Birthday Festivities

Here's another angle

My New Turtle

There has been quite some time since I last updated my blogger. So...Here's a morsel for you.

Tonight at church our devotion was out Esther 4:9-16. It's the part of the story where Mordecai comes to the king's gate in utter desperation because he knows that Haman wants to kill his people. He pleads to Queen Esther. She says that she could be killed for going to the king without being summoned. Here's Mordecai's response:
"And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

Esther...this is the reason that you became queen so that you could save the Jewish people from annihilation. Esther...this is your purpose.

Taking that story to heart and thinking of Psalm 33:13-15 where it talks about how the Lord looks, sees, watches, and considers us. And then in Jeremiah 29:11 where we are reassured that He has a plan for us.

This brings me to a point of utter realization that it really doesn't matter what situation I am in...whether it be with family or alone...friends or foe...I am in that exact instant...just like every other instant...for the sole purpose of glorifying God. And in that instant I have to decide whether I am going to seize the opportunity to stay in God's will. "Who knows but that you have come to that position for such a time as this?"

Who knows? God knows.

Success

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here's a collage from this weekend for ole' Andrew's wedding. I don't think it could have gone any better. I had so much fun and I wish the both of them a life full of love and happiness.

I got to spend some time with my dad helping around the house today. I think that is one of the things that I miss the most about being in college...But it also one of the things that I took for granted while I lived in Commerce. But tonight was just good to work with him and take care of some things at the house. Looking back at this past week and seeing how the loss of a father effected a friend brought that reality front and center. My dad's dad passed away from a heart attack when he was in his mid 50's. I'm not ready for the same thing to happen to me. I don't think I cherish the times we have together enough, so I've started trying to find ways to have ample opportunities to share with him...he makes me laugh...just this weekend we were in Macon for my sister's summer missions orientation and he persisted to change into his "good clothes" in the middle of this church parking lot in Macon, despite my youngest sister's pleads to find a restroom. So there my dad was standing in his shibbies in the middle of a church parking lot in Macon, GA. And you can bet that as soon as that shindig was over that he had those pants off again and wearing his patented cargo shorts and Hawaiian shirt. That's my dad for ya. Love him to death.


I hope you cherish the moments you get with your pops...never know when they'll be gone.

So....I was off to the career fair yeasterday, and I proceeded to walk through it without stopping to talk to any of the employers...not for me....so I left just as quickly as I got there and it was about lunch time. So as I'm thinking about what would be good to eat, the sign for my favorite restraunt came into view--->Achim's K-Bob

So I go in and I think to myself, "You know, I'm not that hungry. Everytime I come here and I eat a whole combo meal I usually end up leaving and feeling a little sick from having eaen so much. I think I'll have something smaller to ease my hunger"

And I do, I order a kid's combo... "That'll be great, it will be like a smaller version of the K-Bob and I will be satisfied."

I get my drink, wait for my food, Achim himself asks me what sauce I want, so I go for the Tangy Mayo. I sit down at my table with my fries and ketchup and I proceed to open up my pita K Bob only to find that this so called K-Bob is a pita full of chocolate and bananas. I'm taken aback. So what do I do?

I finish the drill. I take my chocolate and banana K-Bob and i dip it in my Tangy Mayo sauce and I eat. And I ate the entire thing and smiled the entire time. Now as I look back I realize three things:

1. That I am quite disgusting.

2. That the whole kid's combo experience is something that I would never wish upon anyone.

3. That if all the kids overseas are being fed chocolate and banana pitas for lunch, I can see why world wars started.

So, I just needed to let everyone know just how awesome today was. I got to go to a Shawn Mullins concert tonight. It was a little acoustic setup with just him and his guitar. (If you don't know who Shawn Mullins is, then just think about the song "Rockaby"(Every thing is gonna be alright, rockaby). Yea, that's this guy. So anyway, I just kicked back and listened to some of his music that I love. Beggs went with me and we had a good time pounding back the H2O on the rocks. David Koon, the lead singer from the Dave Matthews Cover Band was one of the opening acts as well. It enthralls me to listen to singers that sing about character based stories in their songs. It just puts everything into place about what is going on in the singer's mind. It was just an awesome concert.

So we leave there and we go over to the Promised Land where I proceed to laugh for about 3 hours straight. The randomocity that developed during the guitar singing sessions was hilarious. My stomach still aches. This continues on for about an hour and out of nowhere Nick wants to talk about how we were blessed today by God.

It was absolutely amazing.

Just the initiative that it takes to jump that gap between our social good times and our God awesome times was incredible. When your are laughing and having a good times we often think that there is no good way to jump into a God-talk. Tonight completely disproved that theory. We jumped clear across a quarry of worldliness into our God and His indescribable character. Several of the attendees took turns just talking about what has happened this week that has been a blessing from God and how it has changed them. And then we prayed about our lives and how we want to live them for Him and then we proceeded to break into songs of praise to our Lord as Steve played the guitar. That totally blew me off of my feet. To sit and be a part of a group of Christ lovers totally delve into a random act of worship without plans or preparations and know that God intended that night for each of us to fully experience who He is and what He offers us in return for the giving of our lives to Him.

This went on until 4 in the morning and it was so amazing to just feel God there...Because He was there...and we were listening.

That leads me to this. Excuses about the awkwardocity of turning a conversation into a Godversation are no longer valid. If God created us and God is with us and God wants a relationship with us, then it is our duty to make everything about God. Nick said it well tonight when he talked about "our daily bread"...not our weekly bread, or our Sunday bread...daily. That means that God doesn't need for you to try and fit Him into all of your conversations. That means that God needs to be your conversations, and everything that you do fits into Him.

I am blessed.