Inside Voice

Getting grounded is a funny thing. Anyone reading this that has been grounded is sitting there like...uh no, actually it's not. However, in my family it is. Reasons I have almost been grounded include the following: driving too fast and making everyone in the car feel sick, being crude at inappropriate times, and my personal favorite talking too loudly. Sounds odd huh. Well APPARENTLY I speak at a loud volume...if by loud you mean a soft, delicate whisper than I will agree. Ok ok, I guess it is kind of loud. The time I decided to accept this was when my dad almost grounded me for not "using my inside voice." For the record, I was in the kitchen which echos like a freaking 60 foot dome AND to be frank my mom sounds like she uses a mega phone, so naturally I had to be louder than her. So sue me.

Any hoo, I started to think about how at certain times I can be the loudest person in the room. Then, at other times I act like I forgot how to form a normal sentence. Most of the time it is when I am in a public setting and something about the Lord comes us. It's like I just don't know what to say. How embarrassing as a believer. I have no excuses whatsoever to not speak up. I'm not a shy person. I think anyone who knows me would agree with that statement. However, when an opportunity to do the right thing or share the gospel with someone presents itself... often I pass it up. 

It made me wonder why the HECK do I do this (or I guess not do this)?! I have nothing to lose. And same with you! If you are a believer, you have absolutely NOTHING to lose. One Sunday I was listening to David Platt speak and he said something to the effect of this: "If we are truly believers, if we truly love the Lord like we all proclaim, then why are we not sharing this life changing news with those who don't know it?! We should be telling everyone." He said it in a way that made me feel like it was just me and good ole David sitting in that sanctuary.

 It's selfish to NOT tell others about the good news. A little boldness never hurt nobody (I just wrote that in the tune to "A Little Party Never Hurt Nobody"... I am aware that was improper grammar). It could change where someone spends eternity. But no no no! We can't be late to work or take the extra 20 minutes to get coffee with someone who needs Jesus. This is ETERNITY PEOPLE! That means forever...like never ending. We need to put away all our crappy excuses explaining why we don't have time to be bold today. What if you are the vessel God wants to use to bring the same lady you see in the Starbucks line to Him, but you are "too tired" today. And I'm talking to myself too, trust me this is a daily struggle. Hash tag convicted.

So in this sense, don't use your "inside voice." Quit getting all shy and awkward when an opportunity knocks on your door. If you are a follower of Jesus part of our duty is to pass his love and faithfulness along. What good does it do to anyone if you know the truth and don't share it? Nada, zippo, zero, it does the world NO good. Use the loudest voice you have. I'm talking yell it at people! Chase them down and pull their hair until they accept it...ok maybe don't do that. But maybe just, maybe just WE could be the generation to change the world for Christ. So I pray we will not be afraid to be bold and to do the right thing in a world that is so full of the wrong things. 

"I wonder how many of us will look back over a lifetime of wasted opportunities and ineffective witness, and weep because we did not allow God to use us as He wanted. If ever we are are to study the Scriptures, if ever we are to spend time in prayer, if ever we are to win souls for Christ-it must be now."  -Billy Graham 

And hey, arn't you glad that the person who shared the gospel with you was bold and didn't take the easy way out?

Rise and Shine.

One day. All we had to do was make it through one more day of class without our phones going off. Pause. Let me explain. So I am in this huge class with about 200 students and our teacher is...let's just say strict. She's one of those teachers that gets up there the first day of class and gives the "rules", and by the time you are walking out of there you are wondering how many breaths you are allowed to take. Seriously...I don't think I blinked for a solid 2 minutes walking out of her first class. I try to avoid all eye contact with her...I think the girl next to me peed in her pants a little (Jokes...however there was a wet spot...). BUT! Then by the end of the year you are so thankful you had her as a teacher because as bloodcurdling as she may be, you actually know what the heck you are talking about when it comes to that subject.

So one of her rules from day 1 has been if ANY phone makes ANY noise in class at ANY time, the final exam is comprehensive. DUN DUN DUN. And I kid you not she is so serious about this. I live in so much fear that I turn my phone completely off. Mainly because most mornings Beyonce' is my alarm and as fun as it would be to hear "YOU PUT MY LOVE ON TOP BABY" in the middle of class, I would rather not be that girl.

This morning she started class and told us that if we made it through the entire class period today with no phones ringing we would be safe and the final wouldn't be comprehensive. So naturally I was dead asleep when I heard it...someones alarm went off. The amount gasps in the room was actually comical. Bless her heart. The sweet girl simply forgot to turn her phone on silent. I'm not kidding you if stares burned that girl would've been a pile of ashes. Long story short, the dictator of a teacher gave us a free pass. She wasn't mean. She wasn't rude. She simply kept teaching and at the end of class said, "You all have made it this far. The final is not comprehensive". I seriously considered rising from my chair, marching on the stage, and hugging that tiny lady as tightly as possible. Then I realized how weird that would be and I stayed seated.

