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Yesterday, I got to experience one of maybe three or four times in my 22 years that I’ve actually seen real snow. When I say “real snow”, I mean not the stuff that we pretend is snow in Texas. Which is sleet. No, this was real snow. There were fat flakes that fell from the heavens, and I caught them on my tongue, and it stuck. There were a couple inches of it, and people were able to make real snowmen. It was really neat, because we don’t get to experience something like that very often. It was fun to see everyone’s pictures, and read their facebook and twitter status updates about what they’d done in the snow, and what some of their younger kids had done and said. I even sat on a chair on my bed and watched it fall outside of my bedroom window for a while. Because honestly, it was really quite beautiful.

Today, I woke up at 10:48 a.m. to a frustrated phone call, rolled out of bed, and threw on some clothes to run an errand. When I got outside, I had to squint, because things were so bright. I wondered if the the sun was always brighter the day after a snow. Because the air seems so much cleaner. That makes a lot of sense in my head. As I read it just now though, I realize it sounds weird. So anyway, as I’m driving, I notice that a lot of the snow is melted. And I was kind of sad, because I wanted to play in it a little bit today, but that apparently wasn’t in the cards. On my way home though, I noticed that it was melted even more than when I’d left this morning. Yards were mostly bare again, and mushy and wet where large patches of snow melted. Snowmen were melted down, or had fallen over. And roofs were dripping all of the melted snow onto walkways, and flower beds. I started thinking about how gross the day after snow is. Because honestly, it really is quite ugly.

And it hit me. It’s a lot like sin. In the moment, it is fun, and beautiful, and new and enticing. You like it, you love it even. You want to play with it, and in some cases, you don’t even mind showing it off! Because it’s so great, right?! Look at what it’s doing for you. It makes you feel good. It give you the upper hand. It makes you a better person honestly.

And then reality sets in. And the newness wears off. And you feel gross. You want it gone, but it won’t go as quickly as you want it to! It’s causing problems now. It’s mucking up your life, because now you and everyone else see it for what it really is. It is a sickness. A disease even. And it is going to cost you something to get rid of it. It will probably hurt. It will not be as fun as it was at first. It will be nothing like building that snowman.

-Stippick

Probably the biggest thing I got out of my 40 Days of Water was a tweet that blood:water mission retweeted.

Beautifully put RT @justicehoney: Some see it as giving something up. I see it as being set free. This helps me get through the day

That actually helped put things in perspective for me. I may or may not do my fair share of complaining about missing flavored liquids. But the thing is, that stuff (tea, soda, coffee, beer, etc…) was allowed a certain amount of control over my life, in the sense that (this is with the tea/soda/coffee, and things like that with caffeine) my body had become physically dependent on that to make it through the day. And that is ridiculous. I long to not be controlled by outside forces other than Christ. I mean that.

No running took place today. Which, really is a shame, because this is probably the only chance I’ll have for a long time to run in the snow…I’ll catch it next time.

-Stippick

I’m going to be honest with you. On days like today, there may be no reason for you to read this stuff other than that you’re  trying to follow my full 40 Days of Water journey with blood:water mission. And if that’s you? Thanks very much, I appreciate your dedication to my ramblings about my life, and how interesting I think it is. You and I might be the only ones who think that about my life.

I digress. While I didn’t have any big revelations today due to my water drinking, I did get to share with someone why I’m drinking mostly tap water. Which, if you didn’t know, is to be a constant reminder to myself of how much easy access I have to good clean water, when the majority of the world does not. And I’d even not really thought about since day 2…or something like that. It’s a pretty big deal when you think about it.

I also went for about a 20 minute run in the park. When I collapsed afterward though, I saw this bright light, and this voice said, “Quit being such a pansy, you’re not dying.” I look up, and there is Michael Sawyer…Just kidding. He didn’t say that. But I did collapse, and complain to him for about 3 minutes.

Drink more water. And be thankful for it.

