Typical Tuesday... ?

Typical Tuesday... is it?

Waking up past 8 was a gift,
no, "music major life" is not a myth.

Get some grub down in the caf,
at least they have omelets and cereal, that's... about that.

I cherish the time before my 10 am,
It's time with Jesus, in His Word, in His plans.

I start my day off right fill my tank for the day,
So nothin' outta ordinary will lead me astray.

Time for singing voices ringing all throughout Wilson,
pianos thumping, music bumping, no space so people chillin'.

I sing songs of praise to my God Most High,
Worshipin' in a space that can be so awry.

Moving on to homework I battle through the bore,
clearly not the subject that I adore.

But luckily then it's lunch, a time that's my fave,
though the caf utterly and completely failed me today.

Next up is class time in which I literally snoozed,
Confused as to why when my sleep was just renewed.

Then moved on to frisbee on this beautiful day,
realizing I fail at throwing in almost every single way.

Theory's after 4 and goes until it's night,
at least I understand it and my teacher's alright.

I can't wait to workout with my best friend again,
though this will probably fail because he's giant and Canadian.

Then it's onto Greek Sing dancing with my sisters,
but shh I can't tell you our theme, though there are spies with whispers.

Hopefully I don't have too much to do today,
All I know is that it's Tuesday and it's a beautiful day.


<3 Megan.

This is why I write songs, not poetry. hahaha.

Jan 22, 2012

January 22, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3nCXNqqYAQ&feature=g-upl&context=G2f10f84AUAAAAAAAAAA

9:15am woke up for church.
Dressed, Check.
Makeup, Check.
Hair, Check.
Make shake in the blender and run out the door, Check.

Late for leaving at the allotted 10am... Check.

10:15am Car doesn't work and is dead again, Check.
10:16am Drive Bevin's car, Check.

10:20am Go to church, Check.
10:35am arrive late as usual to church, Check.

We go through day by day... forming a checklist in our brains for even the most mundane of activities...

I realized today that I need to step back and let God in to every little part of my day.

For instance, I went through today without reading my Bible, and it's currently 8:42pm.

Yeah, I went to church and worship and the sermon absolutely rocked my world, but because I didn't have the word and time of meditation in it in my heart, that happiness and spiritual high slowly faded.

Then came 4 hours of homework and practicing which I felt good about because I got a lot accomplished, took a short 20 minute nap, and went to my sorority weekly meeting.

I have to admit I was very overcome with negative emotions tonight because UNITE @Bethel (my church) was tonight, and I couldn't go. (It only meets once a month, and it's my only outlet to get to know other college students from my church. I can NEVER go.)

Then a series of... not to sound cliché but "unfortunate events" happened. Which I will not post on the internet, but they slowly spiraled my mood down into the dumps.  I know that if I had the Word of God in me today that I would have been able to find the positive spin on this.

-In the course of literally 1 hour I was overcome with sadness, stress, feeling rushed, confusion, and feeling totally overwhelmed with overcommitting my schedule and not having time to... breathe.

The Bible says that the Lord is our
Healer
Provider
Lover of our Soul
Protector
Guide
Savior
Friend
Awesome
Redeemer
King over All

So... why didn't I just look at any one of those things and feel better?

I hadn't meditated on the Word, so it wasn't the first thought that came to my mind. Literally.  I chose to let my thoughts run rampant because I chose to be sad, angry, and hopeless.

But Jesus already died on the cross for my hope, for my stress, for my schedule, for my overcommitting self, for my tears, for my friends, for the people in my life who are hurting and I just want to hug them and help them without taking their burdens on myself.
He died for you, He died for me, He died for everyone even if you've never spent a day of your life with Him.
He'll never fail, He's always there, He'll always protect you, He'll never leave you, He'll be the sunshine on your rainy day, He'll be your arms when you're lonely, your Guide when you're feeling lost, your Savior when you feel like no one loves you and you don't know what the future holds.
And He's your friend. He's my friend.
We're never alone.

We aren't carnal beings, we're spiritual beings of Heaven, that Jesus, the perfect man paid for with the eternal price. He didn't HAVE to, you know.  But He knows every thought you'll ever have, everything you'll ever do, and He's got a plan and purpose for your life.

