Wait Patiently....and Delight

This has to be one of my favorite Psalms, man I wish I could write like this. I found new meaning in it this morning.

I need to do some more delighting :)

Psalm 37

A Psalm of David.

1 Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.

3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.

9 For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the LORD,
They shall inherit the earth.
10 For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more;
Indeed, you will look carefully for his place,
But it shall be no more.
11 But the meek shall inherit the earth,
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Hope

So I have started listening to podcasts lately, and I recently have discovered a podcast from old church's pastor(in Nashville), Dale Evrist.

Today he had a quick devo that was entitled "our help and our shield". I've always heard the word hope and said I have it, but Dale who's definitions I love, explained hope this way...." A settled confidence in a certain positive future" make me wonder sometimes. Am I really in a settled confidence of a certain, positive future? Or am I hoping He just "shows up" or "comes through" in my crisis or famine or anxiety for the day? Our hope is in the mercy of God, and His steadfast love for us.

How often I forget how many times the Lord provided for people in the bible during seasons of famine?

There is provision in the Lord!

When

For everything under the sun. Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (taken from the message)

Everything Has Its Time

"1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace."

Man what insight!!! I pray that I can be as wise as Solomon. When was the last time I lamented? or counted my losses? what am I holding on to that i need to let go? Do I speak up enough?

Most importantly how will I know when.

Oh Thank God for good Friends

The Following was not written by me....however, I'll let you choose you choose your own adventure.(she should write my blogs all the time) The said friend who wrote this also loves the Mayer. Enjoy


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZEXY
First, a new addition to the blog...

MAYER WATCH 2007
I have taken the liberty of trying to introduce my fair blog to new friends...so I have sent John Mayer's blog with a note asking us to be blog friends....

Day 1- No Response form J. Mayer Blog Camp.... however, hilarious review of email from friends who have decided I was crazy for emailing him (or his blog, which is probably handled by his people... aside... I wonder if his people are called Johnny's Boys? Mayerheads?) But just in case, WELCOME, johnny'sboysmayerheads!

###

Scene-- Jon Mark's House. Hot Tub.
Characters--- Nick, Me, Jordan's Alter Ego--Bubba, Nate
Discussion--- Boys Sucking (thanks, S, I love having new things to bitch about) Girls (yay, Nick finally found a hot blond who eats AND is fairly sane) and why Jon Mark needs to stop the creepy.

Well, now you all have an overview of my last night. I am basically sipping my diet coke chatting (see--- ranting manically) about the latest stupid face boy that I managed to find. The boys nodding supportively (uh, or fearfully... whichever) When we uncover this little gem... the story of how Jon Mark brought a girl on vacation to visit Nick and Nick ruthlessly stole her from him and made out with her. All while Jordanbubba or bubbajordan muttered on and on about Cameros and T/A, A/T etc.

Or at least that is version A of the story.

So for your amusement... I present to you blog readers, (hello Europe, Morgan, email me from the Internet cafe when you read this) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE:

1. You have a free weekend and you are but a poor college student, so you decide to drive up to Chicago to hang with your friend Nick in his tiny hovel of a studio. On your way there you meet a cute girl do you
a. immediately invite said girl on weekend vacation...even though you have no idea if she is bat-ish crazy and you haven't really got the space for this chick. I mean what the hell, 8 hours in a car with a stranger... LOVE ALWAYS BLOOMS (move along to section 2)
b. Get the girls number, call her when you get home. (Obviously, you aren't very good at this, but you probably get mad chicks... so well played player... well played. Adventure Over)

2. You get to Chicago with girl and kid brother, you immediately
a. offer to sleep on the floor so that she can have the bed, and your little bro and friend share the couch. Thereby effectively making yourself available to share her bed if necessary, and completely blocking your buddy from getting anywhere near said cute girl. (HA... another trick question, well played. play on player! Adventure Over)
b. Hop into the cozy bed with your kid brother and hope for the best. (move along to section 3)

