Proving God.

“I promise, it’s true.”
“Oh yeah? Can you prove it?”

I feel like this is a pretty familiar exchange in our culture. Either you’ve asked someone to prove their statement true, or it has been asked of you. It’s in our nature to desire the tangible, the things that we can verify or make certain through a quick Google search or a trusted source. And today I realized that lately, just like wanting a friend to prove that they didn’t forget about my birthday, I’ve wanted God to prove Himself to me.

By deciding to go on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, most days I feel like I’ve taken on an impossible task and because of that, I should be rewarded for making such a “missional” decision with my life. That’s not too much to ask, is it? But this morning as I was worshipping in church, I sang the lyrics from the song “The Stand” and in the chorus it says, “And I’ll stand, my arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the One who gave it all.” And in that verse in that moment, God’s still, small voice whispered, “Brittany, I have already proven myself by giving it all.” And then it hit me: I don’t need God to prove His power or His faithfulness—He did that on Calvary and He has done that in my life. He has already given His all by giving His one and only Son. I started to cry. I was suddenly overwhelmed by what God has already done—He has defeated death, hell and the grave—for me. For you.

And no matter how many times people in my life scoff that I’ve only reached 20% of my fundraising goal (when I wanted to be at 35% by now), or tell me that I’m fighting a losing battle becoming a staff worker with a degree from the University of Illinois, God has already proven Himself bigger. God doesn’t need to prove Himself to me or to anyone else just because it would make me feel better—He already has. And I’ve realized that this desire to prove God comes out of an insecure and fearful heart that is bent on self-protection. It’s not just, “If only I had 100% of my fundraising goal now, then I could prove how good God is” but really it’s, “If only I had 100% of my fundraising goal now, then I could prove that I’m not insane for deciding to work for InterVarsity.” Woah, that’s a lot different, isn’t it? Suddenly, my real desire isn’t for God to prove Himself right, but for me to prove myself right.

How easy do I fall into this type of thinking without even realizing it! I let my fear and desire to protect myself to usurp all of God’s power and glory just so that I might feel a bit more comfortable. But there’s nothing comfortable about the gospel—God gave His one and only Son to die for our sins to prove for eternity that He holds all power and authority over our fears and insecurities. I don’t need God to prove Himself, I need for Him to continue extending His grace so that I might continue to learn how to walk in obedience and humility in the most uncomfortable circumstances, much like His Son.

The Unhygienic Journey: Day 9

I'm sitting here friends running my hands through my clean, wet hair for the first time in 9 days. It feels so good. Dare I say, even a little surreal. I've gotten so used to having my hair pulled up and pinned back that I forgot how I looked with my hair down. Never has a shower felt so refreshing. It's hard to believe that my unhygienic journey has come to an end, but here we are. :) And this is today's update:

My hair feels so light! I'm serious, friends, my hair has never felt so clean than it does now! It really does feel like it has been stripped of all its impurities. And it's blonde again...yay!

My skin feels so smooth. My scalp doesn't itch any more either! :)

I smell like a dozen roses again! :)

My mood is elated! Today was a long and tiring day, but it was nice to be able to wash all of the grime off me at the end of the day instead of going to sleep in it instead.

Thank you to all of who you followed my blog and to the 42 of you who voted that I would be able to see this challenge through to its end. It has been an honor to share my journey with you--I know that I learned a lot, but I hope that maybe you too were able to take away a few things from this experience as well. Here are a few of my concluding thoughts:

We say that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, but do we really believe that? I feel that the last 9 days were a testament to that verse! I remember telling Mike before this challenge began that there was no way I could go that long without taking a shower, but I did!

I didn't do this alone though, friends! God was walking along with me the entire way, reminding me that I am His beautiful, beloved, hand-crafted daughter who was made in His image and is an heir to the very throne of God!

I can go through the day being confident of who God has made me to be even though I'm physically dirty. My identity in Jesus and my appearance are not linked--they are totally and completely separate. My value and worth comes solely from Jesus, not from how many people do a double take when I walk by.

