Friday, September 26, 2014

"...when thy sleep shall be broken by trumpet and drum...”


 I love coffee.

That is probably not a surprise.

But the extent to which I love coffee……is ridiculous.

But I find that coffee really doesn’t wake me up that much most of the time. It makes me feel better…and happier…and nicer…but it really doesn’t help with my tiredness.

Why am I rambling on about my love for coffee…I really don’t know. I just love it…THAT. MUCH. Haha…but really…

I do have a point somewhere in here…

I’ve had so many moments lately where I have felt like I just woke up. Not that I was literally sleeping from the night before…and just woke up for the day…but where I have already been up and awake for a few hours and going about my day and then all of a sudden I’m hit with a realization that I really don’t completely grasp what is going on in my life…or even my day…

Maybe I have gotten too used to how good God is to me…

These past two years have had struggles and trials of their own…but I’ve definitely had harder times in my life…

God is good. I KNOW He is. But do I only say He is because that’s what I am supposed to say…or because I am used to saying it…or because I TRULY know and UNDERSTAND that HE is good. And EVERYTHING that He does and how it is ALL good.

I want to understand the extent of just how GOOD God TRULY IS!! And WHY He is good and I want to know EVERY SINLGE THING that He does in my life. I never want to miss a blessing. I don’t want one gift from Him to go unnoticed or unseen…

But not just that – I want to somehow understand how life would be if He wasn’t good.

That’s a scary thing to say…because I never want to know a life without a good God…or without MY good God. But…if everything He does is for my good…….then what would it be like if that weren’t the case…

I guess what I am trying to say is…I just want to understand (and never forget) just how GOOD God TRULY is.

I know I will never fully…..or ever partially understand…so it really is a pointless desire…but…I just don’t like how I have grown comfortable with how good I really have it…not that I wish anything bad to happen………………ugh. I’m awful at explaining things.

I just…I don’t want to treat life as “seasons”…I don’t want to be mindlessly living from day to day only waking up for the “good” or “fun” seasons…I want to be awake for it all. And I want to see God in it all…and feel God in it all…

I don’t want to miss anything…

You know those events in life that give you a sense of wakening…where you realize or you feel something that you never realized or felt before…and from that moment on there is something in you that feels more…knowledgeable (?) than before? Like maybe you found a piece of something somewhere that makes you feel somewhat more complete…

I received a random text today from a relative…she was encouraging me in what is going on in my life. And it was one of those moments that kind of nudged me awake…

I know that I will never be exactly where I want to be in life…I will always have more to work on and more to grow in and more to work towards…but for the first time in my life…I feel like I am actually on my way towards where I want to be…I kind of feel like I just woke up and all of a sudden I am on this road to where I want to be…and everything and everyone in my past is just that…in my past. I know that’s not at all what happened…and everything and everyone in my past has helped grow me so much and I am so thankful for that…but it’s strange thinking of heartache that was once so devastating and drastic in my life and thinking at that time how I didn’t know how I was going to get through it and wondering how long it was going to last for…and now here I am…several years later…still going through things that make my heart ache deeply…

Only, these things seem to be different…maybe more real…maybe less dramatic…not worse or better…just…different…maybe because it’s things that are more…necessary…instead of ridiculous hurt that I put on myself…they are more things that I can’t really help…just…the natural flow of life…

I don’t know…

Maybe it is better…

It’s just a weird feeling…not understanding the extent of things…I am excited for what God has done and is doing and will do…I just don’t want to miss any of it...

I want to be awake for all of it


And I want to understand all of it.




I need a really large never-ending cup of coffee......


Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Hello, Old Friend

I really miss you.

My old, reliable friend who is always there for me when I need somewhere to go.

You’re always there for me.

I hear you calling my name and feel you tugging at my heart when I have been away from you for too long…

You welcome me with open arms…no matter how long it has been and no matter how much I have neglected you…

And even though you don’t say much…you somehow always make me feel better.

It’s like I am…lighter…after talking to you…

You always encourage me to do what I love most: write

I hate to admit it…but I know I have been neglecting you lately…

Life has been so busy…but it is finally starting to slow down again…kind of.

So…allow me to catch you up!

I have a NEW JOB!!!!!!! It is amazing. The way God works. Just to see how He has completely rocked my world this year. He has allowed me to see time and time again this year that He is so much greater than me and my circumstances…and my plans…

I started working for The Salvation Army in June…I am the coordinator for a new Community Center that we started up!! It is a place for junior high and high school students to come hang out after school. We have a computer room and games so they can come get their homework done, relax, or just socialize with other students who drop in! Our (Soft) Grand Opening was…….2 weeks ago I think? And it has been so much fun. God has really just been teaching me so much through it all. And I am just absolutely amazed that He has CHOSEN ME to do this job!

So that is what has been taking up most of my time these past few months…as the center is all completely brand new…and we had to build it from the bottom! It has been a lot of work…long days and nights and weekends and just…a lot…but it has all been incredible. I love my boss. So much. And I am just so blessed to be apart of The Salvation Army and SO BLESSED to be able to call my career a ministry of mine as well. It’s just incredible. It’s incredible that I found my dream job in the place where I would least expect it to be…and a place where I never wanted to end up…until I knew it was where God wanted me to be. It’s just amazing the things He does with our lives when we wait for HIS timing…when we wait…and just listen…

So what else…….

I have been asked to speak at a retreat in February!!! Pretty exciting! The topic is “The Single Life”…which…I have been becoming very well acquainted with this past year and a half haha…

When I was first asked to speak on the topic I was really excited…but the more I thought about it…the more it started to intimidate me…What the heck do you talk about when you talk about the “single” life…? What does that kind of talk look like? Being married I am sure there are plenty of things to talk about… “my husband and I do this and we work on this and we like to do this and we fight about this but we make up by doing this…” but being single isn’t really that way…since I…do….everything…….alone…

Haha KIDDING…I am actually really excited about it…intimidated…but excited…I’ll probably talk more about my…feelings…about all that later…

So what else…

Summer was just so busy with two summer camps, work starting up…tons of birthday parties, baby showers…youth events…just…so many things…

I guess I am just really excited about what is going on in my life…I mean…it has been really hard at times lately…and I think sometimes I lose sight of the value of life’s difficulties and how they are just challenges that will grow me if I let them…

But God is doing something incredible in me…and I don’t want to let all the busyness of life distract me from that. I always want everything in my life to come back to God because when it comes down to it, He is all that matters.

He is the reason why I’m here.

Sometimes I get discouraged because I think about the woman that I want to be...and when I compare it to who I am now…I feel like I have such a long ways to go…

…But then God reminds me of who I used to be…and I can hear Him reminding me over and over again of His unending grace and His unrelenting love…

and then I calm down…

and I breathe…

and I remember I’m never going to be perfect………..so then I start freaking out again haha…kidding…kind of…


Anyways…thanks for always listening…