“At moments of great enthusiasm it seems to me that no one in the world has ever made something this beautiful and important.” M.C. Escher

For the longest time I have said to myself: Self, you have wanted to make greeting cards for a very long time now… so why don’t you get your lazy bones in gear and do it? And I would inevitably answer myself with: Well, because I’m lazy, you see. This prevents me from doing a great many things that I wish to do. So today I decided I would at least get a start on cutting up all the catalogs and magazines I wanted to cut up for the cards that probably ever won’t really exist. Little did I know how painstaking a task it would be. Because I’m rather uptight about these things, you see. I’m entirely too concerned with symmetry and neatness and matchy-matching to really be creative. Something about following the rules and staying in the lines or something. Was I born a Baptist? I digress. So I struggled with even the first step of CUTTING THINGS OUT OF THE EVER-LOVING MAGAZINES. I would tear a pattern out and then it would seem the torn edge wasn’t straight enough of a tear…. Give it a REST already. Artists aren’t neat, they’re sloppy (sometimes). And if I expect to be named among the geniuses (geniuzim?), I better just let that whole trip go or I may slow my own greatness and keep it from really emerging.

I began with a neat stack of catalogs like so:

catalogs from the greatest store on planet Earth.

And after an hour or two of furious cutting and hemming and hawing over the straightness of the edges and OH MY GOSH, I TOTALLY DIDN’T KNOW YOU COULD MIX ORANGE AND PINK IN THE SAME OUTFIT we arrive at this post-bomb-like (ish?) scene (which eventually reaches DefCon 1.5 in a matter of about 20 more minutes):

disaster strikes.

But then my hand got a scissor-cramp and I decided that, to make the whole thing worth it I needed to make at least ONE greeting card. And yes, I will insist on using the word ‘greeting’ when I refer to my yet uncreated collection. And I had a friend in mind when I pulled out all the greeting card accoutrements, so I should at LEAST get one together. So this friend will get a sneak peak of the card but won’t know it is coming to her (…or is it him?). Watch your mailboxes, folks.

Of course I needed to tidy up a bit before I could settle in with glue and The Chosen Cutouts For Greeting Card Number 1. Tidying here basically means consolidating anything that was cut out and intended for future use on a greeting card into the same clear box for ease when glancing at it.

The fruit of my tedious and back-breaking labor.

At which point I was able to settle in, break out the glue (and more glue) and create Greeting Card (Number 1) Made Especially For You By Holly Ann Worsham (available out of the trunk of a Gray Mazda 6 near you):

Voila

So I’m no Charley Harper (my hero, will post about him soon). But I’m going to keep trying. Wish me Godspeed, many more free catalogs, and success with the hot glue gun.

Top 5

Thanks for the tag, EG. Please forgive my horrendous delay in posting this! Also, you must all know that these lists may not be limited to just 5 items, ideas, desires, etc. Come on, now. Let’s get real. Also, the answers to some of these change according to the minute, the wind, and/or my blood pressure.

Away we go:

Things under $5 that I couldn’t live without (okay, yes I could live without them):
Orbit Mint Mojito gum (what about jaw problems?), floss, 16oz container of sour cream, tall Americano (in a grande cup with heavy cream, of course), cheap Wal-mart flip-flops (which get mistaken weekly for the J.Crew ones), #2 from In’N Out w/ 4 packets of special sauce. Yes, you heard me.

Favorite movie:
Top 5 in which genre? Sheesh. Let’s go with: Rushmore, Fletch, Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Little Miss Sunshine

Baby names I love:
Chloe, Ivy, Cayren, Jane, Cash (yes, I said it, Lynn)

Songs I could listen to over and over again:
Your Love Is Extravagant (Casting Crowns), La Cathedrale Engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral, Claude Debussy), Kingdom Come (Coldplay), Before The Throne of God Above (by any artist), Hymn (Brooke Fraser), Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap), Rescue (Jared Anderson)

People who have influenced me in a positive way:
Gary & Freddie Worsham (they’re one), Elizabeth Worsham, Dr. David Smith, Brad Brock, Bob Childress, Sam Neylan

Things that are always in my wallet:
ATM card, business cards, 6th grade student ID card (that hair?), license, black tar heroin (not really), Starbucks receipts

