My 101 :)

So after a two month process of creating and finishing this list, I am finally posting my 101... 101 things I want to do in 1001 days. Here is a little explanation of the whole idea of making a 101...

Creating your own 1001 Day Project

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

So here it is...

1. Get a tattoo.
2. Blog once a week for at least 6 months.
3. Fix a Thanksgiving dinner.
4. Run a half-marathon.
5. Vote for Jesus.
6. Speak only Spanish at Pancho’s one night.
7. Go to Africa.
8. Learn to whistle.
9. Not eat sweets for 6 months.
10. Buy a Spanish worship CD.
11. Go to a Hillsong concert.
12. Hike the Chimneys.
13. Own a bike.
14. Make some type of mural with my friends pictures on it with ways to attach and take off prayer needs (I can see it in my head :) ).
15. Read the Bible from cover to cover.
16. Graduate from college.
17. Go back to Monte Cristi.
18. Buy some TOMS.
19. Buy a Just Feed One t-shirt.
20. Get dreads.
21. Learn to play “Kingdom” on my guitar.
22. Make a t-shirt quilt.
23. Send a package to my Dominican loves.
24. Go sky-diving.
25. Share the Gospel in a different language.
26. Go to Flagstaff… and the Grand Canyon.
27. Learn to drink black coffee.
28. Get a mac.
29. Sell something that I have created.
30. Go to Niagra Falls.
31. Finish Ragamuffin Gospel.
32. Become a vegetarian for 6 months.
33. Go white-water rafting… for real this time.
34. Spend a weekend in a cabin, just me and God.
35. Hike a good portion of the Appalachian Trail.
36. Take a Greyhound to New York City.
37. Write my parents a letter sharing my heart.
38. Get another ear piercing.
39. Play in a thunderstorm and not care about electrocution.
40. See the completion of the orphanage in the D.R.
41. Become “pen-pals?” with someone in prison.
42. Never go more than a month without blogging.
43. Make and eat a “tres leches” cake.
44. Visit the Simple Way.
45. Make a wall-sized map that dry-erase markers can be used on.
46. Put my story on my blog.
47. Tie-dye another t-shirt.
48. Try sushi.
49. Go snowboarding.
50. Read Jesus for President.
51. Make my own peanut butter chocolate chunk ice cream.
52. Pull off surprising the pants off of Stephanie.
53. Finish this list.
54. Get my own coffee maker and use it.
55. Go on a hot-air balloon ride.
56. Make a scrapbook of life with my God-given friends.
57. Plant a garden.
58. Carve a pumpkin.
59. Figure out how to make a good “newsboy cap.”
60. Live in a big, but old, house with all my girls.
61. Mod Podge a coffee/end table.
62. Eat a hot brown.
63. Memorize a chapter in the Bible.
64. Paint something that shows my dreams.
65. Get a copy of The Message.
66. Join the Mocha Club.
67. Get a hammock to hang from my ceiling.
68. Unpack my room at the new house.
69. Make all of my Christmas presents one year.
70. Pay for a stranger’s dinner.
71. Find a place to play Bingo at.
72. Get a milkshake at Culver’s.
73. Drive a moped.
74. Go on a completely spontaneous road trip.
75. Ride the trolley in Knoxville.
76. Watch Blood Diamond.
77. Hike Mt. Le Conte and spend the night at the top.
78. Make a picture frame out of coiled newspaper.
79. Knit or crochet a blanket.
80. Go to Trino’s and get a calzone.
81. Learn how to put a spare tire on my car.
82. Go to a show/random activity in Gatlinburg.
83. Order something besides the chipotle chicken sandwich at Panera.
84. Go to a college football game.
85. Learn how to make some quality queso.
86. Assign pictures to my friends in my phone that I talk to on a regular basis.
87. Ride in the back of a truck in the states.
88. Live somewhere semi-permanently that is not at college or back home.
89. Be there for the opening of Juja Java.
90. Start and keep a journal solely for favorite verses and quotes.
91. Go camping again (but this time, pitch my own tent)
92. Start a spare change jar that all change must go in.
93. Create something for my wall that has “The Vision” written on it.
94. Go bowling with the ATL homies.
95. Finish an entire sudoku book.
96. Eat at Lynn’s Paradise Café.
97. Find and watch Thunder from a cool spot away from the craziness.
98. Go tubing/wakeboarding/water skiing on a lake.
99. Get new wheels for my rollerblades… or just get new rollerblades period.
100. Travel the west coast… California, Oregon, etc.
101. Learn to drive a stick shift.

~oh, and the ones in blue are the ones that I have accomplished... they will change colors along the way :)

matchbox cars...

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
James 4:13-16

It's funny how just when you think you have given God your matchbox cars (things that you haven't quite fully surrendered yet) He reminds you that you are still holding onto them a little too tightly.

It seems that the story of my life is people asking me what I am going to do with my life come May. This isn't necessarily a bad question, but I definitely don't know the answer to it. And sometimes in an effort to "protect me" or "look out for me" people try to figure my life out for me. It all results in me being discouraged and feeling like I have to have some definite answer to give people...