Jesus loves me with a love that I cannot comprehend, and when I shrink His love down to my own definition of what I think love to be, I am settling for an inaccurate picture of what Jesus' death on the cross really means. I need to love like Jesus does by His standards, not my own.

I have the best support system in the world. My friends, family, coworkers, teachers, pastors, classmates and others all were so loving during the past 9 days while I took on this rather absurd challenge. I am blessed to have you in my life. Thank you for loving before, during and after my unhygienic journey. :)

And lastly, I have taken showers for granted my entire life. I won't ever do that again.

"Give thanks to the LORD for He is good; His love endures forever." -Psalm 106:1

Amen and Amen!

The Unhygienic Journey: Day 8

I never thought I'd be saying this so soon friends, but only 24 hours remain in my unhygienic journey! The past 8 days have gone by so quickly, I can't believe it! I must admit that I am excited to get underneath the water tomorrow, friends. I have grand plans for my evening cleansing: lathering huge amounts of shampoo and soap into my hair and skin along with large amounts of shaving cream to make my legs silky smooth again. Ah, it's going to be glorious. Normally I spend about 10 minutes in the shower, but I might have to spend almost 20 minutes just to soak up all of that good water. :) But here's today's update:

My hair is like 20 shades darker than it normally is (don't let the photo above deceive you) and it is starting to look its worst. I can't stand it anymore! :)

My skin feels like it is more hydrated than it has all week! It's a bit red in places and my scalp continues to itch but the majority of it feels great!

I smell kinda blah. It suddenly got really humid today and that has not helped my attempts in staying sweet-smelling and dry. :)

My mood is overwhelmed. There's been a lot of events today that have drowned my spirits a bit, and being gross on top of it all is a little frustrating to me right now but knowing that tomorrow is the day, I can wait until then. :)

I'm going to save my final reflections for my last day of no showering tomorrow, so stay tuned for the great conclusion to The Unhygienic Journey! Thanks so much for your support, friends! You know, I was thinking back to the article that I posted about the woman in the UK who went 6 weeks without showering and her biggest complaint during her experience was that she lost so many close friends during that time of abstaining from showering. That's the biggest difference between her and I (and, of course, the extra 5 weeks of total gross-ness) but I will end this journey with the same great friends that I had when I began! Praise God!

Tomorrow's scripture comes from 1 John and is sitting in a frame in my room:

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another...Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him...There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear...We love because He first loved us." -1 John 4:11-19, excerpts

Love comes from God, friends. We only are able to love because He loved us first. The challenge is to love others with that same kind of love. Let us be image bearers of God's perfect love. Amen!

The Unhygienic Journey: Day 7

Yes, that's right friends! It has been 168 hours or 10,080 minutes or 7 days...however you want to look at it...since I have last showered! Woo hoo! As this unhygienic journey draws to a close, I must admit that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Although I won't go as far as to be "thankful" to Mike for making me do this, I am glad that I did. It has tested my willpower and has pushed my views of cleanliness and hygiene to the limit...maybe even a little too far. :) But here is how I'm doing today:

My hair feels like I gelled it back with vegetable oil. Gross. I did my "hair trick" which is featured in the above picture (notice that there isn't a ponytail holder in my hair) at cluster prayer tonight, and I think it made some of you sick to your stomachs. Sorry friends, but that is what happens when you don't shower for a week. Deal with it. ;)

My skin continues to feel the same. I actually haven't seen as many red blotches as I did a few days ago, so it may actually be even better than it was a few days ago. It actually feels smoother than it usually does. :) My scalp continues to itch though.

I smell like PAR late night. I'm actually making this up because I don't know what I smell like. It's not bad but it also isn't very distinct. But I did stop at PAR late night tonight, so I figured I must smell like it at least a little bit, right? :)

My mood is best characterized as feeling so blessed! I had such a relaxing and beautiful Easter, and I felt wrapped in the arms of my Savior today. He is alive and good!

