Pump it up

Ate Heids asked me something today: 

Ate Heids: “Aemi, Why do you worship?”

SHE CALLED ME AEMI!? What is this?!! (Aemi is my twin sister, if you’re a bit lost right now).

So after we’ve cleared up this little confusion, I was really hesitant to answer initially.  First of all, I had an essay to do, if I was to get intense, I’d rather it all be poured out on my essay and maybe get a HD for it. (ha sif!) Second, I was just not ready for that. Something so simple hey…Seriously Ate Heids, really, do you really want me to answer now?!

But I did and it led me back to this revelation I had a few months back (and if you love biology, hello, double bonus for you):

There are two ways (that I know of) to get the heart pumping faster than normal: one is when we exert force such as when we do exercises or any physical activities; two is under situations where we get excited or scared and adrenaline is released. In both cases, your body starts to need more oxygen and so an increase in oxygen level is crucial. To answer to that need, your heart starts to beats faster to get the oxygenated blood from your lungs to get to our oxygen-deprived muscles faster. 

And this was the most interesting thing that caught my eye: As our blood flow speeds up, our blood vessels expand considerably to accomodate more blood. When I was reading up on this, I was asking, “God what are you trying to say to me?” It’s so funny; when you ask, he’s always so excited to answer. I was on YouTube that time, listening to praise songs, and guess what song I was led to? It’s this song by avalon called OXYGEN.

HA! Coincidence? I think not! Here’s the chorus:

“You are my oxygen
I breathe You in
I breathe You out
You are my oxygen
You are my love
You are what life’s about”

And so it hit me: just as our bodies need more oxygen, when we desire MORE of God, our capacity to RECEIVE expands as well.

 And this is why I worship: when I abandon everything I hold on to and lay myself out there, I cease to exist, and I start living.

My challenge for you guys today, when you worship, do so with your heart pumping, your mind open, your soul screaming and as if everything in you is expanding for more of him.

I finally walked down the aisle.

It’s you.
And I knew where I belonged all along.
No words can say, but these tears exclaim
that who I am is yours,
and I’ll give my whole heart
to the one who loved me first.
Your face,
my brokenness;
your joy
my vow;
“It’s always been you.”

(The other married lady. Hehe love you Ally!)

Resting

In the interval of the combat, the warrior rests.
He often spends days on end doing nothing, because his heart needs that.
But his intuition remains alert. He does not commit the capital sin of Sloth, because he knows where that can lead to: the tepid feeling of Sunday afternoons, when time passes – and nothing else.
The warrior calls this “cemetery peace.” He recalls an extract from the Apocalypse: I curse you because you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot! But since you’re tepid, I shall vomit you from my mouth.

A warrior rests and laughs. But he is always attentive and ready to act.

Taken from Paulo Coelho’s blog.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the responsibilities of our daily lives, sometimes we need to just stop and rest our hearts. Not so we could stop doing, but so we could listen. Listen to the desires of our hearts that we so often end up suppressing that it starts to kill us slowly.

Rest a while, young warrior, and live.