Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

I love music. I cannot carry a tune, but I still love to sing and wish I had a voice. I believe that those who can sing have a most precious form of worshipping our God. Music is just good for my soul. I can listen to just about anything, but I tend to listen to a lot of country and contemporary Christian. Lately my two favorite songs are shockingly from those genres; "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" by Tracy Lawrence and "The Only Thing" by Ronnie Freeman.

Both songs are so applicable to my life. I feel as though relating songs to your life is really cheesy, but so is blogging so here goes. "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" by Tracy Lawrence is just one of those feel good songs. I love the beat and my favorite line is, "Never stop to think 'What's in it for me?' or 'It's way to far.' They just show on up with their big ol' hearts. You find out who your friends are." Daily I am amazed by the Lord's greatness, but lately I have seen His majesty through my friends. My friends are like no other, I feel as though sometimes they can move mountains with their words. They each have a unique way loving me. I am so blessed for the many ways they encourage me. They are all unique and bring a special perspective to the table; they give me such joy. My friends speak truth to my heart and sanity to my mind. They are life giving and allow me to flourish in my strengths. I have been writing recently about the strengths of my friends and how they enrich my life. I took several words to describe the "bests" in my life: they are my examples, they are my protectors, they are my biggest fans and cheerleaders, they are sweet and have such gentle spirits, they are my heros, and my sanity. They are amazing!

My other favorite song to sing along to right now is Ronnie Freeman's, "The Only Thing." My favorite verse reads:

If you could walk the hallways of my heart
And see things as they really are
I wonder if you might be surprised
Seeing faded walls of pride and fear
Rooms I've filled with faithless tears
And corners where I've stood in compromise
But you'd see the work His grace has done
You'd know just how far I've come

I think I love this verse for its reality. I am quick to recognize my outward sin. I repent quickly for lies, harsh words, things that are evident to those around me, but so slow to recognize the deep sin of my heart. I confess I am a fearful and prideful human being, and one rarely fearful of the one thing I should be, the Lord. My heart is often filled with ugly sin and I am repeatedly brought to tears as Satan uses my fear to break me. I argued, begged and pridefully told the Lord how my plan was better. It has only been in the recent weeks how I have seen His grace squash my fears, and I have learned to trust in Him alone. I refused to trust Jesus and feared until I was literally sick. Now I see the greatness of trusting in his sovereignty. His plan is so much better, it's amazing how far I have come. It is true, "The only thing that's good in me is Jesus."

What is Normal?

What is normal? I have been away from my blog for over a week now and have been dying to come back, but my thoughts have prevented me from one clear post. So, I decided to take the plunge and hopefully all that is up in my crazy head will come out in blog posts over the next few days.

The past two weeks I have begged the Lord to make my life "normal." Well needless to say I think I hear him laughing at me. My God has a huge sense of humor and we love to laugh. So, as I beg him to make my life normal he is smiling. Well, today in my usual daily ritual of blog stalking, I started with Katherine Wolf's Mom's Blog. IT IS AMAZING!!! I usually cry every time I read it, but I leave reading her blog remembering how great the Lord is to me. Today her post was titled "The New Normal." I think she wrote it just for me. (Side note: She and her family are experiencing extreme pain; I hope I never have to experience, I can only imagine their normal will never be the same.) One of my favorite parts was Mrs. Arnold quoting, "Normal is just a setting on your dryer!" How completely perfect! God did not intend for us to be normal or ordinary or live comfortable lives. He called us to throw all that aside, for the cross was not "normal." Why would I want my life to be normal? Jesus led an extraordinary life, not a normal life.

Well, I did the most not normal thing this weekend! I went to Chicago! I bought my plane ticket Thursday morning and flew out Friday night. It was a fun filled weekend in the Windy City with Mary Kneeland and Lauren. This past weekend was also the Air and Water Show in Chicago. 

Explanation: Military and recreation aircraft are constantly flying over the city and the great lake. If you have never had the pleasure of being in Chicago during this time, you are missing out. During several meals I thought an F-16 was literally coming through the front door and while walking the streets I thought we should probably duck for missiles. It was unreal. Despite the war zone, we had several amazing meals, walked miles through the city, decorated birthday cakes, hit up some amazing sales, and spent great time laughing and enjoying a beautiful weekend. I could definitely live there in the summer, but NOT in the winter. Thank you Mary and LaLa for having me, I can't wait to go back!

So my life may not be normal, but as God has proven time and again, my life is pretty great! I am not suffering from massive brain damage (as is Katherine Wolf), I am not sitting in a chemo chair every week like my precious grandfather does, and I do not go to bed hungry at night like 1/8 of the children in the United States. I am abundantly blessed, I am a sinner saved by grace.

"The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst."

1 Timothy 1:14-15

Forever Cardinal and Straw

As a resident of Auburn, Alabama my life is changing dramatically next week. Recruitment begins. My usually quiet pedicure establishment was overrun by girls in Nike running shorts and t-shirts adorned with Greek letters, this was the first sign of things to come. I was secretly sad as I was sitting there watching these girls and realizing my time had passed, but as soon as that thought hit me, I remembered the realities of rush and was not so sad. Someone might think why is Alley writing about this, however, I spent, if my count of pre-rush is correct, 37 days of my life in recruitment.

My freshman year I was a rushee, or a potential new member as they are called now. I was ignorant, naive, and blindly stupid. I ran through rush like it was one big party. Little did I know what happened on the other side. A year later, I was given the privilege to grace the other side. I have never been more tired, more disappointed in the human race or happier to be in one place for over a week with my best friends.

Some of my favorite memories of rush were bonding with Marye Beasley. I swear to this day she wished she had been a Chi O. ☺ Beas I hope you read this. Coming through the door at Chi O to see Avery’s sweet face and knowing that she was the reason I wanted to be a Chi O. On the other side, I loved skit day! I loved the summer before rush my senior year and getting ready with Laura and Katherine. I think we were pretty much obsessed. I loved getting the opportunity to speak on Pref Day and tell three of my best friends how much I loved them! The highlight of my days in rush was praying with our board during recruitment. I know it can be a most painful process on both sides of the field, but the Lord can use it all. We only hoped that the decisions we made were accurate in judgment and that the Lord’s will would prevail. So now that this is getting cheesy, I am going to wrap up.

I am not hiding it anymore. I am sad I won’t be participating in recruitment. I know Laura Parsons feels the same way, because she told me today. No more IWT’s, or lost voices, or late niters hanging a canoe from the ceiling. I will resign myself to g-chatting with Laura, Emily, and Katherine (my still obsessed friends- yes I called you out too) about how rush is going and the rumors we are hearing. I guess if I could do it again, I do it just the same, and I would make sure Mary Kneeland Metcalf was voted rush chair.