Happy .....?

Happy last day of October! Whether you call it Halloween or Reformation day is your choice. I'm not going to make a case for it this year but one year I will.

I just wanted to announce that starting tomorrow I am going to write the whole month of November. Every. Day.

My goal is to find something to be thankful for and blog about it. It may be only a sentence on really busy days and it may be a whole paragraph or more on days that are not quite so busy.

Crazy Stuff Happening all at Once!

So a lot of things happened over the last week and a half. Here are the top 4. (There is always more to write about so I had to top it off before it got too crazy long).

First, I turned 22.

 
Yep. Although I wouldn't say that I have the same attitude on life as Taylor Swift. I was thinking about it and wondering why that was. I think it's because I'm not seeking to be fulfilled in what I do or what I feel. I'm seeking to be fulfilled in Christ. If I wasn't seeking that then my life would be all sugar and no substance and eventually I'd get sick of it.

Second, I had a Skype interview with some of the head guys at Christian Encounter Ministries!


     This is perhaps one of the coolest programs available out there for older teens and younger adults who realize that they need serious help. They come to this place called "The Ranch" up in Grassvalley, CA and have the love of Jesus poured into them daily as they struggle to get back on their feet again. Here is more Information about the program.


Third, we had a clean up day at our house.

    It was hosted by one of our sweet sisters in Christ who wanted to show an appreciation for all of the hard work that my dad does by helping to clean up things around our place. (It's something that my mom has wanted to do for a while but only is able to do a little bit here and a little bit there.) It really blessed our family and we were able to have a nice time of fellowship with the people in our church.


Fourth, I got accepted!

My application for an internship at CEM got accepted! I'm both excited and terrified at the same time. Excited because God has opened a door for me and given me a direction (plus it's such a cool ministry to be a part of. I'm really excited I get to be a part of this.) Terrified because I have never done anything quite like this before and I wonder if I'm going to find that I'm in way over my head.
I kind of feel like Rapunzel in the movie Tangled:


     I have my moments of being on cloud 9 and moments of wondering "how qualified am I really for this?" Those moments pull me back to reality. I'm aware that I don't have all of the answers and that I'm a fallen person.
   I know that I'm qualified within myself, or within my own strength. I'm qualified because of Christ and I rest on his strength. I pretty much have this internal conversation at least 5 times a day (maybe more). Once I'm there and in the midst I'll have a better understanding of what exactly I got myself into. For now I just keep praying that God would prepare me for the road ahead and that he would also prepare those whom I will be mentoring for me.

Great Question IV

Why do people fight about religion?

I started Good News Club last week and this is the question I got from one of the kids. Me and another teacher ended up talking to him about it.

    I told him that God created us for worship and so people who either don't know the truth or reject the truth will seek other ways of worship. That is why there are so many religions in the world.
    Brenda then pointed out that everyone claims that they are right but can everyone be right? No. She then pointed out that man is sinful and God is not and so God will not lie and has the right to tell us the truth.
    The reason that so many people fight about religion is because they want to be right. They don't want to admit that they are wrong. Only God is 100% right because He is truth.

Loving the Little Rascal

      So I have been working with Cubbies at a church that is about 5 minutes away. We have about 40 kids coming and among these kids is one particular kid named James. Now James is a big problem child at Cubbies since he gets up during story time and runs around the room in a way that is both distracting and dangerous to both himself and others. It usually takes a couple of us to corral him and then for one of us to catch him and hold him during story time. 

      Anyway this kid really has made it clear that he does not want to be at Cubbies and he just wants to go home. I feel for him.

     I got told once to not feel bad for him when he was not listening. I can't help feeling badly for kids who are misbehaving. Especially ones who people do not seem to be showing love to or trying to understand what's going on at home. What does or does not go on at home will affect how they act in public.

     I want this kid to know what it is to love Jesus and what Jesus' love looks like but it's so hard when they don't seem to want it or care. (Maybe this is a little picture of how we look to God a lot of times.)

     How do we reach a child who does not want to be reached? You can't and forcing him to sit and listen might be helping him to close his ears more and more to what God says in His word. It's doing more harm than good. 

     On the other hand it isn't my choice that this kid has to be there at Cubbies. It's his parents choice to enroll him. So I have been wracking my brain as to how to get this kid more engaged. I think he's just a really active kid and so he needs to move around so making him sit isn't helping him to learn. I try to give him things to play with during the story time and ask him questions to try and get him to listen. He behaves a little better since he's getting individual attention but its not like we have a real choice in that since he has to be strapped to you during the story time. At least it's something. 

Robo Rebellion

Why do robot stories intrigue us? And why, so often, do they end up in the Robots rebelling against mankind? Eagle Eye, Meet the Robinsons, Wall-e, and I,Robot are all examples of this. 

A couple of the common themes in all of these stories are: 

-the created intelligence rebelling against mankind (the creator)

-the overcoming of the rebellious one (or ones) 

     These themes are reflected in the Bible. We see how God created man, He created man with intelligence and gave man the ability to choose to obey or disobey. The disobedience that happened when man ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was an act of rebellion.

    In effect man is reflecting this story (the story in the Bible) in the other stories listed above, just in a more imperfect light. Of course man wants to be God, so it is not surprising that we find man as the creator. (Also what else would be able to create the robots?) The robots represent us, in a way, since they choose to rebel. They choose to twist the rules a little bit and take liberties they were not originally designed to take. Sound familiar? (Perhaps like the eating the fruit that we weren't supposed to eat but we justified it by buying into a twisted truth. We then were no longer able to subdue the earth as we originally were designed to do.)

    After this the stories tend to get resolved usually in the destruction of the rebel robots in some way. If it was up to us and we were God I have no doubt we would have destroyed the rebellious creatures that we created. But God didn't and He continues to let us live. He didn't start over and didn't give up on us. He could have but He didn't.

     I think it's amazing that God has put up with us humans for so long. Thinking about God in this way reminds me of the fact that our ways are not God's ways (thankfully). He is so merciful and loving and patient ALL of the time. (Even to people who absolutely hate Him). It's so much more than any of us ever do on even a partial basis. 

    I would be interested to know your thoughts on this subject. Do you agree? Disagree? Have other thoughts? Feel free to comment below.