-Stippick

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I wam gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” - Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30 NASB)

Abba,

I come to you tonight so weary, and more with a heavier heart than I knew I could have. I hurt. There is a black hole that eats at my inside that I don’t want to hide from you anymore. As if I could hide it anyway though, right? You knew. You know. All along you’ve known. But while part of me runs after you, the other part still wants to keep some things to myself. So I tricked myself into thinking I could hide something from YOU. The almighty creator of everything there ever was or who be, who knows and sees all. And I would tuck it away from you. And it broke me. And I am scarred, and I am wounded, and bleeding, and crying, and scared, and broken, broken, broken. But I know you gave and broke your only Son so that in my brokenness, I could be made beautiful. To you, I am. I am your beautiful child, and you love, and there is nothing I can do that will ever make you love me less. But I feel like you do. I feel like there is no way you can look at me and see the unique creature that you created me to be. But your word tells me that is exactly what happens. I want to feel that. I know it is true deep down in my soul, but I can’t feel it tonight. Tonight I only feel far from you, and I know that it is me who has moved. Not you. You are constant, and unwavering. I am the variable in this equation. I use you when you suit me, and I put you on the shelf when you don’t. I am tired of not listening when you talk. Not acting when you convict. And not showing through my actions, words, and thoughts the man you made me to be. I want to rip this out at its roots and burn it gone. And then I want to walk by your side every day to keep it gone. Please, please, show me how. I’m begging you. I’m crying to you. I don’t cry, don’t you know that?! Please. Hear my cry.

God, please help me.

Day 5 of my 40 Days of Water journey with blood:water mission was not exactly pretty.

I decided to make it my day off. You know. Just to start with my day off being Sunday and keep it that way. Now, I didn’t go as overboard as I thought I might. I had one to go cup of Dr. Pepper, and then a can of Dr. Pepper later, and a medium strawberry Fanta. I mean. I could have gone crazy with it, but I tried to keep it mild. I think that I will probably be regretting this decision tomorrow…but today, I am content with it.

I also did not go for a run, or bike today. I will start up again tomorrow though…I am going running at 5:10 p.m. in the park with Brian and Michael. It should be interesting…

Have a great week,

Stippick

I’m not going to lie to you. The best part about Day Four of the 40 Days of Water with blood:water mission for me was finding out that this deal is a 6 days on, 1 day off deal. I have no idea how I missed that, but it seriously may have been the highlight of my week to find that out. I’m not saying I’m gonna go bananas on stuff that isn’t water on the day off…but yeah, it’ll be a nice break for sure. Maybe that means I’m weak, but…I don’t think I care.

There’s honestly not a whole lot more to report as far as anything related to my 40 Days journey. I did go for a bike ride today instead of a run, for those of you who are following that little story line. Not really sure which is more beneficial for you…but I don’t guess I care that much. I’ve done more voluntary consecutive days of physical activity in the last three days than I’ve done…probably ever. Seriously. And physically feels awful right now. But morally it’s a big one.

Here’s lookin’ at you Wednesday!

-Stippick

Flavorless.

Water is absolutely flavorless. I don’t know if you knew that about water or not, but now you do.

I hadn’t ever really thought about it much until this morning when I woke up and drank a glass. I am on day three of 40 Days of Water with the folks over at blood:water mission. So I wake up, drag myself to the kitchen, and am downing the glass of water, and my initial reaction is that I want to spit it back up. I wanted something with flavor. I needed something with flavor.

My next two reactions were these:

1) I am pathetic. It’s just water for 40 days. I should be thankful for how much water I have access to. And, It’s very western culture of me to think that everything should have “flavor”. Not just food and drink, but everything. And there should be all kinds of “flavors” so that I can find the one that I like best.

