New Car!

I almost forgot...I bought a new car 13 days ago!

I bought a 2008 Honda Accord LXP with the bluetooth hands free phone. I love driving my new car. It is extremely comfortable. My favorite thing happened today though...

I filled up my car with gas for the first time. Now you are probably thinking, "so what?" I'll tell you what, I didn't have to fill up for 2 weeks, I got 23 miles to the gallon, and it only cost me 47 bucks to fill up....This is a phenomenal difference than my explorer....

Although I miss driving my explorer, I am fully convinced I made the right decision. When the sun is shinning again, I will make sure to post a picture of me and my new ride :)

And if anybody is looking to buy an SUV, I have a 1996 Explorer XLT V8 for sale....

My Life is A Whirlwind

Once again, I have been absent from the world of bloginess due to, well, a lot of different things. At first, it was because of Christmas, my sister being in town, New Years....but once January 2nd hit, I feel like all I have done is work, which isn't entirely true.

So for my three loyal readers, who probably already know all of this, here has been my life in a nutshell...

• Christmas Eve Eve (Dec 23) I made my family go bowling. It was so much fun and also so funny to watch my family bowl, especially my mom.
• Christmas Eve we hung out at the house all day and watched movies. For dinner, we had my mom's famous ribs...they are so good and take approximately 2 days to prepare. My cousin, her husband, and their twins came over for dinner and the kids opened up their presents. I forgot how much fun opening up presents was when I was three...
• Christmas Day-spent the morning at my grandmas with my dad's side of the fam and then the afternoon at my cousins with my mom's side of the fam...over all a great day.
• Hung out with friends in town for the holidays, ate a lot of good food, had a lot of fun...
• New Years Ashley, Berger, Blake and I went down to Hollywood for a couple of days. We went to Santa Monica on Sunday, the boys watched Fresno State win the bowl game while Ash and I got pedicures and say Juno (a movie I highly recommend) during the day on Monday. Monday night we went to a club in Hollywood and danced the night away. We all had a great time. Tuesday we headed home....
• Jan 2....back to work after approximately 10 days off.
• Prayer focus 2008 took place at The Bridge from Jan 2-5. I was co-in charge of the project, which had its ups and downs in terms of issues, but overall was a fantastic time. Approximately 260 showed up during the week....in 2006 there were about 50. It shows that we are becoming a praying church.
• The week of Jan 7th, I had a meeting EVERY NIGHT! It was a little ridiculous.
• With missions month fast approaching, things have become crazy at work. Not only do I have to put all of my time and energy into planning this thing, my regular work continues on as well.
• Went to Catalina this past weekend as my last break before this week and the following 5 weeks come. I had a great time with Misty and Sue. The weather was gorgeous, about 70 all weekend. We ate, we played cards, I drank beer while they drank virgin drinks or water since they are both pregnant, hung out with some very nice, cute guys, and got a little bit of a tan. All in all, a fantastic weekend, one in which I wish hadn't ended. You know you have had a good weekend when you do not want to go back to reality.
• Monday night we had our first team meeting for our Haiti vision trip that seven of us are going on in March over spring break. Missions month 2008 hasn't happened yet and we are already planning missions month 2009...if that is not crazy then I don't know what is.
• Tonight was the first night I felt like I was able to do whatever I wanted...which ended up being me hanging out with Blake since he got his wisdom teeth pulled today. After Taco Tuesdays at Rubios, I filled up my new car with gas for the first time, went home and put on my sweats (which I would live in if I could) and sat and watched American Idol. It was great.

My life is going to be crazy these next six weeks, which I am excited about and dreading all at the same time. I have been challenged by numerous people lately to make sure that I am taking time for myself, to make sure that I keep that balance in my life. I am going to try to do that, but looking at my calendar for the weeks to come, I am not quite sure how that happens...

My family is...

awesome. That is pretty much it. I love being around them. It seems like we are constantly laughing...partly because we (mostly me) make fun of my mom, but she's a good sport. The truth is we all make fun of each other.

My sister said something that threw me for a loop the other day...on Friday she actually said that she wished I was coming to dinner with her, my mom, and dad. I asked her why, and she said because we have fun together, and because she loves watching me jack with mom. I thought for sure she wouldn't say she wanted me there, especially since we had spent the last 3 hours together, 2 of those in Target where she seemed constantly annoyed with me... That comment pretty much made my day.

Today you will be with child....

I started reading the Gospel of Luke the other day. This gospel isn't what I would call my "favorite" out of all the Gospels, but I do enjoy it nonetheless. For the past couple of days, I have read and re-read Luke 2, which is appropriate since we are about to celebrate our Lord's birth. This was not done on purpose. In fact, I have been reading in Daniel but for some reason the other day felt compelled to turn to Luke.

