relationships

Church has been about church these last couple Sundays, specifically about the essence of the church. Today we talked about how it's relational. Really, this is the foundation of it all. We're made for relationship. Some of my favorites from today (per Pastor Tim):

• God Himself is a community
• you never break any other commandment without breaking the first one (love the Lord your God)
• some people are wounded b/c they looked to the church to provide and/or be something only God can (no one is perfect, not one)
• we choose our friends but God chooses the church - you don't get to choose who your family is
• being relational is messy, costly, and NECESSARY

Really enjoying church and enjoying how it pertains pretty specifically to my life. Enjoying the learning process, even when it gets gross and ugly with the ones I love the most. Beauty from ashes and joy from pain.

amusing

So I just posted yesterday about being comfortable and being uncomfortable and how I'm learning the difference between the two and what God's asking of me and calling me to. I believe that we're supposed to be uncomfortable. Comfort is nice, for a season, but overall we're supposed to be uncomfortable. I'm amused b/c God drove the point home today during church. We're talking about the essence of the church and we're a sent community and a scattered community. Part of being scattered means that we're sent out, we come together and then we scatter in order to bring more together. Part of being scattered is being intentional, incarnational (in the flesh), proclamational, and sacrificial. If you're a believer, you've joined the mission. It's not a choice you make later but something you became a part of when you believed. Part of the mission is counting the cost. Mission is ALWAYS going to cost you and that cost includes losing security and comfort in this world. I'm counting the cost and sticking with the program because the rewards of this mission are better than any comfort and security I could ever find in this world. I hope that you can share in my amusement of how this amazing God works:)

Ouch!

I've been meaning to write for a while now. I keep realizing though that it's the same thing I've been writing about for the past 6 months basically. I'm learning about how comfortable I want to be and how that's not possible, and really not a good thing. Comfortableness keeps us in a place where we don't need Jesus as much. When we're uncomfortable we need Him more in order to find our place. We need Him more to survive and to live and to learn and to grow and to simply just BE! I need Him a lot these days. Friday was the first day at this job where I actually came home in a good mood. That was exciting!

Things I'm realizing/learning all over again:

1. Joy is choice. It's a fruit of the spirit which means it's there for the taking, but it's something to discipline yourself to. Happiness is not promised but joy comes in the morning for those who choose it. I'm working on choosing joy, every single moment of every single day.

2. This truly is the hardest thing I've ever done before. I'm alone during the day, interacting with clients who don't have many verbal skills, if any. I'm a talker. I like to interact. I need people relate to. This is hard. But we knew it was going to be hard coming out. We spoke it out that it was going to be hard. Now we're really walking in it. Thankfully, we're learning through it.

3. Just because I'm upset doesn't mean that I have to stay upset. I can release those emotions, lay them at the cross, and move on. Is it easy? Heck no!!! But it's something I can and should do.

4. We won't be where we are forever. We're in a season of transition, getting things to all fit into place. But we won't be here forever. Here in LA or here emotionally or here financially. God doesn't promise me that I'll be happy and life will be perfect, but He does promise good things. He loves me and wants the best for me. How can I not look forward to what that is?

So my attitude is changing daily. Or I'm at least working on changing it daily. We're working on our finances and getting them a place that feels better. We're working on finding our niche in the midst of letting go of where we were. All in all, God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good.

Award....

My dear friend Mindi passed along a "Beautiful Blogger Award" to me recently. I haven't been to copy and paste the image but I am to reveal seven random things about me. I figured I can't do one but I'll do the other:)

1. I want comfortable but I'm learning to find peace and joy in the One who created me instead.

2. Teaching is my heart and I miss it but I'm working on implementing it into who I am, not just what I do.

3. I don't know how long we'll live in LA and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

4. I don't know if we'll ever have kids of our own. We talk about them randomly and we both want at least one, but the timing never seems right. For those of you who have kids, trust me, I've heard the line you want to tell me about timing never being right:)

5. We are paying the same amount of rent as we were paying for our first little apartment back in IN when we first got married. That was an amusing thought today.

6. I miss my family more than anything.

7. I have only been under anesthesia/in the hospital to have my wisdom teeth removed. Knock on wood!

Thanks Mindi! I hope that was random enough for you!