Leading lady of your own life!

So, I wrote this blog post a couple weeks before my big move & for some reason I never got around to posting it. But I thought it held some valid truths, so I decided I'd post it before it's too late! [P.s. Recap of Hillsong Conference at the end of the post :]

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The Holiday is one of my favorite movies (yeah, yeah), and one of my favorite quotes from that movie is as follows:

Arthur: "Iris, in the movies we have leading ladies & we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend."

Iris: "You're so right. You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life! ... Brutal, but brilliant."

I feel like Fanny Brice could level with me on this one.
... And having Fanny in your corner ain't such a bad thing.

And so it is! I've been getting a little discouraged lately, about a lot of things really - spreading over a vast range of subjects from jobs to relationships to God to money to friendships - and everything in between. (Covers just about everything but food. Thank you, food, for being so simple.) I often find myself being sympathetic to the point of weariness and trying so hard to meet people where they are when it comes to their successes and failures that I tend to feel lost about where I stand in mine. Do not for a minute think I'm patting myself on the back - with every good trait comes its handful of repercussions. But the good news in all this (and in reality, life isn't so bad ;) is that none of this discouragement is in the same ballpark as my upcoming life-change-of-a-move. The Lord has given me total peace & confidence in this direction, and that, my friends, is a security that I am so thankful for.

(And also, being seen as the "best friend" isn't all bad...I mean, I just might be the world's best third-wheeler, so there's that...if you're in the market for one or something...)

I guess what I'm getting at here is that we all need to take the reins back on our lives every once in a while. I'm so excited for this new chapter because it is an opportunity to actually re-write myself (cue Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten?) and position myself as leading lady of my own life! Not that I have much re-writing I want to do anyway, but starting fresh is such a neat chance to be the person I've been hoping to develop into. I guess we'll see how it goes, huh, blogging peeps?

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Kinda funny to be standing on the other side of this "big move" now & to see how much I've already jumped into this "rewriting" even just weeks after I wrote ^ that post. Also, I decided instead of writing a full out "hillsong conference" post, I'll just mix in some of the incredible things I learned with blog posts to come! It would be near impossible to ever give you even a glimpse of the life-changing, life-giving things we learned/heard/experienced last weekend. (To give you an idea... I took 24 pages of notes. YES, I take notes like a fiend, but still, 24?!?) The Lord has truly blessed people like Brian Houston, Bobbie Houston, Christine Caine & Carl Lentz with the GIFT of teaching His Word, & their words shattered & rebuilt my perspective from the ground up. 

(P.s. Like seriously, check out this article about HillsongNYC's pastor Carl Lentz. I'm telling you, this incredibly cool, fiercely passionate guy could start a revolution up in hurr.)

(P.p.s. if you want an incredible recap of the first night of the conference, check out my friend/roomie Rachel's blog: http://whereshewillstop.blogspot.com/)

ALSO -- the tickets were FREE! Thanks to the amazing, wonderful Mr. Jay & Mrs. Carolyn Franks. They treated us to the conference, to awesome meals & the irreplaceable feeling of being with "mom & dad" figures for a whole weekend :) So generous! The amazing Faith Christian School family never stops blessin' me. 

I know Rachel mentioned this in her blog, but gosh...there was nothing quite like walking back into Radio City Hall after attending the Tony Awards in June - which was one of the best days of our life - and walking back into this place as a fellowship of believers. I mean, chills. I can't even quite explain what that juxtaposition did to me. And Rachel. The stage was the same, but the glory being proclaimed from it was so dynamically different, and it was wild. These worship leaders & God-seekers were standing where our theatre role models had stood, and they were bringing God's presence to that stage. And you know the coolest part? Those actors & actresses will stand there again. Having no idea that the spirit of the Lord is in this place! 

And anyway, I'm not a crier, but man, last weekend...the tears came & the tears came often. It was like the Lord was literally staring us in the face saying, "See these two different sides of your life? These things are going to collide! And you're gonna be there!" So we're ready for that day! And no matter what the context or circumstances are, we pray that God's name be glorified! 

So I'll leave you with this--

Bobbie Houston (powerhouse/wife of Hillsong's lead pastor, Brian Houston) spoke about how we must be faithful where we are until "Thy Kingdom Come" & she shared this verse:

Psalm 57:7-9 | I kinda mixed together The Message & NIV versions. :)

"I'm ready, God, so ready, ready from head to toe; Ready to sing, ready to raise a tune: 'Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.' I'm thanking you, God, out loud in the streets, singing your praises in town and country. The deeper your love, the higher it goes; every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness."

And as Bobbie said:

"Who knows if we might be 

that generation to awaken the dawn?"

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