You've been watching too many extreme weight loss shows.

Six weeks ago I started getting really serious about losing weight. And for six weeks, I've struggled. See, I want quick fixes. I want immediate results. I want to be finished, so I can go back to El Dorado and eat three baskets of chips with the Mexican flag (sour cream, salsa, and guacamole, if you were wondering).

Why is it surprising that I want immediate gratification without the work and the waiting? I live in America. I live in a town where I can literally dream up of something delicious I want to eat or drink, and I can drive within ten minutes of any option imaginable. I can have a hot meal in 60 seconds. I can get on my computer and have a pizza delivered to my house. I can even pay a delivery guy to go to McDonald's for me so I can be a shut-in and never have to leave the comfort of my own home.

Comfort.

I was watching this show called "I Used To Be Fat" where high school kids lose 50 pounds in 2 months. And the show is only an hour long, so that seems easy and doable. And then I can flip over to the Biggest Loser where a guy can lose 17 pounds in a week. After that, I might catch Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss edition where a lady loses 150 pounds in a year. But again, it only took me 60 minutes to watch that happen, so, that seems easy.

Here's what I am figuring out about myself: I am impatient. I want it now. There is growth in the process. There is growth in the process!

So if God tells me to wait, I'll wait. And in the waiting, I will be obedient. I am actively waiting for God to work in me, and He really is. I am learning what Go|Change|Move is really about. It's about being uncomfortable enough to change. And isn't that what God is about?

God loves me so much, that He meets me where I'm at. He also loves me enough to not leave me that way.

-Liz

Blockers

You have a daily life. And so do I. And most days we go through life uninterrupted. Maybe that happens so many times, that we WISH for an uninterrupted, normal day. I don't know about you, but normal gets boring after a while.

Normal is safe. Normal is comforting. Normal is predictable. Normal, after a while, gets...boring.

And normal is a blocker. For SO MANY of us. Normal hates opportunity. If we're not careful, normal will eat us alive. So here is an abnormal opportunity for you: will you run away from normal with me and run towards helping a family that you haven't even met yet? Will you sacrifice dinner out with friends to put clothes on someone else's back? Will you bless a family with the only Christmas presents they'll get this year?

Whatever your answer is, I am hoping that we can all identify and remove the blockers in our lives. Some are financial, some are physical, some are emotional. We all have them. If you read all the way through this blog, will you take 30 seconds more and support this project to the right? 100% of your donations will go into the hands of people that need you. Families that need you. Families with names and specific needs. (for the list of families, click here).

Find the people in your life that need you. You are God's plan for saving the world. And there is no plan B. Get excited about that!

-Liz

A New Project

I have a lot of projects going on right now. Some are very personal, some are very public. I work with high schoolers, so I have that public persona, which is always a project. More kids always means you are being successful, right?

I am also learning how to accept love and give love away. That's my personal project. So personal, that I am sharing it on a blog. Nice, huh? But this particular project affects almost everything in my life: my friends, my family, my feelings of self-worth, my performance, my ability to be patient, everything.

One tangible project I have going on right now is this Buckets of Blessings thing I am doing in preparation for a missions trip to Jamaica in December. I feel such a sense of responsibility that it goes well. I talk about it all the time, I find myself selling it, just like I used to sell insurance. And then I wonder if I am selling myself in the process, or if I will perceive this to be a personal failure if I don't make it happen.

Do I realize that it's not about me? Do I know that this is bigger than me? In fact, do I know that I am not the one who gets to decide my self-worth? I am not the one that gets to decide what happiness is, what success is, what failure looks like. I am not the one who determines who is good, who is bad, who wins, who loses, who I should love, who I should idolize, who I should care for.

If that paragraph brings you relief...GOOD. If that paragraph brings you anxiety, think it through. I am not in control. And neither are you. And that should be the greatest news ever. Because you do NOT want me to be in control, and neither do I. I don't want that pressure.

I have found, lately, that the opposite of worry is prayer. And that prayer can move the hands that move the world. And my prayer today is that God would show me how to let go, to loosen my fist, and trust my life to the one that made me. That's the best project I could have.

-Liz

Where does all my money go?

