BLOCKED!

My blog just got blocked from work...why, it turns out that blogs now fall under innappropriate content!!! Eek, what am I going to do on my lunch break and when I just need a place for my brain to re-boot and re-charge? Apparently it won't be at my blog or reading yours!

Well it turns out I can still post to my blog I just can't look at what I posted...interesting!

This is my day today...

6:30am Coffee with Jody - wonderful fantastic time!
8:30am meeting that was let's say intense...
9:07am tried to retrieve my voicemail - received this prompt "I'm sorry that you are having trouble, please call back later."
9:27am I realized that pop-up post-its also work as a slinky - SUCCESS!!!
9:44am Singing the car wash song with my co-worker - "at the car wash yea - and work and work..."

Yep, it's going to be one of those days!

Romans 5:3-5

Every Tuesday morning Ashley and I have coffee/hot water together at Starbucks on Sheffield and Armitage…the first morning of this ritual AshMac was a little bit late and God led me outside to buy breakfast for the homeless man selling StreetWise. He was a very polite man, he was very grateful, thanked me and told me how beautiful my smile was. Why thank you sir, enjoy your breakfast!

The following week, running a little bit late I parked my car and jumped out. There he was again. He greeted me and I could see a longing in his eyes. We started chatting, and I think Ashley thought I was crazy…

Nathaniel: Can you see it, can you see the majesty?
Me: Yep I can see it. (Not really sure what he’s talking about, starting to wonder if in fact he is crazy.)
Nathaniel: I wish I was on the lake right now.
Me: Oh but it’s so much colder over there! (it was 25 degrees where we were)
Nathaniel: Yes, but it’s worth it, there is nothing better than the glory of God’s sunrise! It’s great from here, but from there…
Me: It sure is beautiful, you keeping warm these days?
Nathaniel: Yea, I’m warm enough, some day though…(he pauses)…there will be no more cold. When I’m in heaven with God, there will be no more cold! But hey, enjoy your breakfast.

I brought him some breakfast and we parted ways, until next week…
He made me think, when was the last time I truly enjoyed God’s creation so purely? When was the last time I shared that joy with a stranger? When was the last time I longed so purely to meet the Lord face to face? Nathaniel’s longings and joy were so pure, and why? Is it because he knows the Lord more deeply than I do, maybe? Is it because he is not held down by all of the materialism of the world, probably? Or is it due to one of my favorite verses…

Romans 5:3-5
3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

GOD is alive and well on the Edens!!!

So driving to work on the Edens this morning, there was one of those moments when you are going 50 and then all of a sudden you are stopped. It is my norm in these moments to check my mirror to see if I am about to get slammed. I know this is probably a bad habit, but if I’m about to get hit, I’d kinda like to know. Well, this morning when I looked in my mirror there was a semi-truck barreling down on me. And I don’t know how familiar you are with semis but they have poor stopping power and tremendous crushing power. So that’s the backbone and the somewhat unimportant part of the story.

Here the part that was so cool! God completely showed up, and met me there on the Edens at 8am. And why wouldn’t he? I had a tremendous peace, resting in the knowledge that that God was there and he was holding me and protecting me – and HE was in control. I didn’t have to freak out about how I was going to “save” myself; He already had it taken care of! What a tremendous peace and joy! I don’t think I’ve ever stared into a situation like that before, when you think, I could be mangled in 2 seconds and felt such peace, it was AWESOME! What an amazing God we serve!

The next thing I know the semi has swerved off onto the shoulder and all is well, GOD is so GOOD, and worthy of all praise!!!

Come on PEEL!

You know that moment when you are peeling a hard boiled egg and the shell all comes off so smoothly, 1 maybe 2 pieces...you throw your arms in the air with reckless abandon and cheer VICTORY!!!!

Why can't that ever happen with an orange? It would be so cool!

Closeted...

So my co-worker and I were talking about none other than the Olympics and she said to me..."if I didn't know better I'd think you were a closeted boarder!" My response, "I am a boarder, not even a closeted one!"

So this led me to think about the things that we don't tell people at work...and then you get to chime in with one thing you either wouldn't talk about at work or aren't allowed to...

Things that are TABOO at work...
-Apparently Snowboarding
-Weekend activities
-Dating Life
-POLITICS!
-Religion - but why?
-The things closest to our hearts!
-Real Fashion
-Anything that would make people think that I wear anything other than these black pants and button up shirt!

...U S A!!!

I know I am a bit of a freak about the Olympics...but can you deny that Shaun White is anything but fantastic! Oooh, that was fun to watch. I am reluctant to admit that I do watch half pipe competitions outside of the Olympics, I know this also makes me odd...but who really cares. There is something about the Olympics that just makes you stay up far too late. It's just so much fun!!! Can I also take a moment to comment on the uniform worn by the snowboard team - plaid red white and blue jackets and board pants that look like jeans...now if that isn't preppy take on grunge boarding style I don't know what is. Hands down to whoever picked that!

I love it, love it! U S A...U S A...U S A!!!