Update, Job, Church, etc.

Well, I was planning to be in bed by ten, but I actually just got home from church a few minutes ago, and I still want to make my lunch and lay out clothes for tomorrow.  I have to be up at 5:30 because I need to be to work at 7am. And that was because I was hired at a new job. Yay. That was the thing I was talking about in my last post that I didn't want to say until I knew more.  So yes, that did come to pass.

On another note, I'm going through training, and I don't want to even say where I'm working now because of what they've been talking to us about with being in a public office.  It's weird to say that, I work for the state, but to call my position a public office is strange and foreign to me. I don't suspect I will talk much about my new job, just for the fact that I don't want to breach privacy, and I don't want anyone to think that anything I'm saying is on behalf of my employment because im definitely NOT. I represent myself and all opinion unless otherwise referenced are my own and not representative of anyone or anything else. 

I'm glad we have that covered.

I decided to skip on any new years posts. I originally wanted to write something up, because every year I go over the past year month by month, but I realized that I could hardly remember anything significant or even remotely important to me happening last year. I'm sure there were things that did, but my memory of this past year is almost non-existant. 

So then I thought about making a resolution or two, but I decided against that. I thought to myself... "Why? Why January 1? Why not December 14?  Why Not April 6?"  I mean, if we are going to improve ourselves why wait for a specific date?  Why don't we just start where we are now?   And instead of setting ourselves up for failure by trying to do 6 things all in January at one time, and then fizzling out and feeling like failures for the rest of the year, why not pace ourselves and work on change one thing at a time? Isn't that better than overburdening ourselves?

So this year, I have not made any resolutions, and I'm quite okay with that. Oh, believe me, I understand the depths of my imperfection are deep, but I also know that I serve an incredible and merciful God.  And this God, though He helps me in my weakness, also knows that I can be a stubborn fool who feels overwhelmed when more is asked of me than I think I can handle. :-) And then his mercy is renewed.

I can tell you my dreams for this year.  But, when I really think about that, my dreams are so much bigger than this year.   Actually... they pretty much encompass the rest of my life, but I'm working toward them this year, just as I was thinking about them and planning for them last year, and just like I will continue in them next year.  I think, though, that I will have to dedicate a whole post on it's own to expressing the dreams I've been given for my life. They are, in a word.... Lofty.  At least, they are to me.

So anyway, now we come to the whole point of this post. LOL.  I was at church tonight for the Wednesday evening service.  This is not my home church, LifeBridge, but just one that I really enjoy going to on Wednesday nights.  The pastor had a lot to say. Well, perhaps God had a lot to say... :-)   The service was, in the simplest terms, powerful. It often is, though.

I cant express how many times I have been inspired, encouraged, cut to the heart, challenged, and just felt like God was speaking directly to my heart.  I am amazed at the things happening at Victory Christian Center. 

But anyway, tonight one of the things he spoke about was "the fire" in your heart and he said something along the lines of "a lack of prayer in your life could indicate a weak spiritual life."   I was just immediately struck with the truth of that statement.  The times in my life when I have been weakest spiritually were the times when I wasn't praying. He gave us Scipture from Romans 12:11,12 (and some other verses that I don't remember because I didn't write them down).  And he talked a bit about prayer from there and how it is like fuel to a fire.  He gave an excerpt from Pilgrims Progress where  Christian comes to a man that keeps throwing water on another man, and then a man behind a wall secretly pouring oil onto the man getting soaked with the water  (as well as the explanation behind it.)   I need to reread that book. I read enough of it for my British Lit class, but I don't remember much of it.

During service I kept noticing that a man and a woman (whom I met before and know to be husband and wife probably closer to my parents age than to mine) had looked in my direction several times.  So I decided to go say hi to them after it ended.  When I went over there, the woman said her husband said that there was something about me that stands out, and that they needed to know more about me.    I thought, oh, that's weird.... 

Isn't it crazy how our minds seem to imediately interpret this as being a negative thing?   I don't know why I stood out to them. I don't know if its a good thing, a bad thing, or just nothing. They did say that they were praying for me. So I guess I'll take it at face value, but it still leaves me with the question in my mind, why did I stand out? What does that mean.

I guess thats all.