Feeling blessed, giving back, and living with compassion

I've been feeling very inspired and blessed lately. After what couldn't have been a better 24th birthday and looking through pictures of my first bridal shower, I am reminded of how wonderful life truly is. I'm not living in Japan with the threat of radiation poison looming over me, I'm not an orphan without family, I'm not physically sick or hurt in any way. I'll be the first to admit that I can let the little speed bumps in life get to me and forget how lucky (this is the only other word I can think of besides blessed!) I really am. This makes me think of Francesca Battistelli's newest song, This Is The Stuff, where she sings, "In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I'm blessed." I am so grateful for the countless ways God shows His love, even when I lose focus!

A couple of weeks ago, my director at work sent me the link to a speech called, "This Is Water," by David Foster Wallace, which was given at the 2005 commencement ceremony Kenyon College. It is a wonderful 20ish minute speech about living a conscious, compassionate life, both as an educated person and as a Christian. If you haven't heard this speech, please, please let me encourage you to listen to it! I'll post the links below. It is absolutely motivating and is the best commencement speech I've ever listened to. One line in particular really stood out to me and challenged me in my daily life, in the way I work with clients, in the way I communicate with friends and family, etc. Wallace said,

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad, petty little unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated and understanding how to think.

You have to listen to the entire speech to fully understand this statement in its context, but for some reason this quote hit me like a ton of bricks. Freedom isn't money, fine clothes, or prestige. It's about being aware of those around you and striving to make a difference in their lives. As previously stated, I've been feeling incredibly blessed. But what does any of this matter if I'm not giving blessings back to others and showing them the love that Christ has so graciously shown me? This is where the inspired part comes in. God's blessings have now inspired me to give back to others in "petty little unsexy ways every day." Just some food for thought.

"This Is Water" links:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5THXa_H_N8
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSAzbSQqals

And now I'll leave you with this, my favorite passage that I read as a religion minor in college (and I read A LOT!). It is from The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), a document of the Reformed Christian faith. It says,

We learn that we are to be patient in adversity, grateful in the midst of blessing, and to trust our faithful God and Father for the future, assured that no creature shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot even move.

I just love this quote. It doesn't quite go with the rest of the blog post, but I don't care. I love to share it with people any chance I get!

  

How has God blessed you lately? How have you given back? Are you striving to live a conscious, compassionate life on a daily basis? Again, just some food for thought. :)

In the grip of grace,
Sara

All Things New

I have so many exciting happenings to share with you, my friends!

First of all, GREAT NEWS!!! I've found a new job!!!! I am now an account executive for KRIS Communications. This company owns 7 media platforms, including the local news stations KRIS 6 News (NBC) and Action 10 News (CBS). I will be selling advertising for these 7 platforms and assisting local businesses with their marketing strategies. Last Friday, just a couple hours after accepting the job, my girlfriends here in Corpus Christi took me out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate. I was given a black rhinestone pimp cup that read "Loaded" on the side of it (HA!) and a sweet card signed by everyone. Tonight, Luke and I had dinner at Cheddar's with our best couple friends, Jay and Morgan, to celebrate my new job. Needless to say, I feel extremely blessed and surrounded by people that love and support me. I start my new job on Monday and I'm super pumped up about it!

{Me and my pimp cup. Thanks friends!}

I'm also going to continue freelancing, but as a blogger! Remember my old job with The One Bride Guide? Well, I'm now going to be writing for The One Bride Guide Blog. Besides writing the normal weekly blog posts that talk about cool DIY projects, color schemes, etc., I get to pick one day a week that will serve as my own personal "column," so to speak. Monica (the creative mastermind behind this fabulous wedding magazine) has told me that I can call this weekly blog post whatever I'd like. For example (and for lack of a better example), if I decide to write my column on Fridays, it could be called, "Fridays With Sara." I am now taking any and all suggestions! What do you think I should call my personal weekly blog post on The One Bride Guide Blog? 

