Discipline is infectious?

So yesterday I had to write a 4 paragraph essay on what a simplified life means and how what I have learned about simplification has challenged me. My whole year has been about simplification. Really the Lord has been speaking to me major about this. I realized a while ago that I always thought it was important to have nice things, even if I never said that I felt that way, I did. So I have been working on my attitude and what it means to simplify. So I carry around this list of 10 ways to simplify or something like that by Richard Foster and I read them often.
Today this guy at work was talking and I was on the phone so I only heard the end of his conversation about how he is trying to simplify his life by making his yes mean yes and no mean no. And how we need to simplify our language. Oh my goodness, that is what Foster says! Me so giddy, says I just wrote a paper on that yesterday. I am working on the same things. I carry this list around, do you want to read it? My friend says sure and I hand it to him and his jaw drops. "I was just looking on the internet for this and told Jim (the guy sitting next to him) that my pastor spoke on this and I need to find it. I couldn't find it." "Really?" I say. Our friend Elya says I want that list too, it sounds good. Before you know it we were all discussing what it means to simplify our lives to make room for the Lord. What? I work with a brand new Christian, a Jewish guy and a leary Catholic. God moves in mysterious ways, and who would thought it would be by giving up stuff and living a more simple life. We had about 20 minutes of confession and all decided we wanted to work on some of these things. WOW!

Mid Terms

I had my first test for VLI today. I was super nervous, but I think I did pretty good. I wanted to study more than I had time for. But in general I was pretty proud of myself for actually putting time into it when I had time available. I also kept a pretty good attitude about the test portion of the class.
Yesterday I had to lead a servant leadership project. My church is really great at reaching out to the community. Once a month we go to a mobile home community and hand out groceries. Yesterday me and my sister -n -law , niece and my friend Rebecca went and handed out pumpkins and candy. It seems kind of minimal to hand out pumpkins. But the smiles on the kids faces made it all worth while. Even some of the adults were really excited to receive a gift from us. We also got to talk to people and pray for some. One guy really felt like the Lord has been using us to speak love to him. It was a great time even if it did rain the whole time.
I am not sure if I would of done this project on my own if I didn't have to think of something. But now that I did it, I really want to continue to walk in this. It was a very neat time and cost little money and took 1 hour of my time. But the Lord used our willingness. I challenge you to think of creative ways to reach out to people in your community and let me know so I can bum some of your ideas!

Overload

My mind is on overload. We just finished our intensive weekend with 3 days of classes. It was a lot. I am really excited about a lot of what I am learning and will definately be unloading it soon. I have been talking about a lot of it in my daily life. I am teaching anyone who will listen about bibical history. Suprisingly a lot of people listen.
This isn't much of a blog but I am so exhausted and it's like 80 degress here and it is Oct 21! I live in Michigan, really this is crazy. And who says there no such thing as global warming? I am not suppose to have fuzzy hair in October for goodness sake. Fall is my favorite time of year, and there is none! Ahh!
So anyway I will be posting more soon about Matthew Mark and good old Dr. Luke.

Study Day

So yesterday felt like I was back in school again. Rebecca who is my dear friend and is in the program with me came over and we spent the entire day except for a Target run studying. It was good. I didn't hate it. That's a lot for me. I was never much into school and homework. It was so much better to have a study partner.

This place where I am at in my life is making me process things a little more deeply, hence the last poem. You may be seeing more of things like that. I process a lot through writing and coversation, so why not process through blogging. It's good though. I feel like the Lord is revealing things. It's hard too, not sure sometimes what to do with it all, except pray. I am not sure why we say except pray, becuase it should be first and not a last resort, but as a doer who wants to fix things, praying seems to take time. There is a lot of waiting and listening before answers are shown and well I'm American and I like answers in 5 minutes. Wow, not sure where all that came from, probably lack of sleep.

Standing Still

I can smile half way with a twinkle that makes me look unsure
you are knowing
knowing I am afraid of what this could be
about how I will react
or not act
and I turn away instead of leaving with you
and you are knowing
knowing I am afraid of more
afraid you might like the heart
and then how do I leave
I haven't had enough practice leaving
at least not when I want to stay

Holy Obedience

I have been reading Amazon.com: A Testament of Devotion: Books: Thomas R. Kelly and at first I had a hard time with some of the ideas. And then I got to the chapter about obedience. Fun stuff. Not really, but it all made so much sense at that point. Kelly talks about getting to this point where you are constinetly in the presence of God. I thought that was impossible, and then I started reading about obedience. Kelly says "But when such a commitment comes in a human life, God breaks through, miracles are wrought, world-renewing divine forces are released, history changes." I believe this. I believe if we were all to be commited to being obedient miracles would happen and people would come to Christ and history would change. It's a huge thing to be obedient, it's really hard because I am so selfish, but I want to listen and be at that place where I let God speak to me all the time and better yet I obey. I am starting small, as Bob says in What about Bob (the best movie ever) Baby Steps. We all have to start somewhere. But I want to see how being obedient can change the world. I think God wants to use us for amazing things, and we want the ordinary. Probablly because it's safe and easy. I am praying for God to make me ready for the amazing.