I've been playing the song "How He Loves Us" by Kim Walker (she has the best version, friends. If you haven't heard her sing it, look it up) and it is such a beautiful song! I love singing the chorus, "Oh, He loves us, Oh how He loves us!" and just meditating on those simple words. The reflections in my last post touched a bit upon how there is this dichotomy between how God sees me and how I see myself. And that same dichotomy applies to our society's view of love and God's view of love. We see so many inaccurate portrayals of love in the media that we consume and even from our own relationships. Sometimes this kind of love leaves us feeling empty, used and worthless. Often it is seen as superficial. But that is not how God created love to be and that is not how He loves us. He loves us with a perfect love that leaves us feeling fulfilled, satisfied and valued. His love is deep and whole. Oh, how He loves us! How often do we rob God's love by using our own definitions of what it means? Let's not make that mistake, friends. That has the power to distort the perfect love of our Savior leaving us buying into a false, cheap version of what we think love is. And we will be missing out on the best love we could ever know. So tomorrow's verse for meditation is taken right from Kim Walker's song and from the Bible:

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame." -Song of Solomon 8:6

Death is permanent, friends. That's how strong it is. And that's how God's love is for us. Amen!

The Unhygienic Journey: An Imperfect Me

We meet again, friends! So I’ve been mentioning the past few days that I was going to post about my own journey with body image issues and reconciling my view of myself with God’s view as I’ve gone throughout college. Well, look no further because here it is! These are just a few collections of my thoughts and lessons that I’ve learned over the years. I hope that you enjoy them and are able to maybe see part of your own journey inside of mine.

I think my struggle with loving all of myself started early in junior high. Even in fifth grade, I was the short, blonde girl. But aside from being short, I think I had the most difficulty with finding beauty in my four missing fingernails and large scars on the front and back of my knees. For those of you who have not heard my story, I was born with a rare genetic disorder called Nail Patella Syndrome. It occurs in 1 out of every 50,000 births or so and can effect a range of developing joints and organs from birth to adulthood. I have a rather mild case of the disorder, but as a result of it I am missing four of my fingernails and was born with kneecaps about the size of quarter. Both of my kneecaps had slipped to the sides of my knees, so in kindergarten and first grade I had orthopedic corrective surgery to move them into their proper place—hence the scars.

So I think this really sets the stage for my journey. In junior high and high school I knew that these imperfections were not the norm and I tried to be careful not to bring attention them and in many ways that mentality has stayed with me throughout college. I still tend to wear clothes that hide my knees and when I do wear shorts, I feel like people’s attention is drawn to my knees. That’s probably not true in the majority of cases, but that is how insecure I can feel about my imperfections.

I think what I have learned the most about myself is that I often link these imperfections and singleness together—I don’t see them as separate, I see them as intrinsically linked. I have been single 21.5 years out of the 22 that I have been alive and I would say that the majority of the time I have learned to take great joy in the opportunities and moments that God has given me as a single woman. I have had my fair share of struggles during these 22 years, along with so many blessings! But especially throughout college and even more so now, when I see good friends getting married or enjoying and benefitting greatly from being in relationship with a guy, those thoughts of doubt can come creeping in: “Brittany, you aren’t good enough to have that kind of a relationship—you are too scarred, too short. No one really will ever want you.” The way that I view my imperfect self impacts how I view relationships that I don’t even have. How twisted is that?

And it is this realization that has helped me begin to understand how limiting, how self-restricting, how inaccurate my view of myself is. And as it has become even more real to me during these past few days of not showering, I am made in the image of God—missing fingernails, scars and all. True, I don’t know why God decided to add these things to His custom-made design of me, but He did. But God did not make these things to be obstacles that withhold me from valuing myself or valuing relationships that I can and do have with other people. Please don’t limit yourselves either, friends. God has created us to have relationship with Him and with other people to the full. Don’t believe anything else, because anything else is a lie. What we take away from ourselves, God wants so desperately to restore. Please let Him.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.” -2 Corinthians 5: 17-19