3. Upon realizing that the girl has a mild interest in your friend. Do you:
a. Immediately set off to prove your own worth by becoming the WORLD'S NICEST GUY. (move along, to section 4)
b. Back off, many fish in the proverbial sea, etc. Besides Chicago baby, why sit and mope when you can go eat! (truly, you are not the quickest of learners, but whatev baby, you got it in the end. Adventure Over)

4. The trip down awkward lane is ova! And the whole drive back, said girl says nothing to you. Not one peep. Not one turn left. Do you
a. Decide, now is as good time as any to blast the stereo.... chalk up the silence to girl gone crazy and resolve never to invite a girl on a mancation again. (adventure over... sure, you didn't escape with alot but at least we aren't gonna have to mock you 5 years from now)
b. Call, IM, send email, a written letter and a telegraph, trying to figure out WHAT'S WRONG? (uh... if you did that... you are JON MARK... and we need to have a serious talk about WHY girls are sometimes just weird and not worth it... love you kid)

BONUS.

Months and months later you find that your boy, kissed said girl while you were there and you never knew... do you
a. Laugh it off and put Tapatio in his cereal
b. Mock the girl. Tell everyone you weren't into her anyway, and deny plausibly how the calling, emailing and telegraph actually came from your neighbor/evil twin/resident assistant who was trying to DESTROY you.

Whatever jon mark chooses at this point will be hilarious. And that ladies and gents (johnny'sboysmayerheads) was my evening last night. Nick, watch your cereal.

Swim hugs for all!

A walk in Eagle rock!

So I start my blogs with this all the time, but its been a while internet...have you missed me?

Tonight was probably one of the greatest nights I have had in a long time. My huddle (bible study) is reading this book called Blue like Jazz.. What a great book. I read it a while back so naturally i was like ..sweet I already read it.. so i can slack off and just skim over it. Skim over it turned into, reading it before and during huddle when we talked about it. Well one night we were talking about it, and we got to the section where Don Miller, the author of the book writes about how he and a buddy of his made a confessional booth and put it in the middle of their university's quad during the annual " october fest " type thing going on where there is lots of drinking and crazy partying going on. Well this was his approach to reaching out to the people on the campus…and how he went about it was, he sat in the confessional and when people came in, he confessed to the people for all of Christian history. He apologized and confessed for the crusades, and for all the wrongs Christians have done to the world. This in turn caused the people to ask him questions and in turn he got to be real with the people and put his faith out there in a practical way that was blessing others..

Well my huddle leader Aaron, asked the question to the group, “ would any of you guys have sat in the booth?” some answered yes and no..typical group discussion for a bible study. Then all of us got into this great discussion on how we now a days could do something like that.. the example that was used for that was going around and knocking on peoples doors asking them to pray. The conversation was good, and we had some great dialog but most of us just overlooked it later.

Well the next week, Aaron, he came to us with a new challenge. He had made a covenant with the other guy huddle leader about doing that very thing- going around the neighborhood and asking people if they want prayer. So this week huddle was cancelled for our special activity. Which was not mandatory and was highly optional, but our leaders had covenanted to do this with or with out us. We were all super scared of what was going to come. Something told me I don’t want to miss this. I find in my life, its when the risk is highest that He seems to do such an amazing work.. So naturally, I had to fight all the excuses not to go..

This meant for me, getting off work early, 5 pm..then coming home and putting all the other stuff of the day I was worried about to the side, and saying “ ok God…don’t know what your going to do here.. but I am willing and able…send me”


So scared out of my wits to do this, I partnered with Luke, and we set out. At first it was kind of weird, we were like “ well what do we say…” so we prayed. just gathered out thoughts.. and did it.. the first lady we talked to just flat out rejected us…the next guy we met had a giant gong in side his front door, and said he was not interested..

