False Advertising

Yesterday my fiance and I were driving out to Youthfront Camp West for a fun filled day of paintball supervising. Well, he was paintball supervising and I was hang out supervising. What?

Anyway...we got off at exit 202 and there was a sign there that read, "HUGE Garage Sale This Way!!" Then it provided some nice arrows just to get us going in the right direction. This sign was of interest to us because Alan and I will be moving into a place of our own soon and we are a little short on the dough, if you know what I mean. I felt good about this particular sign because it did say HUGE sale and most of the houses out in this country like setting were pretty sweet. Sweet houses=sweet stuff to sell at garage sales.

I ran into Alan right in the middle of my 'hanging out time' at camp and he kindly reminded me to go check out the HUGE sale. Around 4pm my friend Alli and I decided to venture out and find the HUGE sale. I was pretty excited. The whole way there I was dreaming of all the wonderful things I would find there and trying to figure out how I would get them back home. As we ventured down the road we passed some big beautiful houses and I knew we'd hit the jackpot. Signs directing us to the HUGE sale kept coming..."Keep going!", "This Way!", "You're Getting Closer!" Our anticipation mounted.

We eventually reached a stop sign and in front of us were now two signs. One that again pointed us onward to this HUGE sale and another that said, "Dead End." We soon realized that this road dead-ended right into the driveway of this HUGE sale. We were in a bit of an awkward situation because we couldn't pull the ol' "drive by and if it sucks just keep going" trick. Nope, if we went forward we had to commit to getting out of the car and checking out this HUGE sale. Well, right when we pulled up we knew that this was a mistake, but the kids had already spotted us and gone in to tell mom and dad that they had costumers. Here is what we saw at the HUGE sale: one small rack of really old clothes and a couple tables with really small worthless items on them. I was so disappointed at what the word HUGE turned out to mean. So, we spoke a few words to the family and made a two courtesy laps around the HUGE sale, knowing that there was no effing way we would ever buy anything. Then we had to figure out an escape route. Alli handled our exit beautifully. We began walking towards the car, she looked at the family, waved and said, "Thank you!" It was beautiful. On the way out we passed another car on its way to the HUGE sale and we considered waving her off, but could see that dreamy, hopeful look in her eyes and we just couldn't be the ones to crush her garage sale-ing dreams. Hope she didn't make a special drive out for that one.

In conclusion, we may not have come away from the HUGE sale with anything to write home about, but not all was lost. I got to ride in Alli's new car, Alli got to drive her new car, we saw some lovely sights, had some good laughs, and ended up with a pretty decent story. If I wouldn't have gone to check out the HUGE sale for myself I would have still been dreaming up all of the possible items they had that I missed out on. The lesson learned? If God presents you with a very clear sign that says, "Dead End" take it literally and save yourself some gas.

seriously?

ok it has been over a year since i have blogged. its like, i am cool because i have a blog, but i'm not actually that cool because i never blog. i apologize to all of my fans out there...which i think is just me...i will try to turn over a new leaf and write more. i did give the blog a little make-over. i think it will help.

so i am para-ing it up these days at good ol' rosehill elementary. it isn't my dream job, but i love those darn kids and i have a good story almost every day. nothing too good today. i started my morning by changing wet pants. that's always a nice way to start the day. :)

yesterday i attempted to sue my dentist. my hope was that he wouldn't show up in court, but there he was! scared the poop out of me. (not literally.) i did my best to stand up for all those who have ever been screwed by insurance! i think i would have made you proud. i didn't win completley, but i didn't lose either. i know i made him feel at least a little bad because i cried the whole darn time. a legal victory? Not really. A moral victory? Absolutely!

don't worry, this post was mostly just a warm-up. they will only get better.

What a Day.

dang. like 11 weeks of summer just flew by and are gone. i've just been at camp for 11 weeks and it is done. the way time flies always blows my mind. seriously.

it was a really good summer overall. i loved being at west. it was a good change. i always love the little things...like the amazing sun sets over the lake here, staff being ridiculous before events, discs flying and hitting cars in the parking lot, shaving cream wars. there were some pretty hilarious moments here too: me putting aloe in my eyes, "just say it, " dustin calling me out with the spirit stick, disc in the lake, micah and aaron "boxing," the raves, bobs and statues, the fireworks display, "the sween team," the handicapped boy's phantom birthday, snake babies, aaron's inapprop shirt, all out week 10!!...man i pretty much just laugh here all the time. it is good.

now it is done and life transitions. i got a new house in kc and a job as a para in shawnee mission. i am sad to leave this place, but it will be good. i learned so much and God proved over and over again to be so faithful. i felt joy and i felt free.

Darn Near Perfect, a Way in the Wilderness

There are moments in life where you can just stop, look around and think, “Man, everything is just about perfect right now.” You know what I am talking about…you look around and you can’t help but smile. Your heart is happy and everything that is happening is good. All is right with the world. These seem to be very quick moments that you want to hold onto forever. Those are incredible and wonderful moments!

There are two things I now know about these said “perfect moments” that I have just realized in the last few days. Number one is that they are the sweetest when you are coming out of a bad few months or rough time in life. It is like you don’t know the exact moment, but stuff just got better and all of a sudden you see so clearly a perfect and wonderful moment where life is good again. It makes the all crap you went through worth it. Completely worth it.

