BAHAHAHA!!!

I have composed several blog posts in my head lately and have been itching to start blogging again to get those thoughts out of my head and into written format. Otherwise my brain will become like a load of clothing tumbling around aimlessly in a dryer before it has been folded and sorted into neat and orderly piles that are due to be delivered to the appropriate household room and drawer. Because of my itch to write, I decided to take a tour of my old and juvenile posts. Boy was I in for a good chuckle.It made me think of all the little isms of being young. The lovely innocence and untamed zest for life mixed with inexperience and a sense of being invincible are only some of those isms. As it stands it has been 4 YEARS since I last wrote and so much has happened. I won't bore you with all the nitty gritty details but will give you a brief synopsis so as to set the stage of future blogs. In 2008-2009 I joined a traveling performing arts team with the goal of learning about and sharing the love of Jesus to audiences both young and old. I believe I received said love far more than I shared which is typical for short term missions. In the nine months I was on team I learned to live in community with 8 other girls and 4 boys. We traveled to the Canadian West Coast as well as the prairies and then took our talents to Rwanda and England. My soul found a home with the people I met in Rwanda and I also found my voice during this time. Some of my most precious and impacting and healing moments can be found in that season. In 2009-2010 I developed my skills in the "Technology of Fashion" which included the design and construction process of creating clothing. God then gifted me with the start of a romance with the man I would later marry- Jesse. After graduating the design program (which I took as an adult at a high-school/trade-school in Winnipeg) I began to look for work. God gifted me with a job at the prestigious Royal Winnipeg Ballet as a humble sewer in the Wardrobe Department. Shortly after that the CF moved Jesse to Fredericton, New Brunswick and our baby relationship graduated to a whole new level as we began the 'long distance' season. Throughout these years I was leading music at my church and also volunteering with the youth program that my church offered. Also somewhere in that season I started to perform my own compositions (songs) at open mics and other small venues. This was one of the most busy seasons of my life. Thanksgiving weekend of 2011 my circumstances changed dramatically when I happily married the love of my life and the next day moved to Alliston, Ontario, up-rooting myself from everyone, and everything I had known to start this new chapter with him. 5 months later, after meeting some lovely people we moved to the other end of the country-landing in our current home- Victoria, BC. We have been living here now for 3 years. In our Victoria chapter so far I have worked at a 'hole-in-the-wall' type coffee shop/grocery store, started and executed a business in designing and selling women's clothes at markets and the most exciting thing that has happened is that I had a baby! Most of my blog posts from here on in will be heavily influenced by this new and life-changing experience called motherhood. Consider yourselves warned. :)

Quotes of all Shapes.

~Be still and know that I am God.

~Carpe-Diem! (Sieze the Day!)

~Start with the positives, then the negatives.

~There are very few things in life that are worth fighting about.

~To be mimicked is the most authentic form of flattery.

~SIMPLIFY! SIMPLIFY! SIMPLIFY!

~Don't try to understand me! Just love me!

~What to say about all these unsayables?

~Chocolate makes my clothes shrink.

~Hope and faith are focused and things greater; things beyond. Love is our reaction.

~I don't want to be crippled from action by fear of failure.

~Most things work the same at a micro level as at a macro level.

~Did Adam and Eve have belly-buttons?

~This too shall pass.

~The forgetting of God inevitably places us right back where we need Him again.

~Be someone worth remembering

~Following Christ is like riding a bike. If you are not going anywhere you fall off.

~Our marriage was made in heaven. So was thunder and lightning.

~If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie-wipe the seatie.

~Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required.

~The life you live today is the life you live.

~If you think the same thought about an issue more than once you are likely worrying about it.

~ Focus on the things you can do and not the things you can not.

~Contentedness is not a product of circumstances but one of a positive, optimistic, contented attitude. It is a choice.