{Have I mentioned that the new October issue just hit stands? Well, it has and it's awesome!}

The reason I did not start my new job(s) this week is because I am currently in the middle of a very special project. I was asked to serve someone in a very unique way this week. The Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra has its first concert of the season this Saturday. A young man by the name of Nobuyuki Tsujii will be performing with the symphony. He is from Japan, a year younger than me, has been blind since birth, and is a musical genius. I have been driving him and his translators back and forth between their hotel and his practice room this week and I must say that this experience has truly been an honor. "Nobu," as this young man has asked me to call him, is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. He sits in the front seat of my car during each trip we make and tries very hard to talk as much English with me as possible because he wants to learn. He asks me to visit Japan and I ask him many questions about his native country. He loves to swim at his hotel pool and has told me about how much he likes to ride horses. Nobu will practice the piano for five or six hours straight without stopping. This is crazy to me! He has played two pieces for me already and I can't wait to watch his performance on Saturday. People may look at what I'm doing and think, "Oh, she is just chauffeuring this guy around. No big deal." But to me, I feel like this is one of the coolest opportunities I've ever been given. Nobu is such a happy person and his blindness does not seem to affect the joy he has in life. He is currently on a nation-wide tour of the states and nothing is holding him back from living every moment to the fullest. Spending time with Nobu has been an amazing opportunity and has challenged me to be thankful for very little bit of my life.

{Nobuyuki Tsujii}    

In addition to all of the cool things I have already mentioned, I have one more "cool" thing to add: THIS WEATHER! I am absolutely in love with it! I wish it could be 82 degrees in Corpus Christi forever. Today, my friend Sarah and I took our dogs on a walk on the bay front. It was so nice to be in such a pretty part of town next to the water. Once again, this reminded me of how blessed I am to live in such a beautiful place and have such wonderful people in my life, including my crazy puppy dog! I've included a little picture of Brooklyn and Molly enjoying their walk on the bay front this afternoon for you to get the full picture of their friendship. They're pretty cute together!

{Little puppy, bug puppy. Friends forever!}

Alright, its late and way past my bedtime. Time for this blogger to go to bed. I hope you all are having a fabulous week so far and have a fun weekend to look forward to. Before I end this post, I want to share a verse with you that has been on my heart lately. I don't know where you are in life right now, but I hope this blesses you in one way or another. Goodnight friends.

"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." -Revelation 21:5

I Don't Want To Grow Up

So, I have been thinking alot about how after this semester I only have a year and a half left of school and it sort of scares me. I'm not ready to be a grown up yet. I love living with four of my best friends! I love being able to pick up and go do whatever I want to! I love not having to work and being able to skip class. When you are a grown-up, you can't just skip work and you definitely can't always do whatever you want. And once you get married, your four best friends can't live with you anymore. These are depressing thoughts, aren't they?! Well, all silliness aside, I really have been thiking about how college has flashed before my eyes and soon enough, it will be over. I do, however, think it is good that I have come to this realization because it has made me value that much more my friendships, late nights, crazy adventures, and the love that I have surrounding me at Bayor. It's funny how I hated being at Baylor my freshman year and now I can't imagine letting it go. I am going to submerge myself in college life and cherish every moment.

My Soul Cometh Alive

I have been so blessed the past couple of days to have some very special people stop by my life on their way to other destinations. God knew exactly what I was going to need when I was going to need it (of course) and my soul has come alive, once again, for the people and the places I love.

Yesturday Shaune, Tyler, and Kristie drove through Waco on their way back to Zephyr from the Conclave convention in Ft. Worth. They took me to dinner at Olive Garden and the dinner conversation was so familiar and comforting. We talked about camp and the amazing things God is doing out there right now; we talked about family, friends, our lives. It was like a breath of fresh air to spend time with these people. I love my Zephyr family more than they will ever know and so much of the good in me is because of what they have taught me about God's love and His ministry.

Today, which happened to be an extrememly drizzly day, was brightened for me by the smile of a sweet little girl named Gabi Graves. The Graves family, Justin, Michelle and Gabi, were also on their way back home, but to San Antonio, from the Conclave convention and stopped to take me to lunch at Wendy's. I have missed that precious family so much! It felt as if we had never been apart. Then we went to one of the many Baylor Spirit Shops where they bought Gabi a Baylor Bears t-shirt. She calls me "Sara Poopeck" now because I taught her what her poopeck is and I love that she call me this! (If you don't know, just ask!)I loved catching up with them and talking about next summer. I'm so motivated to serve the Lord even more now because of this family's example of obedience to and love of God. Life is better because I know them.