So we stepped back and analyzed the situation. what were we doing wrong…so we decided that instead of asking if we could pray for people, we would introduce ourselves tell where we were from, and then ask what we could pray for them about.. Surprisingly people started to respond. We met these two young guys working on their cars.. jarrod and chris, Jarrod actually was asked us to pray for his bills, and his parents.. but didn’t get specific.. so we walked and lifted them up…

The next guy we met as he was getting his mail, and he was more sincere, his name was David. His main request was for his “troubles” so we left it at that and walked on. A few more rejections followed. Then we saw Sean and Eli, so we stopped to talk to them. Apparently they had a different situation where they got chased away by some lady’s boyfriend…

So we continued on and went to this condo. A four door condo.. we knocked and the young guy about our age answers the door. “ hi I am Jon Mark and this is Luke, we are from Christian assembly down the street and are walking around asking people what we can pray for them about.. did you have anything we could pray for you about?”

This is was the best part of my week…he replied..” Actually I really could use some prayer, I go to Christian assembly too, but today I got some information that just set me over the top and I cried out to God for a sign or something.. and now here you guys are at my doorstep. Wow.. God is good.. Come on in”
So he goes on to tell us all about what’s going on in his life and lets us in on all the specifics. He opened right up!! So we got to pray with him right there and then, He even prayed as well after Luke and I were done, His prayer was so powerful!!! He made it clear that this was just what he needed. Before we came over, he had been writing about what he was dealing with on his computer, and we just showed up. It was clear…this was what this whole “experiment” was all about.. this was the whole reason for Luke and I being out there. This is what made it all worth it, to see the look and smile on this mans face, and know we were being used as vessels of God’s love in his life. What a great feeling.

It was so awesome to see how God can use two regular individuals who don’t have a clue how to go about “witnessing” and use us to bless someone and speak through us. Talk about a divine appointment. Man its been a long time since I have had one of those. But oh how I remember how awesome they are. God used Luke and I to speak to some in their life. And I think I made a new friend out of it all.

Man What can I Say God is good. Its funny how you can be going through something, and then all of a sudden God shows up and say’s “Hey..Stop worrying about this…but go and do that.. and let me use you to bless someone” IT was tough getting out of my comfort zone, but oh so necessary.

So that was my day. Figured I should write about it. Thanks A.L. for the reminder!!

Too tired

Wow...so its been four months now...kinda breaking my own worst record. A lot has happened in the last four months, tours, thanks giving, dates, christmas parties, really good christmas parties (shout out to my hosts in Van nuys), christmas with the folks, meeting up with old friends, maybe saying goodbye to my dog, then Hawaii!!! = best vacation ever. To read more about that go to my myspace.

Now its a new year, a new time, and new number for me to tell people when they ask how old i am. Dates are good, friends can be better, growing up can be difficult, but through it all you learn and can enjoy the journey. A friend of mine from high school came out here for the heck of it. Its weird because she was my neighbor back in northboro, now shes my neighbor in glendale.

I went sailing with the blair man last weekend, i am going paintballing tommorow, and have had birthay parties for the last three weekends in a row. This weeks being the lovly Azina. OH and officialy karaoke mondays now. I even sang for the first time.

And finally,I can almost call myself a surfer now, I went three times in the past two weeks. And i can almost catch a wave. well too tired to write more. night

MIssion Accomplished!

Tonight I saw walk the Line.. what an excellant movie. The story of Johnny Cash. Very interesting to say the least. Kind of wish they focused more on his faith. But oh well, my friend Shannon Roddy worked on it. Look for him in the credits as S.D. Roddy. Man it feels good when you know a famous person. hahha or something like that.

So for all of you who read this, ((i think it might be three)) ... i know your all dying to know how my homework assignment turned out? Lets just say I passed with Flying colors!! Everything went well, even though I was nervous a little, since the last time I tried to grow some balls and ask a girl out it didn't work out so well. But this one did and its a great feeling! So i have a real, official, genuine date this weekend with a very special girl. NO this is Not a hang out people.. its a date. Two people going out together, there might be some dressing up, there might be some talking.. who knows..
But sadly, i don't think any of my comerades have completed their homework yet. I am pretty excited about it. who knows maybe shes even reading this now..heheh.. so thats all i am going to say about it..don't want to give too much away. It will be special I know.

In other news..oh wait there isn't any.. well i guess me updating this more than twice in one week could count.. Thanks to all my loyal readers...