First FREEZE of the season

Ok, so for 21 years, the title of this entry have NEVER been in my vocabulary!  "First FREEZE of the season"-this is what my roommate told me this morning.  Here's the story.  I woke up (extremely cold mind you), in an attempt to warm my core body temp. I went and put my jeans in the dryer so they would be nice and hot when I put them on, then I put on my shirts, jacket, shoes and went to my car to start my day... I got in, started it and turned on the windshield wipers to get the "dew" off... but nothing happened!  That wasn't dew on my windshield, it was frost!!! It wasn't going anywhere!

So, I went back inside and said: "Jeannie, I have a CA question for you... how do you get ice or frost off your windshield?  I've never had to deal with this before!"  She looks at me and says something along the lines of "what you don't have an ice scraper?"  NO!!  I'M FROM CALIFORNIA, WE DON'T NEED THOSE!!!!  So she told me where hers was in her car, I went out and started scraping ice and frost off of my car!!  Looks like I am going to go buy an ice scraper today after work!

Being in a place where the temperature drops below 60 has really opened my eyes to how great we Californians have it.  I've really been trying not to compare CA to TN, but this is one thing that I must compare! 

I've been looking at the weatherchannel.com and the high for Costa Mesa, CA today is 81 degrees... the high for Spring Hill, TN is 58!  When I woke up this morning it was 32 degrees... 

I am NOT use to it being this cold, or freezing, but I'm choosing to enjoy it!  And everybody out here I'm sure is getting a good laugh out of my newness to this weather!  Being in this also is showing me how weak we Californians are when it comes to weather and our comfort....

Wait upon the Lord...

I was driving away from my mentoring this morning and a song started playing.  As I was listening to it and processing what my mentor and I had talked about, I started thinking.. what does it really mean for me to wait upon the Lord?  So many times in my life, I have set aside an hour a day (or so) as "God's time" in which I would pray, read my Bible and 'wait' on Him, but as soon as that time is done, then I'm done.. is that really waiting on the Lord?  no...  I think that setting aside time for the Lord daily is a huge part of it, but I can't be restricted to just that time.  Through my meeting this morning, I got new insight into what it means to wait upon the Lord. There are things I'm walking through right now that aren't necessarily bad, but they aren't for this season.  I have to wait upon the Lord and His timing.. and to be completely honest, I'm not happy about it.  It is hard and there is a part of me that doesn't want to. I want to pursue these things.  I want to keep walking this out to see what happens, but when I really stop and examine my heart, so much more of me wants to pursue the Lord and be in complete obedience to Him.  I want an intimacy with the Lord like never before and in order to reach that level of intimacy, I have to lay these things down.  And when it hurts, that is when I need to press into the Lord the most.. Wait on Him and trust that He has my best interest at heart. Why is obedience so hard?!?!?  For me right now, it is because it is dealing with matters of the heart, and I want to control that.  I'm holding the key to my heart and not releasing that to the Lord, even though He has always held that key and will continue to...  I also think it is because a lot of the time, with the Lord, it requires me to stop thinking about myself; take my eyes off me and what I think is best for me and focus them on the Lord.  And lets face it.. that's not easy either!  I'm in an interesting place right now because I so want it to be the season for some stuff, but at the same time I have such a peace about it not being...  

So back to the song and waiting upon the Lord... What are some things that could come from waiting upon Him?  Well, chains will be broken, Lives will be healed, Eyes will be opened, and above all, Christ will be revealed.  This has become my prayer and declaration for this time... Here are the lyrics to the song that sparked this very long post, most of you know it...  if you don't, you can listen to it here.

You'll Come by Brooke Fraser

I have decided

I have resolved

To wait upon You Lord

My rock and Redeemer

Shield and reward

I'll wait upon You Lord

As surely as the sun will rise

You'll come to us

As certain as the dawn appears

You'll come, let Your glory fall

As You respond to us

Spirit reign, flood into our thirsty hearts again

You'll come

You'll come

We are not shaken, we are not moved

We wait upon You Lord

Our Mighty deliverer, my triumph and truth

We wait upon You Lord

Chains be broken

Lives be healed

Eyes be opened

Christ is revealed

Birthday number 22

A tradition I started 5 years ago on my birthday was waking up to watch the sunrise! This time last year I was at Bolsa Chica State Beach watching the sunrise over the mountains. (see the view here). Today I watched the same sun rise over a field in Tennessee with rain pouring down onto my car. What a difference a year makes! This year was a year of lots of change. Moving apartments in CA, friends, graduating from college and moving across the county in faith. Some of the change wasn't good. Some of the change didn't feel good, but most of it was good (yes, even the change that didn't feel good). Looking back on this year though, even with all the change and unknown, there was one constant... the LORD! In every season that this past year brought the Lord was there and He was faithful and good! He still is! But now I look forward. I loko forward to the adventures I'm going to have. I look forward to the relationships that are going to be born, grow, stretch, and be refined. This past year I have been learning about faithfulness and the Lord has been faithful always. He has been there for every step of this journey I call my life... year after year.. birthday after birthday.

Our Lord is pretty much AWESOME!!!

This weekend was a blast for me.  I was able to spend time with friends, which is always fun!!  And what made it even funner (i know that is not a word, but stick with me).. was that we were able to do some fun things together.  Friday, we went to a corn maze, Saturday we went to a small market in the country, ate sandwiches on the porch and then threw rocks at signs... and then Sunday celebrate my birthday!  

On Friday after the corn maze, we got the chance to look through a telescope and see the planet Jupiter, some of its rings and 3 of its moons.  We then got to see another galaxy..Andromeda (pictured above).    It blows my mind that there are billion and billions of stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way) and then to be able to see a whole other galaxy and know that there are billions upon billions of stars in that galaxy AND that the Lord placed them there and knows each star by name.  I think that is amazing and that even with all those billions of stars, He still cares for me; for my concerns.  One thing I am really loving about TN is that I am not in the city.  I can lay out and see the stars without any lights, smog, etc.  I couldn't do that in Cali.  I never realized how much I loved looking at the stars.  It is so peaceful!  It is an amazing time to really contemplate and think on the Lord!