Life's greatest joy

Hey friends! It's been some time since I have written anything here and I hope to begin blogging again regularly. I don't know where life finds you at the moment but I pray that wherever you are and whatever season you are in currently this message blesses and encourages you. 

I want to look at the topic of peace and direction as it relates to our walk with God for this post. I'm interested in this because it's been a constant theme in my life as of late. Or rather a test, not just a theme. And one I have been taking and re-taking over and over again, a hundred times it seems. While I won't say that I have aced the test, I have learned a great deal about what it means to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

During my lesson-learning, I remember a time where I was crying out to God for wisdom and direction. On my own, it wasn't clear which way to go, which decision to make, which opportunity to pursue. And yet each time I tried to hear anything from the Lord, all my heart could pick up was His voice speaking to my heart these words: "I love you." It is beautiful to hear God's still, small voice speak these words to you. But I wanted more. I was hoping for something like, "Colleen, you should do this..." or "Pursue this opportunity" or even "Wait on Me." But all I heard during that time was God's constant affirmation of His deep love for me. 

I was craving something specific and spelled-out. I wanted answers and solutions. In reality, I wanted the path more than the journey. And on that path, quite a ways down, I realized that what I truly need to hear from God was His love first and foremost and that this will always be true. I need His guidance, His correction, His peace - but above all of this, I need to hear that He loves me. I was looking for a quick reply for one season of my life and God was teaching me how to follow Him my whole life. Because when you abide in the love of Jesus, His love will become your compass. And you won't need to keep asking for direction because His love makes everything clear. You live differently when you know that God loves you. You don't settle or make decisions out of fear or your own wisdom. You don't look at your life as some puzzle to be solved, but a relationship to be lived with Him. And out of that relationship with Christ, you will know what to do. 

If you are seeking direction right now in your life, I challenge you to abide in His love. Don't push past it to get to the other side and don't discount it. Abide in God's infinite love for you by soaking your mind and heart in the Truth of God's Word. Peace is the fruit of a close relationship with the Lord and His peace brings clarity, direction, and vision. I pray God continues to reveal His love to your listening heart for His glory, your good, and to bless this world. He's always doing something in your life, preparing you for a season ahead, healing broken pieces, leading us to His very best - Himself. As you journey ahead with all of the dreams He has given you using all the gifts He has given you to reach all the people He wants you to as you achieve all that He has purposed for you - don't ever lose sight of the beauty, mystery, deep joy of what truly matters: He loves you! Knowledge of His love compels our hearts to overflow with love for Him in return. We love because He first loved us. 

Relationship with God is life's greatest joy! Exchange it for nothing and never sacrifice your closeness with Him for anything. Be okay with the unanswered questions and the chapters He writes. Let Him have His way in your life and teach you what your heart desperately needs to learn even if the lessons come way of humility, trials, and things you didn't plan. You will thank Him for every way He shapes your heart and life. Let Him have His way and His will in your life. It is the absolute best for you always. Open your heart to all He wants to speak to you and most of all, open your heart to His love. 

from my heart to yours this Christmas

A post here on Christmas to share a couple words from my heart to yours. I pray they encourage you! That is why I write! 

Christmas always causes me to reflect and think about past Christmases and this past year. I am grateful. This year has brought along many blessings. But at the same time, there have been new challenges. Blessings greater than I imagined, but challenges I couldn't foresee. Through this time, the story of David from the Bible has been encouraging me. He had many battles to fight, but that didn't mean that God wasn't with him. In fact, God used those battles to prepare him to be king and to live as someone with a heart after God's heart. 

This morning, I was reading about David's perspective on Goliath. I love it! Unlike the other Israelites and King Saul, he isn't intimidated by the challenge. He stands on God's faithfulness in the past and has total confidence that the same God who delivered him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver him from the hand of the Philistine (1 Samuel 17:37). 

I pray that I could always approach my challenges like this! Instead of getting discouraged or overwhelmed, I pray for a heart that remains confident in God at all times. God has been faithful - so very faithful to me! But why is it that present challenges can make me forget this?

To keep God's faithfulness ever before me, I started a wall of remembrance last month just after Thanksgiving. During my devotional time in the morning, I'll take out my pretty scrapbook paper and write out one memory of God's faithfulness in the past. It's been life-changing and so life-giving to me. The wall above my bed is now covered with little squares of scrapbook paper, memory after memory of God's great and perfect faithfulness to me. One morning, I woke up and looked at the wall and started crying and crying. Good tears. Happy tears. Thank-You-God tears. God has been so good and faithful to me! Father, let me never forget! 