I have two “perfect moment” experiences that I can remember from the last year. One of them came after a long and horrible healing process that followed an awful break-up. I struggled for over a year with trying to get over this man that I loved and cherished very deeply, but then lost for reasons I couldn’t understand. I struggled with sadness, anger, jealousy…the whole mess. Then spring break came and I went to New Orleans on a CRU hurricane relief trip. On the last day of the trip our group worked so hard and so diligently to finish gutting a house for a family that we’d met that morning and we did it! We stood by our ridiculously huge pile of trash and walked away that day feeling like we helped and loved someone. It felt so great to serve the Lord by serving people in need. That night a group of us went to Café Du Monde in New Orleans and this is where the moment happened. I was sitting around a table with my favorite people, in New Orleans after a sweet day of work, drinking hot chocolate and laughing…sounds cheesy, but it was so good! Amidst the laughter and powdered sugar I stopped and realized that at that very moment life was perfect. The place, the day, the people…I was blessed and loved by God and it was good. The guy I had been getting over all year was even there and I had this moment. That is God’s grace right there. There was also a new guy sitting next to me that I would soon be in a relationship with. That was a good moment…for sure.

Here it is...

The second perfect moment that I clearly saw happened just a few nights ago. This semester has sucked. I don’t know why or what specifically sucked, but it did. I went through some weird spiritual stuff and some weird relational stuff and there was just no reason for it other than God was doing a work in my life and it was some hard stuff to face. I felt dark and anxious inside and lacked a joy that I usually felt in my heart. I couldn’t shake it no matter what. I couldn’t find joy anywhere. So…in short…it was awful. The other night, though…a moment. I was on big group date night with a very special man and it was very enjoyable. We went to dinner and then ice skating in Kansas City. When all the couples got onto the ice skating rink most of us made our way to the middle and started being so cute. There was Christmas music playing, Christmas lights, and people just being fun. My date and I were twirling around and laughing and it was so good. To look around and see my friends being so fun and to see that for the first time in a long time the man I was with and I were truly enjoying each other, was an amazing moment. I felt joy and love…cheesy again, but so true. Life in that moment was perfect. My date even said to me, “This is like a New Orleans moment.” He felt it too.

This is really one of the only pictures of us from that night.

So, along time ago in this entry I said that there are two things I know about these perfect moments in life and here is the second one: God blesses us with these moments of joy and a healed heart, but he ultimately wants us to desire the sucky times that precede the perfect moments. It is during the bad times that he is shaping and perfecting us. He brings us to such a low point that we can’t help but to rely solely on Him. The other day in church our pastor referred to trying times in life as being times when we are “brought into the wilderness.” He said that God takes us into “the wilderness” where we have nothing and there he can begin to work on us and train us to be faithful. As humans we hate being in “the wilderness.” We resist it, want out so badly, and rejoice when we finally do leave that time. But you know what? Here is the kicker…while we freak out and want more than anything to not be in those awful times in the wilderness, Jesus continued to return there. He trusted God so much and had such a desire to be shaped and made to be just like his heavenly father, that he sought out times in the wilderness. Despite the discomfort and hardship that it brought, he knew that ultimately it was preparing him to be faithful.

That hit me. I hated this semester because it felt so bad. I love being joyful and I do seek out the joyful moments. I am not saying that the “perfect moments” in life are not good. They are a blessing and it is a time for you to really see how God got you through the wilderness. He promises to do that and so we should rejoice when we see that promise fulfilled in our lives. We shouldn’t be so resistant and scared of the other times though. We should always be ready and willing to go into the wilderness and trust that God is going to do something good there. Consider it joy my brothers, right?

When life is rough it is ok. We are where we are for a reason and God will not leave us in the wilderness with more than we can handle. He is preparing us to be faithful. He is bringing to light the things that hinder us from knowing Him better. It is painful and the darkenss often seems to have no end in sight, but be encouraged- there are so many perfect moments promised too! Life to the full!

I praise God that I got through this semester and I am so elated to have the majority of the trials it held past me. The other night when I was surrounded by friends and my heart felt nothing but joy in that one moment where I could say life was good again, I almost cried. God brought me through and I was so gracious. The good times that follow the bad show even more the sweetness of our maker. So now instead of clinging to that perfect moment and trying to hold onto it I need to embrace where God has me today and be willing to let Him continue to refine and purify me even if it hurts. He loves me and that will not change. God is in the wilderness and He is in the perfect moments. He just is.

Snow Day!!

ah, the first snow...everybody loves that day! pretty soon we will all hate snow and the winter, but for this first one of the season we are all darn excited. i work in the little kid schools now and it is way more likely for them to cancel little kid school than it is for them to cancel big kid school. i remember one year they cancelled the busses on campus at big kid school before they cancelled classes. some people were trapped on campus, their homes miles away. ridiculous. but! today is a different story...for me anyway. while my roommates get up early to finish homework and study, i get to stay in my sweat pants all day! holler. no complaining here. everybody loves a good snow day.

church was really amazing the other day. tim keel, the pastor talked about james 3:1-12. the main point of it was telling us to love people with our words. it asked how can we use the same tongue to praise god that we use to hurt others? good point. he touched on sarcasm, criticism, and gossip and gave a loving alternative to each one: sincerity, encouragement, and covering. man, it really hit me. i am good at loving people with my actions, (most of the time) but i do not do it well with my thoughts or words. i am really good at gossip and not standing up for a friend. i am also an expert sarcasm speaker and i guess sometimes that can hurt people. stuff that doesn't need to be funny i make funny. why? the criticism happens mostly in my head, but that isn't good either. i can't encourage a friend with my words and in my head think they are ridiculous. that isn't love at all. my prayer for this week has been that i may have more compassion on my friends. that i would love them with all my heart and be able to offer them sincerity and love in all i do. it is hard, but good to have in my mind. i love god and offer praise to him...i want the same tongue that speaks those praises to love my friends too.

so there it is. life is good and god is faithful. i am blessed and i am loved. god is faithful, god is good.