Thank you God for the way that you re-motivate me and remind me why I do what I do. Thanks for these amazing people that you have placed in my life and for the way that they have expanded my heart to hold so much more love than I could have ever imagined. I don't know what I'd do without them and their friendships. Please bless these people as they continue to serve you and reunite us all again soon. In Jesus' name, Amen.

I miss Zephyr. I want to go home now.

Family

This weekend my mom, dad, and two little sisters came to visit me in Waco. Mom and Becca came up Saturday morning and Dad and Claire came up Saturday early evening. I got to show everyone my new house for next year and they all watched me perform in SING. I went shopping Saturday afternoon with Mom and Becca and it was SO much fun! I really realized this weekend how much I miss my family and how blessed I am to have them in my life. It is easy to forget how much they mean to me when I get all tangled up in my own life and I just don't live at home anymore. I actually almost cried today when I said goodbye to them because I did not want them to go. It is so weird; when I still lived at home I never thought that God would bring us to this point. They drove me crazy when I was in high school. I guess that is all of us maturing a little. I'm so proud to be the daughter of John and Julie Martisek and the oldest sister to Emily, Claire and Becca Martisek. I cannot wait until Spring Break so that I can hang out with them more!! I also look into the future and see all of us girls married with kids and carrying on the tradition of love that my family has grown. I'm so proud of my family, our strength, and our love for one another. Thank you God for the blessing that my family is to me and I just pray that we will continue to make You the center of our lives. Amen.

Progressive Revelation

Today in my Christian Scriptures class, my professor, Dr. Tatum, talked about the concept of Progressive Revelation. Progressive Revelation is the idea that God reveals Himself as much as He can to us at certain times according to how much we can understand. My mind really grabbed onto this concept.

God is so much greater than we could ever fathom. I have known this since I was a little girl. There is no way that I could ever understand the depths of God's knowledge or love for His people. How amazing is it to think that God is only going to reveal to us just what He wants and needs us to know according to our knowledge so that we are not so overwhelmed by His majesty that we flip out or go crazy.

What a beautiful concept. God wants us to know Him, to have a relationship with Him and be able to converse with Him to the best of our ability. He does not want to throw His magnitude in our faces and treat us like the flecks of dust that we are. He loves us so much that, like a Father, He attempts to simplify His greatness, so that He can better show His grace and mercy.

What a mighty and passionate God we serve.

The Most Romantic Love Ever Known

To begin, the last few weeks of my life have been, well, intense, to say the least. When this semester started, I knew that taking 18 hours of school, working full time, participating in full time All University SING, taking a little in Tri Delta, singing in BRH, and just being quite awesome, I might add!, was going to be very draining and a bit stressful. However, I had no idea that I could get to this point. Sara Evelyn Martisek? Taking "being way too involved" to another level? Yes, I too could not fathom it, but it is possible, let me tell you.

Embarrassingly enough, I am now going to describe to you what I look like. I am wearing a pair of green Baylor sweatpants and a Lady Brahmas volleyball playoff t-shirt. My face has not seen make up since Monday and I only wore a little Monday night because I had a Tri Delta business meeting. I believe that my hair now has a permanent crease in it from my ponytail because that is how my hair has been worn for the past two weeks. It's disgusting really. I promise I showered last night!

Seriously though, I have been living a non-stop, crazy existence over the past couple of weeks and as of last night I could not figure out why my days felt so long and hard. However, last night at SING practice, it really hit me. Where has God been in all of this? Now the politically correct answer to this question is: right in the midst of it all. That is where God has been. Not because I've placed Him there, but because He is omniscient and omnipresent. But it hit me like a ton of bricks. The reason that I can't balance my time, the reason I am getting so frazzled over the little stuff, the reason I'm unhappy and unsatisfied with life is because I've left Him out of it. My creator, the Giver of all things good, the Reason I sing, dance, study, work, my Audience of One; I'd looked right passed Him.

