Priorities, Priorities..

I saw this on a blog today and just wanted to share.

"It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street, and the entire G8 Summit can't find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases."

- Bono

(Source: The American Prospect blog)


I don't know who is to blame for the shift in priorities, and I'm sure there is more to the issue than I realize, but a switch needs to occur. NOW. We need to get this right. We have to get this one right.

Lord, help us.

Remember this post? If not, take a look then followup with this story.

Honestly, I don't even know how this all got stirred, but some friends had coffee and decided we wanted to do something that mattered by using something we liked and believed in. TOMS was something we all agreed on. We went into planning mode and 2 months later, a "Style your Sole" event was hosted. We saw some really cool people in our little town come together and say with their actions "people matter. we care". We were blown away. At the end of the night, we had 8 pairs of baby TOMS in our hands with the mission "give them away as He leads you". There was no agenda, it wasn't about who would hand them out or what organization could use them/send them best. It was simply: SHARE THESE as you see the need. Since I was headed to Africa, I got to be the messenger/carrier of these precious gifts.. certainly a humbling opportunity. If you kept up with my blog while I was there, you were one of the ones praying for God to arrange a meeting with the children that would wear these special shoes and that would forever carry with them a piece of their brothers and sisters across the ocean.

Well.. He provided homes for these well-designed, well-loved gifts.

Take a look:

Nondumiso in Spear's shoes

Joy-Joy in Em's shoes

Girlie in Ging's shoes

Andiwe in Jason's shoes
In Kaleigh, Katie, and Amanda's shoes

The last two pictures are of a little boy I met in the slums of Manzini. He was very shy, didn't make any noise and was rarely seen with any facial expression. We visited him every day and he never seemed pleasant. When the other kids were climbing on us/wiping their snot on us/braiding our hair/beating each other up, he walked alone.. never showing excitement for play.
Then, as the Holy Spirit CLEARLY led us, we gave him these TOM'S. He went on his way, and five minutes later, when attempting to get one of our girls out of the street, I found him. This is what he was doing:

The Lord speaks to me through that video every time. I wish I could live in little moments like that. That little boy's whole demeanor changed! In that moment, I am 100% confident, he knew God. He knew of His love, His compassion. He knew in that moment that the Lord had not forgotten him.

I want to dance in thankfulness when the Lord provides. I want joy like this.

This is what it's all about.






Thanks for making this happen.. for him, for all these kiddos.. and for me.

Love like you've been forgiven.

* ok, so i feel like i need to preface this post by saying im not trying to make a habit out of super spiritual (whatever that even means) blogging. if you're wondering where sassy, opinionated lee has gone.. she's still here. next tiem i'll try to blog about somethign more entertaining like my celebrity crush or my favorite new recipe or the elections (probably not the last one). but for now..


you know when you tell someone "i'll call you later" or "i'll email you!" or "i promise, I WILL text you that info as soon as..."

well.. im super good at those phrases. I use them ALL THE TIME. however, im super BAD at fulfilling them. They are so easy to just throw out there with no meaning or truth to them at all.

I've been promising by the moon and stars that I'd contact this friend of mine, and I could never seem to follow through on my word. We needed to discuss some things of pretty grand significance, yet I could never just commit myself to sitting down and putting my fingers on the keys (i mean, i didn't even have to really 'talk' to him.. all I had to do was take the easy road of communication and type him this stuff..) . I'd send little texts to him like "im sorry, i promise im going to write you as soon as I get home today" or "are you even still my friend? i know i told you 86 times i'd write you and I haven't.. but i PROMISE I'm not going to bed tonight until its done". I actually took time out of my day to apologize for not doing it, instead of using that time to write the freakin' email.

I'm LAME.

So after yet another apology message, I get this reply from him..

"dear friend, quit apologizing. quit thinking that i'm mad at you, and quit asking me if we're still friends.

it's your pride thinking for you if you think our friendship or my love for you are based on what you DO.

and PLEASE don't get caught in the cycle of thinking that you're somehow less worthy of being friends with someone because you haven't been acting like their friend. the less worthy you think you are, the less likely you are to act like a friend, and the cycle goes deeper and deeper.

so REST your heart. calm your anxieties, and remember that your debts have already been paid. you are forgiven and, more than that, you are counted as PERFECT because of Christ in you.



Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and it bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning.

(Lamentations 3:19-23a)"

DANG. I just got knocked right on my butt.

He told me, huh? Talk about sticking it straight...



I'm so thankful for friends that love me despite my failures and shortcomings and lack of repsonsibility to do as I say. I count myself blessed knowing that they see me through a cross that wipes all of my messes clean. I'm so grateful that they are slow to judge me but are quick to show me grace.. And you know what I've come to realize? You know the ONLY reason they even have the slightest interest in being friends with a sometimes-crappy friend like me? Because they are all to familiar with messing up and falling full of blame at the feet of a forgiving God. They have been forgiven, freeing them to forgive. My friend and I's story is the practical application of Luke 7:47. She that "had been forgiven of much, loved much... but those who have not been forgiven, love little". My friends were able to love me, because they have felt and experienced the love of a Father, who found them, and undeservingly made beauty out of all their crap.

Luke 6:37. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

I want to forgive like I've been forgiven. I want that love that comes only through being set free from guilt.


To have people in your life who just get truth is an unbelievable, humbling, thing and it is unreal to me that the Lord sees me worthy to call these people my friends.

Your mercies are new every morning. Praise You for that, sweet Lord.

The More I Seek You

I've found lately that the songs that move me to the heart of God aren't always necessarily sung in church. There have been times recently that the Holy Spirit speaks to me through Coldplay or JJ Heller or John Mayer. There are days when I'm driving through town and I feel His presence in the voice of James Taylor or Stevie Nicks. Nothing like cruising through town with a hand raised in praise as Gladys Knight blares out "Midnight Train".

What is a "worship" song anyways? Isn't it a heart cry.. a response to the greatness of our Maker and His creation? Whether thats people, places, things..?

Sure, Gladys isn't singing Hallelujah, but somethign about that song brings up raw, real emotions for me and reminds me to surrender all of me to the Lord. There is something about James Taylor that makes all of creation come alive to me. That's worship, right? I guess there are no rules that say "It is only a worship song if it is sung by Tomlin, Crowder, or Hillsong". Truth is, it's not as if someone said that James Taylor can't move me... if anything, I'm the very one who puts them in categories and limits those songs to the boxes i have designated them for.


However, there is one of those " real worship" songs (again, whatever that is..)that consistently ushers me to the Throne. It is written and sung by Kari Jobe, a worship leader for the Dallas-based Christ For the Nations. I heard it for the first time last summer in Swaziland. I remember running into the hut right after we got home that day... and frantically scribbling the lines that had struck me and gripped me so tight. They are honest words, and I experience such joy in knowing that people all over the world have intimate encounters with the Lord like Kari expressed in this song:

The More I seek You
The More I find you
the more I find you
The more I love you

I want to sit at you feet
drink from the cup in your hands
lay back against you and breath
feel your heartbeat
this love is so deep
it's more than I can stand
I melt in your peace
it's overwhelming

What a sweet meeting with our Jesus. Resting in Him. Drinking from His cup... delighting in the very things that please Him! Refilling- Refuling- being refreshed by the life-giving nourishment we only find in Him. Feeling His heartbeat.. the one that rejoices in each of our salvations.. the one that beats frantically for the prostitutes and their victims... the heart that beats wildly for the orphans and the diseased. To rest with The One whose love is so deep you can't even express it- physically or emotionally. The kind of love that leaves you parlayzed with awe and reverence. The peace that comes in knowing that sitting in His arms or resting in His will is your one safe place, your one refuge from all the chaos in life. The place that offers you hope and life amidst that messy divorce or cancer diagnosis.
It's overwhelming, all right. To me, overwhelming is an understatement. Is there a more weighty word than overwhelmed? If so, I'd use it.

I dont know about you, but this girl captured the very essence of time spent with the Father. Let us seek Him and find Him.. let us then love Him with a deeper, more raging love.



a amazingly talented friend of mine, jerel (you'll see his back), and i actually kinda recorded this song in our prayer chapel last fall. it's no kari jobe, but maybe you get the idea. if not, download it.. its WORTH it (Kari Jobe "The More I Seek You" - CFN'S Glorious CD)

do any of you have songs that move you to Him? "Real" worship? Random?