Lyndseycornell’s Weblog

For my birthday, my family all pitched in and got me a Nikon D-40 camera which I have wanted for a long time. And I am in love with it. Here are some pictures I’ve taken with it recently from Student Ministry Mission Camp which I’m at right now with our high school students. I haven’t had the time to photoshop them yet so here they are in the raw. We get to go to the inner city Boys and Girls Club each day and hang out with these amazing kids. It has truly been a blessing. I think I took a million pictures of these beautiful kids.

I am becoming a bad blogger. I hate that about myself. So here is a filler post to keep back the angry comments about never blogging.

Friends: The last two weeks have been filled with wonderful friends in town. My best friend from Kentucky, Hannah was here and we had such a blast. It’s always great being with someone that you’ve knowm for that long. You never have to explain anything or put up any sort of front. They know all your stuff. Then, my other best friend, Lauren from college was in town for our good friend’s wedding. We had a blast with Lauren and her boyfriend, Ryan. It makes me wonder why we all can’t just live in the same place. I’m on a mission to convince my family and friends to move down to South Florida.

Kickball: Andrew and I joined a kickball league. Yes, that’s right. Kickball. We had our opening party last night and we’ve got our first game next Wednesday. The operator at the Palm Beach Lakes store and his wife were the ones who invited us to join. Should be great fun!

Basketball: Monday nights have become our bball nights. It is so fun to get back out on the court again. We play with about 10 other people from church or just friends we know. There is no better exercise either. The only way anyone could get me to run that hard for 2 hours straight is to put a ball in my hand.

Good to Great: I just started reading “Good to Great” and it is such an amazing book. I really love it. Even though it’s directed toward the professional, business world it applies to every area of life. I highly recommend it but I know most of you have probably already read it.

Well I think that’s all I have for now. At least I wrote something!

I am fascinated with childhood.

A child at play can stop me. I lose my to-do list, set aside my busyness and am captivated by the freedom and wonder only a child contains.

I’ve made a conscious choice never to lose my child-likeness. If there’s opportunity to play, to create, to lose myself in the moment, never do I want to be too sophisticated.

Jesus calls us to become like little children. What a strange command that is. We rush over that many times, thinking he simply means we need faith like a child. While that’s true, I think there’s more.

May we become like children.

Free of burdens. Free of time. Free of worried thoughts, cluttering our minds. Free to create with crayons, or paint, or blocks what’s in our imaginations. Free to play with muddy knees and sweaty foreheads. Free to crawl up on daddy’s lap. Free to dance and twirl and sing our hearts out. Free to completely trust.

When we become like that, when we we become that free, then as Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” And only Jesus can make us that free.

One of my favorite books is Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water where she writes, “When we are like little children, then we retain our ability to be creators, our willingness to be open, to believe. Only the most mature of us are able to be childlike. And to be able to be childlike involves memory; we must never forget any part of ourselves. As of this writing I am sixty-one years old in chronology. But I am not an isolated, chronological numerical statistic. I am sixty-one, and I am also four, and twelve, and fifteen, and twenty-three, and thirty-one, and forty-five, and…and…and… If we lose any part of ourselves, we are thereby diminished. If I cannot be thirteen and sixty-one simultaneously, part of me has been taken away.”

How many people do you know who have forgotten part of themselves? They’ve forgotten to remember.

But I am the sum of each moment of my life. I’m allowed to see the world through my four-year old eyes. I can experience my husband with the same freshness of my sixteen year-old heart. I’m able to examine a newborn puppy with the wonder of my two-year old senses.

So I give you permission to skip in public, laugh without hesitation and sing at the top of your lungs. Maybe when we start to let go, we’ll be found again by the Creator of this universe who so badly wants us to crawl up on His lap and call him Daddy.

Please keep my dad in prayer. He had surgery today for his second knee replacement since the first didn’t exactly take. I don’t even know what that makes the total number of surgeries for this knee. He’s out of surgery and the doctors found out that he has arthrofibrosis which is what has been causing all the extreme pain and scar tissue build-up.

Right now he has 100% motion which is great. Now, what we really need to pray for is that this arthrofibrosis thing doesn’t come back and he doesn’t get any new scar tissue build-up.

It’s not been a fun road for him for the past 6 months or for the past 30 years he’s dealt with this knee for that matter. So I know he would really appreciate your prayers.

This is Howard.

Howard is my new friend.

These are all of Howard’s other friends.

