(2015 archive) @thesummerofprayer - Tumblr Blog

WELCOME BACK IT’S 2015

Summer of Light here, aka Madison, aka, the one who likes to redirect you to multiple blogs yearly because I like to keep things separate and organized.

I have a new “about” page up right below this (or you can navigate if you click the little lines in the top left corner) with all the info about what this summer’s project looks like and what it’ll be about.

(hint: the url//blog title give it away hahaa)

YAY.

June is the official start date and then we’re off and running into a crazy summer!

#sop #summer of prayer

about [the summer of prayer]

You know when you’re doing nonchalant things like washing your face and God connects all the dots in your head seemingly all at once and things are incredibly clear for a moment? Well that just happened.

Every summer I give myself a project. To this day, I don’t know why I started doing this three years ago, but it’s a standing tradition that I hold fast to in order to keep up with the summer chaos swirling around me while also being able to document what generally is a season of change and warmth and growth.

The last 3 summers have been vastly different.

2012 - the summer of 5-7-5 // the first year I did a haiku project to try to bring consistency back into my life. I was at beauty school 40-hours a week and embarking on the joys of recovery and needed something simple and small. A handful of sloppy words later, my first summer project was completed.

2013 - the summer of making noise // this was my first summer as a believer and my first summer immersed in community who loved Jesus. The idea behind the summer of making noise (TSOMN) was that I was new and wanted to stop saying no so much and agree with life. At the end of the day the project was about Jesus and not being quiet about the redemption He had (and continues to) show me. After years of being silenced, I was ready to make some noise. TSOMN was me saying yes to life again after saying no for so very long and documenting that in video/words/pictures.

recap video here

(of technically the whole year but mostly the summer…huge lapses of filming)

2014 - the summer of light // last year, aka the best summer ever, was coined the summer of light. I had just spent a semester at Bible college and realized that my expensive camera gear sat under my bed because I was too timid and afraid to take it out and shoot. This disappointment fueled my fire to spend the summer being intentional about shooting and always having my camera with me (just like the good ‘ol 365 project days). I made a decision to focus on the light around me physically and metaphorically.

I have the most incredible memories from last summer from long drives talking about everything and nothing to swimming in random rivers to worshipping on a mountain and meeting the people who I would spend the next four months living with (unknown to me at the time)

recap video here

///

SO WHAT’S NEXT YOU ASK

Glad you’re curious.

I PRESENT TO YOU

2015 - the summer of prayer

It was perhaps a week ago when I realized I hadn’t had some grand inspiration for this year’s project whatsoever. In fact, any thought I had was a been-there-done-that (another photo project? another writing project???)

That was until my mystical washing-my-face moment I mentioned at the top of this post.

Sunday I sat in church and listened to a message on prayer and how as a church we are launching the “summer of prayer.” Cool. About it. Didn’t think too much into it. It was very straightforward - there is a stirring to lay the foundation of prayer as a church and that means praying corporately, individually, and without ceasing (3 points made at the end of the sermon).

I came home, go about my day snacking on leftovers and dancing around my finally completely unpacked room (better late that never right?) and eventually head to the bathroom to wash my face as it’s getting late when it was as if God said, “duh Madison.” I’ve been asking for what my summer of ’15 would be and the literal title of my summer was dropped on me hours earlier and I didn’t even process it.

Thank you Jesus, for using the few moments I have in a day when my mind isn’t on complete overdrive to interrupt my nonchalant tasks to speak to me so clearly.

WHAT THIS MEANS

This summer I-be-prayin’

For real though. I will be praying a lot a lot. But even more than “a lot,” my desire is to be more intentional about praying.

I have, as we all do, plenty to pray for and about in regards to my life and the lives of those immediately around me but I desperately need you all in the mix as well!

It’s simple - email me ([email protected]) or message me here your requests, your dreams, your rants, your anything and everything from “my car broke down” to “I need direction” to “I don’t even know what I need prayer for.”

Everything will be kept private unless I first have your permission to share and I feel led to do so (for example, a testimony or request you want more prayer-partners in). Share as little or as much as you like.

I love to intercede for people, and especially for you all reading this because chances are I know you and are connected to you someway by glorious default. The glorious part is that there’s no default, only purpose.

June is the official start date, most likely I’ll use this space to go on and on about prayer, what it looks like to get back to a place you slowly left, how prayer effects our brain structure (SCIENCE IS SO COOL) etc.

I will also be posting updates linked back and forth between my primary blog and this temporary, only active during summer, one so you won’t miss a beat!

Welcome, so glad you’re here!

#sop #summer of prayer #about

thesummerofprayer

THANK YOU

thank you so much to everyone who followed my summer this year. It was absolutely amazing to say the least and life changing in so many ways.

If you want to follow me personally, my blog is H E R E otherwise, keep an eye out for my summer video and then this blog will be inactive (until next summer perhaps)

Since 2013, I have filmed my life in a series of clips and put together a reel of the clips as my own personal moving yearbook. Since this has started, I break it down into seasons so ladies and gentleman…I present to you S U M M E R 2 0 1 4

#the summer of light #summer 14

Have you heard His voice? It sounds like love.