Which brings me back to the matchbox cars. Somewhere along the way of people freaking out that I don't know where I am going to be, I have tried to make a plan. And while that plan may change every week, it is still my relentless efforts to somehow decide where I will be when college is no more... all the while God is whispering in my ear that He knows... that my plans will fail, but His will prevail... that in patient waiting, answers will come... and that His vision for me is far greater than anything I could possibly try to "plan."

So here I am... attempting once again to give this matchbox car of "where I will be in May" to God. I haven't a clue where I will end up, but my Creator knows and I am resting in the peace that comes with understanding that. And while God is weaving together a perfect vision for my life, I will continue to chase after His dreams and His purpose for me... holding out my matchbox cars to Him along the way.

God is goooood :)

1 Peter 2:9-12

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.


God has just been rocking my world... How amazing that God called us! That He chose us as His people... I feel so unworthy to be called by name by the God of the universe. But HE counts us worthy! And He has called us out of the darkness that our lives would be without Him... we have HOPE (stef :) ) in Him! And we are living in the light of Christ... we are FREE and ALIVE in Him! We are no longer held by the chains and bondage of sin... Jesus has released us and we have gained life through the Spirit. Ahhh! I just can't get over the fact that we are given the chance to truly live and love by our Savior. And I love the last part of this verse... that we are strangers in this world... NO WONDER we are feeling so out of place... we weren't meant to call this world our home... people weren't meant to understand the lives we are living... afterall, do we really think people understood Jesus?!? when He was eating with the sinners, talking to the prostitutes, breaking Jewish laws by healing on the Sabbath... we are meant to look like our Savior... and that is not gonna be accepted by this world. But we are called to look, breathe, hear, talk, and smell like our Christ... that though people may think we are crazy... they will see the way we live our lives and the way we are transformed by Jesus... and eventually they will see God. ahhh! I love our God so much! He has transformed my life... and now I am on this incredible journey to seek His face more and more... and to live and love and show Jesus like my life depended on it...


Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay WIDE-AWAKE in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life DEPENDED on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—ENCORES to the end of time. Oh, yes!

1 Peter 4:7-11 (the message)


*On a side note... I have the greatest friends in the whole world :)

FREE THE FOOL!!!!

Beloved...

My Beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away...

Song of Solomon 2:10

So my new tat is pretty much the story of what God is doing in my life. He is constantly whispering my worth to Him in my ear. Saying that I am His beloved and He is mine. I am overwhelmed by the love that God has for His children. I have screwed up so much, but God continues to pursue me no matter what the circumstances are. He is constantly pouring out His perfect love when I don't deserve an ounce of it. I am amazed at the fact that God knows each of His children so well... and is constantly chasing after them with a love that can't be explained. We are His beloved children.

You love like a Father,

You love like a brother,

You love like a lion,

Fierce like no other,

You violently chase me,

Down to embrace me,

Englulfing me in who You are.

Give me Your eyes so I can see...

God's been doing something crazy in my heart that I can't even begin to explain. For months I have been praying that God would give me a glimpse of what He sees, that He would make my heart break for what breaks His, that He would show me how to love His people, that He would bring me to tears for His people... And it's simply incredible because I am seeing Him opening my eyes to who He is in amazing ways. For the past few months, I have found myself being judgmental towards the rich, the proud, and the apathetic. I wanted so bad for them to see the Jesus that I know and love... but in the process I was growing angry that they didn't understand. But God has been transforming my heart and using love to motivate me. While I am still frustrated, my frustration rises from an intense desire to spread the fire and passion of my Savior. I am frustrated at what the world has become and how Satan has stolen passion for Jesus from people's hearts. But Jesus is alive, and has been constantly reminding me that He is in control. Frustration gets me no where. And I am just as screwed up. I fail Jesus all the time, but He continues to pursue me with a love that I can't understand.

I don't cry often... not much at all really. But I have been praying that God would bring me to tears for Him and His people. And He is bringing me this passion for His people that is uncontrollable. I was talking with some people today and my heart was broken from the fact that their hearts were so closed off. Their hearts have been hardened by Satan and this messed up world. They have closed themselves off from Jesus and everyone else. And my heart broke. I left from talking with them and cried. My heart was experiencing this love for people that I don't even know... people who I want to know Jesus so badly... and I haven't been able to shake the tears today. I was so frustrated that God's children are experiencing all this pain and heartache that has brought them to the places they are today. I wanted so badly to open their eyes to the love and hope of Jesus.

I can't ever imagine the way that God's heart is breaking for us. He loves us with a love that we will never grasp or understand. And if my heart is breaking, I know His must be breaking 5 billion times more. I just pray that He will continue to allow me little glimpses of His unchanging and ever present LOVE for His children.

Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give me your love for humanity.
Give me your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Give me Your eyes so I can see.
...thanks Christie :)