bright darkness of faith

As I'm typing this, I'm listening to www.pandora.com (if you haven't tried it out, it's pretty handy) - and Addison Road's song, Hope Now is playing - Your love sets me free.....amen.

Anyways, just wanted to post some things I read today, and how His truth really does set us free - if we're willing to go where free is. Some of what God is teaching me about lately is challenging me to be real and to surrender and to accept that suffering is part of the journey -

^"God made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I got my act together,
he gave me a fresh start.
Now I'm alert to God's ways;
I don't take God for granted.
Every day I review the ways he works;
I try not to miss a trick.
I feel put back together,
and I'm watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes. " Psalm 18:20-24 (MSG)

The keys to passionate living - by Jud Wilhite

(1) start where you are right now - recognizing where you're living, what you do for a living, your trials - and as you surrender them to God, you start to see the incredible journey that He's already taking you on.

(2) waiting on God's timing and trusting His sovereignty - God will open doors, so be careful not to ignore them or force entry - passionate living involves waiting on doors to be opened or closed by God, and paying attention to what He's doing, not what you're doing.

(3) recognize suffering as part of passionate living - God wrestles the 'me' out of myself and it's painful.

"When we hit bottom and are emptied of all we thought important to us, then we truly pray, truly become humble and detached, and live in the bright darkness of faith. In the midst of the emptying we know that God has not deserted us. He has merely removed the obstacles keeping us from a deeper union with Him."
-Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus

why the name

In case you were wondering, NatCat comes from what Jordan and I are thinking of naming our future daughter some day (no, I'm not pregnant, but I am hopeful for the future) - Natalie Catherine. That or Natalie Elizabeth...haven't decided yet. :) But I guess we have some time. We hope to have a boy and a girl - whether that comes in the form of twins :) or separately - Nathaniel Caleb and Natalie ______. Our little "nats." :)

Here we go...

Okay, so I'm finally getting started on this thing. It's been about a year and a half coming - something that a friend encouraged me to do to get past my issues with writing and to have an outlet to share what I'm learning, feeling, etc. (I'm sure my husband might benefit from the break!)

So, if I accomplish nothing else, I hope that this blog is real - raw - transparent, vulnerable, I'm sure sometimes awkward at times, because come on - life is sometimes...and really, just from the real me (whoever that is and whoever I discover that to be).

So, this will be a journey, and hopefully I'll get to meet some people and get to read some pretty cool blogs on the way!

More later -