Moments that changed my life forever:
Moving from Iowa to California (June 1, 1993); being exposed to The Master’s College for the first time when Majesty came to my church (1996); having jaw surgery (August 1998); attending The Master’s and changing my major from music to biblical counseling (1999; and yeah, I just crammed 2 into 1); Truth & Life Conference about personal holiness (specifically included speaker Art Azurdia, January 2001); returning to Church of the Canyons (~2003)

Places I would like to go:
Heaven, Scotland, Ecuador, Korea, Branson

Appliances or kitchen tools I couldn’t live without:
Paper towels, steak knife, dip, can opener, dip

People who I would like to see their top 5’s:
Lynn, Amy, Lisa, Michelle, Nadine

The Girl In The Window

I heard about an article today that reminded me of a joke from the past. But then I read the article and the joke didn’t seem funny anymore. The term ‘feral child’ ring a bell to anyone? This is a story from the St. Petersburg Times about a girl (Dani) who was the victim of severe neglect - the most horrible case I have ever heard about. I moved from being angry at the mother for doing this to her own daughter to being thankful for the courageous family who has adopted her and has given her a new life. I find myself weeping for the girl’s past, for her mother’s devastating choices that have left her crippled and unable to function in so many ways. And yet I am so moved by her new family’s selflessness and undying love for her. They didn’t adopt her because of all that she would bring to the family. They adopted her because she was in wounded and in need. I am moved to tears again to think that God has done the same for me. He sought me and found me crippled, dead, unable, hating Him. I had (have) nothing to offer Him and yet He revived my soul and brought me near to Himself. I pray for Dani’s mother and that God would save her soul.

The article is a bit long but well worth the read. The video is shorter but much more impactful with the background of the entire article.

Full article

Video and audio component for the story

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

This is a good site for earthquakes AS THEY HAPPEN. We just had a 5.8 (Chino Hills, actually), but I am sitting here clicking the refresh button for the website and it is aftershock after aftershock after aftershock.

Earthquake report link

Earthquake happened here (red)

The report of the earthquakes:

aftershock, aftershock, aftershock, aftershock

Trippy, yo. I just remembered that I prefer tornadoes.

Tyler

I went to Iowa for the first week of July, and I’ll need to write about that some because it was incredible in many ways. For now, I have been mulling over something I read on vacation - my 14-year-old nephew’s thoughts about God & his salvation. He wrote it out by hand and posted it on his bedroom door and I couldn’t help but stop and read it. And then read it again. And then again.

“May this be written evidence that I, Tyler Dean Worsham, am a Christian and will forever be a child of the King, Jesus Christ, who is God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, that I have ‘…confessed with my mouth and believed in my heart’ that Jesus is the Son of the most high God and, because He loved us, while we were still sinners and wanted nothing to do with Him, God sent His only begotten Son (His only Son), to come to earth as a lowly carpenter’s son, to live a sinless, perfect life, and suffer many tortures and cruelties and to die the worst death possible, a death on a wooden cross, all because He loved us enough to be mocked, tortured, and murdered by us so we could be saved from death, sin, and hell, and have a relationship with Him. And after three days of being dead as dead can be, God raised Jesus from the dead and is alive as I am now to this very day and was taken up to sit in glory with His Father in heaven. God will and did save me because of I John 1:9. As even more proof, I know I am saved because of I John 2:3 because I try to obey God’s word and hate it when I know I let God down (I try to obey it because nobody can fully obey because we’re all sinners, even if we’re Christians). I also know, despite my failures in proving so, because I love the things of God deep down (the Bible says whoever is of God loves the things of God). I also know I’m saved because I love my fellow Christians (I am a good friend and encourage others).”