The Unhygienic Journey: Day 5

As day 5 draws to a close and I enter into day 6, I've been getting a lot of questions lately regarding what my normal routine has been while not showering. So, I thought I'd enlighten you, friends. :) I'm really trying to not do anything out of the ordinary (with the exception to that being, of course, not showering). So in the mornings after I've gotten about a half hour of extra sleep, one of the many perks of not showering every morning, I get up and get dressed like normal. And I apply deodorant under my arms and moisturizing lotion on my arms and legs--both of which I do on a fairly regular basis. I have only been washing my hands and face in the morning and the evenings and if my feet are really gross, I've been wiping them down a bit with a towel moistened with water. Other than that, I slick my hair back in the morning into its ponytail and I'm ready to go. :) I haven't used perfume and today I didn't apply any makeup. I was feeling rather "all-natural" this morning. Must be the weather. :) Here are today's updates:

My hair feels like I stuck my head under a car leaking oil. It still continues to drive me nuts, but I'm getting used to it, so I'm not noticing it as much as I did a few days ago. It helps that my bangs are pinned back and my hair is up because that keeps it away from my face so it doesn't annoy me as much as it really could be.

My skin feels itchy still and occasionally will break out into a few red patches on my arms--it's rather weird, but they go away eventually.

I smell like I normally would at this time of the day. It's really weird, friends. You would think that by now I would smell awful with not having showered, but as my roommate Bianca said, "You actually don't smell at all, I'm rather surprised."

My mood is relaxed. I think I'm settling into this no-shower thing pretty well. I have my routine down and this weekend is going to be really relaxing, so all in all I'm feeling pretty good friends. :)

I'm going to spend tomorrow blogging a bit about my journey with body image issues and my thoughts toward my appearance throughout college, so stay tuned for that! But now, it is time for bed. :)

The Unhygienic Journey: Day 4

Woah-oh, I'm halfway there! Woah-oh living on a prayer! Well friends, Bon-Jovi said it the best first, but I'm halfway through my challenge of abstaining from showering for 9 days! For those of you who have given me hugs and so much encouragement over the past few days, thank you so much for your friendly support! It means the world to me to know that I will still have good friends after this unhygienic journey is over. :) Here is today's update:

My hair feels like someone poured oil all over it. It continues to become darker and oilier than the previous day. I can honestly say that it is starting to drive me nuts and I am trying to resist the urge of shoving my head underneath every drinking fountain or body of water that I see while going about my day. :)

My skin remains the same. Still itchy and a bit blotchy in some places, but I wouldn't say that it has gotten any worse than yesterday.

I smell like my deodorant because I just had to reapply some again after a warm day under the sun. I've kept my sweating down to a bare minimum which is helping a lot during the day; however, that still doesn't mean that I don't have an urge to throw myself into the sweet-smelling cherry blossom trees lining many of the walkways around campus. For reals, friends.

My mood is excited! I am so excited that I've made it this far and right now I am writing this while two adorable high-school girls join Bianca and I in our room for a showing of High School Musical 3. :) Life doesn't get any better than this, friends...showering or not. :D

I think I was most impacted today about Phyllis LePeau's message at tonight's InterVarsity Large Group. She spoke out of John 13, where Jesus serves his disciples by washing their feet. It was kind of ironic that we spent the entire Large Group talking about how Jesus wants to wash us, including our own dirty feet when I am already dirty! I love Peter's response to Jesus after He says that if He doesn't wash Peter's feet, then Peter will have no part in Him. Peter replies, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" I identify with Peter so much right now! This idea of washing was really poignant to me because I really would like to have my feet, hands and head washed right now; however, it made me think about how we need our spiritual selves clean too. We need Jesus to wash our spiritual selves first before we can even become really clean!

What filled me with so much joy last night though is knowing that although my physical body is dirty, my spiritual body has been washed by Jesus and His death on the cross. So the most important part of me has already been washed as white as snow and everything else...well, it's just not as important. When God looks at me, He sees the work of his washing--He sees my clean and pure white spiritual self and not my physically dirty self. And although everyone else sees my dirty self, the King of Kings and my Creator sees me for who I am in Him. A daughter who has her feet, hands and head white as snow and smelling like a dozen roses. Amen!

