Its been a while since my last blurb (can you really call it a post when it was just a link to another site??) and I guess Im sitting here unsure of where I should pick this all back up again from . . .
I spose there is going to be a certain number of things forgotten and overlooked, it is impossible to try to recap the entirety of the last couple of months in a single post!
So what HAS been going on??
In all honesty, not a whole lot.
School started again about a month ago, which means that there are a TON more people around campus. Which is nice on the one hand and not so nice on the other. Its nice because there are people around to watch and talk to and such, and not so nice because with all those people come all the problems that we are trained to deal with. So what it boils down to is this: its nice to have them around, and sometimes a pain to deal with the issues that come up. Not that I am complaining, cause Im not, I enjoy the students being around and getting to meet new kids with their own plans and lives and stories, but there are definitely times when it is very challenging to keep a professional attitude about things.
I have managed to pick up some freelance photo editing work, so that should be taking up more time then I have been allotting it. I have begun working with a professional photographer who has been shooting weddings, engagements and graduation photos for several years now and is just plain backed up with all the shoots she has scheduled. Its nice to have the work and supplemental income, but its another demand on my time, and time is getting more and more scarce (but more on that in a little bit).
Ive been looking for a new church this summer. Not for any bad reasons, I have been at Grace for the last 4-5 years and I love the preaching, but I feel like I am on the fringe of the church. I want to find somewhere to go where I can plug in and find some way to serve and carry some responsibility. I want to find a church where I am needed! Grace is a great church, but it is hard to find somewhere to serve because they already have someone doing everything!! I can find stuff to do, but it is once a month or maybe once every other month and that just doesnt feel right to me. I come from a church where you carry that whole facet of the ministry on a weekly basis, and I just cant get comfortable serving on such an occasional schedule.
Anyway, last week I visited Crossroads Community Church and am headed back this Sunday. I was surprised at how many people I knew there from school, not that the overwhelming majority of people there were from TMC at all, but there were a lot more then I thought I would run into.
The sermon was out of Ephesians chapter 1. Talking about how the Christian belongs to God twice. First because he created us, and secondly because he bought us back from our sin with Christ’s death. So simple, and yet so profound. As the creator He owns us entirely, then through the series of events called ‘The Fall’ we owed allegience to another. And finally as an act of unbelievable mercy, He redeems us through the sacrifice of His son to become His once more. Amazing.
In a very different sense I feel that this progression has happened to me in a totally seperate area of my life. Jennica and I are dating again. I am so stoked that this has worked out, she has been such an influence on me over the past year or so, dating or not. I am so blessed that she is back in my life. Her facial expressions, her laugh, her opinions and her hugs were all very dearly missed, and are such an enjoyment to see again!
I asked her to be my girlfriend the first weekend of August and the last two months have been a blast! Not just for the fun of going and doing things, but especially sitting and talking about things, she has the amazing talent of listening to me and trying to understand what I am saying. She is such a patient listener, letting me ramble on and on until I spit out what I was trying to say the way I was trying to say it. A more wonderful and gracious friend does not exist!
So, yeah, thats about all thats been going on. Some really exciting things and some normal, routine things. But through it all God has been working and bringing about changes, however subtle they are. I have been blessed beyond imagination and I am so unworthy of it all.
facial expressions…and facial hair…oh dear. 😉