Summership

Something fell into my lap this last week. 

I got an internship at my church for this summer. 

In Flagstaff. 

It will be the bomb. 

And it was completely God's doing.

I had been praying for a while about what to do with my summer, and had already settled on living at home in Phoenix doing two part time jobs, when Pastor Paul called me and asked if I'd be interested in doing an internship at North Point this summer. No applications? No interviews? Um, heck yes!! (Although I would've been happy to apply for it) Well, the only problem was that I would have nowhere to stay. But he and his wife, Ronna, already knew that and offered me a room in their house. Amazing! But wait, there's more! They also had room for another in their house, and so my now-roommate, Lindsey, gets to live there too. Ah, God is good. So, I get to serve my awesome church - in the children's ministry for VBS, the administrative aspect, hopefully starting up some college stuff, and whatever else they have for me-, I get to live with my amazing friend at my gracious Pastor's house, and I also get to keep working at Barnes and Noble, which is a job I really enjoy. All the while being in beautiful Flagstaff. 

This will be an awesome summer. 

30 days

So, it has been 30 days since I've been off facebook. And I don't want to go back. Seriously. I have email. And a phone. Why would I need facebook? Pictures, maybe.
Don't worry, I'm not getting rid of it. But I definitely won't be spending a lot of time on it.
I found this hilarious video- I don't know too much about Twitter, but I guess it's a lot like facebook. Enjoy.

Alexander, The Faith Machine

I was driving in my car the other day and I had a song stuck in my head, so I started singing it, probably a little too loud and intense, and I thought to myself how much I missed my radio...because of times like that, when I make a fool of myself by singing to the music- in my head. (My radio/stereo broke a while ago- maybe Christmas break? I can't remember exactly) So I was feeling sad, but then I started thinking of what I've done instead of rocking out to my tunes.

 Sometimes I do pop my ipod into my ears, but usually not because it's more work than is worth it. But most of the time I realized, I talk to God! Alot of the times, I'm praying that the "service engine soon" light will go away, or that the gas gauge would quite going down so fast, or the most recent one is that my brakes would just please work. Otherwise, I just get to talk to God about you guys and anything else. 

Yes, he's quite a faith machine, I guess you could call him. Him being Alexander, my car.

So thank you God for taking my radio away from me so that we can have sweet time together. And thank you for Alexander. Please let his brakes work tomorrow when I go to work. Amen.

My shabang

In Bible Study about a month ago, my prayer request was that God would give me a last 'shabang' here in Flagstaff before I headed to Moody. Yep, a shabang. Go ahead and laugh...the girls in my group did. I was just feeling useless and wondering what my purpose was in Flagstaff for a whole semester doing classes that I knew I wouldn't ever need and I really just wanted to start at Moody right then and there. So, being the dramatic impatient person that I am, I wanted to DO something- I wanted a shabang! 

Well, I knew even before that night, that God puts us in times of waiting. And I've been in those times before (just look at my first post!) and that this was going to be one of those times. And oh how I was dreading it. Not that it was going to be horrible- because I love Flagstaff and I have the most amazing friends and the greatest church and I do like my job. But I needed a purpose. 

Cue the shabang prayer request.

Well, I have not truly known the meaning of waiting on the Lord until this semester. Yes, I've "waited", and I've learned about patience, but that is not really what waiting on the Lord is. Ah, I can honestly say that since that night at Bible study, the Spirit has been moving in my heart and it seems like every day I get closer and closer to Him. Today I was reflecting back to even just Christmas break, comparing it to now- and how awesome it has been to just be with God! I don't need a shabang...that will come with time. Right now is my time of refinement and renewal and strengthening and growing in Him- that is what waiting on the Lord is. If you are just stagnant with Him when you wait, then of course you're going to dread it! And that's what I've learned- it takes two to tango, even with God. It's been awesome waiting on Him, and I'm so thankful He hasn't given me a last shabang, because I would not have been able to learn what I have about His character and love. God knew better than I did (imagine that!) and He knew that I was not ready to go to Moody right when I wanted to, but that I needed some help! I feel so much more prepared than I was, but still know God has so much more for me in these next 4 months before I head up there. 

