Racing the sun home...

I just got back from Riverside earlier this evening. I was trying to beat the sun home and you would think that being on the 91 I would have lost, but Im gonna call it a tie. I spent last night and today in R-side, it was the first time I had been back since graduating so it was kind of a funny feeling but such a wonderful one at that. I feel like being there for just about 24 hours has rejuvenated me and given me a brighter outlook on life. Im not complaining about my situation here in good ole Lomita but just driving into Riverside felt like I was coming home. Anyway, it has motivated me to start being more active in pursuit to create community here, if I can build one here like I did in Riverside I will consider myself truly blessed! So thank you CT, Lauren, Travis, Janelle, Lee, Jenni, Chris, Heather, Lindsey, Taylor, Fox, Alyssa, Deanna and everyone else I got to hang out with today, you are all a blessing to me!!!

*This is from my phone on the 91*

Nearing the end of part 1

25 days until I graduate from college and 90 days until I turn 23. Part 1 of my life is almost over, crazy! I am about to step out of the education part of my life and into the job/career part of my life. I am hoping that 23 is not 1/3 of my life but who knows. As graduation approaches I have so many thoughts and feelings inside me that I don't think I could even put it all into words. I am excited/nervous/sad/happy/hopeful/scared about what is ahead. All I can say this moment is thank goodness God is in control. I cannot imagine what other people my age, who are about to graduate, are thinking when you look at our world and where it is at. Why would anyone want to hire someone right out of college when there are more people losing jobs everyday than there are people getting hired. I am so glad my hope is founded in Christ. Even though I have no idea what I will be doing after May 2nd I know that God has big plans for me and I am so excited for the journey of discovery, challenge, and seeking after God.
Its hard to believe this was almost 4 years ago...

"Walking"

Today chapel was really good and it was due to 3 members of our senior class. Following chapel I had my favorite class, Development & Discipleship. As I have mentioned before I LOVE this class, it stretches my mind and faith! Today in class we continued our discussion on teaching and discipleship. Between these 2 occurrences I began to think of an idea which is not mine because I am not naive enough to think that I came up with it but I love it! The idea of walking is quite a simple concept, that is unless you are a baby and don't have the ability to do so. For instance, when you look at a newborn baby and say "hey kid, you should start walking i think you would it enjoy it" you know very well it is not possible for that baby to start walking. You can show it youtube demonstrations, describe walking to it, read it a book on walking or whatever. The bottom line is the baby is not going to walk until it is good and ready. And when the baby decides it is time it will make an effort and that effort will be because it is watching everyone around it walk and it knows that everyone has an ability that it does not have. I feel like the same can be said for walking with Christ. Chances are someone will not make that decision because you tell them too or they read about it in a magazine, they will decide to walk with Christ because they see other people doing it and doing it well. Babies decide to walk because they want freedom and the ability to explore the world. I feel the same way as a follower of Christ, I want to be free in Christ, I want to explore what can only be explored with him walking beside me.
Now this opens up a whole other idea about the fact that we need to be Christians 'living a life worthy of the one we have been given' because that's when people will take notice and start to take baby steps in the same direction. I want to live a life worthy of the one I have been given, worthy of the call Christ has placed on my heart. So, I'm gonna walk.....

Battling with Tyrone

Tonight my roommate and I got to spend some good, quality time together. This has been lacking because of our crazy schedules and everything coming up in the next month: projects, finals, graduation, what to do after graduation...etc. Anyway, tonight was a much needed nite! We had dinner together, came home and watched Twilight for the first time, worked on graduation announcements, and battled over our favorite Tyrone Wells songs. It got pretty ugly for a while we were both playing songs of his on our computers at the same times and even tried to sing over one another. If you are socal and don't know who Tyrone is then you have probably been living under a rock, that or you just don't know what good music is. If you are not from socal and don't know who Tyrone is then you should get acquainted with him...www.myspace.com/tyronewells. His latest album is good stuff as are the rest!

Death By Church

is a book by Mike Erre, the teaching pastor at Rock Harbor Church. I just started reading it and it is already rocking my world. I attended Rock Harbor when I lived in Fullerton and was blessed to be able to listen to Mike speak every week. I am not even thru the first chapter and I can't put it down. Its gonna take me a while to get thru because it is a lot to digest but I wanted to share a quote from the book, which is actually not from Mike but he still gets props for putting it in there and writting about it.
"America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its begavior." -Bill McKibben.
Ouch!! Can you say wake up call?!? If you are looking for something to read or want to be challenged I reccomend you read this:

IM HOME...