So, I am going to Jamaica in December for the third time. Not to Sandals Resorts (sorry, Michael Scott). But to Whitehouse, where there is poverty and no running water and dirt and shacks and sickness. But I can't wait to go back.

And I am helping out with this project where we "adopt" a family in the community and buy them much needed clothes for Christmas. It costs $50 to ship a container for a family, and then it costs another $50 to shop for the items that that family needs. We're talking basic items. Shoes. A shirt. A bible. It has got me thinking about what I spend $50 on. Here's a nice, perhaps embarrassing, list:

• 50% of my monthly cable bill
• 20% of my monthly car payment
• 5% of my monthly mortgage payment
• a pair of TOMS
• an Izod polo (if you're luck)
• 10 lattes at Starbucks
• dinner for two
• the Sims Late Night expansion pack
• 75% of my gas tank
• 5 complete albums on iTunes
• 3 packs of coffee for my Keurig

I don't think I want to continue. What I do want to say is, we ALL belong to each other. In India, America, Jamaica, and every other corner of the world. I don't want for anything. And I have the resources to give to a family that has NOTHING. So do you. So change the world from your chair. With $50 and a credit card. Check this out: http://www.jaminjamaica.com/container2011.php and then watch for the pictures I'm going to post of me, giving the gifts that YOU bought, to the families you adopt.

-Liz

Here's a start

So, I have a tangible way that you can change the lives of people that need you. If you follow this blog, you'd know that I have taken two trips to Jamaica to work with people living in poverty, and am preparing to take a third trip in December. KBM, the group we work with, is putting together a shipping container to send clothings to specific families in need. YOU CAN HELP. You simply register for one of the families listed, and you can either shop for them, or simply donate money to them so KBM can purchase what they need.

Jamaica is a popular vacation spot, but it is a 3rd world country, where over 1/2 of the people don't have electricity or running water. This is an EASY way for you to change the world. Soemthing as insignificant to you as a pair of shoes could mean the world to a child that has never had their own pair of shoes.

Go here to check it out and see what KBM is doing to transform a community in need.

-Liz

Sam's Town

Submitted by my friend Sam...and then thank Sam for his honesty that should remind you that you're not alone.

19 September 2011

What is it about tragedy that makes us honest with God? I wish I knew. But every time I experience some kind of set back, I seem to see God more clearly than ever before. And while this is all fine and good, a part of me hates myself for it. I mean…why now? Why not back then, when I was swimming in blessings, in His grace? He gives me all I need and more, and even though I call myself a warrior for him, I always end up defecting to the other side. I forsake Him and try to hold my own. I soak up the world for a while and delude myself into think that this is it. But then the rains come.

I had a bad day today. The worst in a while, actually. I prayed and was more honest with God than I had been in months. And even though I loved the feeling of His arms supporting me, I couldn’t help but grimace at my own lack of faith. That’s not the kind of love He deserves. He deserves SO MUCH MORE.

I want to love God the way we all should – proportionate to His love for us. But I know that’s impossible! It’s silly to even say it. To love God as much as He loves you is like trying to climb to the moon. Or like an infant trying to raise its parent. Or like…breathing underwater, forever. It simply can’t be done.

If it takes tragedy to bring me as close to God as I was today, bring on the rain. But I’d rather just learn to love Him right. So that’s gonna be my next few months, learning to love better. I’m not gonna try it by myself either. I’m going to seek others, surround myself with more of His children and love them better too. I guarantee I will screw up again and again but as long as He keeps being my Father, I’m gonna try my damnedest to be His son, in good times and bad.

-Sam

Fashion saves lives.

Our Etsy shop is reopened! You'll see a lot more styles being added over the next few days (thanks Becca!) Click here to start saving lives.

For every pair of earrings you buy, we send half of the money to World Vision to support their work in Ethiopia. Our goal is to watch the money you donate transform the lives in a specific area of the world. We are working with World Vision over the next few weeks to get status reports on current projects and ways we can support them. Once we have that specific info, you will see it here! To see what World Vision is doing in Ethiopia, click here.

GCM originally developed a relationship with the country of Ethiopia through the Experience: AIDS project that came to the Cary YMCA. To see that exhibit, click here.

So go ahead and shop! Be fashionable and know that you are making a big difference and starting a relationship with Ethiopia!
-Liz