We don't have to know HOW, because He's the God of the how.

We just have to pursue righteousness, flee from the devil, and trust.

Trust that He'll take our little hand as if we were 5 years old again... and lead us.  Not into temptation. He'll deliver us. FROM the evil snares of the devil.  Because He sits on the throne, in the Kingdom, where He holds All power, All Glory, and All Honor, Forever.


So this may have not been very poetic, but it was certainly on my heart.

God I don't know how you're gonna work out my life right now, but I CHOOSE with an outcry of faith that I KNOW You'll do it.  Because to You, I'm worth it.

I love you Abba Daddy,

Megan.

Time to brag about Jesus number ..... infinity.

Helloooooooo Brag about Jesus time # ... infinity.

(Before I get started... check out my newest original song, "Overcome"!! You can hear the amazing story behind what God's doing through it at the bottom of this post! :) :) :) :) :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRpT4JSPtB4)

So here's what happened in my life today.

1) I woke up, and the music buildings I found out were supposed to be closed.  There's a monitor lady in there and she says we can't practice til 1pm when it technically opens.  Kayleigh (my drummer) shows up and we try to brainstorm what we're gonna do since we have to practice at this time... (10:30am).
- By the time Aaron (piano player) shows up we take a leap of faith to walk by said lady's open door where she was sitting to get to the big enough practice rooms and... BAM. She's gone and the door is closed.
-answered prayer #1. We practiced.

2) We practiced.
On the FIRST run through God was so with all of us instrumentalists.  Kyle (guitar), other Kyle (violin), Kayleigh (again, drums), Aaron (piano... which we found out later, after the fact he hadn't even LISTENED to the song, ever... he's just such a fantastic musician that he learned the song perfectly off just a chart!) and I.  The first run through was better than I've ever had a first run through, and it was just... amazing.  Ahhh! So good.
-It was the first time I'd had live musicians other than myself playing one of my songs. I felt like it was a glimpse of the future. Yae for Jesus working through me!

3) Got to spend some quality time with my girl Maci working out in the Heron Hallway!!!
-In the words of our RA, "You guys are lucky there aren't visitation hours this weekend, or them boys would be all up in this hallway staring!!!"
-Lunges people. And "Sexy squats" apparently.

4) I got a LOT of homework done.  I was feeling REALLY bombarded with a bunch of stuff to do and such... and I buckled down and focused for a couple hours and made a serious dent. Not all, but a solid dent.

5)  I checked on my youtube video I posted last night at circa like... 1am and GUESS WHAT? It had near 300 views already! (Around 3pm-ish)
-Then I checked around 10-ish... after the bball game (which we owned by like 50pts) and there was almost 400!
- Then I checked 1 HOUR LATER AND THERE WAS ALMOST 500 views!! In less than a DAY!
-GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!!!!

such an amazing feeling.

6) I got SEVERAL text messages from friends saying how the song ministered to them and how they felt Jesus through it.
-I mean this in the most humble way possible.  THIS IS ALL I WANT IN LIFE!
- Seriously, if I could have NOTHING ELSE, I'd pick being able to affect change in people and people's hearts to turn to Jesus, who is the Only One who can make them whole!
-Which brings me to this, if you're reading this and need encouragement, even if you don't feel like you know me... I'd love to talk to ANYONE, ANYTIME about the Lord! He's good to ALL and wants us ALL to live the best life we possibly can!!!

Here's the video again for anyone who hasn't seen it yet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRpT4JSPtB4

Blessings!

<3 Megan :)

Frustration with a class.

Haha. This is what I'm turning into my teacher for class.         

I have an opinion. #sorryimnotsorry

:D Go Jesus. I will stick up for You.

   I am going to be completely honest here.  Reading the book “The Old Testament Story” doesn’t make me very happy.  I’m a Pastors kid, and I’ve grown up with very strong views on most everything involving the Bible, Jesus, God… religion in general.  (I have personally taken that upon myself to want to know more about the Bible… it wasn’t shoved down my throat by any means.)