After my Intro to PR class this afternoon, my professor, Maxey Parrish, and I started talking about SING, BRH, and just life in general. Maxey is the type of professor that truly invests in his students and wants to see the Lord at work in their lives. He shares God's love with all who have the honor of talking with him. Maxey had noticed how tired I looked (Maxey, if you are reading this, I was totally not offended by the fact that you noticed I did not look my best. I concur!) and asked me how I had been doing. I explained to him how exhausted I am and how busy my life has been. His next question to me only solidified what God had been telling me the night before. He asked, "How's your quite time?" This question led into what was probably the most meaningful conversation I have had with Maxey Parrish to date.

He began by reminding me that if you give God minutes He will give you hours; translated, spend time with God and He will navigate life for you. I explained to Maxey how my favorite time to talk with God are those few minutes before I go to bed every night when I can just tell Him all about my day, stresses, and worries. However, recently I had been falling asleep before I had the chance to talk with God. Being the great professor and Godly man that He is, Maxey asked me, "Sara, I know you can talk, but how well do you listen?" Honestly? Not very well.

The Bible tells us that when we are so distressed and there are no words, the Holy Spirit intervenes for us and cries out to the Lord in our place. Maxey explained to me that when we pray, if we are truly listening and are Spirit-filled, then what we hear is the Holy Spirit speaking to the God of the universe. Yes, in our heads we are praying to the Lord, but allowing the Spirit to intervene for us and listening to what God has to say is taking worship to a whole new level. God talking to Himself for us, about us, through us. What an amazing God. What an amazing love. What an amazing God.

1 John 4: 10 says, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Real love is when you have nothing to gain, but you give it up anyway. This is what God did for us. Knowing that He would get nothing in return and not asking for anything either, He gave His Son Jesus, so that we could spend eternity with Him.

Sometimes I have a tough time feeling God's love. I think that alot of it has to do with the fact that I'm a girl and girl's desire to feel loved. God loves us and shows us this love, but not in a boy/girl romantic kind of love. His love is so much greater than any earthly love. So much, that He would speak to Himself in our justification through our longing to know Him more. So much, that He would send His only Son to die on the cross for our sins. Now that's romantic.

Needless to say, God has led me stright back into His arms by allowing me to realize that I was not giving my life and plans to Him. I was trying to live my life on my own, once again. No wonder I was so stressed out! Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." Someone should tattoo that on my arm so that I will see it daily and not forget it!

Thank you God for loving me when I have needed it most and for revealing yourself to me in the most beautiful way possible. Amen.

Spanish: The Language of Slackers. Not.

So, something really funny just happened to me. Let me preface this just a little bit.

My major requires that I take four semesters of a foreign language. Being from South Texas and having already taken three years of Spanish in high school, I decided to continue my education of this language. No one told me that one of Baylor's toughest departments out of the entire college is Spanish. I've already taken two semesters; I'm currently taking Span. 2310. Sounds exciting right? Well, for this class I'm required to spend one and a half hours in the language lab every two weeks. Doesn't sound too bad. But sitting that still doing something that in no way stimulates any interest in me is pure torture. Here comes the funny part.

I signed in when I got there and decided that I would just leave early, out of intense boredom, and just put on the sign in sheet that I left and hour and a half from when I signed in. I went to sign out and this girl behind the desk walks up to me and says very sweetly, "Do I need to help you sign out?" I told her no, I could do it myself, and she said, "Well I have to initial when you sign out." I freaked. I had no idea how to play this off because I had my backpack and purse on my shoulder, ready to leave. I, a quick thinker and full of whit (or something that may rhyme with whit), said, "Oh, no thank you. I'm just going to the bathroom and I'm going to come back. I just needed a bathroom break and didn't want to leave my stuff in here unaccompanied."

Well, I did go all the way to the restroom down the hall, and laughed at myself the whole way there. Here I was, trying to beat the system and got totally rejected. I felt like an idiot. I gave God a HUGE laugh. I went back ito the lab, signed back onto the computer, and wrote this blog for the remaining fifteen minutes that I was supposed to be there.

I guess this story doesn't sound as funny as I thought it did when I started writing it, but I don't care. I'm still going to publish this post. Stupid Spanish.

