A weekend mélange

"We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the purpose, God calls the end." - Oswald Chambers

And so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the customs and behavior of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. - Romans 12:1-2

"It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to Him is exactly that of a child - God and my own soul, other people are shadows. Until other people become shadows, clouds and darkness will be mine every now and again. Is the relationship between myself and God getting simpler than ever it has been?" - Chambers

This is what I spent late Saturday afternoon reflecting on. First of all, What am I holding on to? What does God want me to unlearn? Second of all, how glorious to have your beliefs simplified!

Regarding the first, I wrote this in my journal yesterday:

"I do not have the right to choose what country I was born into, what family I was born into, what friends I have, etc...what if I attempt to choose and pursue what I've desired only to find it in disagreement with God's plans? My circumstances remain and my heart is sick for having my hope deferred...Does God exist for me, or do I exist for God?"


I need to unlearn that my destiny is in my own hands. My life belongs to God, so He can do whatever He wants with me. What could I do about it anyway?



Hoo! What freedom to not be in control!



And on another note - weekends, hey?

This was a good one. Ben, Anna Leisa and I went to The Uptown Diner friday night and followed that up with a little Star Wars Monopoly (check out Anna Leisa's link to read more about that - Boba Fett took it home).

Saturday afternoon, I joined AL, Beth, Keith and Nate at Joe's Crab Shack. The shack shook when we along with the entire staff were standing on chairs doing the....macarena...

Best part, easily, was when they put a hula skirt on Keith and a Kling-on hat, gave him a pot and a spoon and made him walk around panhandling for some change. He even got some donations for Berlin!



After Joe's, I went to Caribou and spent some time sipping coffee and reflecting over all the stuff that I wrote about above (and more!!).

Later, to complete 48 hours straight spent with Anna Leisa, we ran 8 miles. It was GOOD, but very dark, and very humid. Our shirts were soaked after 2 miles. Since we've spent so much time together lately, we ran out of stuff to talk about pretty quickly...especially since both of us are feeling like everything that used to be important just doesn't matter anymore - not worth the amount of attention (and conversation) that we once gave them....so it made for a more silent than preferred 8 miles...but still great. Just great.



Time to eat some Turkey Helper.