            I don’t like at ALL how the author writes the book (OTS) as if he’s speculative to anything regarding Christianity (which yes, you warned us about) because as I’m reading it I feel as if it’s bashing Christianity if anything.  It’s almost as if they’re TRYING to make you doubt that Christianity could be 100% true, which really makes me sad and a little bit angry.  I just don’t think someone has the right to tell you that something didn’t concretely happen, if you really believe that it did.  I know there may not be sound one-hundred-percent perfect evidence of each and everything written down that happened, but hey, isn’t that where faith comes in?

            I have an interesting view when it comes to how, when, where, and by whom the Old Testament was produced.  I’ve been reading the Bible every single day (to the best of my ability) since around 8^th grade, and I absolutely love it.  I don’t read it as a “religious act” to try and please God, but solely because I know as a Christian the Word says for us to renew our minds continuously with the Word (Hebrews 12:2) so that’s what I’m gonna do, or else God can’t get the blessings to us! (Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God Romans 10:17… I could quote all day with scriptures to back that up… but that’s beside the point of this paragraph.) So what does this have to do with who, when, where, and how it was written? Well… my Bible at the beginning of each book tells me who wrote it, approximately where and when it was written, and that’s honestly sufficient for me.  I think it’s immature and unnecessary to get caught up in the minute details of pure OPINION of who, what, where, when, how… and I’d rather spend time reading God’s Word and with the Big Guy Upstairs who has so heavily transformed my life than argue about when, where, or who wrote it.  Again I may sound narrow minded, but I’m just being completely honest.  I think too often in society today people are SO wrapped up with “religion, religion, religion” and aren’t concerned enough with the fact that God wants to help us in every arena of our life and light our path that He has made just for us so we can prosper and be the best “us” we can be!  Instead of the minute details that people have argued about for centuries, I’d like to go up to them and ask them what God’s done in their life lately, and see if they’re even doing something productive in their spiritual walk with Him.  And I apologize if that sounds super pias or judgmental.  Not my intention.  I just genuinely want what’s best for people and it saddens me when I feel as though people are missing the POINT.  I know what God has done in my life and although I certainly don’t have the worst life, I know that there are DEFINITELY things that I could NOT have overcome without Jesus. So the details of who, where, when, and how the Old Testament was written are about as important to me as is skydiving is to someone terrified of heights. Ok… that was a bit extreme…

            Bottom line is, I believe the Bible is the Bible. I personally read the NKJV and if you read NIV, cool at least you’re reading the Bible.  My Bible may say Moses wrote Exodus, and yours may say 15 different people wrote it.  At least that means you cared enough to open the greatest book of all time, which is more than we can say for a lot of people.

            So no, I don’t think there is much that is going to change my mind about how I view the development of the Old Testament, although I am very interested so far to read and learn about the “two views” of Genesis.  I think it’s really interesting because I definitely fit with one of the two, and that’s cool that people have recognized that there very well are two ways to think about it.  So maybe during the course of this class some minute details could change about how I view the OT; (my eyes could be opened in a way where I simply just had never heard of a certain explanation of something,) but as far as my foundation and deepest beliefs, I don’t foresee those changing.

-And that's what she wrote.

<3 Megan :)

A reflection.

So I could write right now about my break, about my first week back at college, but something has come up much more pressing.  (I will write about that soon)

*Side Note* My first song of my album is PRODUCED AND READY TO GO!
Title: "You Are". Can be seen very roughly on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/meganswansonmusic

I need to brag about my God, hardcore right now.

(Happy Megan.)

Yeah... my hair is RED!!! (ish brownish) and I love it!

Also... I'm thinking of cutting it... which do you like?

No... I'm not showing you I can count to 4. 

Also... don't forget to read ALL the way to the bottom. There's a surprise!!!

Now to da' deepah' stuff...

As I grow up each and every day (or so it feels like in college) I feel as though a new opportunity arises where I could just crumble if I didn't have Jesus.  I'm serious.  I don't even care if that sounds cliché because it's 1000000% true.