Today was a BIG DAY for me. I love penguins and I have always dreamed of meeting one. For our 2nd anniversary, Andrew took me up to Sea World and arranged for a little penguin encounter for me. We walked into this room and they were so close! Penguins! Then, I was given the chance to meet Howard. He was awesome. It was a great day

The end.

Our small group is always finding an excuse to do something fun together. So one guy in our group was like, “uh… we should top the end of the book off with a sweet 80s party.” No hesitation. Absolutely. 

My friend Melissa and I started planning and we were off. Two trips to Wal-Mart, two dollar stores, a couple Goodwill trips and a final trip to the party store later and we were done. We decked the place out with all sorts of 80s fun. Some of it just became childhood fun since we were all little kids in the 80s. 

We had slinkies, kool-aid squeeze its, slap bracelets, strawberry short cake puzzle, star wars pinata, ring pops, old school mario on the wii, lots of outdoor Nerf fun, hula-hoops, yoohoos, orange crush, ice pops and much more. It was the works. Topped off with an amazing playlist and some crazy outfits, we had a great 80s bash. 

Oh yeah, and we ended the night with a giant, 100 ft. slip-n-slide into the ocean just for fun. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. Reminiscence with me.  

Since I wrote the last post about rest, I got my hands on a book called Enjoy the Silence. It has completely changed my time with the Lord each morning. The premise of the book is a practice called Lectio Divina.

The first step is Lectio: a deep reading. Reading slowly. Taking a text from the Bible and slowing down to listen to it. Refusing to be hurried.

The second step is meditatio. Savoring, considering, chewing on what God has to say. Picturing the scene and listening with your heart.

Step three: Oratio, talking to God. This is the part of the process I’m used to. I’m good at telling God what’s on my mind. But even this is different. Instead of focusing on just anything that I want to say to God, I specifically respond to what God has told me. My chance to respond in obedience.

The last step is contemplatio. Resting in the presence of God. This has become my favorite part. We share the silence together, basking in the presence of my Father.

In the preface of the book this was one of the lines that jumped out to me: “The reason most of us don’t set aside a few minutes every day to enter the throne room of almighty God is we’re not very confident we’ll get to meet him.” If I was truly convinced that I could spend time with the King of this universe, I would be up every morning, and not just present but anxious, excited.

And after beginning this book, I can say that I feel like every morning I have truly met with the King. I’m not just reading and then talking to God. I’ve realized that He wants to speak to me. I just have to stay still and silent long enough to hear. There are so many new things He has revealed to me since I started this book, and it’s only been 3 days of it.

Day one was Luke 8:4-15, Day two: Jeremiah 31:16-25 and Day three: Isaiah 6:1-8

Enjoy the silence.

So often we crowd ourselves, leaving no room for air. Our humanity is lost among the noise we constantly run towards. The T.V. is on, the phone ringing, our schedule is maxed. We’re terrified to rest. To be with just ourselves. What are we so afraid of? If our souls are bare and we are quiet long enough to be alone, do we trust in God to be enough?

The price of consumption is too high. It’s waste. Pure waste of something deeper: discovering who we are and the God who speaks to us in whispers.

In honor of The Office coming back this Thursday, here are some of the best lines of all time.

1. Michael: Your advice was good, but Jan’s was bigger.

2. Jim: Question: Which bear is best? FALSE: Black bear. Fact:Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica

3. Michael: You’ll notice, I didn’t have anybody being Arab. I thought that would be too explosive, uh, no pun intended. But I just thought, “too soon” for Arabs, maybe next year. You know, the ball’s in their court.

4. Dwight Shrute: Let me describe the perfect date: I take her out to a nice dinner. She looks amazing. Some guy tries to hit on her… now he wants to fight- so I grab him- I throw him into the jukebox! Then the other ninja’s got a knife, he comes at me, we grapple, I turn his knife on him. Blood on the dance floor. She’s scared now. I take her home. I’m holding her in my arms. I reach in for a kiss… I hear something in the leaves, I flip her around, she gets a poison arrow right in her back. She was in on it the whole time… but I knew.

5. *From the episode when Michael burns his foot on the George Forman grill:
Michael Scott: Can I ask you all a question? Do you know what it’s like to be disabled?
Phyllis: I had scoliosis as a girl
Michael Scott: Never heard of it. No, a real disability, not a woman’s trouble.
Creed: When I was a teenager, I was in an iron-lung.
Michael Scott: What? How- how old are you? The point is: I am the only one here who has a legitimate disability. Although I am sure Stanley has had his fair share of obstacles. 