Day-to-day life can sometimes make you forget or put aside God's faithfulness, but don't let it! Tell the stories of God's faithfulness and tell them again! I recently visited my alma mater while my friend was attending class there. I took a walk around NU and ended up at the library. I love books, so I was looking around and reminiscing about all the days I would study there as an undergrad. As I'm doing this, I hear someone talking on their cell phone. I wasn't trying to listen in on his conversation, but he was talking so excitedly and loudly, I couldn't help it. This young man was so impassioned as he spoke. What was the deal? 

As I listened, I soon realized. He spoke about the faithfulness of God in his life. On and on he went about how God had taken care of him and led him in the past, and how God was taking care of him and leading him now. It was beautiful to listen to him speak of God's goodness. Hearing about the faithfulness of God in a place where I had so tangibly seen the faithfulness of God when I was there at school blessed my heart so much. So much! 

We need to hear about the faithfulness of God in each others' lives and we must share about the faithfulness of God in our lives. When we do this, we are filled with joy and live expectant to see how He is going to take the Philistine challenge in front of us and deliver us like He has before from the lion and the bear. Like David, we live from a place of victory because we stand on the faithfulness of God. Not because we're awesome, but because God is awesome! He is mighty, strong, powerful, and nothing is impossible for Him! 

This Christmas, as we reflect on Jesus' birth, let us remember that the Baby born in that stable that starry night was God's faithfulness on display for all the world to see for all time. God's promises all fulfilled as Jesus opened His eyes and breathed His first breath on earth. All of hell could not stop the promises of God unfolding in that humble manger in Bethlehem. Jesus reminds us of God's eternal faithfulness. His faithfulness can never be erased; forever and forever the Truth and Light of Jesus' birth will remain. Because of Jesus, we can know without any doubt that God will be faithful. Again and again. He came for us! He loves us! He is with us! He is for us! Jesus is how we know this! And even more, He will be faithful to us! And not to just deliver us from a lion or a bear or a giant. But from sin and death. From life without Him. From hopelessness and darkness. From discouragement and sorrow.  

The birth of Jesus should awaken our hearts - and not just Christmas Day, but every day! Jesus is Emmanuel - God with us! We don't have to do this life on our own, in our own strength, in our own courage. God is with us and His faithfulness in Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection guarantees His faithfulness to us. This is Good News, friends! 

The whole message of God sending Jesus to this world is one of love. Why else would God enter into our world in the most vulnerable and humble way? All for love! God's love for us! He put on flesh and dwelt among us so that we can experience a relationship with God so deep and peaceful and beautiful. So we can be freed from sin and death and eternal separation from Him. So we can live with Him forever and walk in abundant life here on earth and eternal life in heaven. 

Jesus is all of God's promises fulfilled. Jesus was born for you, for me, for all. And because He came for all of us, all of us can say that we know of the faithfulness of God. All of us can say that God is faithful. All of us can point to Christ and kneel in awe of the Savior who did everything it took to save us. As we trust and believe in Him, as we live in His love and obey Him by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will see His faithfulness in our lives over and over through all seasons, all circumstances, all of our lives. Because God is with us. Jesus is God with us. God's faithfulness is forever with us! 

O, come let us adore Him. Christ the Lord! 

Merry Christmas! 

Love always, 

Colleen

Flourless Brownies, Balsamic Vinaigrette, & Risotto - Blogging through Shauna Niequist's Bread & Wine

I am so excited to share three more recipes from Shauna Niequist's memoir/cookbook, Bread & Wine! They are all gluten-free too and delicious! :) 

On my last post, I mentioned that I felt a little like Julie from the movie, Julie and Julia. She blogged through one of Julia Child's cookbooks. I don't know if I'm that brave...yet! I remembering renting it around Christmastime the same year it was in theaters. Really cute movie about cooking! For fun, I'm sharing the movie trailer here!

FLOURLESS BROWNIES

Wow, these brownies are amazing! They're pretty rich, but everything in moderation, right? (I did go for a run around Green Lake after making these). 

These sweet treats would be great to bring to a potluck or make for dessert for a dinner party. 