I have been pondering, meditating, praying, thinking about what it must have been like for Mary. In Luke 1, it tells us that Mary responds to the angel Gabriel, after he tells her that she will be giving birth to the saviour of the world, by saying "I am the Lord's servant, May it be as you have said"

My first thought is "wow, what faith she had. She believed and was obedient (not like she could be disobedient "sorry God, I don't think I want to give birth to your son..."), without hesitation" But I can't help but think along with the excitement, that she was also scared. Can you just hear her telling her relatives... "I promise, I am still a virgin...Yes, I know I am pregnant, but I have not yet slept with Joseph or anyone else for that matter"

There was not a hint of hesitation at the time...but that is not what I want to talk about.
After Mary gives birth to Jesus, the angels lead the shepherds to the manger. In Luke 2:19, it says "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." The actual idea of giving birth to the Messiah would have been way more than enough for me to treasure, and ponder them in my heart...what a miracle to experience. Sit back, and try to imagine that you are Mary. It is extremely hard to do, but try it. You have just given birth to the Messiah, but even you (Mary) don't know what that really means. I think she had a deeper understanding than others may have, but she still didn't get it.

Case in point, later in Luke chapter 2....
It gives an account of Jesus, when he was 12, being left behind at the temple and nobody noticed he was gone, until a day into the journey. The parents become upset with the saviour of the world. Vs 48 "When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." Listen to Jesus response in verse 49, "Why were you searching for me? he asked. Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" Vs 50 tells us "But they did not understand what he was saying."

Mary didn't get it. Although in chapter 1, the angel Gabriel tells her that "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end" Apparently Mary forgot this tidbit, if she hadn't, she would have understood why Jesus said what he did in 2:49-50.

What is interesting though, is in vs 51, it says "Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all of these things in her heart."
She didn't understand a lot of what was going on, but she trusted in God. She knew that something exciting was going on , and so she clung to God. She trusted while being in a state of great uncertainty.

The absent voice of God...

Today in staff meeting, Scott led us in a short devotional on the Israelites, the coming Messiah, what they expected due to their circumstances, and how Jesus DID NOT fit the mold that the Israelites were hoping for. God last spoke to the Israelites in 450 BC, through the prophet Malachi. The Israelites then waited 420 YEARS to hear from God again. During that time of waiting, they were held captive by the Babylonians, the Persians...well, you get the picture. They expected the Messiah to come in and kick some butt, not act the way that Jesus did.

The reason that God did not speak to the Israelites wasn't because He didn't want to, but the Israelites were choosing not to listen. They had become prideful once again and were not dependant on the Lord. They were no longer seeking His face. If they were not going to seek Him and listen for Him, then He wasn't going to speak to them, period. So they waited.

As Christians, we should be seeking Him daily and listening for Him to speak into our lives. Jesus tells us "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find it; knock and the door will be opened to you." I believe that Jesus is just waiting for us to come to Him and ask Him to do big things in our lives and through us, but we have not because we ask not. He desires to shower His love on us as we put our faith, hope, and trust in Him. We are so busy in our lives that we are dependant upon ourselves, we are not seeking Him, and we have become a prideful people. God will not push His way into our lives uninvited. As we push Him out of our lives, He will stop speaking to us.

In what ways are you depending on the Lord? What are some of the big things that you have been asking God to do in your life lately?

Romans 5:3-5

Romans 5:3-5 "Not only so, but we also rejoice in suffering because we know that suffering produced perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us"

Suffering. Perseverance. Character. Hope. Each one is dependant on the other.

This has been the theme of my life thus far. I discovered this verse a month or two my senior year of high school right after I tore my ACL playing basketball. In a high school students mind who plays sports, it is as if life is over if you injure yourself your senior year. The scholarship that I was seeking to play basketball was no longer available to me...I was devastated. But through that time of suffering, I asked God a lot of tough questions, and He was faithful to answer. I have clung to this verse over the years, and believe that it will be one that I will continually go back to through out my entire life.

I believe that God allows us to go through tough situations, struggle and suffer because it draws us closer and opens our eyes to see more of Him. Our sufferings takes us deeper into the realms of God's character and enlarges our vision of Him. It is in these times that our character is refined to be more like Jesus.

AT&T Still Sucks

Had another conversation with an AT&T customer service rep on December 6th...I am suppose to be receiving a call from somebody higher up than a supervisor at a call center. I asked the guy who I was talking to if I could get the CEO's number since apparently nobody could take care of the problem, he just laughed. I will say this 50 minute conversation was more delightful than some of the others. They told me I'd receive a call within two weeks. So when I don't receive a call by December 20th, looks like I will be calling again.

Trust me, I am not holding my breath wating for that call....

Customer service reps I have talked to: 9
Hours on the phone with AT&t: 5 hrs 15 min
Number of dropped calls with an AT&T rep: 3
Number of problems solved: 0