God? Yeah, I know something about Him

I've been reading 1 Peter. Though knowing little about meditating on scripture, the desire to do so is still in my heart. So though I didn't read 5 chapters a day, I feel my reading the same 3 chapters for a few days was pretty awesome. In 1 Peter it talks a lot about the church and trials and struggles and such. So discovering God’s character wasn't  exactly a challenge, it was just different.

            The first words in 1 Peter are some of my favorite. Peter starts his letter with: To God’s elect. Elect: A person chosen by God for favor, salvation, or eternal life. My favorite word of those is chosen. Throughout this book (and the Bible) God blows my mind with how intricate and so insanely well thought out, planned, and executed the Gospel is. God is a planner; he does nothing on a whim or in the heat of the moment. Later on in 1 Peter, he talks about how before the creation of the world Jesus was chosen to be the pure, spotless sacrificial lamb. It blows my mind to think that before Adam and Eve were even created, before the problem was a problem, and before the devil even thought he was special, God was planning. He chose us as His elect according to the foreknowledge of His Awesomeness and through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

Chosen. I am chosen by God. Those words are so powerful. God took something invisible and made it His own. At first I was no one, but now I am a people belonging to God; a royal priesthood. At first I had not received mercy, but now I have received mercy. God is a redeemer, I was not redeemed by something simple and cheap like silver or gold, but I was redeemed from my empty way of life by blood. By life. He’s a giver, he gave life in exchange for life. And though it makes no sense to me, the planning God of heaven and earth chose, redeemed, and is now building, shaping, and forming me into His spiritual house. My mind is small and feeble and able to understand nothing unless God gives me understanding, but God is showing me how he goes above and beyond, how he does immeasurably more then I can ask or think. Not only was Jesus sent to save us, but to lead us. I knew this in my head, but my heart was still blind to His wonderful light. To this I was called, because Christ suffered for me, leaving me an example, I should follow in His steps. The problem with this is that Jesus’ steps lead him to the grave. Are my steps willing to follow? To this I was called! I better be willing to follow, or Christ died for nothing. Will I follow when I suffer for doing good? To this I was called. Will I follow when I can’t see Him? When I can’t feel Him? To this I was called. Will I follow when I’m tired of the ministry placement God has given me? To this I was called. Will I entrust myself to Him who judges justly? Will I follow when I am harmed for doing good? To this, I was called. For such a time as this. To follow my planning, redeeming, merciful, loving, all-knowing, leader, yes, to this I was called. My faith, which to my King is more precious than gold, will be purified. Through that purification I will be proved genuine and inexpressible and glorious Joy will be mine. To this I was called.

The Art of Productivity

"What's free time again?" asked an HA intern as they trudged into the office an hour early to get homework done, "Oh, you mean Saturday?  Yeah, I think I remember those."

Such is my life.
The.Struggle.Is.Real

 Being blessed to work in the Global Expeditions Call Center, I don't have to be at work until after lunch at 1pm. But the hidden downfall to this is also its biggest blessing. Sleep. B-shifters like me have the glorious opportunity to sleep 'in', as opposed to the early rising, at work at 8:30 A-shifters.  Though sleep is wonderful, it will be your downfall. The average B-shifting intern will wake up either at 9:50 or 10:50 am, so they have just enough time to groggily run to the Auditorium for classes. After class and lunch, you work until 9 at night, and spend the rest of the evening socializing or eating ramen noodles (college life fosho).  

But in my B-shift life I am determined to break the lazy mold. My solution? Wake up early(ier), eat, dress, quiet time, homework, class, lunch, work, eat, work, session (if it applies), read, bed. Pretty packed right? Yep, and this entire week we've had sessions every night from 8 to 10, and on Wednesdays and Fridays I have shattered clay from 10-12 am (yep, late owls indeed). 

Socializing? Friends? Hanging out? What the fat are you talking about? 

Ain't nobody got time for that. 

Such is my life.

The struggle.

In the process of rituals beginning to set into my life (which I hate) and always having things to do, I've realized something: My tight schedule is the best plan ever if I want to be miserable. Though productive in the sense that I'm getting things done, I've become so religious in my schedule that I've isolated myself and sucked the adventure out of this Texas life. I've gotten stale, and watered down. And haven't had the refreshing words of a brother or sister close to me.
The life of an HA intern is busy, but to get through the hectic busyness, God gave us each other. I'm surrounded by 140+ other young people, pursuing God and going through the same things as I. That's such blessing.  I have an amazing family core of 20+ people (the largest on campus) and I barely spend time with them because I'm too busy 'getting things done'. Which of course being focused in itself isn't a bad thing, but to take it so far that the only conversation you have with your sister is about how you haven't seen each other in a few days is a bit sad. 
So my solution? I'm still working on it. But Jesus pursued people as well as His ministry, in fact, people was His ministry. And he's called people to be my ministry as well. He put these awesome people in my life for a reason. So whether it's waking up at 5:40 am to go to the gym with Cassie (which was awesome by the way), doing homework with Franny Fran (one of my favorite people on campus), leaving encouraging notes on my one of my  brother's desks, or staying up a little bit later to join in on the hilarious room conversations, I'm going to master the art of pursuit. Finding the middle ground between the art of productivity and the art of pursuing of people is going to be a journey I know nothing of (I've never had to turn homework in on time in my life...or even pursue friendships very much either for that matter ). But it's adventure time! Let's see how this turns out

P.S I think I almost like coffee now... Pray for me