As I was sitting there in awe, I couldn't help but think of how accurate a picture of God's grace this is. God knew this was gonna happen. It's not like it came as a shock to him. He wasn't chilling up in heaven like "HER PHONE WENT OFF?!!?!" No no. He planned this. He planned for that girl's phone to ring on the last day of class. But he also planned and planted a seed of grace in my professor's heart. She easily could've made it comprehensive. She's not taking the final. Why should she care?! But God used her to demonstrate his immense amount of grace he shows us to this huge lecture class of 200 students.

How cool right?! I mean the girl whose phone went off was merely a tool in God's bigger and much grander plan for this morning. It makes me wonder how many times throughout the day God shows me grace and I don't even notice it. I guess it took someones phone going off to literally wake me up and acknowledge the grace God shows me daily. So, in a weird way I am thankful for her phone going off. Not only did it keep me from drooling on the girl next to me, but it has now challenged me to keep my eyes peeled for any way God reveals himself to me throughout the day. Challenge accepted God, challenge accepted.

P.F. Changs

A bucket list is a funny thing. I decided a few years ago to start mine. Let me preface before I continue...I promise you I DO know what a bucket list means. The reason I feel the need to say that is because one time I started to read my list to a friend and they stopped me and said as if I was a confused 7 year-old, "Brianna...I don't think you know what a bucket list is..." I wanted to flick her in the nose. I know what a normal bucket list looks like! I mean just cause I'm blond..sheeesh. A normal bucket list would be something like this, "Skydiving, wear a beautiful wedding dress, skinny dipping, blah, blah, blah." Mine looks quite different. So here we go, bring on the judgement. 

I'll just tell you a few, because I would prefer for people to keep reading this without thinking "Sweet moses what happened to her as a child." Okay, before I die I WILL sit on a horse outside of P.F. Changs. Don't ask me why, but every single time we go to that restaurant all I wanna do is jump up on that horse and take a good look around. I mean have you seen how big it is?! 

This one... it's probably unhealthy how excited I am to do this. Brace yourself. I'm going to stand on the street corner wearing a shirt that says, "LIFE" on it and hand people lemons... ALL. DAY. LONG. Only because it is physically impossible to have a crappy day after that happens. I mean why not watch people laugh when they finally put the pieces together and then awkwardly walk away holding a lemon.

Okay. You know on movies when you see the grand openings of random things? Like when a Zoo opens...or an amusement park and they use those GIANT scissors to cut the GIANT ribbon? That. I wanna do that so passionately. I don't even care if it is the grand opening of a baby goat farm. I just want to cut the ribbon using giant scissors..(see now you know why I had to preface).

So...now you are sitting there reading this wondering why I chose to write all about my dumb bucket list. But, I was reminded of bucket lists this past week when a precious young girl named Jordan got taken to be with Jesus after battling cancer. I didn't know her, but everyone who did went on and on about her sweet and loving spirit. It's heart breaking when someone so young passes away, but oh how much JOY to know that she is celebrating in heaven with our King. 

I think it's easy in life to sit back and complain about school or work and not take advantage of the life the Lord has put right under our stuck up noses. Often for me it's me complaining about how monotonous my days are. The same meals at village dining or the same classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday. But how rude of me. This week it has really hit me that it is by God's grace and God's grace alone that I woke up this morning. Jordan would be glad to be here studying for a test. So instead of me whining because my Thursday night will be spent in the Library, Praise the Lord I have the ability to study and Praise the Lord I am even breathing right now! 

So check things off your bucket list! I don't know what yours looks like (probably a little more normal than mine), but if it's on your bucket list it's because YOU wanna do it before your life is over. I wanna be in a flash mob before I die (that's cool and you know it). You may wanna bungie jump. I don't care just start DOING and most importantly do it all for His glory. God has you here for a reason and He is going to use you! Thank you Jordan for influencing me in so many ways and being such a beautiful image of the Lord's joy no matter what the circumstance. So stop complaining and waiting around. GO! Live out your bucket list and thank Jesus for that breath you just took. 

Y the L not.

Biggest blessing in my life. Biggest challenge in my life. And it has definitely provided some of the MOST awkward moments in my life. I know the suspense is just killing you... YOUNG LIFE. Easily the coolest ministry I have gotten to be apart of. To sum it up Young Life is when you combine hundreds of college students who go out to high schools and show kids Christ's love. And I don't just mean your little sister's best friend you have grown up with all your life or the adorable kid you have baby sat since you were younger...because let's be honest, loving those kids are easy. I mean the kids that are gonna yell at you and say "GIMME YO PHONE HOE. I GOTTA CALL MY MAMA." And you have to smile and hand them your phone. It's a daily prayer that God will help you love those who may be hard to love. But that's why I love this ministry. It challenges you in all kind of ways. 