After I read this for the first time I felt the wide age gap between my nephew and I narrow a bit. You know how sometimes when you’re watching a child grow so slowly over the years and then all of the sudden you’re like, whoa. This kid’s not a kid anymore. You could say that happened. Of course Tyler is still young and not yet ‘all grown up’, but I was reminded about how smart he is, how sensitive he is, and how courageous he is. He deals with challenges every day that I could not. He is wrestling with things about God at 14 that I wrestle with sometimes now. Maybe we’re not all that different. I appreciate that he took the time to write down his thoughts on notebook paper and pin them to his door. I am thankful that he wrote what God says and has posted it to remind himself (and me) that God IS who He says He is and He has DONE what He said He did. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Tyler's mug

* * * * *

Speaking of raw talent, did i mention that he is a KILLER artist? No, I’m not talking about, like, mediocre and I don’t mean “good for a 14-year-old”. I mean good, like, for REAL. Oh, and also? A tiny detail that I forgot to mention is that he’s partially blind and STILL WINNING CONTESTS, people. I’ll be bringing him with me to any upcoming Pictionary tournaments, so BRING IT ON.

Tyler drawing Marvel characters

Offering

Last time I was at home visiting my family I snagged this from the back of one of the pews at church.  And yes, it was in the year 2008. 

Reminders For Me…

Today’s sermon was so good. So convicting, so needed, so encouraging. I was reminded of the absolute supremacy of Jesus over everything and what my response to His authority and preeminence really means for my life every minute of every day. It’s an easy thing to hear and pay lip service to. Its a tremendously scary thing to only pay it lip service and not respond in obedience.

“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” (James 1:22, italics added)

Paul addresses the Jews in Romans and confronts the idea that they call themselves guides for the blind, lights in the dark, instructors for the foolish.  They bragged about the law but dishonored God by breaking His law and in doing so blasphemed His name among the Gentiles. I tremble as I recall the passage to think that I have done the same so many times; I have essentially relied on the law and have ‘bragged’ about my relationship to God but have lacked a heart of true repentance. I have been the blind pharisee who is like a “whitewashed tomb, which looks beautiful on the outside but on the inside is full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.”

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…” (Ephesians 4)

I am so thankful that God’s grace abounds to me. I do not deserve His mercy or His grace. I am, in fact, ILL-deserving. And God has given me a gift in salvation that I did not know I needed and could not have hoped to earn apart from Him: righteousness.  I am learning what a treasure this is. I am so thankful for an infinitely powerful yet loving God who also is always turned toward me and always desires me to be intimate with Him. I am thankful that He looks at me and sees the purity and perfection of Jesus and not the works my hands and heart have wrought. The Lord is so kind.

I have been thinking through the words of the hymn “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go”. It resonates with me because I know that I have deserved to be let go. I know that I have deserved desertion. I have deserved hell.  And yet God’s perfect and loving character does not allow Him to do so. I am so thankful that for those of us who God has called His own, there is no choice bad enough, no turn wrong enough, no step far enough away from His loving arms and care. Yes, I am a sheep who has needed my legs broken for my own good and for the good of those around me. And I am thankful for what that pain represents ultimately: God’s infinite grace, kindness, and mercy.

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

I (seriously) Heart “The Office” (like, a LOT)

Brilliant (minus the weird commercial in the middle).

Thanks, Lynnie!

And I Quote,

(In a whisper) “Look, I got some magical seeds.  Shh, don’t tell anyone.” (she holds out a paper towel with little seeds in it.)

 

“What are these?”

 

“Shhhhhhh.  They’re magical seeds.”

 

(I open the paper towel and view these alleged magical seeds.)

 

“I’m going to put them in a jar at home and sell them for $100.”  (In a whisper again) “But they’re really apple seeds.”

 

“So what’s in them?  What are they supposed to do?”

 

“Nothing.  It’s a SCAM.  I want my money.”

 

An exchange between my coworker’s 9-year old daughter and I. Kids these days.  Or should I say, Future Scammers of America these days.

2 1/2 Years In The Life Of My Teeth

So the braces are finally off and I am so thankful! Now I enter the ‘retention’ phase and do my best to make sure these puppies don’t move all over the place and get out of whack (by wearing various sundry orthodontic appliances). You’ll have to excuse my slight (or not-so-very) lisp. In all seriousness, I am so incredibly thankful. God has been so very kind to me!

Now for a look at the before and after:

 
The (not intentionally) hidden-toothed ‘before’ smile

The unfortunate, fangy ‘before’ teeth

The much-less-vampiric ‘after’ teeth (but what’s with that weird tan look?)

The much straighter (redder?) ‘after’ teeth