Planned Faith

Work and Life
Love living with Dawn, and work has been great as I've been working more night shifts. There are some 'kinks' that are coming to light with some people, so prayer for favor would be greatly appreciated. I'm learning new things every day, and this week I started a relationship, a love affair if you will, that I can already tell will be long term. It's name is Verona. It's dark sweetness blended in South America and Asia Pacific.It's a Bold, beautiful coffee.
Yes. I can now drink black coffee. I feel a little more legitimate as a starbucks employee now, lol.
Got a few things coming up that I'll update on next time...or the time after that.

Word and Church
So, it's been a while since I've written in this, and there is a reason. I've been formulating. Collecting thoughts and trying to organize them to some cohesive structured topic.
So here it is. There's this feeling I've had, and I've had it for a long long time. It's not really a nice feeling, and I find it within myself, and MANY of my peers.
It's a lack of planning.
No. This is not coming out of the OCD side of me, I am not telling you to get filing cabinets and organizers to make me feel better;-) I'll explain.

I have this inclination to type words into Microsoft Word and find all the synonyms that I can, just for kicks. Most of the time I don't even use them.
So. Having collected most of my thoughts by today, I typed in the word 'dedication' in Word and i got 8 words in return. Devotion. Commitment. Enthusiasm. Keenness. Perseverance. Allegiance. Ardor. Loyalty.
What I love most about all of these words is that none of them have a 'showing-up' connotation. All of them imply purpose, direction, and a level of thought applied to each action for the purpose it has chosen.

When I moved to Australia I had a lot of friends promise to call, promise to write, promise to keep in touch. I'd say 1 or 2 of the 20+ that said they would actually did. When I moved home something similar happened with my friends from school. Updates are periodical at best. And most people feel that they've been neglected because they haven't gotten many calls, instead of taking initiative and making calls themselves once in a while. And then I moved to Texas, and a few more people have been a little bit better, but it's not too far off.

Within our chosen careers this happens as well. We go to college and expect that someone will 'find' us, that our dream job will magically be handed to us on a platter. We start working at a church and subconsciously decide that if we show up most of the time, our ministry will expand and we will achieve that 'humble' brand of christian fame. We read our bible periodically, learn some key terms and verses, maybe attend a christian college or work for a christian-owned organization, and we expect our relationship with God to flourish.

I had a Biology teacher in 10th grade that would tell us at the start of every chapter: If we fail to plan, we have planned to fail.
Why don't we use our minds when it comes to our relationship with Christ? We don't interact most of the time, we REACT. I think what I'm trying to say is this: When was the last time that you actually decided to be mentally Keen(not in the excited sense, in the aware sense) and enthusiastic about the direction you want to go? Most of us can recognize those things in others that we want to become, but few of us do the work of emulating even if we can copy the correct verbage to look like we are.

Proverbs 14:22b, "Those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness."
Isaiah 1:24, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen."
Isaiah 46:11, What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do."

As the church, we need to plan to succeed, and doing church is not something someone can dictate to us, that we can copy blindly and unthinking. Church, the body of christ, and our faith should be things that we are dedicated to, along with all of the synonyms.
I believe that if we lived our faith with that passion and that level of dedication, it would be infectious to those that we came into contact with. When was the last time you saw someone living out faith with ardor or allegiance?

All In A Day's Work

Work and Apartment
Great Week! Actually, extremely stressful week, but it's ending amazingly.
Saturday my friend Liz(aka Ginger Snaps), got here from Michigan for an 8 day visit. If you're good at math, you'll realize she's leaving tomorrow. I know, that part is sad. But with everything else that has happened this week, having her here has made it ALOT easier to get through. She's my silver lining:-)
I applied for a bank loan on Wednesday for a car that would have been an amazing deal. But when all was said and done, I decided it would be better to stay away from a loan. If you know me at all, you'll know how much I completely despise owing money to anyone, in any amount.
So, also to simplify my life, I am no longer working at UPS. I talked to my manager at Starbucks and she said I could get 40 hours/week there. So I called my boss at UPS and gave him my two weeks notice. He said it would be ok, and today could be my last day if I wanted it. (HECK yes). He drives me crazy most of the time, and within minutes of getting off the phone I felt like the world had been lifted off my shoulders.

Christiann completely surprised me with a visit this week, and I loved it! It made my weekend even better than it was already becoming. I don't think I've ever been so shocked though, Everyone knew about it, and no one let on anything!

Word and Church
I've been reflecting abit this past week on youth ministries that I have been a part of.
Having entered adulthood not that long ago, I think that alot of youth leaders freshly remember how our faith wasn't necessarily popular, or that sometimes we felt that our leaders were not relevant to our world. As a result, we strive to be relevant to our students. We strive to let them see that we're 'cool' or that you can be a christian and understand the world. Which is true, it is possible.
However, sometimes I think that we so strive to build a culturally current relationship with our kids that we forget what it's all about.
It's about making Christ relevant. Christianity is not meant to be sub-cultural, it's meant to be counter-cultural. I heard Ed Young(pastor of Fellowship church) say at Hillsong conference that this rut the church has been in, trying to stay current and up-to-date with the style of the world and make the church look in, cool, and with it, is completely off.
Should we be aware? '
yes.
What we should be doing is building on that though. As God is the one who inspires creativity and gives the gifts that make progress and developement possible, is it not true that His people should be on the cutting edge, that we should be making what is becoming cutting edge?
The newest design, the newest technology, the newest techniques should be coming out of the church.
And we should be using our gifts and talents to further the gospel, to be a witness, to bring the message of Christ, and to relate him to the world: who is searching for Him constantly.
Within all of our own fields of expertese, our giftings and callings, we should be asking how can we bring Christ to others with our gift? How are we being a vessel?