Twist & Shout: Chicago

Hey friends! 

Today I'm sharing some photos from a short day trip to Chicago! And by "some" photos, I mean A LOT. 

This past weekend was my dear friend Maggie's wedding in Appleton, Wisconsin. My friends Kennedy and Charles live in Michigan, so I flew in to Detroit, and we road tripped from there. On the way back to Kennedy's house, we had an extra day until mine and Olivia's flight back, so we stopped in Chicago for a few hours to see some of the sights! Lately I've been feeling a bit of the travel bug, so I jumped at the chance to see a city I've always wanted to visit. 

Olivia, Kennedy, Maggie, and I all roomed together on my first Disney College Program in the spring of 2016.

Our first stop was Navy Pier, right on Lake Michigan. 

T-Swift And The Problem With Hardened Hearts

I think the most cringe-worthy moment of 2017 was the moment I heard Taylor Swift's new song "Look What You Made Me Do." 

Okay, so hear me out. Tswift is my girllll, and her songs were the anthem to my teen angst; so I'm not going to sit here and bash her as a person or her new sound or how she's not the same, etc. Music artists change their sound/style all the time, and there's not much you can really do about it. Am I a "Teardrops On My Guitar" over "Blank Space" kind-of-girl? Yes, but irrelevant.

My concern here is for this twenty-seven year old girl's heart and the message she projects to people all over the world. 

Taylor Swift is probably one of the most (if not the most) well-known name in pop culture. This girl has had some crap happen to her, and she's done some crap to other people. Regardless of what's true or how I feel about her personally, her song gave me actual anxiety just by listening to the lyrics. She openly claims to write music from personal experience, so we know these words come from her heart. 

Here are some of the most concerning lyrics to me:

Beauty In The Broken

There are two types of people in the world...

There are those who cry out to God and profess their love and devotion in the hard times and times of need, but ignore Him when life is going pretty swell. 

Then there are those who turn and worship God when the blessings rain down, but bail when it gets tough. 

Neither of these places are good to be in. I'm not saying this is a constant attitude in your walk with God; just a tendency toward one end of the scale than the other. 

I'm in the second category.

With the realization that all good things come from above, it's easy to give praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when you feel #blessed. But when hard times come or things don't seem to be going your way, the presence of God is questioned in the midst of the mess. Suddenly it's easier to feel betrayed and frustrated at the lack of understanding in what is happening and why. 

I used to pray that the Lord would just zap away my pain in a matter of moments. I believed in faith in the power of Christ to bring healing in my brokenness. I wanted out of the painful season as soon as possible, and so that would be my prayer... God just wash away the pain, take me out of this now. 

But over time, the Lord has taught me something so incredibly sweet about His character in the midst of pain.

Two Years

Hey friends!

This month is a very special month for the blog because it has been two whole years since my first post (linked here)!

I first started writing as an outlet to share the life and times of Meaghan Mercy, but also to share what the Lord had been teaching me in hopes that He would use my experiences to speak to others. In the past two years, my blog has gone through some changes in content, some absence and inconsistency, and even a change in name (RIP Meaghan Unscripted). 

But as mentioned in previous posts, my vision for this blog found in the About Me tab still stands. That this space would always make room for authenticity, and that authenticity could always be found at the heart of every post.

I've learned a few things along the way... about myself, about the Lord, and about partnering in writing with Him.