I got placed at a local private Christian school...which has only been my life growing up. BUT like I said, it will still challenge you. Let me guess...you are sitting there thinking... how hard can it be to form relationships with girls in high school right? UM freaking hard. Try walking into Junior/Senior lunch and trying to start a conversation with girls you have never met. Keep in mind WHILE awkwardly standing behind them at the lunch table...I'm over here like "Heyyyy girl. That ham and cheese looks tasty...?" (smooth, I know). But it's hard! My thoughts go a little something like this as I'm walking into the school..."Alright Brianna, pull your self together. Just BE COOL and for the love of all that is good and holy DON'T say something dumb...Crap is something in my teeth?!" That's my usual train of thought. But, then I usually have one of those moments when I think...why the heck am I nervous?! I don't care what they think of me because the God of the universe has my back and when focusing on that I cannot fail. 

So how cool is this... the gist is, you get placed at a local high school in your area and just begin showing up at the school to form relationships with these high school girls. I'm talking whatever you gotta do to show up in these kids life. Whether it is waiting outside the school with popsicles just to talk to them like a creepy stalker (GET IN THE VAN...jk) or just showing up at the Friday night football games and eating a funnel cakes with girls. It's our job as YL leaders to be a light to these high school kids. It is not easy whatsoever. In fact it may be one of the most challenging things I've ever done. Real talk, sometimes it's disappointing and feels like the work you are doing is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. But, then I stop and remember that no matter how bad of a stare I get from a girl or how awkward of a conversation I have, God is working and doing big things. I may not see them, the girls may not see it, but God is working in these girls lives. So for now, I will laugh at the awkward sandwich covos I have at lunches and smile at the cheerleader who looks so wicked intimidating because God is sovereign and when remembering that, I can fully trust in Him.  

1 John 3:18

"Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth."

 

Holy rush week..

If there is one thing I have learned from rush week it's this...Are you ready? Cause I mean this with every fiber in my body. It's deep, so if you don't wanna think to hard just stop reading. Here goes...when in doubt.... twerk it out. Yes I said twerk. That is currently a dance move that this white girl can NOT do. During rush it's usually those moments towards the end of the week when everyone hits that point where you wanna curl up in fetal position and yell anytime someone looks your way. Dramatic? I think not. If you have been through rush you know what I mean. For AOII it was in these stress filled moments when suddenly a twerking frenzy happened. And all of the sudden you are laughing to hard to think about the drama of rush, and instead you are holding your side because you can't stop laughing. (one of the many reasons I am way too obsessed with AOII)

It's not that rush itself is horrid because it can actually be quite fun...especially when you get to dress up in an abnormally large panda suit and wake up your roommate while dancing to "Candy Shop"...or when you play dodgeball down your sororities hallway...(not that we did any of that?...)  Im 68% sure it is just the combination of the lack of sleep along with the hundreds of hormonal girls who start randomly crying for no apparent reason. It's almost as though no males even exist on the week of rush. Like every single male specimen living on Auburn's campus teams up and decides "HEY let's leave hundreds of girls for a week to fight each other for other girls". Cool guys...real cool.

For me my therapy was driving around Auburn listening to Mumford and Sons for about an hour to clear my head. It's like I was annoyed with myself. I was mad I was letting myself get too worked up about the whole entire thing. I just focused on the line from "Ghosts that We Knew"that says "So give me hope in the darkness, when I can't see the light". I got so focused on myself and the negatives. It's like I had to pull myself out of the equation and realize that no matter how badly I wanted a girl in my sorority it's not MY decision. It's ultimately not the girls either. It's all in God's hands and that is what I had to focus on. And in focusing on that all my stress went away and a peace came over me that could only be from the Lord.

I mean I could be off..but I think when we get to heaven God is not gonna ask "So what sorority did you go?!" In the grand scheme of life it sooo doesn't matter what sorority you end up in!! Don't get me wrong, God cares about what is happening in our lives. But, he cares more about our heart more than anything. Which sounds like a DUH comment, but just trust me...when you have been doing rush for a week all your priorities get out of whack. So oh how thankful I am for rush being over, but oh how much more thankful I am for the perspective God has taught me throughout this challenging week.

First World Pains.

It's somewhat comical to me how ironic I make my life. So it's like this, first I'm groaning and griping about how boring this summer has been and how I don't get enough hours at my job. Then an amazing thing happens...I get hours at work. And what do I do? Royally complain about how I hate being at work all day and I'm 19 years old and my life is just oh so terribly hard. I just hate how bipolar I am...It's awesome.