...and so happy to be here! As I was cruisin into the South Bay today, sunroof open, jammin to Kids by MGMT, surrounded by horrible socal drivers I started to think about how blessed I am. I couldn't wait to come home and see my family and spend some quality time with them and when I have to turn around and go back on Sunday I know I will be equally excited to get back to my CBU family. God is awesome.
Happy Spring Break!!!

Spring Break!

2 more classes on Friday and its peace out Riverside, time for Spring Break! I am so excited to go home, I have not been home since Christmas and I have been missin the fam a lot lately. Here are the goals I have set for myself for the break:
-Spend qaulity time with the fam
-Read for plessure
-Get ahead in my classes (ok, maybe just caught up)
-Get my hair cut :)
-Meditate on God's word
-Possibly have a job interview
-Spend some qaulity time in prayer
-Try something new: food, game, whatever
-Go to Disneyland
-BLOG!
We shall see how it goes. In the mean time its back to homework and counting down the hours until I get to see these wonderful people:

Felt board Jesus ruined my faith

For those of you who grew up attending church I am sure you can all remember the felt boards teachers used in Sunday School back in the day. I have been thinking about what all I was taught growing up in Sunday School via this felt board and I have come to the conclusion that it probably did more damage to my faith and that it helped. I grew up thinking that because of the felt board stories I was taught that I knew all I needed to know Jesus and the Bible….WRONG! I was having lunch with my good friend, Marissa Poulson, and she I and I were discussing this topic and decided that because of our Sunday School experiences we had a warped sense of who Jesus was. We learned that Jesus loves so very much (insert sticker with the heart that says Jesus Loves You here) and yes that is true but we did not learn the power and majesty of our God or that his death on the cross was the most excruciating death one could encounter. We did not learn that his grace for us is why we have eternal life and that we are NOT worthy of the life we have been given. Jesus did not have to die in order to save our selfish lives. We are to rejoice in our sufferings. We will strive to do good but end up doing evil anyway. God’s heart is for the poor and unsaved. One day God will destroy the earth and then will create and new earth and a new heaven. We think that the only time Jesus got mad was when he overturned the tables in the temple. For some reason we figured that because we could sing Father Abraham, Jesus Loves Me, and the song about Zaccheus, and knew the story of Moses and Noah we were set when it comes to Bible knowledge. Thankfully most churches have retired the felt boards and moved on are beginning to really engage in our youth which is a desperate need. After all if kids spend 40 hours a week in school and 1-2 hours a week in church, can we waist time putting the little felt people up on the board and spend the whole lesson trying to get them to stay up? Kids are now learning things in kindergarten that were being taught in 2nd grade 10 years ago, so if education has stepped up its game and expected more from the youth then why can’t the church do the same. Or maybe I am wrong, you tell me….

“TomJoy”

Brit, Brie, Shelby and I went to the Toms Shoes Sample Sale in Santa Monica the other weekend and as we left with our new purchases we decided that there should be a word that describes the joy one receives when they buy their Toms and know that at the same time you get an awesome new pair of shoes you are also sending a pair to a kid in another country who has never had a pair of shoes. So we came up with Tomjoy and submitted the word and definition to urbandictionary.com which they accepted so we told Toms about it and they put it up on their blog along with a picture of us! Check out urban dictionary and the Toms blog!

www.urbandictionary.com
www.tomsshoesblog.com

Title Explanation

“The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.”

This was said by one of my teachers the other day during my class. It is a pretty simple statement with extremely powerful words. Growing up I always had a fear of God. Yes, I knew he loved me and protected me but at the same I time I would think to myself that if I ever came face to face with him I would probably pee in my pants, that’s elementary school age theology for you. However, as I have grown up and studied the Bible a little more I now know that all I long I was not being ridiculous or juvenile in my thinking. Recently during a chapel the speaker was talking about the things God saves us from like death, hell, and satan but he also said that most importantly God saves us from himself. We often forget that our God is powerful, an intense God who is not afraid of wrath. I for one would never ever want to encounter the wrath of God. This is something I am truly thankful for because I feel like it helps me to not but God in a box and pretend he is just my bff who is always there for me when things go wrong, but he is an almighty God is above all things and at any moment could easily strike me down. He is more powerful, glorious, and holy than I can ever imagine. I do not consider myself to be full of wisdom but knowing that by fearing the Lord I am on the right track makes me pretty happy. But, at the same time I probably would still pee in my pants if I came face to face with God.

Here we go....

I have taken a vacation (unplanned) from blogging and the ideas have been building up inside me so I hope this will be the start of many blogs to come. The following are my new blog resolutions:
-blog makeover
-more frequent blogging
-more commenting on other blogs(i still read everyone elses even though i have been neglecting mine)
-update my blogroll (welcome to the blog world kinsley!)
-new blog name (i think i have one and there will be a blog explaining it)