of who I was. The worst part of this was that I did know the importance of a good relationship with your parents, but I never cared enough about it. Don't get me wrong-my parents and I had a pretty good relationship. Sure, there were times when I wasn't their biggest fan and I'm sure there were plenty of times where I disappointed them, but overall-we got along. I realized when I was in college how truly pathetic that statement was: "we get along". Was that enough? Was it good enough to simply "get along"? The answer that I later realized was, in fact, no. I did a quick glimpse at my life and attitude and I realized that I was not being the best daughter I could be.
     I found some verses in The Word about honoring your parents, but I think that my favorite passage comes from Proverbs 1:8-9 NIV
  
                       "Listen my son (daughter), to your father's instruction and do not forsake your    
        mother's teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck."

   I love this passage for many different reasons. It points out the importance of the father's influence as well as the mother's influence, and ties them together in the end. I wanted to break these verses down in ways that I could better understand, and this is what I came up with:
  
                   "Cassie, listen to what your dad says. Listen and observe to what he teaches you, and use them to the best of your ability. Cassie, don't forget about what your mom taught you. Remember all of the life lessons and qualities she has shown to you, and don't forget to use them. All of these things will benefit you in the long run. They will stay in your head and it is your job to let them show. They will also make you a more beautiful woman who will need to stay dedicated to serving The Lord."

      I feel like now that I am accepting my role as a young adult and no longer a teenager in high school, I respect my parents more than I ever have. I recognize all that they do for me and for my siblings. I don't tell them enough how much I appreciate and am thankful for all that they do for me.
  
    The Garland (dad, doc, colonel, etc.): I am so thankful for a father who loves me as much as he does. Whether it is the random text messages saying he is proud of me, or calling me to tell me that he thought of me that day. He has also shown me how much of a treasure I am in God's eyes, and to settle for nothing less than that. I am thankful for all of the lessons he has taught me over the years: never to give up, strive to be my best for The Lord, and to serve those around me. He also taught me how to change my oil, but I am grateful that he does it for me sometimes so I don't have to. And though I never said it often enough, I am thankful for the time, sweat, and pain he invested in me when I played softball. He would get off from working all day just to come practice with me. He has also taught me how a man should love his wife. He does selfless acts for my mom and for our family all of the time. I will always treasure his instruction.

    The Chain (mom, pammie sue, commander pam): I know that I drive my mother absolutely crazy more often than I should. She has taught me so much over the years, and I hope to be as good as a mom as she is to me one day. Something that is special about my mom is that she doesn't even need to verbally "teach" me things; she teaches me with her actions. She has taught me to be a fighter, lover, and a servant of Christ. I always admired the way she would drop everything to listen to someone or care for them without hesitation. She always knows the right thing to say, even when I search for it for hours. She is probably the hardest worker I know, and I still have no clue how she does it. I have seen her interaction with my siblings in the past few years and I truly admire her love for her children and grandchildren. She has also taught me patience and understanding. She has shown me what it means to be a daughter, and serve in that position. She was at her mother's side for a long time while she was sick, and she is constantly at her father-in-law's side whenever he needs help. I know that she would drop everything for me if I really had an issue that needed resolving. She would be my shoulder to cry on. I have also seen her reach out to my friends and take them in as her own. I will value and take her teachings with me for the rest of my life
  
   Collectively, my parents have shown me what a Godly marriage looks like. They have ups and downs, but never cease to love God before each other. I love that my parents have never been my "friends". They made it clear that they were put on this earth to serve as my parents and not my BFFS. They encourage, protect, and love me. They are some of the biggest blessings in my life.

   I wish that I recognized all of this in high school. Actually, I wish that I recognized this in middle school or younger. The sooner you realize the importance of your parents, the better your life will become. I think I recognized it later in life because I saw the reality of the hardships and daily life as an adult. As a kid, you can't appreciate the way your parents drive 45 minutes away to come to a softball game or band concert straight after work. If you are in high school, take time to serve to your parents. Clean around the house (I still have to work on that one), make a meal, or simply tell them how much they mean to you. I still have a lifetime of instruction and teaching from my parents, but I am so, so thankful for all I have received up to this point of my life. They are my garland and chain, and I hope to never forget that.

           ^I keep this photo in Proverbs 1 as a reminder to always thank God for them and to pray for them. This is probably circa 1998 in Disney World

In His Forever,
Cassandra 

Why Being Single is A Blessing

   For many, many years I was very discontent with the direction that my life was going in. I was a stereotypical teenage girl yearning for a "relationship". I saw countless amounts of my friends going on dates, bringing their boyfriends to dances and prom, and getting spontaneous flowers delivered to my school from theirs truly. It was extremely difficult to stand back and be that friend who was constantly the third wheel. It didn't hit me until college that being single isn't a bad thing. It's not a curse and it's not the worst thing that will happen to me. It was shortly after that when I realized "Being single is not a bad thing. It's a blessing!". Sure, I heard this from a lot of my friends...my friends that had boyfriends and were obviously trying to make me feel better. I can remember thinking "If you agree that it is such a blessing and a wonderful thing, why don't you break up with your boyfriend so we can be happy together?" {Obviously, that did not happen.}

  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that being in a God-centered relationship is a wonderful and exciting thing, and in fact, I am a firm believer in the fact that God created us to be in relation with each other. What took me so long to realize is that I shouldn't be waiting around wasting my life about being single. I should we utilizing my time to better myself, and more importantly, strengthening my relationship with The Father.

  I made a list of all of the reasons why I wanted a relationship, and these were some of the highlights:
                   1. I want to be/feel loved
                   2. I want to be told I'm beautiful from someone not related to me
                   3. I want to be desired
                   4. I eventually want to be a wife
                   5. I want to make someone happy
                   6. I want someone to be there for me
                  
  After I made this list {this wasn't all of them, just the few that mattered the most}, I looked up some scripture to look into these things.

                   1. I want to be/feel loved - "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in God, God abides in him." 1 John 4:16
                  
                  2. I want to be told I'm beautiful- "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles, and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 1 Peter 3:3-4

                3. I want to be desired- "...You were bought at a price..." 1 Corinthians 6:20

               4. I eventually want to be a wife- "For your Maker is your husband, the Lord Almighty is His name, the Holy one of Israel is your redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth." Isaiah 54:5

              5. I want to make someone happy- "But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts." 1 Thessalonians 2:4

            6. I want someone to be there for me- "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9
                                                          ***
   After I discovered these things, my outlook completely changed. I will no longer look at being single as a bad thing; rather, I will look at it as a blessing! There are so many things that I get to do solely because I am still single. I think about all of the free time that I have. I get to spend it with my friends without worrying about someone else. Most importantly, I can focus on my relationship with Christ. I believe that He has gifted me this time being single so I can better myself through Him and prepare myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually for the lucky man that gets to be my husband {if that is in God's plan!} Sure, times get rough and difficult when I see my friends getting engaged, or getting into relationships. And, yes, I get choked up at romantic comedies and stories about romance and get in a "funk" when I realize no one will buy me flowers except me {and sometimes my dad}. But the great thing about all of that? I don't need flowers! I need God's love, God's grace, and God's mercy. Being single allows me to do that exactly. It allows me to focus on God and God alone instead of worrying about what I'm going to cook for my boyfriend. I spend this precious gift of time praying for myself and for God's plan. I pray that I will be ready for all that He will give to me; good or bad.
                                         

 

^ image found at http://crazeod.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/being-single-as-a-lifestyle/

      ^ My best friend Natalya and I enjoying NYC...who needs a boyfriend when you have a Christ-centered friendship?

 

     

Forever in Him,
Cassandra