God Through Miranda

The other day I was hanging out with my friend Miranda. I really like Miranda. She's a great girl who is very driven in life, loves to have fun, and has a big heart for the Lord. She's the kind of girl that I feel I can be 100% myself around because she is 100% herself with you, so real. I don't even remember what we were talking about (probably something related to Tri Delt b/c it was during rush and we are sorority sisters), but all of a sudden Miranda said, "I've decided that I'm going to work on not wanting what other people have." I thought that was a huge statement.

I really felt that God had given Miranda just those words to say to me. Sometimes I become so sick of myself because all I do is covet what other people have. God has given me all that I could ever need and more. I am so blessed to be attending Baylor, to be a Tri Delta, to have such a great family and amazing friends, to have such an amazing boyfriend, to have a job where I get to serve the Lord on a daily basis, to be so healthy, and to live such a comfortable life. And yet, I continue to want more and more. A Gucci purse, an SUV, super expensive clothes, Yurman jewelry, a super skinny body, etc. The list goes on and on. Really? I'm so sick of me.

On top of that, I worry so much about what others think of me. I worry about what my Tri Delta sisters think of me. If I'm wearing the right outfits or if I'm saying the right words. It's like I'm trying to be a clone of them. What happened to having your own brain? I worry about what other Christians think about me; if they think I'm "Christian" enough. I'm constantly trying to show people how good of a Christian I am that I'm forgetting about what serving the Lord is all about. I spend so much time trying to prove to everyone that I'm a woman of God that I forget to be. In the end, I find myself feeling like a fool, like I'm letting God down. Really? I'm so sick of me.

Miranda's words really hit me. I have decided that I am going to start making an effort to not want what others have, but want what I already have: A beautiful life that God has blessed tremendously and given to me so mercifully. I'm also going to focus more on making Jesus Christ my Audience of One. The only person that I need to be living for and pleasing is Him. And when others do look at me or judge me, all I want them to see is a daughter of the King who serves Him with her whole heart. I want to be more selfless. I talk about myself alot, when instead I should be sharing Christ's love. That's not who my Savior desires for me to be; it's not who He has created me to be.

So, I'm going to not want what others have, stop trying to live up to others expectations, and try to be less selfish. If you want to call them new year's resolutions, go for it. But I'm going to call them life goals. Thank God for friends like Miranda who do not even know God used them, but allow Him to do so anyway, and bless the lives of people like me. God works in mysterious ways. And for me, in blunt, in your face, kind of ways.

Blessings.

Sweet Selfishness

Luke 6:31 says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." As a child, these words were driven into my stubborn head. The fighting between my three little sisters and I never ceased. As little girls, the squabbling sounded like, "Stop looking at me! Mom, she won't stop looking at me!" The older we got, the more it sounded like, "I can't believe you wore my brand new sweater to school without asking me!!" No matter the tiff, my mother would continue to reiterate, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

This morning it was my turn to say these words. I'm not going to go into great detail, because as I look back on my earlier situation, I think that you all would find me a silly little girl to know the reason my feelings had been hurt. But none the less, as I left my house this morning, I had been offended by my roommate. In tears, I called multiple people to spill my guts to until finally my boyfriend Luke answered his cell phone.

As I poured my heart out to Luke, telling him about how my roommate had been so inconsiderate and rude, he listened patiently. In a very neutral way, Luke asked me if I had tried to compromise with her or ask her how she felt about the situation. "No," I thought to myself. I became very angry with Luke, feeling as if he was trying to take her side. "She is so rude and inconsiderate of my feelings! This has happened multiple times! The Bible says that we are supposed to do unto others as we would have them do unto us!" This frustrated him and after about ten minutes of arguing with each other, Luke said, "Look. I'm not picking her side. I understand what you are saying and I would have been offended too. All I'm saying is, were you treating her the way you would want to be treated? Look at it from her position. Should she live her life in accomodation to yours?"

With the same stubborn head that got me into trouble as a child so many times, I began to think about what my level-headed boyfriend had just pointed out to me. Here I was, trying to be all "Christian" and accusing my roommate of being insensitive to my feelings, when I realized that I was being a hypocrite. I should have been the bigger person, considered her feelings in the situation and treated her the way I would have wanted to be treated. I was thinking of myself as selfless, when I was the one being selfish. I absolutely hate being wrong and being wrong was staring me in the face.

If you read a little farther into Luke 6, verse 38 says, "Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full--pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back."

Sweet Selfishness.