Jesus-Dance.

{Prayer-walking:}
I peeked into the side entrance of a bar that was not yet open and saw a baby's exer-saucer-thing.

My heart dropped; I prayed that Jesus would protect the innocent child.

As I walked away, heart heavy, I opened my prayer-walking book and read the first prayer I saw:
"Lord, gather these people as lambs in Your arms, and carry them close to Your heart.  Gently lead those that have young." 

And I realized again that my Jesus-Father is theirs, too, and He cares for them so much more than I ever could.

Walking back down the other side of the red-light street, I saw a young boy playing in the entrance of a karaoke club.  "Oh God...this is no place for children!"

As our team met up back at the Ransom English Center to spend some time in worship and prayer, I noticed a beautiful drawing sitting in a black frame on the floor.   Jesus smiling into the eyes of a little baby...



I stared into Jesus' face and was just overcome with His love and goodness.  Yes, my Jesus does care for these kids raised in bars by prostitute-mothers; my Jesus sees the children that I don't, the ones trapped inside the bars; and He cares.

 

pictures by David Bowman

 

 

On another note...

God has recently been showing me how ridiculously funny He is.  I used to view God as stern and holy- He loved me, of course, but He didn't smile much.  Apparently God didn't like that I viewed Him this way, because He's sure been showing me otherwise! 

Wednesday night I had been studying for 5th Term finals and fell into bed exhausted.  Before I fell asleep, though, I told the Holy Spirit that He could wake me up when He wanted me to get up.  Would you believe at 4:15 A.M. the girl who sleeps above me jumped down from her bunk to prepare for the tests.  I looked at my alarm clock.  "Are You serious right now, God?"  (I'm pretty sure He was laughing at this point.)  I argued with Him for the next 15 minutes while I tried to go back to sleep.  He won.  So I got out of bed and crawled out into the window well and listened to worship music... And suddenly, His presence was so much there that I literally fell down flat on my face.  The Glory of God was so strong that all I could do was weep.  Powerful, powerful morning.

 

The more I experience the presence and glory of my Father, the more I want.  Addiction, maybe?  Yes, God is incredibly holy, and His glory is so beautiful that it knocks me out flat.  But He's also a God of joy- He laughs, He sings, He dances.  And it's not about me separating my life-- "now I'm worshipping God", "now I'm playing volleyball"...  He is all around me- all around us- and my whole life can be a worship song to Him. 

 

And I'm pretty sure He laughs with me when I jump to spike and miss the volleyball.