Well my friends, I am taking off tomorrow (Monday) for a much-needed vacation. I am tired and in dire need of some rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, and many other "r" words. It will feel so good to get away for a week and not think about ANYTHING. Just having fun. And then I'll come home feeling refreshed (there's another "r" word for ya). Bring on the sun!!!
Oh my word, last night was so much fun! It was our last college meeting (The Other Side) for the spring semester. It was a night of reflection of the past nine months. We played games from the whole year, looked at pictures, shared our favorite memories, encouraged each other, and shared what God has taught us this year.
It was such a special night for me, because these past nine months have been my FIRST nine months with these students. At times last night I just looked around at their faces and was in AWE. Awe of God's soverignty and how He knew I would be here, at this church, with these students, experiencing all these things.
It's been a rich year. There have been many good times. There have been hard times. Times of growth and frustration and joy and sadness and challenges and laughter and tears and love and uncertainty and peace and doubts and contentment.I wouldn't trade it for anything.
And just when I thought the night couldn't get any better...DANCE PARTY!!! Someone had set up a disco ball and we danced the night away. Could we have had more fun?!?! I don't think so. We danced for two hours and it was so fun to see the college students letting loose and going nuts. =)
What an amazing night. What an amazing year.
This past weekend I drove to San Luis and spent two fun days with my youngest sister, Emily - she's a junior at Cal Poly. We had such a fun time! On Friday night we went to PCF (Poly Christian Fellowship) on campus. It was so awesome to see so many college students wanting to be there and learn more about God.
About halfway through the talk, Em accidentally knocked her water bottle over. It made a huge crashing sound and all the water went into my lap, chair, and shoes. The speaker actually stopped speaking and then it was the typical all-heads-turned-to-look-at-us. I decided not to move and attract more attention, so I just sat there, nodding like I was totally into what the speaker was saying and pretending like I was NOT sitting in a pool of water. I ended up looking like I wet my pants the rest of the night. SWEET! =)
We spent Saturday at the beach then shopping downtown, getting pedicures (I love being a girl), eating at Firestone (best fries EVER!), talking, etc. It was a blast. I love you, Em! (The pix is of us downtown...it's a little blurry, but check out the street sign)
A friend and I were talking the other day about spiritual disciplines (like silence & solitude, reading the Word, praying, etc) They shared something that I like alot:
It's like we each have two fires in our soul. One fire is for the world and the things of this world. The other fire is of God and the things of God. Which fire will burn brighter? The one that is given more fuel. If we throw logs on the fire of this world, that one will burn more. But if we throw logs on the fire of God and the things of God...that fire will be the one to consume us.
I like it! Consuming fire. Very cool thought.
After months of reading it off and on, I finally finished The Brothers K by David James Duncan. So good! I came home from work and read on the couch on our front porch. It was sunny and breezy and beautiful. It was such a good book - now I know why everyone loves it.
Next up: Blue Like Jazz!
P.S. How amazing is it that it's still light out until 8:00 at night. Yesssss...
Last night I took some college students to Comedy Sportz in San Jose. Such a fun night! If you've never been, it's an interactive improv show like Whose Line Is It Anyway but we get to be the ones in the audience shouting out stuff. There were two teams (blue and red) playing different rounds and competing for points. If they said anything inappropriate, they had to wear a paper bag on their head for the rest of their scene.
My two proud contributions to the evening were "MULLET!" and "CHUCK NORRIS!"
Three things happened in the last 24 hours that I just felt like writing about. They have nothing to do with each other. Just random life occurrances and observations.
1) My talk. Last night I continued in our series we've been doing on "The 4 Loves". Two weeks ago I spoke on the first love: Child and Parent. Last night we talked about two more loves: the love between friends and the love between guy/girl relationships. There is one girl who came to the college group with a friend and I KNOW she didn't want to be there. She has been avoiding church and the college group and doing her own thing. I have totally been praying for her and I was so excited she came last night. So, I'm in the middle of my talk and I happen to look up...and see her text messaging someone!
Are you serious?? Yep, right in the middle of the talk.
She fully had her head down, phone out, looking at stuff, and texting. For like 15 minutes! My first instinct was to feel angry. As I think about it now, I still feel a little upset because I have never experienced anything like that (I felt kind of disrespected). And to make it harder, the girl who brought her to the group told me her friend had leaned over at one point when I was speaking and said, "This is bullsh--."
