2/4: coming back to the heart of worship

yikes!  i gotta catch up...i think im 4 days behind.  blogging is a lot more tiresome than i thought.

so that friday morning, katie invited me to sample these 2 new cakes from sweetwaters in exchange for a video recording of my reaction of these cakes for their website.  walking over to sweetwaters, bundled up and listening to some indie rock music, i felt...on top-of-the-world.  its actually pretty embarrassing to admit this....but i literally thought i was the bomb, klunking down huron street with tattered boots, a frayed green coat, and mismatched gloves, jamming to sia.  yikes.  idk...there were a lot of prideful thoughts running through my head.  the past week was great in terms of quality time with God, quality meals with people, and a general feeling of life-is-awesome-God-is-awesome.  which shamefully translated to I-am-awesome.  now that i look back, i have no idea why i would have attributed any of God's goodness to myself, but i did.  i guess sin is just that ridiculous and irrational.  gosh - what is wrong with me?  my heart is so quick to be self-focused and self-centered.  but what I love about our God is that He's a father of correction and He gives us the room to correct ourselves.  just a mere 5 minutes of walking with this pride, and the song "Heart of Worship" by Matt Redman rang into my headphones.

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
All about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You Jesus


oh gosh.  God reminded me of who i was and what i was doing in that moment.  i'm thankful that God opened my eyes that morning and allowed me to see how i was making this day and this past week about myself, when it was and is and will always be all about Him.  I'm sorry, Lord for what I made it.  It's all about You.  It's all about You.  thank You, Jesus, for reminding me.


anyways, in lighter news, the cakes i sampled at sweetwaters were ridiculously good.  and when i say ridiculously, i mean that this is not some ploy by sweetwaters -- this is the little girl in me squealing at the recollection of Heaven in cupcake form. 

the OMG chocolate cake.

Year of the Rabbit Passion fruit Cupcake

OMG.  Seriously...that passion fruit cupcake was out of this world.  the frosting - a white chocolate frosting - was light and not too sweet, the spongecake was soft, spongy, and fluffy, and the passion fruit curd in the center was sweet and tangy.  mmm...the memory of it is making me salivate.  the OMG chocolate cake was really good too....in 3 words, rich, decadent, and luxurious.  the chocolate literally covered my whole throat, and when i was trying to make this high-pitched squeal during filming, it came out as this strange gurgly noise cuz of the chocolate smothering my throat. 


had lunch with jenny-tan afterwards, though i dont know how i did considering the chocolate cake was the size of a huge foot.  i made the maple glazed chicken i had made for nellie earlier this week and with the leftover mustard mashed potatoes, crafted some mashed potato pancakes/patties.  it was pretty lame...but thankfully jenny is like me in that we arent too picky when it comes to what we put in our stomachs.  

who knows what she's doing here

Maple Glazed Chicken and Mustard Mashed Potato Pancake

i'm sure there will be future posts about this very special sister in my life, so i'll save those thoughts for later.  :)


for ACCESSout that evening, we were supposed to hang out with someone who isnt from our church with the intention of inviting them out to our superbowl party.  those without such friends went to North Quad to pray over the site of our superbowl party.  so basically it was me and shlee, sitting in a study lounge in North Quad that evening, praying for our outreach event.  im thankful for that time of prayer because i realized how far away i am from that heart for the lost.  i felt like God was asking me, "lisa, what happened to your heart?  remember when you were so excited to invite your hallmates to church during your freshman and sophomore years?  what happened to that?  look where you're at now!  look at how you planned for this superbowl party - so haphazardly, without any excitement or anticipation."  ugh.  over the years, i have become so comfortable with this wonderful community that i've found, and its sad to admit i've become so apathetic about evangelism and the lost.  its horrible!  but it was a good reminder.  i think one major prayer that i have now is that God will give me a change of heart - a heart that will run after that one lost sheep, that will look for that one lost coin, that will rejoice for that one prodigal son who comes home running. 


had some life group sisters over after prayer at North Quad.  we watched "Shakespeare in Love" together and baked cookies for our brothers for the upcoming V-Day.  i forgot how much i love the movie "Shakespeare in Love."  its a fun and intelligent romantic comedy.  i feel like u dont really see romantic comedies that are cleverly written and executed like "Shakespeare in Love" anymore.  i mean, really...did anyone see the trailer for "Just Go With It" with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston?  are they kidding me?


even though it was only a few of us together, i had a great time with these life group sisters.  i really love these girls.  i know i dont nearly show it enough, but i really do love them.  and i know that this love doesnt come from the flesh - it doesnt come from the fact that we have so much in common (2 of the girls are 5 years younger than me!!!!) or the fact that we have similar personalities (another is an engineer!).   i know for sure that this love that flows out of my heart comes from God and God alone.  theres no other way.  i remember when i met some of these girls at the beginning of the year....there were so many differences, whether in our personalities, interests, and even cultures.  but over the past year, my heart has been growing deeper in love with these sisters, and that friday night, i seriously felt my heart swell in love for them.  i can tell that they are so loved by God and that they are so precious to Him, and i hope that all of them know that too.  i think thats one of the awesome things about life group ministry -- Christ fills your heart for love for His people, and its a love that you can conjure on your own accord. 

 

im thankful for the God who gives us the opportunity to come back to the heart of worship every single day.  im thankful for the God who created desserts like passion fruit cupcakes.  im thankful for the God who loves the lost.  im thankful for the God who's given me this silly, effusive love for my life group girlies.  and finally, im thankful for clever, intelligent, well-written romantic comedies.