New Respect for the Laser Show

Tonight, I partook in an Atlanta tradition. I went to the Stone Mountain Park Laser Show. This has always been a highlight of my summer, heck, I even worked there one year and sold the glowy things. I know, all parents hate people like me, cause we are the cause of them wasting their money to get their kids to stop whining. But, the Laser Show has always been near and dear to my heart. As I have gotten older, I have really realized the true redneckness of this tradition. You can always find that gross couple making out, people hooping and hollering for songs such as Rocky Top, Sweet Home Alabama, and the sports teams they advertise. (I definitely fall into the temptation to holler for the Dawgs) Every year, Stone Mountain tries to find new songs and new ways to attract people to the laser show and give them a "popular" song to sing along to. For more than one year, this song was that really annoying swing/jive song (one, two, three four five, everybody...). This was not a good thing and really I dreaded that part of the show. Last year, I saw the laser show twice and was pleasantly surprised to the see that the jive song got the boot and none other than NickelCreek graced the side of the mountain. Props for the laser show. I really didn't think they could top it. I really had little faith that the laser show would break into the uncharted territory that it, in fact, broke into tonight. The second or third song was. . . Okay, are you sure you are ready for this? Remember, the Laser Show is all about the USA, soldiers, the South, country music, and such. Okay, tonight, and hopefully for many future laser shows, they definitely played Beautiful Day by U2. You think I am kidding, but I am not. An Irish band, a rock band, and pretty much the greatest band of all time actually made it to the Stone Mountain Laser Show. Bono should be proud and honored, he is BIG TIME now!!!

Please Pray

Last Friday night a friend of mine was in a bad car accident near Dothan, AL. She and two others were on their way to Florida for Memorial Day weekend. My friend's name is Courtney Squibb, and she is currently in the ICU in Dothan. She is in a Coma and has a severe leg injury. The doctors are hopeful, and we are praising God that she and the other two are alive. Please pray for miraculous healing and rehabilitation for Courtney, and that through this many would see the grace and goodness of our Father. Pray for Courtney's family as they are from Dallas and are having to live in a motel. Pray also for the others in the accident that they will feel and know God during this time.

Thanks guys!

A Teddy Bear Named Courtney

I definitely had one of those, life is good, and I love what I do moments last Saturday night. For those of you who don’t know, I am a child life specialist in the Emergency Dept at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston Campus. I was working last Saturday from 1:30 until midnight, and around 7 a little girl came in. She had been in a car accident, and miraculously her only injury was a huge gash stretching across the front her head between her eyes and her eyebrows. Her nose wasn’t even broken!! Anyways, I will spare you the bloody details. When this little girl came in she really didn’t remember anything and couldn’t remember much from one minute to the next. So she asked many times what happened, and many times if her mom was there, and many times who I was. She just couldn’t remember. I gave her a teddy bear, because we always give trauma patients teddy bears, and she hugged it and it helped “keep her warm”. As the doctors were checking her out and making sure she had no other injuries, she kept asking what she was hugging and who gave it to her. She told me thank you about 5 or 6 times. I stayed with her and her family through all of the tests and then during the stitching up process. After she was stitched up, I left her with her family and met with a few more kids. Because she had a head injury, she needed to stay in the hospital overnight, so I was going to make her a goody bag to take up there. While I was with other children, they moved her up to the floor, so I took a goody bag to her room. During her CT scan, we were trying to decide what to name her teddy bear, but a decision was never reached. So while in her room, I asked her what she had decided to name it. She looked down at the bear and then back up at me, and said, “It’s name is Courtney.” So forever more this little girl will have a teddy bear named Courtney. I love kids, and I love my job!

*And by the way, by the time she was all stitched up, her memory was back, she still didn’t remember the accident, but did remember who people were and what she had been told had happened.*

Answered Prayer

You know the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don't even know what to pray for? That God knows what's on our hearts and in our minds even when we don't? And when we think a certain issue is too unimportant to actually pray about, He sees it as important and I like to think prays it for us. Well this has happened to me recently, a prayer was answered that I hadn't actually prayed for.

If you have been reading my blog, or have known me for any amount of time, you know that I have been struggling with finding community here in Atlanta. I have a desire to move out of my house and move into or near downtown Decatur. And then, form a community there. The main problem has been the lack of roommates, or even potential roommates. I have been praying some about community, but not at all about the living situation, mainly because I work part time and it will be hard to afford to live out of my parent's house. Then about two weeks ago, a girl approached me about looking for an apartment in the Perimeter Mall area. At that moment, it was clear that Decatur was where I needed to be and that God would provide somewhere, so I told her about where I was feeling led to live, and thanked her for thinking of me. I was really shocked and surprised that this particular girl would have thought of me, and was encouraged that there are possibilities. Then, a week ago, I was at a youth retreat with two other churches, and one of the youth leaders from another church told me that one of her roommates was moving out. She lives in a house about a block from downtown Decatur, and the rent is VERY reasonable. I was blown away, and amazed, that exactly what had been in the back of my mind was just thrown at me like this! God is good!! Now, I don't know if I will move in, there are still lots to consider with money being an issue, meeting the other girls in the house, and seeing the house. But, how cool that God can provide something completely out of the blue. I'm sure if I end up moving in, I'll write about it, but right now I am just so encouraged and feel more than I usually feel that God is near and the He cares about the details of my life.

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found, He is my Light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and Storm;
What heights of love, what depths of peace when fears are stilled,
When strivings cease; My Comforter, my all in all,
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless Babe
This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save
'Til on the cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid; here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay; light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious day; up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death; this is the pow'r of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand
'Til He returns or calls me home, here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand

I sang this song last night at the North Georgia Presbytery Worship Service, and it literally caused me to weep right in the middle of the song. These past few weeks I have been continually confronted by my need of the cross, and this song brought it all home to me. Read it, pray it, worship Him who it's about.