2) I was reminded of the command that Christ followers have to be the salt of the world. In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls his followers the salt of the world. I’ve heard several sermons preached on this, and I’m sure a lot of you have too…but I don’t think I got it until I got tired of the blandness of water. Salt adds flavor. As a follower of Christ, I am called to be salt. To add flavor to the world. The flavor of what? I didn’t know off the top of my head honestly. I had to think about it for a few hours, and I had to filter through some church answers until I landed on one. I need to be adding the flavor of Christ. The flavor of salvation that can only be found in Him. And that sounds like a super duper church answer. But…It’s the truth. All of my actions, words, thoughts, etc…should point to Him, and who He is, and what He offers. I was thankful for the ordinariness of my water this morning.

In other news. I went to a soccer game this evening, and it took a lot of self control not to order some hot coco to warm my body. I thought about crying. Instead, I tweeted blood:water mission to let them know I was suffering for the cause. I enjoyed the games though, I got to watch some students doing what they love to do, and I am passionate about supporting them in whatever they’re passionate about.

Then, I went to see Shutter Island on my “date” for the Shockwave Love series. While there, I ordered a Mr. Pibb…and was reminded by my date that I’m only drinking water. Twice in one nigh? That is a little sad. Shutter Island though, was an EXCELLENT movie. It may have made it into my top five movies of all time.

That’s all the happenings of Day 3 in my 40 Days of water with blood:water mission folks! Hope you had a great day!

-Stippick

I have this habit. Where when I get a new cd, I’ll start listening to it over and over. For several weeks. Especially if it’s a new artist I’m listening to. I want to feel like I know the person who is serenading me. I will listen to the cd over and over, and when someone asks me what I’m listening to and I tell them, and a few days later, they ask the same question and get the same answer, and they look at me like I’m weird. My sister doesn’t understand how I can listen to one artist over and over again. I love it though.

So anyway. A few weeks ago, I went out to Goldthwaite to lead at a Disciple Now for a friend. When I got there, I’d been listening to the new(est) Train cd, Save Me San Francisco, for about a week and a half (Credit here goes to my good friend Brett Levy). I was really enjoying it, and was kind of surprised that I’d never taken the time to check out this band before.

Like I said, I’m in Goldthwaite for this Disciple Now, and I’m having a blast hanging out with these 11th grade guys, and talking with them about what God has to say to us about love. And we’d lost a scavenger hunt, and I’d cost them 2 volleyball games out of four. But we were having a ton of fun.

The speaker for this Disciple Now was my good friend Nic Burleson, and on Saturday night, he brought his message from Luke 15. Some of the points he made were that God’s love is unwavering, God’s love is unconditional, and God’s love is unearned. He cited 2 Peter 3:9, Romans 5:8, and Isaiah 64:6 for each of these points respectively. But he said something early on, when talking about how God’s love is unwavering.

He was talking about in verse 20 where is says “But while he [the son] was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” So Nic was talking about the fact that when this son left he basically told his father, “You’re as good as dead to me, I want your money more than I want a relationship with you”, but this father never stopped loving his son. Never stopped hoping he’d come to his senses.

That line “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him…”. He’d been waiting. Every day. For God knows how long. He didn’t happen to be out on the front porch the day that son decided to come home, he was out there every day. Waiting for him. Thinking to himself, “Maybe today is the day he chooses to love me back”. And he went on to say, that’s how God feels about us. Whether we are someone who has not yet trusted fully in Jesus for salvation, or a believer who has gone off on their own. God sits in heaven and thinks “Maybe today is the day they choose to love me back”. For those of you who know me, I’m not a crier, but if I was, that certainly would have gotten me.

So I’m thinking a lot about this, and this family that I know comes to mind. And I know immediately that I’ve got to talk to the mom. Several years ago, the youngest child decided to just move out over spring break of their senior year. And it dealt a crippling blow to the family. This child and their siblings had always been close, and now they were being shut out. And their mom hadn’t been the same since. But I felt a longing to share the story of the prodigal son. And remind her that even though this hurt has been in her life for a few years now could be healed with the unwavering love of God, and to let her know not to get discouraged. Her other children don’t understand why she still hopes for her youngest to “come back home”, but I do. She is waiting day by day, so that she can see her child from a long way off and run and kiss them. She is waiting, thinking, “Maybe today is the day she chooses to love me back.”

