Testimony

My fear that I faced from the last blog was kind of a mix of things, I am not one to speak in front of large amounts of people and two my spiritual journey.  As Christians we are called to get baptized, basically publically proclaiming that we will live our lives to serve God and today I was baptized.  It was pretty crazy and I was incredibly nervous but got through and as the blog you can read my testimony.  There is so much more that I could write and have said but that will be saved for a later date and different blog, I hope you enjoy it J

Hi, my name is Rebecca Giesbrecht, I am 18 and I am here today to publically declare that I want my life to glorify Christ. 

I was born and raised in loud, never boring Christian home by two great parents along with two younger sisters and a younger brother.  One of the earlier memories I have was accepting Jesus into my heart when I was really young in my family room on our old couch with my mom. She was in the middle of getting ready for church and took the time to read Benjamin’s Box with me and after we read the prayer in the back of the book and that was that.  I never really had a very personal relationship with God when I was growing up, I went to church on Sunday’s and pioneer club on Wednesdays until I hit the awesome age of youth.  In grade 7 my first small group was all girls and we would make sure we all fit on one couch keeping us a pretty close group. We stuck together through middle school preparing a great group of friends to go into high school with.  Going from a tiny school of about 180 kids total to a high school where there is that many kids in a grade was really intimidating.  There were a lot of people to meet and become friends with in high school and a few that I chose were not the best.  I didn’t really pay much attention to God or a lot of morals I had been taught as a kid, like don’t lie, I ended grade nine with a lot of broken trust and friendships from bad decisions I had made and now had to deal with the consequences. I was dreading going back to school in grade 10 because I didn’t really know where I stood with my friends and I started school with little desire to be at there but when youth started it was always a highlight of my week.  A new small group was started with new leaders and we were the one of the oddest groups, grade 10 girls lead by a pregnant lady and lone male.  Us girls had known each other for a while and we quickly seemed to click as a group and we have stuck together ever since.  Small group was a great place to be able to talk about God in and do it honestly and that is when I started to build my own faith.  Grade 10 had started off shaky but with an awesome small group and basketball team at school life seemed pretty good, which is usually when something happens. 

Thursday was the beginning of the annual basketball tournament at Collegiate and we had played that morning and before the game that evening us girls had made plans as a team.  When my sister and I went to go tell my mom at the end of school she just told us to get in the car and I though we were in trouble but it was a lot worse than that, my grandmother had suddenly passed away that morning.  It was the worst new I had ever heard.  We got home and our house was the quietest I think it has ever been.  I wanted to just stay in my room and not face anything or anyone but Colleen and I went to the game. The whole team and coaches were really good about the situation and incredibly supportive but we lost in double over time by 1 point and it was just brutal.  One of the coaches was going to give us a ride home and in his car he had a David Crowder band CD which he ended up letting me borrow and was a massive comfort through the next weeks because I was so lost in life and especially with God and two of the songs talked about exactly how I was feeling. Just when I was starting to accept what had happened my best friends grandfather passed away and that is how it continued for the next few months in our small group.  Almost everybody lost somebody close to them but through all of that we all became closer.  Though as a group we were growing closer I was growing really distant from God because I couldn’t understand why when I was starting to get everything together He would go and tear it apart and then make me watch everybody I cared about go through the same thing.  I really started to doubt Him and what He was doing but didn’t share this in fear of peoples reaction.  That year I was able to go to Pitch and Praise and the topic was on doubt and how it is not a bad thing and it is okay to doubt and question God which was an incredible reassurance to me.  I started slowly trying to get God back but felt like I had to earn Him because if I had doubted Him, why wouldn’t He doubt me. One particular small group night in the summer I was leading the group and everybody got distracted and one of my leaders called me out on kind of faking that my relationship with God was better than it actually was which was hard to hear but gave me opportunity to share what I had been going through with somebody else.  Again I started to try and earn a relationship with God because but another death rocked my world when a girl from my class was killed on a mission’s trip.  Trying to understand why somebody who was doing such good for God and His kingdom and He would take her instead of somebody else or me, who wasn’t even sure where I stood with God, was something I couldn’t grasp. Starting grade 11 our small group had grown in size and mix of gender which resulted in a frustrating year of trying to grow in God and not feeling able to open up to everybody. Deciding about what I wanted my future to look like education wise was also a struggle because I wasn’t sure I was good enough for a rowing scholarship or if I should continue trying for nursing all while trying to earn a relationship with God.  There were two main moments when God really got a message through though.  One was Easter of last year, writing something we feared or held us back and literally leaving it at the cross.  My fear was death. Easter Sunday in the video they replaced my sticker with “life” on the cross, it seems really simple but I am not dead yet so I shouldn’t stop living life but I need to decide what I want to live my life for. The second was during a general stressed out day I was dealing with trying to get another job to save for school and missions and ended up yelling at my dad and going to my room. That night before going to bed I checked my email and I had probably close to ten emails of job opportunities that my dad had found and sent to me.  If my dad loved me that much even after I had been really rude and mean to him, I could only imagine how much my heavenly Father loves me.  This year still hasn’t been easy, I regularly struggle with trying to be good enough by the standards I think I should be meeting to please everybody but I have finally transferred from my head to my heart though that God knows the plans He has for me, plans to prosper and not to hurt me, plans to give me hope and a future.  I want to give my life to Him and His plans for me and just spread His love.  That is why I am here today, in front of you, to get baptized.