6. Michael Scott: Alright let me ask you this, tell me if you think this is creative. When I was five, I imagined that there was such a thing as a unicorn. And this was before I had even heard of one, or seen one. I just drew a picture, of a horse, that could fly over rainbows, and a had a huge spike in its head. I was five! Five-years-old. Couldn’t even talk yet.

7. Michael Scott: I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!
Oscar: Hey, I just wanted you to know, that you can’t just say the word bankruptcy and expect anything to happen.
Michael Scott: I didn’t say it, I declared it.

8. From Diversity Day, Michael: In the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘If you are a racist, we will attack you with the North.’

9. From the Office basketball game: Michael: OK, so, let’s put together a starting line-up, shall we? Stanley of course.

10. Michael: So Phyllis is basically saying, “Hey Michael, I know you did a lot to help the office this year but I only care about you a homemade oven mitt’s worth.” I gave Ryan an iPod.

11. Dwight: The Shrutes have their own traditions. We usually marry standing in our own graves. Makes the funerals very romantic, but the weddings are a bleak affair.

12. Dwight: When my mother was pregnant with me, they did an ultrasound and found she was having twins. When they did another ultrasound a few weeks later, they discovered, that I had resorbed the other fetus. Do I regret this? No, I believe his tissue has made me stronger. I now have the strength of a grown man and a little baby.

13. Michael: I love inside jokes. I’d like to be a part of one some day

14. Dwight: It appears that the website has become alive. This happens to computers and robots sometimes. Am I scared of a stupid computer? Please. The computer should be scared of me. I have been salesman of the month for 13 of the last 12 months. You heard me right. I did so well last February that Corporate gave me two plaques in lieu of a pay raise.

15. Andy: I’m petrified of nipple chaffing. Once it starts it is a vicious circle… you have sensitive nipples, they chaff, so they become more sensitive, so they chaff more. So I take precautions

What are some of your favorites? I know I’m forgetting some…

Today is a very special day (well I’m actually posting this on Monday, but I mean Tuesday!). And not just because it’s April Fool’s Day. It is my wonderful father’s birthday. And what better reason to do a “why I love post….” than this?

1. His sense of humor. My dad has always been able to find the humor in everything. Life is a joy for him, and that joy is contagious to everyone around him. He can make anyone feel comfortable because he can make anyone laugh. He never takes life too seriously and has fun no matter what situation he is in.

2. I have never met a more supportive person. My dad has always been my #1 fan, and it is hard for me to remember one sporting event, competition, speech or any special occasion in my life that my dad wasn’t at growing up. Every tennis match, basketball game, cross country race, academic achievement, speaking opportunity… you name it, he was there. This quality rings true throughout every relationship my dad has. He is such an encourager and can always find the positive aspects in a person’s life, and he is able to accentuate those positives unlike any other person I’ve met. Every one in my dad’s life knows that he’s got their back and that he truly believes in them.

3. His commitment to his family. My dad was the best father a kid could have growing up, especially a daughter. He was out in the backyard every night throwing baseballs, shooting hoops or riding bikes. Much of the confidence I have today, I attribute to my dad. And it wasn’t rocket science either; he just spent time with us. I always knew (and still do) that I am valuable and special because I knew my dad WANTED to spend time with me. I’ve seen so many girls give their hearts, bodies and emotions out way too easily because they’re seeking out the love from a man that their father never gave them. I can’t thank my dad enough for making me feel so valued and worthy of something special.

4. He is wise. Whenever I have a decision to make, I’m feeling exhausted or I just need someone to give me some guidance, I can always trust my dad to steer me in the right direction. He’s one of those people that just get it. He can put any situation into perspective and make it seem like it’s not as hard as I initially thought. There’s no sense in making a mountain out of a mole hill, right dad? And even when it comes to other people, my dad always has solid, Biblical advice that he is able to simply and clearly communicate to others.

5. He is the reason I have a wonderful, loving husband. With my dad as the standard, I always knew God had an amazing man in mind for me. I watched my dad work hard, serve my mom, keep his faith first and be consistently committed to his family. And now, guess what? I have a husband who works hard, loves and serves me, keeps the main thing the main thing and is deeply committed to his family. I am truly thankful my father set the bar high.

Dad, thanks for being such an amazing man and father. I’ve always known I’m loved, proud of and could do anything I put my mind to because of you. Thank you for taking time to invest in your faith and you family. I first knew that God was real and loving because of what He did in your and mom’s life. Thank you for always being transparent. I love you so much and I wish I could be there today. Keep lookin up! and oh yeah… Phillipians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”