Dandelions

I wrote a blog titled 'Fake Plants'. I was thinking again about fake plants but this time I was thinking about real plants too. I like real plants. I like Hydrangea flowers, wild sunflowers, large acacia trees, large any tree and sometimes even dandelions. The thing that crossed my mind was that I desire something real but at the same time there is a big difference between reality and roses.
I am 21 years old now. I know that is not old and that I am just at the start of my adult life. My sister told me once that 20's are hard. I did not really put much thought into it when she said it but I am finding that she was right. This is the time in life where you set the foundations to a certain degree for the rest of your life. That seems like a pretty significant task. The more I dig into life and see what this whole living thing is all about, the more I realize life is not always roses. Nope, it is reality. It is disappointing sometimes. Disappointing that adults struggle with the same things that teenagers do. Disappointing that it all gets more complicated. Disappointing that people are still starving (in all senses of the word). Disappointing that I still can not seem to be the person I desire to be, and disappointing that life is not rainbows and chocolates. That seems like a whole lot of disappointment.
Now why is that way? I want reality but reality seems to let me down sometimes. My dad once said that in some ways the quality of life for people measures down to how they deal with disappointment (however he said it much more eloquently). I think there is a lot of truth in that. Life can be hard, so how do we deal with it?
I mentioned dandelions earlier. They seem to make their way into our lives the same what reality tends to strike. No one really loves dandelions after the point at which they no longer are good candidates for picking for your mother. They are a weed. However, have you ever looked at a lawn that is nicely speckled with yellow dandelions. Although they are ill-intended (if that is a word) there is something slightly lovely about them. How can it be that something that seems to cause so much trouble can actually have a hint of beauty to it? I think it can. I think it does. I think it is the same in life. We live in a cursed world, full of hardship and struggle. But none the less a loving God has still given us grace and hope. I see it all the time in the beautiful things all around. Reality may strike, but look around you! The world is filled with beauty! I desire to hang on to the one who created all the beauty, the one who wont lie to me about what life really has to offer.
I am having trouble in my mind pulling all these thoughts together. Perhaps I am missing the punchline. I think what I am trying to say is, I still don't like fake plants. I still want is reality. In the difficulty it I still want to find hope and beauty. Maybe, I should learn to enjoy the dandelions.

p.s. I hope that made sense but I feel like maybe it did not. Those who know me know that this is the story of my life.

Tried Tested and True

It is late again but I have found that once again just before I would like to be asleep my brain turns on and begins to think. I am sure I am not the only one who is wide awake when I should be getting sleepy. :)

I have found myself on this cold winters night thinking about genuine love and relationships. I have been thinking about how the two end up very directly in relationship to each other. I have been in several meaningful relationships. I am not just talking about romantic ones.

Take a moment to think about your relationships. Who are your best friends? Who is your closest companion? Who are your acquaintance's?

Now take a moment to think about why those relationships hold the status that they do. In my life, my most meaningful relationships have been time, tested and true. My parents and family have put up with me through thick and thin. My closest friends have been the ones who have been accepting of me and I of them in hard and good times. These are the people that I have laughed with, cried with, resolved conflict with, and done dishes with.worked many hours to resolve conflict with. These are the relationships that have been tested.

I am not talking about fluffy feelings. I am not talking about affection. I am talking about genuine, profound, action love. The kind of love that could only be inspired by a being who has a heart that is love.

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Wow! Either directly or indirectly every single adjective about love comes into play as an antidote to broken relationships. Could it be possible that discovering genuine love is really a series of tests? I mean, in most relationships, a lack of understanding of love or not responding in love is what breaks people apart. But when you come up against a situation where you choose to 'love' then you gain a more deep relationship but also a deeper understanding of genuine love. Think about it, maybe the relationships we have that are not as meaningful, or strong are the ones that have never been tested. Maybe love has not been tried in them yet.

Let me shift this to another level. We are all searching for true love. Seriously, who do you know that has no interest in finding true love. God truly loves us. He extends His love to us all the time. It seems that in the most trying times of our life we see most clearly how much we need to accept His love. When we accept it, we grow closer to an understanding of true love, we grow closer in relationship with God, we better know how to give love to others. I am having trouble fully wrapping my mind around the implications of this. Is are relationships ultimately a response to love? Think of how many ways this impacts relationships of all levels. Yikes.

All I know is that the love of God is and always be tried, tested and true. That is it.

I am not sure this makes sense at all. I am just pondering things that are bigger than me.

How do you respond when love is tested?

~Charis Vaags

Tis' The Season

As you may have noticed, I have written below two poems. They are both poems that a little bit fit with where I am at this Christmas Season. I am struggling to ignore the darkness that has so penetrated this world. I am finding it difficult to sit comfortably in my wool socks and sweater, fully loaded with Christmas baking without a second thought towards a large portion of the world. How many people have the opportunity to stop and actually celebrate Christmas? What about those who are frozen on the city streets? What about those who are fighting to survive until tomorrow, not to mention today. What about those who are losing their families to HIV Aids or war? Do most people on a global setting actually have time to think about what Christ did and what Christmas is about? I do not even know if I have taken sufficient time to meditate on that.
Why do I get to be comfortable?
I do not know the answer to why I have been graced with so much...but the only answer that seems to surface is hope. We have hope in Christ, even in the darkest circumstances we still have hope in a loving savior.
What about you; reader? What are your thoughts? Any advice or good solid theology?

