God's Masterpiece

So I'm sure all of you know who Jordin Sparks is. In case you don't know, she was the season 6 winner of American Idol, and put out a self-titled album that has some chart topping hits on it. One song that slides under the radar that I want to talk about is her song titled "God Loves Ugly." Since I'm sure a lot of folks haven't heard the song before, I'll sum it up for you: Basically Jordin has been told that she's not pretty or special and it affects the way she sees herself and reflects her insecurities. The chorus goes on to say the God loves ugly and takes ugly to turn it into something beautiful. When I first listened to this song I thought to myself "wow, that's kind of a downer" but after actually listening to the song you hear that she finds comfort in God, and God gives us strength to believe in ourselves, and once we're happy and comfortable with who we are then other people will see that confidence and see the beauty that God sees. Relating to this subject, I want to talk about a video I saw on a retreat last month. It was called "God's Chisel" and talked about how God is always "chiseling" us to ultimately be great reflections of Jesus. In the video, there were two guys. One played the role of God, and the other played the role of a guy, let's call him Tim (I think that was his name). God took a chisel and cut off all the parts in Tim's life that needed to be chiseled, such as pride and greed. After God hit him with the chisel even slowly, Tim would shout out in pain saying "Ouch God, that hurts, just give me time, let's take a break." Whenever the guys says it's too painful, or he needs a break, God would say "it's more painful for me." God wants to chisel away the areas in our life that, frankly, are junk. This chiseling is a life long process and is painful. God loves us so much and He knows how hard it is for us to change and when we hurt, God hurts. God doesn't want us or anybody else calling ourselves "junk" because He made each and every person, and God doesn't make mistakes, you are His masterpiece. He doesn't like it when you think of yourself as ugly, because He doesn't see that, as Sparks says in her song. So what areas in your life can God chisel? Will you allow Him to perform this chiseling process? Know that no matter what God loves you, and you are His masterpiece.

Life is a Dance Floor, and God is the DJ

So your at a party dancing the night away, but who's controlling what music you dance to? The DJ, right? He controls how fast or slow you go, whether you stop, start, sometimes he'll play your favorite song, sometimes your least favorite song.
Let's turn this into an analogy, shall we? Just for kicks, lets compare the dance floor to life. Free to do whatever you feel like doing. Sometimes in life, your having the time of your life (like dancing to the electric slide or the Thriller dance). Then sometimes, life can just drag by, or be a little boring (like the slow dancing). Everything that we do in life is controlled by God, He is our DJ. He brings us joy, comforts us, guides us, gives us strength. He has a plan for every single one of us. If we let Him into our lives, He will show us the way to have a great eternal life.
Listen to God's "music" (advice, I guess would be a good word) and He promises great things. I'm going to quote a song by Rihanna that I suppose can tie together this analogy: "Let the bass from the speakers run through your sneakers/move both your feet and run to the beat" In other words: Listen and watch for what God has in store for you, accept Him, and follow through!

I'd love to hear any one's opinions on my little analogy, so speak up!