Water in the face

So, last night I got a glass of water from the fridge before I went to bed. I set it on my nightstand and reached over and turned the light off. I then realized that I had forgotten to turn on my alarm clock, so I reached out and accidentally knocked my glass over. Somehow the whole thing ended up straight in my face. The water was really cold. Since I had just turned off the lights my eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness, so I wassoaking wet and batting around in the pitch black trying to find the light switch. Meanwhile, my pillow and sheets absorbed a glass full of water. All I could do was laugh. It was one of those things that you wish someone was there to see it because I bet it would have been a pretty funny sight. I guess it was a good excuse to change my sheets. That's it.

Sabbath

Sabbath. How do I let go of the worries of my week, accept the blessing of rest, and trust God that he can keep it all under control without my worry for one day? So, yeah, the sermon was amazing this morning. God really convicted me that I don't trust him in the small stuff...my laundry will get done, my dvds will get unpacked, and my schedule this week will work itself out. If I can't rest for one day because I worry too much about these little things, how am I going to be prepared for the big stuff? God has proven himself over and over that he is trustworthy so it is crazy that I think my planning/worrying will solve or improve anything. Lord, help me today to rest in you.

Cake Balls are Heaven Sent

So much for being more consistent. Another month goes by without a word. Well, I wanted to get on here an tell you about an exciting thing that happened today. In our Missional Community (small group) we are going through a book called The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter. With it there is a primer with daily activities/questions to get you to live your life with a greater sense of "sentness" or being sent by God. Hugh says, "The foundation of a missional life is the decision to offer to God our plans in exchange for His plans." Isn't that so good, but definitely not easy.

So anyway, yesterday was day 4 of week 1. As part of Day 4 you are supposed to "cross your fence," "cross your street," and "cross a social, political or ethnic barrier." Basically, be intentional about practicing "sentness" by just talking to people you don't normally talk to. So, all day I was struggling with how to do this in a way that would make me the least uncomfortable (you know for some reason it always seems to come back to what I want...). It was rainy and cold which gave me an excellent excuse not to do anything. Feeling kind of bad about failing at an activity in week 1, I came home from work and sank into the couch ready to turn my brain off. Then I remembered that I needed to pick up my dry cleaning from cleaners across the street. I could talk to the nice Bangladeshi lady who works there. She always wants to talk to me, but I am normally in a hurry and, unfortunately, never really give her the time of day. So feeling righteous about being able to do my activity, I set off planning the conversation in my head. She would be so grateful that I was kind to her and she would thank me for taking the time to encourage her (yep, it seems to always be about me). I got there and we chatted a bit, but then a lady came in and was in a rush and so I quickly scooted out of her way. That was it. Rather anti-climatic. I guess I could have waited around for her to help that lady and talk to her afterwards, but that would have been kind of weird. Well, I was a little obedient. Maybe God is opening a door for next time. Too bad that was the only pair of pants that I own that require dry cleaning...

So, I crossed the street to the dry cleaners, but I still wasn't able to cross my fence to talk to my neighbors. It would be weird for me to knock on their door just for the heck of it...and God knew that. Today, we were blessed to have a vendor bring in cake balls. If you have never experienced (yes, experienced) cake balls you are missing out. They are little balls gooey goodness that are heaven sent, literally. So, we had some extras at the end of the day of one of the managers came up to me and asked if I would like to take some home to my NEIGHBORS!!! I said to him, "Did you know that God was going to use you today?" I don't think he's a believer and he looked at me like I was crazy. I told him the story about how I needed to talk to my neighbors as a part of this book we were going through, but I didn't have a reason to knock on the doors. So not only do I have a reason to knock on their doors, I was able to share a little with my co-worker!

I was so excited. I rushed home, but then I realized that people probably weren't home from work yet. So I had wait 30 minutes to give people time to get home. In the meantime I took a picture with my phone of the cake balls (below), to remind me of God's faithfulness to equip me to reach the people he tells me to go to. So, finally the time came to pass them out. I was nervous, but I knew I had to do it. Out of the 15 apartments in my building, only one opened the door and her family can't eat egg. I am pretty sure the cake balls have egg in them. Ugh. At least she took some for her friends. Her name is Marthali and I will be praying for her. A couple of places I could hear people, but they didn't open the door. I may make another round in a few minutes to hit up the places where I feel people just weren't home. Anyway, God is good and so are cake balls. I will give a shout out to Austin Cake Ball (http://www.austincakeball.com/) for being an instrument of change in my life as they were truly sent to me by God today.

He is good.

Well, it has been a while. As I look at the name of my blog I realize I am quickly passing my quarterlife and maybe a name change might be in order. It's amazing how time flies! My life is once again in crisis so once I return to my blog to chronicle and vent out the craziness. Ok, so "crisis" may be an overdramatic term, but I do have some decisions looming that are causing me to become quite introspective. God, give me the wisdom of Solomon!
So, to catch up on the last year and a half, basically God is good! As I look back on my posts from 2 years ago when I was trusting God would do something great here, I can only praise Him for doing abundantly more than I ever could have imagined. I am totally blown away at how immensely he has blessed me. He has allowed me to fall more deeply in love with Him as he has shown me His grace is sufficient for ALL my sin. He has allowed me to form deep relationships with people who absolutely love Him and desire to sharpen me as we pursue Jesus together. The realization of His grace and these amazing friends have allowed me to let go of many of my insecurities and be free from the chains I created for myself. Oh my goodness, I am so blessed.
So yeah, I am out of time for now. I hope to be more consistent with my entries. We will see how that goes. God has been so faithful and I can't wait to see how this next phase/adventure plays out. All I know is in the end I know I will be able to look back and see that He is absolutely good.