Brian Brennt

steve and wendy wed // guests (august 9)

#the summer of light #photo journal #personal #august

details // august 9 steve + wendy wed

#personal #the summer of light #photo journal #august

bridesmaids // aug 9 steve + wendy wed

#personal #the summer of light #photo journal #august

thesummerofprayer

Saying YES

Well this hurts.

In a matter of hours, I surrendered, said YES, turned down an amazing gift, opened myself up to a different path, faced a chunk of my past I’d rather not, and acknowledged a picture of my future.

I cannot even begin to explain what brought me to this point, but yes, it’s true: I won’t be at Calvary Chapel Bible College next semester. I could go into all the little details about why I’m not like what small things deterred me and the struggle of going back and forth by getting confirmations for yes and no repeatedly over a number of months but I’ll spare you.

The details of my plight to decipher what God is trying to show me in my life right now and are quite insignificant however the conclusion is not: He is 100%, unequivocally teaching me obedience.

I want to be at CCBC. I want to be there a whole awful lot. What I don’t want is to leave something and not finish and I especially don’t want to create this imaginary world in my mind that puts CCBC on a pedestal above what other doors God might be opening. Over the course of about 3 months, God kept speaking into my life though other people regarding the importance of laying my life down.

Sure, sure I’d heard it before. Give it all to Jesus, there’s nothing I hold onto, etc. But was I singing those songs in vain? In the hyped of moment of good lighting and feel-good vibes was I telling God something I wasn’t fully convinced of yet?

I’ll give you a hint: yes.

Now this is a conclusion that makes all Christians squirm and it will hit you like a ton of bricks because it humbles us mightily. It says something along the lines of: “hey you, you’re not doing so hot like you think you are.” I imagine God thinking we’re just so cute, only fooling ourselves perhaps, going along disguising our own desires in “His will” and then BAM! The revelation from Holy Spirit comes and shakes us to the core of our being and we end up on our face crying out to God.

Encouraged yet? Well me either.

You see, the thing is God will wreck us. If we’re perpetually in a season of rainbows and butterflies I don’t think we will ever truly encounter the heart of God for the lost, for the saved, and for the in-between. Now don’t get me wrong here, there is a great joy of living with Jesus but that doesn’t mean He won’t take us places that are face to face with the most hidden of skeletons in our closets.

But ignoring everything never leads to anything.

So here I am. Friends, family, onlookers: wrecked by God. My heart has never longed so much to ignite a passion for service in other believers and to lead them to an awakening of their true callings from God. I’ve never longed so deeply and felt so broken by the lost who haven’t received Christ. I’ve never been so excited to encourage believers to say YES and go in whatever capacity the Lord calls them, whether that be a life of missions or a life of being a light in their workplace.

God has communicated to me the importance of courage, not comfort.

There has been an awakening in me being down in Pasadena with the 21 Project. These people are crazy in love with Jesus, with the true Word of God, with living in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit inside of them, and with living lives of service. But most importantly, they live their lives on the edge, they are all in for Jesus, and the only fear they have is the fear of God. They pick up and move to other countries, they risk their relationships, they devote themselves, and they are OBEDIENT.

I long to live challenged daily by the community I’m immersed in to live up to the standard set for us.

“Lukewarm” has been a term thrown around in Christian circles and not until now have I gripped an understanding of what that means for me. In general I’ve been “pretty good” so to speak. Devos, college group, prayer life, Bible college even…so what about me is lukewarm? Warning: if you ask the Lord about this, He might answer and you might be real offended. For me, my hot and on fire for God has been a mask for what I see now as incredibly lukewarm.

It’s interesting how we adapt to our situations. Before we know it, what was once a big deal is a simple occasion. What used to make us nervous doesn’t even make our palms sweaty. My on fire for God became my routine of an everyday Bible college student who occasionally went out of my comfort zone to be just slightly outlandish. Oh boy, we’re raising our hands in worship! But wait there’s more! I’m on my knees! (I only poke fun because literally this was me…I had to get over the embarrassment of praising God in those really simple ways that are not uncommon for the non-denominational/four-square/evangelical church at all).

To be frank, I knew a few months back that heading back to CCBC wasn’t what God wanted for me right now. I had no idea why and instantly discounted God’s whisper to my heart as anxiety about the new semester or stress over finances.

…But God.

This resonates so greatly when reading scripture. Reading “but God” signifies so much about the coming change(s) and now I understand my “but God” in this season. It reads as such: But God has been preparing me for great changes by showing Himself faithful; He has required a leap of obedience in order for me to faithfully give all that I have to Him and let Him show me what to do.

I have tasted something so new, so fresh, and so intoxicating. I am coming into who God truly made me which is an artisan - a lover of capturing light and writing words, a carrier of truth and most importantly, a life bringer.

So what’s next?

Something exciting is in the works for sure but I’ll keep a thumb on that for now. Just know that prayerfully, it will shape my generation as I see it now. God has given me amazing pictures of what’s going to happen and He’s shown me more details than I thought possible.

I love Him so deeply for it.

I have said YES. Have you?