This week is brought to you by:

Patrick and Heather Day and the Bellevue College Theater Arts Department--where great things can happen involving poker, skittles, and China.

I will sincerely miss the long days at school followed by amazing shows and then always a fun cap to the night with Patrick and Heather. But all good things must end. And tomorrow my life as a techie will end forever (hopefully).

That's all I have to say as I head into daylight savings time. Tomorrow morning I'm hitting up the early service so I can go strike the set at 1pm. Yippee.

Out of the Closet

Tonight during tech, one of my fellow techies brought out this article from The Stranger (which is know to be a very liberal newspaper) and was bashing Mark Driscoll and talking about how ridiculous the church is. Then, this is what went down:

Me: Why do you say [it's ridiculous]?
Sam: It has like a cult following!
Me: Oh, just wondering cause I go to that church.
Sam: You're kidding.
Me: Nope. Not at all.
Sam: No. No. You're totally lying.
Me: No! You can check my Facebook page...anything! I definitely go there.
Sam: Oh, well I have friends who go there and everything. I just....

A few minutes later, after our teacher, Brian, had read the article, I had a very similar conversation with him, too. And then I set the record straight that I'm 99% sure Mark Driscoll didn't write that article. Brian goes "so does your church repress women, too?" I went, "no way! I definitely wouldn't go there if they did!!!" (side note: can you imagine ME going to a church that represses women!?!?!?)

So I spent the rest of the night with thoughts flying through my head "why did they doubt me so much?" "Am I a really terrible witness--did they think that I'm too bad to be a Christian?" "Have I been a good witness now that they know?" "Will this change everything?" Fortunately it didn't seem to change too much. At least tonight. But I'm thankful that God's been changing my heart and allowing me to admit when I'm wrong and showing me how to love broken people. Because I can say that 6 months ago there would have been more ammo against me. For instance, I'm very very glad that I apologized to Brian for complaining about waiting around during tech. It was a little thing, but I feel so much more liberated from it, and he told me he appreciated the apology. And that was before this whole discovery that I'm "one of those Mars Hill kids".

Now I'm half nervous. It's like any time people find out huge things about you. I know I'll be judged on everything from now on. Good thing there are only 2 nights and a day left!  Now I need to be spending time with Jesus more than ever.

Please pray for me.

Poker Face

Theater kids are good for one thing: laughter.

The best part of the night is when everyone is backstage during the show and we're all laughing so hard, but so quietly, that it's beyond the "not able to breathe" phase. I love Ross, Sam, and Melanie (my fellow techies) and Brian (the almighty teacher) more than I can ever explain. Tonight I learned how to play poker and how to time my laughter with audience's. My fellow techies and I also created a new dance move--"The Brian" and spun that carousel of a set around one more time.

I had some sort of deep way to tie this into my life at one point. Now I'm just super tired and ready to crash. Tomorrow is another "early" morning, another night of tech, and another amazing day in this quarter I am loving so much!!

Evidence of God's grace: I was so concerned that teching would be terrible. That I would be lonely and miserable. But instead of a snobby, annoying group of people, God brought me some amazingly suh-weet peeps who make me excited for call every night! I mean, we're friends on Facebook, so it MUST be official!!

Joy in exhaustion

I don't really have a good reason for it, but I am exhausted. Mentally, physically, emotionally. I'm in the mood to sleep for a week, and it's Monday. God, grant me the strength to make it through this week of tech. In some ways its been nice to not have any responsibility besides school and teching the show. I know I'll miss Brian and the crew once it's over. BUT I miss the income from work, I really miss my cg and church, and it's kind of strange being on campus 12 hours every day.

However, last night I made a mistake (a complaint to the tech manager about how we sat around for 2 hours doing nothing) which I had to remedy today. And I realized that I have no reason to be in a bad mood. On the other hand, I have every reason to be joyful. I am healthy when most of my classmates are sick. I have a shorter drive when many students have long commutes. I have 5 amazing and fun classes and look forward to going to school every day while most students hate school. I have a cg leader (and his wife :-P) who are generous in letting me sleep at their place this week. I have gas in my car. I have a computer that I can use any time of day or night to complete assignments. Over all, I've been pretty blessed, so I am finding joy in exhaustion.

Lindsay, one of my amazing friends from cg, sent this to me on Facebook:

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutible. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men (and women) stumble and fall, yet those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Is 40:28-31

Broken People

Today I had this realization. (I have these more and more frequently) I have this loving thing all wrong. I know that I am a broken person, but I neglect to realize that other people are, too. So it's kind of ridiculous to wait for people to "fix all their problems" before you delve into the friendship--because they can't and won't.

I think I knew that without putting words on it, but I was far more eager to engage in life with people whose flaws I didn't know very well. Ahhhhh it makes so much sense now! :)

Evidences of God's Grace:
broken people
my scholarships
tech running smoothly (i.e. not giving Brian any reason to yell at me!)

Take a Moment

Life happens so fast. Busyness, worry, frenzy, it all creeps in before I even notice it's there.

Trust in the Lord and do good
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
and your justice as the noon day.
Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him.

Psalm 37:3-7a

Take a moment, hold on to the promises in God's Word. BE STILL before the Lord.

Hello Seattle

I am in love with the city. The tall buildings. The lights. The people. The constant activity. The small shops. The noise. The Puget Sound. The hills. The streets. The getting lost. The finding of new places. I dunno, it makes me happy. :)

So today, while I start tech week, and I sit here and look out the computer lab window at the half-blue and half-sunny sky, I will think of the city. And how SOMEDAY I will be back. And not stuck on this little brick campus.

On the other hand, I keep thinking about how content I am to just be where I am in life. I mean, I have friends, I have a job, I have a great church and community group, I enjoy school, and I am excited to start every morning. It's days like this that I'm SURE I'm an optimist. (lol, I'm sitting here in the lab, watching some guy play with the zoom settings on "The Optimists of Vienna Club" website)

Not to be cheesy or cliche, but here are some Evidences of God's Grace:

• spring coming early
• a car that works beautifully
• health
• growing up
• the cast of friends who perform daily in the musical that is my life