 

I will post some pictures once I get them too J

Fast and Furious 6

So it has been quite a while, super sorry!! This blog will be about movies and music combined so it is a double whammy of awesome Fast and Furious 6, amazing movie. We Own It, 2 Chainz and Wiz Kalifa, just as amazing.

Last weekend I went with one of my best friends to go see Fast and Furious 6, but I can’t say I have been one of those die hard fans because I haven’t seen the first 5 yet though I will now because they seem awesome. Originally I thought it was basically fast cars and sex and I am not a huge car or sex fanatic so it didn’t seem that appealing, I actually wasn’t going to go see the movie in the first place but my friend was already at the theatre alone so it was slightly a pity thing, but I am glad I went. I was slightly confused about the whole Leddy thing in the beginning but my friend explained that to me and I really didn’t need to know anything about cars except the faster the better, “Ride or die.”  The plot was incredible, some really good twisters that nobody saw coming, those really good ones where the whole theatre just goes “WHAT?!” super great! Also if you are going to see it stay through the credits, there is a clip played after some of them and it is super important and really good and if you have seen the first five you will have your mind blown, my mind was blown after my friend explained it to me.  There is an incredible girl fight between Leddy and an agent which is so well done and amazing to watch.  There is a tank too, on a highway, running over cars like nobody’s business, so crazy! The amount of fast cars, I really would like to be a race car driver like that.  I would need to brush up my standard driving and buy a standard car and find some roads that are windy and interesting with no cops but it would be so much fun.  It is incredibly dangerous driving after watching Fast and Furious 6 because the desire to drive like the movie is just crazy, it is like an adrenaline rush from the theatre to your car. There was also a scene that I thought was the ending scene and thought it was super lame but it was not the ending thankfully and it ends up on a runway with a huge plane and it is seriously the longest runway ever. The picture is totally accurate, if not a little short. 

For me a crucial part of the movie is the song that the credits is played to and they NAILED it.  The movie ends and it cuts straight to We Own It by 2 Chainz featuring Whiz Kalifa.  I can’t remember completely but I am pretty sure it starts with the chorus and it is basically my summer jam right now.  The first link is to the song with lyrics and the second is the one with Fast and Furious because it is just super great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYQ1Okyi3g4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv8C1wjbsKw