Tomorrow's scripture comes from the Psalms:

"But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. " -Psalm 109: 21, 22

Thanks for all of your encouraging support friends, you are a blessing to me!

The Unhygienic Journey: Day 3

Well friends, I'm one day away from being almost halfway to my goal: an entire 9 days without showering! I think today marked the first day where I am starting to feel more self-conscious of my appearance. Over the course of a normal day, my thoughts rarely would turn to questioning how I look, but today I definitely noticed that there were times that I asked myself, "Do you think they can tell that I haven't washed my hair in 3 whole days?" I've been thinking a lot about how I think of myself and my own journey that I've been on regarding body image throughout college, so look for an extended post about those thoughts later this weekend! But for now, here is today's update:

My hair feels like it is starting to be plastered to my head. The breeze normally plays with the ends of my hair, tossing it every which way when I'm outside; however, today my hair stayed in it's place--very close to my head.

My skin still feels itchy and I've noticed that it is starting to get a bit blotchy in some places. Nothing too noticeable yet, but I do notice that I have been itching more than I normally would.

I smell like the faint scent of flowers leftover from the lotion that I applied this morning--I decided that I would alternate smelling like vanilla and flowers every other day since those are my only options. So no bad BO yet. :)

My mood is content. This week has been rough because I had to give my speech tonight and I have two big exams tomorrow, so I have been rather scatterbrained which I think has helped me to take my focus off of my current state of uncleanliness.

I spent my quiet time this morning reading the whole chapter of Deuteronomy 7, which is where part of the scripture I was meditating on today came from. If you haven't read Deuteronomy ever or in awhile friends, I recommend you visiting this chapter in particular sometime soon--it is so encouraging! In verses 9 and 10, there are more references to God's steadfastness. "...He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him..." A thousand generations! Just think about how many times our feelings toward people ebb and flow over the years. One day we're frustrated with a friend, the next day you realize how special they are to you. But God doesn't go through that ebb and flow--He is steadfast in His love, His faithfulness! But check out verses 6 and 7, next: "...the Lord your God has chosen you to be a special treasure above all the peoples...not because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples, but because the Lord loves you...He has redeemed you." Woah! Now if you know anything of the Israelites (the subject of these verses), they were so bad! One day they were praising God and the next they were complaining to Him (not very steadfast in their love or worship of God, eh?), but God says that they are His special treasure and that they were the least of everyone, but He chose to redeem them anyway! Chew on that for the remainder of the week, friends. Bask in God's steadfast love for you--not because you're anything great, but because He made you in His image and He wants to see you made whole.

Tomorrow's scripture comes from 2 Chronicles--there are so many great passages in the Old Testament about love, friends!

"Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the LORD your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness." -2 Chronicles 9:8

The Lord delights in you and desires for us to uphold justice and righteousness. Amen! :)

The Unhygienic Journey: Day 2

48 hours has passed friends and to be honest, I am starting to enter the "gross" phase of The Unhygienic Journey. But two quick, funny stories for you from today:

1. I was emailed today by University Housing's video producer asking me if I would be a part of a promotion video that Housing is doing for residence hall living. But when did she want to film it? THIS WEEK. I thought to myself, "You've got to be kidding me! Of all the weeks to do this she has to pick the one week of my entire life that I am not showering?!" Fortunately for me though, the times that she gave me I were unavailable for, so I conveniently rescheduled with her for next Wednesday. Conveniently, one day after this challenge is over. Praise God. :)

2. My boss walks into my office today at work and turns to one of our coworkers and says, "What smells?" Immediately I thought, "Oh my gosh, I don't smell that bad yet!" Our coworker replies, "Yeah...it smells like garlic or eggs or something." If you can picture my eyes growing to the size of saucers--that's what happened. I also discretely tried to catch a whiff of myself just to make sure. But then my boss says, "They need to get rid of that in the hallway, it's traveling through the whole building." Whew. She wasn't talking about me...yet. That did raise an idea in my head though today--should I tell my boss what I'm doing? Should I explain my semi-disheveled appearance when I'm at work next? What do you think?