HA. I mean real talk...sometimes the most difficult part of my day is having to get off the big leather couch to get the pistachios and remote control off the OTHER big leather couch. Yeah I'm a problem I know. And yet it's funny how I religiously count all the frustrating moments in my day so I can tell my friends just how emotionally draining my day was because...well, God forbid someone take my parking spot at Anthropologie (bless my heart).

 I'm suddenly wondering how different my day would sound if I counted all the good things that happened in one day as apposed to the bad. It's like that old saying goes, "What would you have left if God took away everything you didn't thank Him for?" Yep...I know what you're thinking. All you would have left is the cold air in your car and your venti latte from Starbucks. News flash! LIFE IS GOOD. Yes, I am aware I don't know your life, but I guarantee it is better than others. Be glad! Especially if you are a believer because this life you are living right now is your Hell. It only gets better from this point on and THAT is something to be glad about. "For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain."(Phillipians 1:21)

 So quick, take one small break from getting your nails done or that golf game that you just gotta finish, and thank the Lord for the many blessings we don't give him credit for. It's like Max Lucado says, "Instead of complaining the wait is too long, thank God for extra minutes to pray."(Unless you're in line at the DMV, because those waits are long.) I don't know if this sudden revelation is because it's raining outside and I'm listening to John Mayer, but boy am I humbled at the immense amount of grace God has shown me. Take a few minutes and I bet big bucks you will be too.

My flesh and blood.

So I'm not sure what your typical family looks like, but I'll give you a glimpse of mine because let's face it...pretty much everything in my life good or bad is because of these goons. And if I do say so myself, we are KINDA a big deal (see that's funny because we actually arn't...at all). SO:

--Dan- Actually a superhero..ok well he basically is. Just your everyday hard working dad... just 4 inches shorter than you would imagine (he makes up for it with his killer banana pancakes and love for Christ)

--Jackie- The overdramatic yet spunky mother you wish you had (her cooking is so good it would make Paula Dean say bad words...oh wait.) She is also kinda a MILF, which provides steady competition for her daughters (jokes..kinda).

--Brett- Oldest therefore he is clearly the favorite although the parents would debate me for hours on that. Don't believe me? This is a classic morning:
"Brett we made you scrambled eggs, an omelet, bacon, toast with butter, toast without butter, every flavor of cereal every created and coffee brewed from 15 different countries."
"Brianna, Kaitlyn...here is half a pop-tart to split."

[OK OK....maybe it's not exactly like that...We each get an entire pop-tart.]

--Kaitlyn-Ah the middle child. Probably one of the weirdest people I have ever met which explains why we are pretty much best of friends. Seriously though there are few people I know who can handle my concerning sense of humor, let alone respond in a way that makes me look tame. After having a conversation with the both of us is when you would say "GOSH YALL ARE SO RELATED." But really...we shouldn't be allowed in public together.

--Bailey- No way could I leave out the pup of the fam. She often responds to the not so normal names we call her such as "sweet baby muffin breath" or "SLUT!" (kidding!) She is shedding an ungodly amount of hair that is the cause for my mother losing her sanity... but she can't help it! She is losing her winter coat sheesh!

Then I guess I should be addressed. Not much needs to be said except the important things...Pranking people gives me an unhealthy amount of joy (stories to come), I will back hand you so hard if you hate on my friends and family, and the joy of the Lord is what gives me hope each and every day.

Sooo combine all of us and BAM...you have one big, weird yet flipping sweet family that I will (most the time) proudly claim as my flesh and blood.

What's really in a name...?

Yes..you caught me. My last name is Basik. I know clever huh. Well, I will say having this last name does have some perks...like starting a Blog called "A Very Basik Life". I mean I thought it was kinda clever. Anyways, so I recently decided I really don't have a cool enough life to start a Blog. Then it hit me. It hit me hard as a rock. I mean it was almost like an actual rock was flying mid-air and just smacked me in the face..(enjoy that visual). No ones life is THAT interesting! Sure, some people live in New York City and write about a super cool French painting they watched be painted that day...but average bloggers don't I repeat don't have that cool of lives. So I guess that's why I started this. Because I thought "Well...why the heck not blog?". I'll see how this whole "blogging about my life" thing goes. Acutally...I guess WE will see how it goes because if you are reading this you are about to either watch me make a complete and utter fool of myself (which let's be honest...may be fun to re-read and laugh at) or watch me write wicked cool stuff. So for the time being, this is my way of hopefully adding a tiny bit of spice to the most ordinary and basic moments in life. Anyhoo, enjoy or go to the top left and hit that tiny red X button and no hard feelings. Oh and one last thing, Jesus Christ is easily the most important thing in my simple little life. So, If it's gonna bother you when I write about Him, than go ahead and just stop reading...you heard me. Stop reading, and like I said earlier, you can just tap that tiny red X and be on your way. But if you're still reading...well than by golly looks like God has a hold on you too friend.