So I am about to read Isaiah

Here I am sitting at my desk at work starting to freak out that I made a commitment to do a 22-week in depth (30-50 minutes a day) study on Isaiah. 

I typed in "So I''m about to read Isaiah" to google hoping to get a blog post or encouragement from a person who has done a study on Isaiah before. Instead, my entire search result showed this:

Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismay, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand"

Making the best decisions for today

Tonight I saw a picture of my college freshman crush hanging out with his uber cute wife and another couple that we went to college with.

Seeing things like that just reminds me of all the different paths and ways our lives can head. If I could go back and ask my 19 year self about what my life would look like right now, I would assume that boy would still be apart of it, but instead, we haven't talked in 9 years.

And this isn't an emo blog post about the woes of being single (I do have plenty of those though if you need that, just look at my archive) but instead thinking about all the different directions that a life can go.

somethings are life impacting, just for you.

About 3 weeks ago, I was able to go to church and sit in auditorium, participate in worship and hear the sermon with everyone else. It has been a long time since I have done that. There was a huge crew of us-- I was sitting a few people down from my boss and his wife.

I walked away thinking "hmmm... that was a good service" My boss's wife reaction "Oh my goodness, was that not the best thing I have ever heard,  he said exactly what I needed, this sermon completely changed my life" ---She started to cry during the service.

personality clash

I have been struggling with getting along with people this week. Not people in general ,but certain people. One of my friends in particular is DRIVING me CRAZY!!! I can't stand being in the same room as him. I can't handle ANYTHING that he has to stay, everything that he does is making me angry.

I have been trying to wrap my head around it all week. What is making me so angry? ... There's a good chance that I am going to get called out on it soon. Almost every minute of my life is near or with this guy. I don't think he is "doing" anything wrong, but he had a change of mindset which is making him act and behave differently. I think things in the past few weeks have made his head big and need to let everyone know that he is "it"

Hallmark movies breakdown

In the late fall and Christmas season, I feel this need to watch those Hallmark movies. There are so many jokes about them-- and the jokes come because these movies are all the same. I am going to ruin them for you

Hallmark movie:
Scene one: Independent single girl and independent single guy have a positive first interaction but quickly come to hate each other

Board report

Its going to be an amazing adventure! 

Adding a second camp was approved by the board. Soon, very soon, everything is going to start changing. I think it will be 1-2 months of legal work then, BOMB!!! 2 camps to book, oversee and have opportunity to show kids the light of Christ. 

Being content and thankful

There are seasons of our lives where all of a sudden everything is about one single topic, and it comes to you in different ways, you read about it in a devo, in a conversation with a friend, in a sermon, from a Facebook friend. Suddenly, you realize, that this isn't just a coincidence, but instead, the Lord is putting this topic in front of you.

This has been the case for me. The topic that keeps being put in front of me is this: 

"People are never thankful for what they have, instead, they just always want more" 

anxiously waiting for board meeting summary

For weeks now there has been talk about operating two camps instead of just one. There is a camp about a mile away from the camp that I am at now that hasn't been used over 3 years. The people who run it, went to my boss and asked if we wanted to expand and have another site.

Tonight is the night where the board votes to move forward or not. This is big, my entire job will change if it is yes, everything about us as a camp will change in having two sites over just one. As scary as change is, I think this is a really good change. My heart has been fluttery all day about it. I am fairly confident that the vote will be "yes" and if that is the case, my job will change tomorrow. I will be in charge of filling this brand new place for summer 2016, I will have two calendars to manage and so many more groups to oversee and take care of. Am I nervous? Very much so! Do I think its going to be amazing? Even more!

I don't know how I am going to react if the vote was "no" There is a lot of other things going on, a second camp will be hard to get started in the midst of everything that is going on at our site now, but I think that a lot of the intensity of the moment will be relieved in having two areas to do everything that we do, instead of just one.

Growth is such a good thing. But there are always hard parts about growth as well. When you are underbooked, you are able to be way more accommodating. You will do whatever you can to have anyone on site, but as you grow, you have more people and you have more needs, and there comes a point where you are less accommodating and flexible. --You can no longer change your date last minute, you have to rebook your retreat as soon as you finish one, you can't hog the campfire ring all night.

But as much as I focus on the "negative" there are lots of positives that create this atmosphere. You are doing things so well as a camp that people are driven and have a strong desire to be there. When you are able to be overly flexible, its because you have nothing else to offer people to be there.

I need to remember that as I go through this camp growth spurt. We are growing  because things are being done right, and we need to keep doing the right thing.

I am so scared, nervous and excited to hear about the board meeting. I hope that whatever the outcome of the meeting that the board members took their time to pray and think about what is best for camp.

Fun Purchase Today!

For some time now, I wanted a simple fun ring to wear on my right hand. I have at times diligently look for one and today I thought I would explore etsy and see if there was anything that I liked. I found this ring!

Thoughts on Lovelogy

Well, after a full month I finally finished "Loveology" by John Mark Comer. I loved it a lot, it was a great book. It's a book where you need to read all the footnotes because they are hilarious. Its a book that makes you think and analyze all the things you thing about LOVE and see if you think that for any good reason.

As I was reading the very last few pages I was consumed with thoughts of what I have learned in reading this book. What are the things that I will take away and let shape my life. This whole book was amazing, but the few pages on submit and love were my favorite and shaped my mindset around it, however, I already wrote a blog on these pages, so I need to choose a second favorite (life shaping) part to reflect on.

two commercials showing too much of our true culture

There is this TV commercial that has not been sitting right with me. It is of a young girl and her father at home making a volcano for her school science fair. You can tell that they spent all of this great quality time together and they set-off their volcano, it was lame. The girl and father was sad. So the dad went to best buy and bought a fancy huge TV. The girl set up her TV at the science fair showing a fancy volcano exploding and everyone is amazed.


It makes me so mad. This little commercial goes from a true moment to having technology suck the life out of you. It makes me so mad that the dad rejected the project he and the girl made and went by himself to purchase a big TV.
I saw another commercial last night that made me equally angry. It was a car commercial. Two different families testing out a car, one car has WiFi the other doesn't. The family driving the one with WiFi has two silent zombie kids in the backseat with headphones on and staring at a iPad. The other one had two loud talkative kids in the backseat engaging everyone in the car. They were pushing the zombie car. Showing how great it was to have 2 silent kids.

I have been struggling with this. It makes me want to throw away everything technology. But on the flip side I truly love technology-- where is the balance? These two commercials clearly aren't balanced. It makes me so mad how they show that people time doesn't matter its all.

I need to be above this. I need to work at not becoming a technology zombie. It is a really hard thing to balance. Our culture needs to change how we feel about these tools. They may soon take us over and we will be nothing.