My hair no longer feels light, nor does it look shiny. It has started to feel thicker and is limp, clinging to my head. It has taken on more brown hues than blonde. Ew.

My skin feels itchy. I've noticed that my scalp has been starting to itch, but the skin on my face is quite oily which I think is from all of the oils in my hair.

I smell like my vanilla scented moisturizer that I used this morning. I think this lotion is going to be the cure to my smelliness in the future. I should get another bottle...or two.

My mood is still optimistic. I haven't reached my breaking point yet, and I am praying that I continue to feel this way for at least 5 more days. :)

As I meditated on the scripture in Numbers today, I noticed that in other translations, it reads that God's love is steadfast. That word really stuck out to me. I started asking myself, what does it mean to have steadfast love? And I think God put this picture in my head of a tree bending in the wind, or a big rock at the bottom of a moving river. The tree and the rock both stand firm despite all of the movement going on around them. What a cool picture of God's steadfast love for us! His love for us stands as firm as that tree or that rock even when we doubt, when we fear, when we fail. All of our humanity can be in that wind, or in that moving river but God's love stands firm and anchored in the midst of us being human.

Tomorrow's scripture is taken from the book of Deuteronomy.

"If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you." -Deuteronomy 7:12, 13

The Lord loves me and you and He wants to bless everything He promised He would give to us. Amen!

The Unhygienic Journey: Day 1

It's been a full 24 hours, friends! Despite negative comments from Mike Zientara, Amanda Manning and a few others who will remain nameless, it's been an encouraging start to The Unhygienic Journey! Most of the credit goes to the sunshine and beautiful weather we had today, but also because of the knowledge we have of being created in the image of God! I spent a little time today thinking and trying to grasp the depth of that idea and you know what? I can't! My limited human understanding cannot fathom how God who hand-crafted me and you still did so with all the knowledge of our faults and limitations. And not only made us, but made us to be like Him! That is what we have to look forward to, friends! God is working to make us to be the people who He intended us to be all along. He wants to cast away our false selves, erase our facades and take down the walls that we have built around our hearts so that we will reflect all of Him and all of His glory! Praise Jesus!

My hair feels like its been through a days worth of life. It feels pretty light and still looks a bit shiny, but it is quite disheveled after today!

My skin feels a little dry, I think I might have to hydrate it with some lotion tomorrow morning!

I smell like half a dozen roses. :)

My mood is a little nervous! The morning is when I would normally get up to take a shower, but I don't have to do that tomorrow--AH! I'm a little anxious to see how I feel after my normal routine is broken, it should be exciting!

Tomorrow is when things are going to start to get a bit difficult, friends! Pray for me if you remember and if you see me, I'd love a hug. :) Tomorrow I'm going to meditate on this section of Scripture:

"The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now." -Numbers 14: 18, 19

The God we serve is full of love and justice for us whom He created in His image. Amen!

The Unhygienic Journey: The Before

The time is here, friends! The day that you have been eagerly awaiting and the day that I have been semi-dreading has dawned! Take a good long look at this picture, because I'm pretty sure that this is not how I will look 9 days from now. I am taking my last shower tonight at 11pm. Currently,

My hair feels light and feathery and looks shiny in all of its blonde-ness.

My skin feels as smooth as a baby's bottom.
(That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it really does feel nice and smooth)

I smell like a dozen roses. :)

My mood can best be described as eager anticipation!

I'm excited friends, I hope you are too! I appreciate all of your support as I begin this journey into the unhygienic world of...myself. If you see me this week, give me a hug and tell me I smell like roses. :) I thought it would be good to start meditating on when God first decided to make us as His dearly beloved creation, so tonight's scripture is found in the first book of the Bible.

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them...And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good." -Genesis 1: 26, 27, 31

I was made in God's image regardless of how clean I am. Amen. :)

The Unhygienic Journey Begins

Hello friends!

Many of you have waited in anticipation for this day. Others may have waited in silent horror. But the time has now come. The hour has drawn near. The sound that water makes as it pours out of the shower head will soon be a distant memory.