Man, it really bummed me out. But I keep thinking: she did not want to be there. She had no interest in hearing what was being said. She is really struggling in life right now and church was probably the last place she wanted to be. She was just there because her friend brought her. As soon as the talk was over, she took off out the back door.
I've been doing some thinking about this ever since last night. Amongst all the things I've thought, I know that I will keep praying for her.
2) Survivor 12 - Exile Island. Survivor is one of my favorite shows. The roomates and I are faithful watchers every Thursday night. I missed last week's episode because I went down to the lake for Wildlower but we had it taped. So this morning I watched it before I went to work. Ok, um, so I cried. Every Survivor, there is always an episode where they bring loved ones out. Like a spouse, or a mom or a dad, etc. If a suvivor wins a challenge, they get to spend time with their loved one.
So, it's like 9 in the morning and I'm watching the tape of these dirty, tired, grimy survivors who have been on their island for over 30 days, away from all the people they love. And from around the corner, their love ones start walking out. The looks on their faces seriously brought me to tears! I am such a sucker for things like that. I think I cry everytime I see that certain episode. I not only cried when they walked out, but I cried when the winners got to go forward and hug their loved one. You could see how much they loved them and it was a beautiful thing.
And then I had to wipe away my tears and just laugh at myself.
3) Tom Cruise. So every Thursday I go to lunch at my favorite Chinese food place in Aptos. The food is so delicious! And super inexpensive. The waiters all know me because I'm there every week and I'm always bringing friends. So I am eating my yummy food and reading the Good Times paper and there's an article on Mission Impossible III. My waiter, Eric (obviously not his Chinese name-his American name)comes by and sees the article.
Eric: "Oooh, have you seen it yet?"
Me: "What? Oh...no."
Eric: "Are you going to?"
Me: "No, probably not."
Eric: "I saw it last weekend. Very good!"
Me: "Really?"
Eric: "Yes. Lots of shooting." *makes gun with hands and shooting noises*
*I laughed*
Eric: "Do you like Tom Cruise?"
Me: "Actually, no."
Eric: (raises eyebrows) "No?? Tom Cruise...handsome man!!!"
He clapped twice to make his point and then walked away. It was such a random conversation and again I just had to laugh. Good times.
Last weekend was my third Wildflower triathlon at Lake San Antonio! I just spent 30 minutes sharing the glory in a blog when it all got erased. *sigh* Instead of re-typing it all again, I will just sum up: it was awesome! My race was Saturday and I had a blast. My friends told me that since this was my third triathlon, I can now call myself a "Tri-Triathlete". =)
My distance: 1/4 mile lake swim, 10 mile bike ride, and 2 mile run.
The first picture is roomates Laurel, Copey, friend Cynthia, and I the morning of our race. The pix was taken at 7:30 am and we are not real morning people, as you can tell. Ha ha. The second picture was taken of me on my bike by a friend who had my camera. That was seriously my face the whole time. I just LOVE this race. It is a thrill to participate with so many other people. And crossing the finish line is such a great feeling.
Can't wait till next year!
Last night I went to a Switchfoot concert. When I first walked in, I felt SO OLD. There were junior high, high school, and college students everywhere. I felt so old and so tall. I had no idea the crowd would be that young. As the night went on, I saw more of an age range, but it still seemed quite young.
The concert was AWESOME!! I loved every minute of it. Those guys are so gifted. They rocked out for an hour and a half. I loved hearing the songs off their new album and they played some songs from their last one, too. At one point, the lead singer Jon Foreman whipped out a harmonica to play a new song and the crowd went nuts!
My highlight of the night: one of my favorite songs of theirs is called "This Is Your Life." At one point, Jon stopped singing and held the microphone out to the audience so everyone could sing the words. And sing they did! People were singing their little hearts out. And here is the line we all sang -
"This is your life. Are you who you want to be?"
LOVE it. Suddenly, I was so glad the room was filled with junior high and high school kids. I was listening to their voices sing that line and wondering, "Are they thinking about what they're singing?" They are at that age when they are being formed into who they are. Are they who they want to be?
Are we?
