Holy is His grace, His everlasting love

My good friend Nick Sandy reminded me of this awesome verse this week:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10

The timing is appropriate since we are getting ready to enter the season of Lent. It’s a time of prayer and preparation for Easter. It’s a time to actively live out our baptisms and consider how God’s grace drastically and daily changes our lives. It’s a time to reflect on our belief that we cannot earn God’s love and that instead he freely gives this amazing gift. It’s a time to hear again God’s call for us, to recognize and respond again to God’s presence in our lives.

I’ve never been one to talk much about things like God’s call and such, but as I’ve gone through this crazy time of transition I’ve been hearing God’s call pretty loud. I feel like I’ve had the time to focus on myself and now I’m excited to give my time and talents to others. I’m the newest (and youngest….by a lot….) member of my church’s council. I’m excited to be able to help during our time of transition as we hire a new pastor. I’m also starting to volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters. (I had my interview last week. Now just waiting to be matched up with a Little!) Plus I work for a great organization that does amazing things for our local youth who need us most. Talk about God putting great opportunities in my life!

My church’s mission statement is “Growing in God’s grace,” which means that we’re all growing in the love that God freely and happily gives to us. While this is much too broad for a church mission statement, I think it’s how we should look at our faith walks. What an amazing gift! I hope you find the joy I have in God’s outpouring of love!

Post title song: “Heart Whispers Grace” by Endeverance (CHECK THEM OUT!!! www.endeverance.com)

Did you get my message?

Anyone close to me knows that I like to talk things out. It’s a good and a bad thing. Good in that it gets everything out on the table, bad in that it usually scares the shit out of people. For me, not scary. I’d much rather talk about a problem than let if fester and get worse or let it go and pretend nothing is wrong. Not my style. But I’m learning that most people don’t feel the same way. Anyway, I guess you could say that the ability to communicate is something really important to me.

I get pissed when people don’t respond to emails, texts, or voicemails. It takes two seconds to reply to someone. It’s a common courtesy. And is the simplest way of avoiding conflict. Just use your words, dangit.

What blows my mind is when people can’t communicate in a professional setting. I can’t even count how many times in college I wanted to kick someone in the face for not being able to reply to an email for a class project or club. Someone I was working with once, who will remain nameless, had so many unread emails in their inbox that they couldn’t receive anymore. How the heck does that happen? Like, check your freakin email. Especially in the business world. There’s no excuse.

I know everyone is wired different when it comes to this, it’s just hard for me to understand why. So know it’s a pet peeve of mine. And reply to my messages, people. Hahaaaaaaa.

Post title song: "Did You Get My Message?" by Jason Mraz

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T do you know what that mean?

2009 was both my best and worst year. Lots and lots and lots happened, but here’s the jist: last semester at PLU, graduated, said goodbye to my best friends, moved home with the parents, spent 3 months job searching, found love, found a job, lost the love, kept the job, moved to Tacoma.  So now it’s all about moving on and moving up. SCARY!!!

I thought it would be good to write a little bit about myself in this blog, so I did an experiment of Facebook. It was a horrible fail. (Check it out if you need a good laugh…it’s somewhere on my wall.) So lets skip the “about me” part. You all know me anyway. Ha. Plus, a lot of things and people that used to define me in the past don’t define me anymore.

Someone once told me that the endings we go through are the beginnings we’ve been waiting for. That being said, some of my new beginnings include living with a wonderful new roommate, working a real, full time job, volunteering as a Big Sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters, serving on my home church’s council as we begin the process of hiring a new pastor, making a trip to Wisconsin, and…..who knows!!! That’s scary and exciting all at the same time. But I guess that’s what becoming independent is all about. I’m lucky enough to have some wonderful people to help me along the way. :)

PS my blog needs a name…Ideas?

Post title song: "Independent" by Webbie