First, I ground up almonds in a food processor to make almond meal, which will act like the flour substitute in this recipe. (Good rule of thumb - To make one 1 cup of almond meal, cover the bottom of the food processor with a single layer of whole almonds). 

This is what it should look like after processing for a couple pulses in the Cuisinart: 

Here are the ingredients: 1 cup of chocolate (I love dark), 1 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cups almond meal, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon almond extract, and 1 cup chopped walnuts. 

First, melt the butter and chocolate together until glossy and smooth. 

Take off heat and stir in sugar, vanilla and almond extracts. Allow to cool for a few minutes and stir in beaten eggs. Next, add in almond meal. Finally, mix in chopped walnuts. 

Pour into an 8 inch by 8 inch baking dish and bake at 325 for 25 to 30 minutes or until top is set but the brownies are still "a little wiggly," as Shuana says. Don't overbake them. When I'm baking something, I'll usually set the timer less five or so minutes than the lowest suggested time and check on it then and adjust because every oven is different. For this recipe, I set it for 20 minutes, but 25 minutes seemed to be the perfect time. When the timer went off at 20, I checked the brownies and added five more minutes. 

Allow brownies to cool completely (several hours) before cutting. Brownies may see a little gooey when you take them out of the oven, but they set up as they cool and they are the BEST brownies I've ever had! Seriously! You won't miss the flour at all! Bon appetit! 

BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

This is what you'll need to make the vinaigrette. You can blend them in a food processor, but Shauna suggests using a jelly jar. I found a cute Mason jar at Target for less than $2.

Here's the measurement break-down: 1 tablespoon Dijon, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and  1/2 cup olive oil. 

First, add the Dijon, vinegar, and salt and pepper to the jar. Screw on the lid and shake until blended. Add the olive oil, replace lid, and shake, shake, shake. Dip one leaf of your greens into the vinaigrette. If too vinegary for your taste, start with a half a teaspoon of sugar and adjust from there. 

Shauna puts this vinaigrette on everything - over greens, rice, roasted broccoli, soup, and she dips bread in it. Sounds delish! I had it over romaine lettuce salad with croutons and dried cranberries along with my risotto (see photo at the end of the next recipe!) 

RISOTTO 

I had so much fun making this recipe for risotto, Italian for "rice." At first I was a little intimidated, but it wasn't that difficult at all! I had so much fun making this dish, which would be perfect to make on a rainy afternoon or during the winter, just because you're standing over the stove a lot. 

Here is what you will need: 

6 cups of chicken broth (each can = 2 cups), 2 cups of arborio rice, 1 onion, 4 cloves of garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, white grape juice, and grated Parmesan. 

Shauna's recipe calls for white wine. I don't drink and I want to cook sans alcohol, so I researched it and found on so many cooking blogs that you can substitute white grape juice instead, which makes total sense! It worked great! 

To begin making risotto, warm up the 6 cups of chicken broth and start chopping up the onion.I watched this video to learn how to properly chop an onion: 

Cook the onion in the oil over medium to medium-low heat for five minutes, which gives you time to crush the four cloves of garlic. Google a video for how to crush garlic if you need to - I did. :) 

Add the garlic to the pot and cook an additional three minutes so that the onions become translucent and your kitchen starts to fill up with the aroma of garlic and onions. 

At that time, add the arborio rice to the pot and stir until completely coated. 

Next, pour in the white grape juice and allow it to absorb. 

When it is fully absorbed, you'll begin the process of adding one cup of chicken broth at a time and stirring, letting that absorb and adding another after that. This usually takes 18 to 20 minutes to complete. I set the timer on my stove and began adding the chicken broth. Stirring is key. Stir, stir, stir, as Shauna says. Be sure to use a wooden spoon, too!  

The key is to not let it dry out, but not drown either. Be patient and keep stirring! :) What you want to look for is steady cooking - in between boiling and simmering. There's probably a technical term for that; I'll have to ask a culinary student. 

Once you finish, you'll have a pot full of yummy risotto that serves 6. It also keeps well and is great the next day for lunch! 

Here is the finished product! Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top, salt and pepper to taste. The salad is dressed with the balsamic vinaigrette we made earlier. A wonderful homemade meal! 

Tomorrow, I'm planning on making Steak au Poivre (Pepper Steak), a traditional French dish, for dinner. I'll blog about that here soon! 

Til next time, happy baking and cooking!