For example. I've been trying to switch to a new voice teacher for a couple weeks now; been emailing my new and old one back and forth.  You'd think it'd be simple and that people wouldn't take it personally or as seriously as the world ending, but here at school it's a really big deal.  You must get 3 very important signatures, and in the process one of them must be your current teacher.  So after a lot of awkward and uncomfortable conversations, I finally got all 3. BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!!!
Amongst literally praying every single step of the way, there seemed to be another complication.  For instance, the teacher I wanted to switch to is an adjunct (part time teacher) so they can't override her capacity of students, even though she said she had room for me and had already given me a lesson time.  So I casted that care on the Lord and spoke against it saying "devil, you have no authority to block me from getting the perfect teacher for me, I will be her student and this situation isn't too big for God, I trust in you Father that it's done in Jesus name and it's all worked out." You may think I'm crazy, but that's what the Word tells me to do so by golly I did it.

Problem two, the director of vocal activities doesn't have enough authority to override the situation either, so he had to get special permission from the DEAN of Music to help with this request.
So... although my flesh SUPER wanted to freak out, I prayed, thanking God that "He will give me the desires of my heart" (Psalm 37:4) as I delight myself in Him, so instead of worrying, (2 Tim 1:7) I chose to thank God that even that couldn't stop the situation, but rather that I WOULD study with the teacher I wanted.

Problem three.  The director of vocal activities said that since the teacher I requested's was full, he would have to put me in a studio of someone who is full time, whom I know nothing about. (Which could turn out to be really awesome, it just wasn't what I was praying for...)

All of this spanned between 2 days.  Mostly 1 day between 11am and 1pm.

Manyyyy hours later, (around 10pm now, going to check my email with Godly hope still hanging on,) I see I have an email from the teacher I requested, saying that by "fate", a student had JUST switched majors out of being a music major FROM HER STUDIO, opening up a spot for me!!!!!!!!!!!
- Fate? Nah. God's just good! :)

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! Even when, and ESPECIALLY WHEN we can't see the way out with the natural eye!

So that's the first thing I got to brag about. :D

2nd of all, I secured an accompanist today who is organized and I'm really excited about.  This late in the running, it's a miracle he had spots open. Praise God!

Also.  I thank God that He's given me strength to fast this week.  I've walked in bondage to food for a really really long time, not even realizing that I was putting food around... 2nd in my life, and certainly not putting God 1st.  I didn't realize how much I really idolized it, thinking about it all the time even though I was so afraid of gaining weight at the same time.  It's funny how the devil tries to mess with you in that way, trying to create a vicious cycle of hate towards yourself in constant bondage to the one thing that makes you unhappy about yourself.

BUT... thanks to a solid 3 weeks at home where Pastor Tony just so "happened" to be speaking on the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2) for 3 weeks straight, my faith was built up soooo much, and I just soaked up the time with my family, and church family.  (Click here for some AWESOME teaching from him!!! Just click on the Sermons/Teaching tab! He's wonderful in every way.)

I felt myself being transformed and it was amazing! With more time in the Word than just a mere chapter a day, I find myself truly thinking on things of Christ from the minute I get up, and I realize now how deep of a hole I'd gotten into thinking of myself and what I looked like pretty much 24 hours a day.
So back to fasting... my church here in Nashville as a congregation are fasting this whole week (M-Fri) and I've never fasted before.  So come Sunday night I prayed about what the Lord would have me fast, knowing well that a 5 day "water fast" was not the right fast for me, because I'd most likely do it for the wrong reasons; that being to lose weight.  So I prayed and quickly God showed me!
So here's my plan for the week:
Monday (yesterday) was a Daniel Fast (all uncooked fruits and veggies) - harder than you'd think.
Tuesday (today)- Liquid Fast... only drankin liquids!
Wednesday (the peak for me of the fast) ALL WATER! - I will be STANDING SOO FIRM on Philippians 4:13 tomorrow (I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me) it's gonna be craaaazy.
Thursday- another liquid fast
Friday- Back to Daniel.

I'm excited for what the Lord will reveal to me as I spend time with Him and He gives me ears to hear!!!!! :) He's so good. He never fails.  It's impossible for His promises to be No as long as it's in His will.

I'm pumped. and guess what? I just got done studying for like 3 hours of MUSIC HISTORY and I'm still this pumped about Jesus. That's the joy He brings!!!!! :)

Go God.

Goodnight.

Megs. :)

p.s. LAURA "FOZZYBEAR" FOSTER (aka Best Friend In The Whole Wide World) is coming to NASHHHHHVILLLLEEE right before my spring break! Watch out world, we're being reunited in a whole new city! Love her!