So feel free and pray for your own shabang, you know you want to...but just be prepared for what God might have for you instead. 

Let's go back to the donkeys...

Crazy

I have been challenged. Challenged to be crazy. To be obsessed. To give up myself. My comforts. My safety.

"Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me.

Lay any burden on me, only sustain me.

Sever any tie but the tie that binds me to Thyself." -David Livingstone

Francis Chan wrote a book called Crazy Love that I read in two very short days and I am still digesting it. One thing that is really knocking my socks off and totally changing the way I think is when he was describing how he sold his nice house to move into a smaller one so he could give more of his money. Along with this book, in my Bible study, we are learning how obedience is costly. Now, in most books or conversations I've had where people describe sacrifices people have made, the author usually says something along the lines of, "Now I don't write this to say you should go out and sell all of your possessions (or whatever they did), but merely to inspire you to be thankful for what you have."....or something like that. But Chan is not like that. He said that we should do something crazy like sell our house, or whatever God was telling us to do, so that we might serve Him better. We can't be lukewarm Christians (there is a whole chapter on 'the profile of the lukewarm Christian'), but we must take the Bible seriously when it tells us to give up everything in order to be His disciple!! (Luke 14:33) We've got to be crazy!

Sunny Days with a Hot Friend (:

I am so thankful for the beautiful weather in Phoenix. I actually got semi-tan! But more importantly I'm so thankful that my friend Heather got to come down from Idaho to spend some much needed time together. We've been soaking up the sun, (bargain)shopping, eating like no other, and having the greatest of conversations and laughs two friends could share. Sadly, she has to go tomorrow...but thankfully I will only be an hour and a half from her for a whole year next year :D

Shortest Book Review of Your Life

I finished the book. And it was fantastic. And I have passed it on already.

And basically, the book boils down to this: we must be more Christ-like and less us-centered. That's it. That is the solution to the image problem of Christians today. Easy, right? Ha ha, yep.

The End.

Don't take my showers!

I was in the shower the other day, and I was thinking to myself that if ever God led me to be a missionary somewhere in a third world country, I would be all over it...except for the shower situation. Give me a concrete floor to sleep on, I'm fine. Give me rice and beans for every meal, I'm fine. Take away my tv, my facebook, even my ipod, I know I could survive. But take my shower, that's different. I cherish my shower time. Every morning. And sometimes at night. I like to be clean. I'm not a girly girl, I don't have to wear make up and curl my hair, but I do have to be clean. I can go camping for a week and not do showers though...so maybe I just have to think of being a missionary as a really long camping trip.

Morning Soap

This is my favorite line of the book...so far. Quick info- "Outsiders" are non-Christians. Okay, go:

"Outsiders may not always come to the right conclusions about Christians, but many describe us perfectly. Moreover, even if they don't have it all correct, it is a sad fact that we do not give them sufficient evidence to the contrary."

Amen. Let's give 'em some contrary evidence, people!!!

So you may read this book and be thinking, I'm not like that, I don't do that. So, you may not be doing that, but are you doing the opposite of it? Are you doing anything? You are carrying the name of Christ in every one of your relationships. Every word, action, thought, and look represents Christ. Christ went out of His way to show His love for others. Are you? Am I? We have to give up ourselves in order to do that- something that is much easier said than done!

I Peter 4:11 says: "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." In context, that verse pertains to pastors and ministers, but we can apply that to our lives and know that God gave us the Spirit who can give us the words to speak whenever we need to represent Christ- which is always! And in ALL things we need to glorify God, not ourselves. So often we, as imperfect people, take Christ out of the center of the gospel and misrepresent the beauty of having a relationship with Christ to outsiders and how that is the most important thing. Thankfully, God is God, and we are not.

Okay, I'll step off my soapbox now.

Never out of a Job

Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

~Matthew 9:37-38