Tale of Many Tales

Tales and tales of heartbreaks I hear
Though none bring true depth to what becomes clear
No words, no pictures, no stories would tell
The implications of when my heart shattered; fell.

A brewd of hungry lions less damage would do
than the pain inflicted on me by you
I refuse to drown in the ocean of tears
However my pain is the least of my fears

Explain the change that took on your heart
What stole you? Broke you? Then tore you apart?
I watched, and wept from the distance you held me
I prayed that it would leave you be.

I stare into your clouded, dull eyes
They tell tales beyond your attempted disguise
Where is the sparkle, the joy and delight
that through your eyes used to take flight?

What ales you and steals your very soul?
What has replaced the heart, the passion, the goal?
All that is worthy, noble and true
Not long has it been since those defined you.

A battle is raging within you and for you
Have your eyes been shut so you can't see through?
Someone is longing to protect you from harm
To guide you away from the devils charm.

I beg you to turn, to remember His love
To remember the hope beyond and above
A hope and a future;gifts that He offers
A hand to hold in a pit full of scoffers

Your heart, your soul, allow His love to save
Let Him rescue you from the place which you are enslaved
Focus your eyes back on truth and on life
Not on futile pleasures which bring endless strife. *

~Charis Vaags

Broken Unknown

This is where the rubber hits the road
All that is common is overload
Her timing in life has been misplaced
to her surroundings, she is disgrace

Does anyone hear her crying?
Does anyone know her pain?
Or does it all go unnoticed?
Does her spirit sink to a place of shame?

This is where she can't feel her toes
Under the winter-bitten bridge where she's stowed
Warn out finger gloves all full of holes
The shelter's free blanket wont keep out the cold

Can you see the frost bite;
Her skin pale white?
Do you realize how much
she tries to put up a fight?

If you meet her some day
what is it you will say?
Or will you walk by?
Will you pretend it's okay?

Read the story behind her broken eyes
Trace the lines on her face
Where are they from?
They speak no lies.

Who will tell the story
of the un-kept
the unknown,
unwanted
reject?

~Charis Vaags

Fake Plants

Hmmm...Let me ask you a question. What do you think about fake plants? Are you the type who likes to add a little green to your surroundings but do not want to have to water and care for green things that actually breath and drink? Or are you someone who loves to have a jungle in your front room? Big plants, small plants, exotic plants, red plants blue plants? What is your take on the situation?

I am personally a non-fan of fake plants. I like plants, they make living space feel clean to me. I find it nice to have something that is recycling and utilizing the air that you breath out. How cool is that. I like to have something that grows, and is pretty. Plants do not have a soul but they are alive. It is so nice to know that an inanimate object like a plant has still been given structure and ability to function. What is even more amazing is that there is the ultimate of creativity and science who has thought all this up.

I think sometimes we miss the point. What kind of mindset was formed prior to manufacturing fake plants? Why would we settle for a cop out of what has been created for us. Personally I would much rather immerse myself in God's intriguing creation than to settle on a fake version of it.

How many things in life are like this? How many things are we settling for sub-par levels on? Do we skirt around having real relationships and settle for shallowness? Do we strive to do the bare minimum rather than trying to be as productive in the life we have been given as possible? So we settle for fast food rather than taking full advantage of a nutritious meal? Do we watch movies rather than discovering our own story? Do we settle for an image that someone else has set and paint our faces before going out each morning? It would seem there are a lot of subjects in life in which we choose the fake. I do not know.

I really am not against people who like fake plants, or eat fast food, or even wear makeup. I do wonder why we do what we do. What worldview lingers at the root of these practices? I think it is a good thing to pull things up by the root and look at them. I apologize if I am rambling....but I think that that is what a blog is for not?

Enjoy your greenery!
*

Mama We! A cha cha cha!

Sometimes I like to pull out the very little kinyarwandan that I know just to add a little bit of diversity. The title directly translated means " Whoa Mama...hiyiyi".

If you are reading this, you have most likely noticed that I have only just began to post again since like 2 years ago. I was just reading some of my old posts and boy do things sure change. Watching others as well as yourself grow up in and interesting thing. It seems to happen very fast. Any of you with younger siblings would no exactly how this feels.

I sometimes like to look at where I have been and see where I am now because it enables me to be more thankful for how Christ has brought me so far. And in a few years it will be even farther. Just a thought.

It is good to take a minute to realize how much there is to be thankful. This blog is called Jubilation way. A way that is to be sought out and found. But it is a way of joy in it's most genuine form. Only a regular interaction with Jesus can manufacture this true joy. So here I am, continuing onward in the way of Joy, sometimes straying from it but still going.