becka lippy

Question: (and please DO leave your answer in the comments section. I have a site reader and know who is reading my blog, so DO respond) Do you think your real life relationships are changed/altered/dimished/helped/hurt by your online relationships (your facebook/blogging/skype/gchat relationships). Many relationships will have both real life and online components, but my question is if and how the online component is affecting the real life component.

This blog post is dedicated to Laura, David, Sarah, and Casey. Laura shared something the Lord has been teaching her recently, and it didn't hit me until a few hours later how deep this truth is. My feelings to not dictate my being. When I am feeling something bad, sadness or pain, that doesn't change the fact that the Lord is good. I don't mean to diminish pain or any other feeling, but to give it its proper place in my life. It is not what decides what is true about me. The Lord decides what is true about me and His promises to His people are true whether or not we feel them. We are forgiven. We are loved. We are in Christ Jesus the apple of His eye. When Laura shared this with me, I heard it and walked away. Little did I know the Lord would deal so greatly with me today. David and I work together in Student Association here at Westminster. And he made a comment to me yesterday that stung my heart deep in its core. Not because his comment was wrong in any way, but it was

I just checked out from the public library Deitrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship . It's one of those books that I have had on my to read list for years and yet never had the time to get to it. Even in the first chapter I find myself drawn to this man who suffered and died to live out the Gospel among his own people. He was a German pastor during the Third Reich and he stood against the Nazis. Even when his friends offered to get him out of the country, he stayed believing that his duties as a pastor and a leader in the country required him to suffer with his people. He died in a concentration camp just days before liberation. I have been thinking about discipleship a lot recently. Partly because my internship with Jews for Jesus is directly related to discipling their interns. Partly because it has been of particualr interest to me over the past few years. And mostly because no matter how academic I get, it comes down to what the Lord is doing in my own heart. I cannot

So, here some pics I promised some of ya'all. I dyed my hair on Sunday and got it cut on Monday. I'm used to the change (since I have dyed it since 7th grade) but wts people aren't and its been amusing to see the guys react to it. Some of them notice right away and some of them stare for a moment, cock their heads to the side with a confused look on their face, and then finally ask me if I changed my hair. Amusing.

There isn't much to say these days. Life is moving along and work is keeping me busy. I am finding myself appreciating lots of little things. The leaves turning into deep reds, oranges, and yellows put me in a reflective mood. Not contemplative. I love the season. I forgot how much I loved it until last week when suddenly the air got cool, the sun began to set earlier, and sidewalks where littered with brightly colored leaves. I think others who have grown up in this season filled land have learned to look forward to different seasons. They live through the spring, knowing it leads through summer, and the summer to fall, fall to winter, and of course the cold of winter eventually gives way to the budding roses of spring. But I don't think that way. The coming of a new season is a shocker to me. I suddenly notice that everything around me is different. And everytime I walk out the door I see the changes and I wonder at them. I never ceased to be amazed at the beauty. What a beau

See how the colors change, How brighter greens roll to dark reds inciting a passion deeper than our hearts can hold. See how breath is caught in the chest, crying to come forth in sighs of sadness, hoping for the warm winds of the past. Crisp air hits the skin of lovers who lie cheek to cheek clinging to each other in the fading light. - Anonymous

One of my favorite things is when a dear friend of mine speaks into my life the very words I have spoken to her time and time again. It amazes me how easily I forget the awesome graces of our Lord. I had one of these moments a few nights ago. I was talking to a friend who I have walked with through many tears in the past year. This time I came to her and confessed my own doubts of the Lord's faithfulness to provide. All I saw in front of me was fate deciding my life and my own passive acceptance of this path. But she reminded me of the Lord's condesencion into this world of ours. His promise that He is with us today and tomorrow. And His mighty sovereign hand that holds all the earth together. I've been contemplating the pain of love not returned. With many of my friends starting relationships I find myself content where I am, but contemplating where I am not. I am not in a relationship. I am not in a marriage. Even though I do not feel it right now, I am alone. Not in any

A few blog posts I wish I had time to write (and maybe will find the time in the future): Obama as a demi- god and my fear that we are setting him up for failure in the way we place all our hopes in him. Reading Mother Theresa and pondering the anthropological theology she presents in her writings. My heart is in a new place and I wonder how much of letting some old dreams die has to do with the moving on. Learning a lot about discipleship and the Lord is walking with me in discovering what it truly means to be a disciple of Christ. Loving my Missions Anthropology class and even though it requires an insane amount of work, it is everything I thought my program in Urban Missions would be. Hablo Espanol todos los dias ahora que vivo con una familia Peruana... y me encanta. I have been feeling so loved and so blessed this past week. The Lord has shown me again and again this week how weak my faith is, how easily I am rocked by the waves of this life. And yet, He remains faithful!!

"You stir us up to take delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless till it finds its rest in you"