I promise, I’m almost done. But I’ve got to bring it back to Train. That wasn’t just in there for fun.

I’m riding home, and listening to the song “Marry Me” on that cd, and the chorus comes on, and I stopped thinking about it as a song about a creeper who stares at a lady in a coffee shop, and thought. “That’s what Jesus wants.” The first part of the chorus says:

Marry me, today and every day…

God says, “Maybe today is the day they choose to love me back”, and He sends His son Jesus to say “Marry ME! Today and every day!” That is the invitation that Christ gives to us. That is why the church (believers) is called the Bride of Christ. He wants us to pick Him, choose Him, MARRY HIM! Today. And tomorrow. And next week. And next year. And from now and until forever. Today and every day.

It’s not an easy decision to make though. That marriage requires us to give up a lot of ourself, and be will to not get back much in return in this life. It calls us to love everyone. It calls us to give up the darkest parts of ourselves that our sin loves the most. But it is a marriage that is unlike anything any of us will ever experience other than that. It is a marriage that is worth the blood, sweat, and tears that have already gone into, and will continue to go into it until the day He decides to bring His Bride home and carry her over the threshold into eternal life with Him.

Lot’s of love,

Stippick

Today was Day 2 in the blood:water mission 40 Days of water. For a little more info on this, refer to the second link there.

It was not as bad as day 1. I only had one really bad head ache, and I did end up taking an excedrin migraine for it. That helped, but I did feel like it was cheating. (I’m hoping tomorrow will be the last one (If I even have to have another one), and that it will be not as severe as the one from today and yesterday.)

And speaking of cheating. I have not yet. Like I said yesterday, I was very tempted to, and today I didn’t even really have the temptation. I think part of that is the accountability issue. I would hate to let down all of my faithful followers (All 5 of you), and my friends who now know about this. In all honesty though, I think the accountability is a big part of trying to do something like this. And by that I mean…Just about anything. It helps when you’re trying to accomplish something, or reach a certain goal to have some people who are asking you about it, and trying to push you on towards it.

I also, and I am fully aware of how laughable this is, went on a run today. I mean. It probably only lasted about 15 minutes. Tops. Because that was when my body said “If you don’t stop. I will stop you.” So I decided to cool it for the day. But it felt good. Mostly. And I think I might try it again tomorrow.

I’m not sure if I’m going to be updating about this EVERY day, but I will definitely be keeping you posted throughout the process.

Cheers,

Stippick

Today was the first day in the blood:water mission 40 days of water, where they encourage you to…drink only water for 40 days. While you’re doing that, you are supposed to keep a tally of other drinks (soda, coffee, alcohol, etc) that you would have bought, and donate that at the end of the 40 days, and it goes to whatever project they’ve decided to put that money towards that year. You’re supposed to only drink tap water, and not buy bottled water. The point is to make you think about just how easily you can get water when you want it, and how much of a luxury that really is compared to the majority of the world.

So I’m trying it out. I’m not entirely positive that I’ll make it all the way through, but I’m going to make an effort. It’s not going to be easy though. Today, when I hadn’t really told anyone about it yet, I was getting really tired, and realized it was because I’d had zero caffeine so far. So I thought “Well I could just call the whole thing off and drink tea, and coffee, and soda, and no one will ever know, because I haven’t really told anyone yet.” What a pathetic attitude.

What I’ve learned from this first day is that I have a caffeine addiction (the headache is setting in as I type), and although I’m really really weak and almost gave in. I am stronger than I would have thought, because I didn’t. I told Satan to stop whispering in my ear, and kept on drinking water. Take that Devil.

So…I am looking forward to this journey, and hope that I am able to complete it. I’ll keep you posted.

-Stippick