Money’s the motivation, money’s the conversation

You on vacation, we getting’ paid so

We on paycation, I did it for the fam

It’s whater we had to do, it’s just who I am

Yeah, it’s the life I chose

Gunshots in the dark, one eye closed

And we got it cooking like one-eyed stove

You can catch me kissin’ my girl with both eyes closed

Perfecting my passion, thanks for asking

Couldn’t slow down so we had to crash it

You used plastic, we ‘bout cash,

I see some people ahead we gon’ pass

I never fear death or dying

I only feel never trying

I am whatever I am,

Only God can judge me, now

One shot, everything rides on tonight

Even if I’ve got three strikes, Ima go for it

This moment, we own it

And I’m not to be played with

Because it can get dangerous

See these people I ride with

This moment, we own it

And the same ones that I ride with, be the same ones that I die with

Pull it all out on the line with, if you looking for me you can find with

In the new car or in the crown whip

My new broad, that’s a fine chick

And the wonder squad, I’m down with

What you say, tell me what you say

Working hard, reppin’ for my dogs, do this everyday

Takin’ off, looking out for all, makin’ sure we ball

Like the mob all you do is call

Catch you if you fall, Young Kalifa

I never fear death or dying

I only feel never trying

I am whatever I am,

Only God can judge me, now

One shot, everything rides on tonight

Even if I’ve got three strikes, Ima go for it

This moment, we own it

And I’m not to be played with

Because it can get dangerous

See these people I ride with

This moment, we own it

This the biggest day of my life

We got big guns, been graduated from knives

It’s the day in the life and I’m ready to ride

Got the spirit, I’m feelin’ like a killer inside

Financial outbreak, I’m free but I ain’t out yet

Ride with the plug so I’m close to the outlet

At the red light, rims sittin’ off set

I look better on your girl

Stuck to the plan, always think that we would stand up, never ran

We the fam and loyalty never change up

Been down since day one, look at where we came from

Jumpin’ out on anybody who try to say some one thing about it

 Got a problem, I go t the same one

Money rolls, we fold plenty clubs we closed,

Follow the same code

Never turn our back, our cars don’t even lose control

One shot, everything rides on tonight

Even if I’ve got three strikes, Ima go for it

This moment, we own it

And I’m not to be played with

Because it can get dangerous

See these people I ride with

This moment, we own it

Technical stuff first, starts off with a great build up, quite hum like then into the “strings” and into the rapping and beat, great introduction. Similar build up into the chorus which is my favourite part of the song. The strong beats in the chorus accenting counting to three and going from A to C is incredible, as shown below J

One shot, everything rides on tonight

Even if I’ve got three strikes, Ima go for it

This moment, we own it

And I’m not to be played with

Because it can get dangerous

See these people I ride with

This moment, we own it

Just reading it the lyrics do not seem that way, especially the “And” part but listening to it is just really cool.

Lyrics, so good, though I can’t say I necessarily relate to all of them, like the amount of money, gun shots, basically most of it but there are some really great parts that I do connect with. The line “Perfecting my passion, thanks for asking” I wish I could say that I am perfecting my passion, but I am not even totally sure what it is yet but I will love being able to say that once I find it and I think everybody should be able to take pride in what their passion is and perfecting it.  Finding a passion is what makes life enjoyable, it is really hard to do something you are not passionate about; for example, I am not passionate about making fries or burgers or chicken for work, the thought of spending the rest of my life like that, well I don’t think about it because it is terrible but you get the general idea, passion is the new fashion (I just made that up and it is pretty lame but rhymes, which is fun). 

The lyrics about “…the same ones that I ride with, be the same ones that I die with/Pull it all out on the line with, if you looking for me you can find with”, “Takin’ off, looking out for all, makin’ sure we ball/Like the mob all you do is call/Catch you if you fall” and “We the fam and loyalty never change up/Been down since day one, look at where we came from” I connect to my few close friends who are basically family, similar to the crew in Fast and Furious except we aren’t wanted or do cool things with fast cars or guns or fighting, though we like to think we could.  I never related being able to just call to being like a mob but I like the idea of being similar to a mob in a good way, that is interesting.  My friends and I always have each other’s backs and have only gotten closer over the years. Yesterday was our last official night of small group (we get together each week at youth and talk about various subjects) and for our leaders I put together pictures of us all over the years and it was crazy seeing how much we changed over the years. Looking at where we started and where we have ended up was just a crazy time and it is good to know that we won’t stop now because we are family. 

The chorus, as I have probably said already, is my favourite part of the song.  We only have one shot at life and we should not waste it.  Looking back on life and regretting certain decisions is hopefully not something people want to do, or if something has already happened that is regrettable then taking from that and becoming a better person instead of just regretting it more in the future is always a wiser choice. Also not letting fears hold you back, it is the hardest thing to get past.  I can’t really think of an recent example that I have had but I can think of one about sky diving (I talked to my dad about it and a friend the other day :P), I have heard it is an awesome experience and if you want to do it but are scared of heights and one day reach the point where you can not do it anymore and watch your friends and loved one experience something you wish you had but didn’t because of a fear, it sucks.  Or the classic example of not getting the guy or girl because you didn’t speak up, a lot of sad stories have resulted from that, I think the biggest fear as humans though is hurting our social self.  The whole public humiliation, being rejected, looking foolish, those are the biggest fears but we just have to own the moment and go for it! I realized I was getting off topic and figured it should be brought back to the lyrics.

Overall, Fast and Furious 6, 6 thumbs up, We Own It, was totally owned by the artists.  Amazing job by all! Challenge from this, do something that you are scared of.  I will make a blog post about it when I do it, let me know what you did and how it worked out!