New Blog Title

Blog title from song Constant by Charlie Hall.

"...leading us into beautiful places."

New Blog Title

So, as you may have noticed my blog is called "Change in the Making". 

After much, much thought and consideration, I finally resorted to looking through the songs on my iPod to find one that related to my life and was suitable for a blog title.

 When I saw "Change in the Making" by Addison Road, I thought Yes! and immediately commenced to put that as my blog title. I'm saved by God's grace through faith. I'm nowhere near perfect. I mess up all the time. But, I am a change in the making. 

Philippians 1:6 says:

 "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" (NKJV)  

And, again, to give credit where credit is due: 

"Change in the Making" is a song by Addison Road, not a phrase I made up myself. :)

Is Untitled Unread?

 Is Untitled (soon to be changed to a different name, by the way. It's about time!) a mostly unread blog???
I have one follower.
 But...before I had a blog I read all sorts of blogs, so I thought there might be some readers-not-followers of my blog.
I am wondering if my blog has any readers-not-followers. A.K.A people who read my sporadic posts but don't "officially" follow my blog. If you are one of those, would you be so kind as to comment on this post saying something like "I kinda sorta 'follow' your blog"? thank you. :)

A couple of months ago, I discovered my new favorite hymn: I'd Rather Have Jesus.

 I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

 I’d rather be His than have riches untold;

 I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands,

 I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

(chorus) Than to be a king of a vast domain

 Or be held in sin’s dread sway.

 I’d rather have Jesus than anything

 This world affords today. 

 I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;

 I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;

 I’d rather have Jesus than world-wide fame,

 I’d rather be true to His holy name.

 He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom; 

He’s sweeter than honey from out of the comb;

 He’s all that my hungering spirit needs,

 I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead.

 I will admit that it is hard to live like I truly believe the truth that is in this song. I let so many things get in the way, every day, but my heart's cry is that I would be so focused on Jesus that nothing could ever be as important to me as following Him. Because life is too short to be focused on anything other than Jesus. I need that pounded into my head frequently.

I'm [Not] Awesome

Today at work I heard a song on the radio, a rap tune that went something like this
"I'm awesome...I've lived a fourth of my life...all of my friends I met online...I talk to myself on my Facebook wall...I'm awesome."
At first, it does sound kind of humorous. But when I think about it, it sounds like the anthem of the American college student. And it is a sad one. The singer says he's lived a fourth of his life. 25% is a huge percentage. And how does he know that he still has 3/4 of his life left? Maybe he only has one year, one week or one day. This is not the way I want to live my life.
I mess up and waste my time, but I don't want that to be my default mode.
 What if we, as college students and young people, had this as our anthem:

I'm not awesome, but God sure is
He makes the difference and I want to follow Him
No more wasting time. I'm not gonna waste my life
chasing superficial things.
Cause Jesus is the reason I have my life
And I'm giving it to Him as a living sacrifice

I'm thinking there would be a huge difference in our culture.

I Cannot Go it Alone

^"18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰ Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." -- Romans 7:18-20 (NKJV)

Why is it that being lazy and selfish is so easy to do, and being caring and doing the right thing is so hard to do? I want to serve God. I want to share the gospel with everyone He puts in my path. But, a lot of the time I fail. The truth is, I cannot go it alone. I need God's strength and the power of the Holy Spirit to help me do what He has called me to do. As a line from one of my favorite songs says: "I'll go, but I cannot go alone/ the power of Christ in me makes me strong." (In Me by Casting Crowns). He has done all the work. I am completely covered by His grace and forgiven of my sins. 

We fail. We fall. We all mess up. But by God's grace we can get back up, knowing that our salvation is secure and not dependent on our works. And for that I am ever so thankful. 

Praise the Lord! 

I serve an AWESOME God!

Disclaimer: I think that dance is a wonderful sport and art form, and I have nothing against anyone who participates in it.

  I used to be one of the most dance-obsessed people you would ever chance to meet. Ever since I was about eight or nine years old, I wanted to take dance lessons.

  It did not work out for me to take dance lessons until I was 16. I started ballet and clogging with great enthusiasm. After a few months of taking dance, I realized I should be dancing for Jesus' glory. I got excited about this and started a Facebook page called "I Dance for Jesus!" and invited all my dancer friends to join it. I frequently posted updates on the page that were usually Bible verses or song lyrics that contained the word "dance".

I took dance for two years, and last year I decided my calling was to be a Christian dance teacher.  Looking back, I realize it's not up to us to decide our calling. It's up to God to decide our calling. We may realize what our calling is, but we don't decide what it is.

  I was pretty sure that this was God wanted me to do. I prayed that if this wasn't God's plan for me, He would make me lose all interest in dance. 

 I was ready to start taking more dance classes to head towards my dream.

But God was about to shake things up.

In August I went to TeenPact Endeavor, a girl’s camp in Colorado. There, God changed my life.

I went to Endeavor ready to grow closer to God and meet some new friends. I even was hoping I would meet some other girls who had the same perspective on "dancing for Jesus" as me.

When I first got to camp and found my bedroom, I read the note on my bed from the staffer/rendezvous group leader for our room. She closed the letter with the first part of this verse:

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,"(Ephesians 3:20 NKJV). I got very excited for the week, but I had no idea that what God was going to do in my heart that week was going to be way, way, above what I could ask or think.

On the first evening of the camp, God started to put it on my heart that life is too short to be anything other than obsessed with Jesus alone. As the days went by, God kept calling me to surrender my dance passion to Him. The clincher was in the talk on Thursday night, when we learned about contentment, among other things. This was when God really showed me that I need to be content with Jesus and all He is, and that dance was just holding me back from loving Him fully. I realized He was answering my prayer by showing me that dance does not matter. I could now honestly sing, "You can have all this world, just give me Jesus."

I was too nervous to share this with my small group, and didn't even share the full details of what my obsession had been when I did share it with my rendezvous group that night.

The next day, Friday, was the last day of camp. God really drove home this change of heart, and I shared with my rendezvous group again that night, this time being specific about the fact that my obsession had been dance. I was so thankful to be free of this passion for dance, that had practically been an addiction, and for that to be replaced with a love and passion for Jesus Christ.

After I got home, I was nervous to tell my mom that I wasn't going to do dance anymore, thinking she would be quite astonished and probably wonder if I was okay.

When I told my mom, she told me that she had emailed the dance studio owner, asking about classes I could take, who had written back that there weren't going to be any adult classes this year. I was amazed at how God had worked this out. He had me give up dance, because I wouldn't have been able to do it anyway--and/or He made there not be any adult dance classes be available so that I wouldn't be tempted to fall back into "following my dream."

I've realized that this may have been my dream, but it was not God's plan. He's not finished with me yet, and I'm nowhere near perfect, but I just want to share with you all how AWESOME OUR GOD TRULY IS!

About Me and My Blog

I decided to start a blog because I like to write and I want to encourage others and challenge myself with the writing I do for this blog. Most of all, I want this blog to be for God's glory and His alone. I want God to use this blog to glorify Himself and draw others to Him.
It is called "Untitled" because 1) The only other titles I could think of were titles or lyrics of songs, and I did not want to use those and 2) because I do not yet know what God wants me to do with my life, and I'm just following Him step by step.
A few facts about me:
I'm an 18-year-old college student. I'm a Christian, I love Jesus, and I'm seeking to glorify Him with my life. I'm a shy extrovert. I love music. I'm (so far) majoring in mathematics.
In Christ,

Kay