For those of you who aren't aware of what I'm talking about, let me fill you in. Before the semester started, I had gotten into a conversation with friend and fellow journalism major, Mike Zientara regarding laundry. Titillating conversation, I know. I told him that I bet he couldn't go from January 19th, the first day of spring semester, to March 19th, the first day of spring break, without doing laundry. He bet he could. And as much as it pains me to write this friends, he bet right. My payment? To abstain from showering 9 days.

That's right. Now, I know what you're thinking. After the, "How stupid is she?" thought, you thought, "How in the world can she do this?" Honestly friends, your thoughts aren't too different than mine. But I see the next 9 days not only as a challenge, but as an opportunity. An opportunity to learn about the body and one's inner strength that can only come from God. And so I embark upon this journey starting this Sunday, March 28, 2010. Will you come along for the ride?

So here is how this is going to work. Every day, I will blog something new, along with posting a photo of how clean I'm going to look. I will also include a "My hair feels like...", "My skin feels like...", "I smell like..." along with my current mood. I also am committing myself to meditate on a new bible verse every day about how much the Lord loves me. I feel that this will be an encouragement to me when I'm feeling rather...well, nasty. :)

My first official post will be this Sunday as my "before" look and attitude. Watch out for it and tell your friends if you think they're up for a new kind of entertainment. But be sure to tell them that this isn't "The Real World" or some other reality show. This is real life. My life.

And so the journey begins! Friends, don't try this at home.

Redeeming Worship

Have you ever had one of those moments when you’re completely overwhelmed?

Tonight was one of those nights.

As I entered into Jesus’ presence at All Campus Worship in Foellinger Auditorium, surrounded by a thousand other people, God spoke to me. We weren’t even into the third song, but God met me. As I stood in my aisle seat toward the front, I took in the people who were surrounding me. My gaze was met with an African-American man sweating as he sang and danced on stage. I saw Asian-Americans standing in front of me, their eyes closed and bodies erect worshipping God. In the front row I noticed a red-headed girl using her hands to sign American Sign Language accompanying the words she was already singing from her mouth. Two rows back from her, a white girl with dark hair held both of her hands above her head, making big sweeping motions as she sang to her Savior. To the right of me, several students in wheelchairs sang with their heads tilted back in worship.

And God said to me, “Brittany, this is who I am.”

Tonight I realized that I was experiencing my last All Campus Worship as a college student. With that realization, it caused me to think back to when I was a freshman experiencing All Campus Worship for the first time. Three and a half years ago, I would have looked out on the crowd that I saw tonight and I would have thought that the African-American man was too enthusiastic in his worship. I would have seen those Asian-Americans as too solemn in their worship of God. The white girl waving her arms I would have thought was just trying to draw attention to herself while I was trying to focus on Jesus.

My attitude in these judgments reflected my attitude towards God. Then, I saw Him as a Creator who demanded worship in a particular way—my way, to be exact—in order for Him to receive the worship that we gave. Now, that critical, legalistic perspective which limited my own worship of God in so many ways has been replaced with humility, joy and love. As I took in the variety of expressions of worship tonight, I was reminded of God’s redeeming work in me.

Earlier this week I read in the book of Luke when Jesus is addressing the Pharisees and His disciples, “For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” I was struck tonight by this idea of how the kingdom of God lives within each of us—within each of our own expressions of worship even though it manifests itself in so many different, beautiful ways. The truth found in the message of the kingdom of God is the same, but how it displays itself in each of us is completely different. But each expression of worship that I experienced tonight is uniquely, handcrafted by our Savior. We were created to glorify and to worship God and the ways in which we do that reflect how He has designed us. There is no right way. There is only God’s way.

God desires to bring all of His creation back to Himself. He has redeemed my judgmental heart and He is still redeeming it and will continue to do so until every piece of it is under the full authority and reign of Jesus. In the same way that God is redeeming us, He is redeeming our worship. He desires our worship to reflect what He originally intended it to be—glimpses of how He has designed us. African-American, Asian-American, Caucasian. Hands raised, eyes closed, feet dancing. We are made in the image of God and we reflect His glory. For indeed, the kingdom of God lives within us. Amen.