Learning to Listen

I've been in Florida almost 7 months to the day.

Where has time gone??

I've changed so much. . . and I have so much to write about. Everything that happened to me yesterday spoke to me in one way or another, from the morning service to SS to the evening service and even hanging out with some friends later last night.

Unfortunately I don't have time to update all of that right now. . . but this is my way of FORCING myself to come back to this in the afternoon.

LATER: I WANT TO WRITE SO MUCH!! I wish there were a way to be able to send thoughts into a program that would type them out for you. I could tape record myself, but then I'd have to transcribe, and I am an awful transcriber (as I often paraphrase; I get the meaning across, which I think is the important point, but that sometimes gets me into trouble, at least in academia).

Anyway.

I don't even know where to begin. . . I feel like God spoke directly to me throughout the entirety of Sunday. The morning service was intended to give us some insight into "Why Do Bad Things Happen to 'Good' People?" Reggie was right when he said that this was going to be a slightly different take. When we step into God's presence and take a look at life from His perspective, a LOT of things come clear. First off, there is not any "good" person out there! We all deserve separation from God/death due to our imperfection, but God loves us so much that He sent His Son to do the best thing He could do for us: He redeemed us. Instead of asking why He does bad things to good people or why good things seem to happen for bad people (see Psalm 73), we should really focus on why He would do the best things for all the worst people. Think about it- He didn't die for the "good" or the "righteous" or anyone that we think should get to Heaven because they are "not as bad as some people." He died for EVERYONE because NO ONE will ever be able to earn their own way into Heaven. Sorry. Not my rules, but it certainly makes sense to me. So, the theme I took from that service: when the worst happens, put faith in the best thing that's already happened.

. . . not that the worst has happened in my life by any means, but it's just a nice way to refocus my life back into the light of eternity. No matter what happens, nothing can take away what God has already done for me.

Next, the Sunday School lesson was about how to persevere in faith, which directly related to what was discussed in the service. Our class is in Exodus right now, and the passage we were looking at was when the Israelites were crossing the Red Sea. I need to get to bed so I'm not going to go into super detail, but these are the things I wrote down:
-Be still and get moving! (Huh? Still your emotions (partially because they can be misleading and they can definitely be paralyzing) and move on, going about God's work).
-Laser focus- who are we working for?
-He has put us in the circumstances we are in, and His way is ALWAYS best. It's not bad to question what's going on, but ultimately even if we don't get the specific answer, the answer is always that He's teaching us something (usually trying to bring us closer to Him and His plan for our life).
-Red Sea wall- How long do we have to walk, and will the wall hold?
-Are we pursuing the things that Gode likes and shying away from the things He doesn't like? (think relationship/marriage- we try and figure out our partner's likes/dislikes in order to please them most)
-Take the opportunity to glorify God when He takes us through our struggles instead of pointing to ourselves.

I've been having a lot of struggles with my job lately, and this really helped me to get the focus off the things that a)I can't control, b)in the end will work out OK, and/or c) don't have a bearing on my present situation (not that I shouldn't look to the future, but living in it is not a good option because it simply doesn't work).

The evening service was about Enoch and walking with God. . . but I need to get to bed, so I'll have to write about that tomorrow.

Also, I need to discuss the whole idea of Satan's plan and what he tries to do to humans, and where that fits into my life.

The culmination of all this is the idea that I need to give my very best in everything I do all the time, which means I should be coming to bed exhausted every night. No more complaining, no more complacency, no more cycle of not finishing out a project, getting overwhelmed, not finishing more projects, more overwhelming things, etc. Believers ought to be the hardest working people in the world, because we know that we are not going to be in the world for long, so we must present everything we can in this life for the glory of God and the expansion of His kingdom. What an exciting prospect- to work for the King of Kings and the Creator of the Universe! And He LOVES us! He cares about every detail in our lives (sometimes I feel like "Why should God care what happens at a small school in the middle of nowhere?" but then I realize a couple things: He care about me and my concerns, so He must care about it, and He also cares about each and every person at the school. And He placed me there, so if I can act as His agent to accomplish His agenda, then that's all the more reason to be still and get moving!

Like I said earlier on Facebook, it's time to get back into the game!