It's About Time!

It's about time I updated this thing! :)

Life has been wonderfully full and busy - God is doing so much in my life, in my church, and in my community, so it's hard to find time to sit down and write.

In this next season I want to be more purposeful about setting time aside to get my thoughts "down on paper".

2011 was a surprising year. I thought I might have met the guy I was supposed to marry, only to find out that he didn't really know himself or what he wanted all that well. It ended in a break-up that wasn't handled in the best way, and that was super hurtful for me. Then I was dealing with the man I THOUGHT I was going to marry, for like FOUR YEARS, come back into my life for a few months. He was seeing someone else by this time, and ended up marrying her this last July. I'm thrilled for him, but it's not easy watching someone you once loved so dearly marry someone else, even if you know God has had his hand in separating the two of you and leading you down different paths than what you originally expected.

Naturally, it sounds like I have a lot of relationships with men. Not really. That's pretty much my history right there.

I'm one of those girls that always thought she would only date one guy ever. Really, it's courtship I've always believed in, but I just call it dating because it's a more common term, and not a lot of people are familiar with the idea of courtship. Essentially, though, that's been my only experience. I've never been casual when it came to getting to know someone or spending intentional time with them. I think you can know all you need to know about someone from three feet away. In addition, I think you see what they're like more in a group setting, where you can observe how they treat others, versus how they treat you during the pursuit stage (which often includes inflated promises and actions, that will probably not be their lifelong way of treating you).

2011 was also interesting because I grew into my job a whole lot more. I won't go into it here, as it is not the focus of the blog, but I really love my coworkers and my company. My job is tough and requires a lot of brain power, and these days I also travel for my job quite a bit, so there's nothing restful or relaxing about the what I do for a living. However, I have totally seen God's favor and blessing in it, and I've fallen in love with the group of people I work with, simply because Jesus loves them so entirely much.

2011 was a lot about learning old lessons again, because I didn't learn them well the first time. I'm glad that the Lord is a loving Father who disciplines those he loves. It can seem weird talking about the discipline of the Lord, but he is so gentle with it, and it is always smothered in hope and affection. We have every reason to believe that he will not ever give up on us or discontinue the work he began in us. He will be faithful to complete it. It's a promise.

2011 was a year of intense ministry. The college and career group at my church has ballooned. Our school of supernatural ministry is kickin' awesome, and getting better every week, and our youth are going deep with the Lord. I'm also on the worship team, and what God is doing in our community when it comes to arts and worship is just AMAZING. I eventually want to share more about my personal journey when it comes to music. Someday soon I shall dive into it!  :)))

2011 was a year of making incredible life-long friends. I can't even believe how blessed I am to have these kind of people in my life.  It's one of the things I'm most thankful for this year!

Anyway, I shall write more later. :)

Dancing Wild and Free

I love dancing in my room when it's just me and God. I can be silly and wild and free...I can just be me.

Today I put on some of my favorite Spanish worship music (hey, no one can write worship/praise music like Spanish speakers can - it's just AMAZING how full of joy and victory they are! Everything is a declaration of war over all that is evil and a cry for the tangible glorious and holy presence of God), and I just danced and danced.


It really is one of my favorite ways to worship God.  And I think he rather enjoys it. I like thinking about how I have an audience of one - and I can just FEEL him smiling over me and laughing at my antics. He enjoys me. I've convinced of it. I don't mean that in a stuck-up sort of way.  I think he enjoys all of us!  We have to recognize that diminishing who we are in Christ is just false humility. I am a daughter of the Most High God, of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Creator of the Universe. He delights in me and I delight in him!  We make each other laugh!  I would never be embarrassed about declaring my earthly father's love for me, so why should I not say with great confidence that my Heavenly father has even MORE love for me than that?

Anyway - so I danced. And I worshiped. And I had a great time. And I'm going to dance my way further into the heart of God.

I also had this thought that it would be really great to make a dance/exercise video using radical awesome praise songs about how glorious and mighty God is.  Wouldn't that be a great start to your morning?  To get up and jump around like crazy?  And burn calories doing it, jump-starting your system for the day? Fit for life, and fit for Jesus?  Ha...I could call it that... "Fit body, Fit soul, Fit for Destiny".  :-) I'll think on that one..