Packing it all in
This week has been one of those weeks where I have to work hard to pack it all in! It truly has been non-stop both at work and outside of work (which in most ways was work related.) I’m looking forward to slowing down Sunday afternoon and evening. It has been a good week with some great steps forward in several areas.
Thursday night was our CG monthly hangout night and we had some new or less-seen faces show up for a fun night of games and conversation. Some of us stayed until 12:30 am playing games and talking. It is so wonderful to see relationships growing among people in our group and new faces coming in. It is slow and intentional work to build these kinds of friendships but it is so important and something that is an extension of God. God has taught me so much in recent years about the importance of community. Tonight was Mosaic – our worship gathering and it was another good evening of worship together and some continued fellowship. We’ve been using a video series titled "Nooma" and the messages shared by the pastor, Rob Bell, are so rich and challenging. Tonight was a great lesson on how we struggle to really trust that God knows best for us. We get frustrated, even angry when God fails to give us something we think we need or really want – just like when our parents didn’t get us that one toy we wanted when we were younger. Sometimes they said "no" because they knew something we didn’t know – that we didn’t need it or that it would make things worse for us or simply because they had a different plan. God has that same perspective but we forget to trust or refuse to. And Rob Bell weaves it to a key point – the question really is "Do we believe that God is good? Always?" Until we answer that question, we can’t really move forward. Because if we believe that God is always good, then why wouldn’t we trust Him with our lives? our futures? We had some great discussion related to this. It was especially a good topic for single adults who sometimes question why they are still single. Living life frustrated and questioning why somethign has or hasn’t happened in your life is not living with faith that God is good and will keep His promise. So . . it isn’t any eaiser but it was a good reminder that God truly has our best interest at heart and will fulfill the promise of Jeremiah 29:11-14 (MSG):
God says, "I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed."
Tonight is the high school’s winter sports dance and the theme is the 80s. So this afternoon I helped a couple of my freshmen boys put together some awesome 80s outfits from clothing at the Goodwill store. It was a walk down memory lane thinking about the fashion styles. I kept thinking of the guys I liked in my high school years and what they wore. We ended up finding them some nice white-washed jeans that tapered in the leg; pasteled collared polo shirts and pasteled sweaters that they could wear and then tie around their shoulders. So 80s… what fun! We had absolutely no style back then.