Well, I'm off in the morning. Don't know if I'll be able to post while I'm gone, but I'll do my best.

Later.

Perfection

There is a saying that gets bandied about every so often that goes like this: I want to live life with no regrets.

I've never been entirely comfortable with this phrase. I understand the principle behind it, but it seems to imply sometimes that we always know which things we will regret or not regret doing or saying. On some things, yes, it is quite clear. In fact, we often go into something saying, "I'm going to regret this later." But we still do it because we want to or need to. It is often our regrets that make us grow.

But we don't always know that the actions we take now will result in regret later. For example, when I was in college, I decided to major in History and minor in Bible and Religion. I had very sound reasons for doing so at the time, and those reasons still stand today. However, I regret not going a step further. I regret that I didn't consider double majoring. It would have necessitated a fifth year of college, which would have drastically changed the course of my life. I wouldn't have met the people I did, I probably wouldn't have joined OMS when I did, I wouldn't have had the same job.

But do I really regret it? At the time, I felt a pretty clear direction from the Lord, and all of the decisions I made back then led me to where I am now, which I most certainly don't regret.

There's another saying - You can't miss what you don't know. This is also fraught with meaning, and sometimes I agree with it, and other times I don't.

Where am I going with this? I think I've come to the following conclusion: There is really only one way to make sure you live with no regrets, and that is to make Jesus the center of everything. If He is guiding you, you can't make the wrong decision. You really won't miss anything important (as long as you have the correct definition of important), and you truly won't have any regrets. How could you ever regret following Christ's leading?

The truly unfortunate thing is that we very rarely make Christ the center of everything. I certainly don't. I'm terrible at it, in fact. But our actions aren't really the point. Our heart is. God tells us over and over that we should be perfect. Not perfect in action, but perfect in our devotion to him. This may eventually lead us to perfect behavior, but it is our heart that concerns God most. His desire is that we be all that He created us to be - in a word, perfect.

I know this isn't entirely clear, and I'd love to explain it to you further. For the moment, though, I'll leave you with this.

"In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, 10 and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother’s name was Maakah daughter of Abishalom. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. He even deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Although he did not remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life. He brought into the temple of the LORD the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated." I Kings 15:9-15

Testing, Testing

I wasn't sure about this reunion, especially with the rain this morning, but it is going really well! There's nothing like getting 300 missionaries together to praise God.

Rainy Sundays

Rainy Sundays always make me feel uber-reflectiony. It was appropriate, then, that when church let out and I got in my car, started up the iPod and hit shuffle, the following songs were the first to play.





That pretty much sums it up.

I have to start packing today.

Ugh.

I'm concerned.

Not worried. Not yet.

But I am concerned.

I'm beginning to realize that this upcoming trip may be more important than I realized.

Why do I think this?

Because Satan has been attacking left, right and center. He's attacking the team, he's attacking emotions, he's attacking people we care about, he's sabotaging preparations.

I'm tired of it.

WE WILL NOT BE MOVED.

So stop trying.

My God is bigger.

He's stronger.

He loves me.

He loves the team.

And He is going to kick the Devil to the curb.

That is all.

Mish-Mash

I have no excuse. I just haven't felt like posting. Everything I could talk about seems inadequate.

I've been in this weird mood, lately. Well, it's not weird for me. It happens every so often. But it's hard to snap out of it. I'm not really sure how.

Anyway.

My trip to Pennsylvania was brilliant. I met many fantastic people who showed a lot of interest in my trip to Thailand and South Asia. They were very good to me and my traveling companions, and I hope I can visit with them again in the near future.

I may have also purchased a really awesome souvenir in Gettysburg. But I'll leave that to your imagination.

Remember way back in time, when I mentioned my spider bite? Yeah, it's still there. It hadn't been bothering me, I think mostly because I've learned to compensate and not use it as much. However, I accidentally bumped it the other day, and sure enough, it started radiating pain again. This must have been one mother of a spider!

On the subject of creepy crawlies, I figured out a mostly-successful solution to my ant problem. (I had ants in my apartment. Big ones.) My dear friend Arika suggested using Boric Acid. So I bought some. And I've decided I like it. I used to drown the ants in Raid, but now, when I see one, it's dead and covered in a fine, white powder.

Sadistic? Yes. Awesome? Definitely.

Let's see. Oh! We have more people in our office now. Beka left us for Mobilization (I'm getting over it. Really.), and we got some interns for the summer! I'll try to get a picture of them sometime so you can see who I get to torture now. (I'm not that bad. Am I?) Anyway, whereas I had no one sitting by me after Beka left, I now have people across from me, beside me and diagonal from me.

I had to stop playing Solitaire at work. :(

Just kidding! Now I just hide it better.

I told you I was in a weird mood.

Let's see. Anything else happen lately? Nothing is really coming to mind. I updated the blog. There are tags for each post, and you can now view my blog on a mobile device. I'm considering Google's ad deal, but I don't want to inundate you guys. However, I am increasingly short on funds. I'm being stretched rather thin, especially with all these trips.

Oh yeah! I'm going to Poland in two weeks. I was really sick the last time I went, so I'm hoping this experience makes up for how miserable I was before. A few other really bad things happened on that trip, and I'm trying not to let that overshadow my preparations. Not that I've really begun preparing for the trip, of course. I'm too busy trying to get things together at work. Next week. Right?

Okay, I'm going to coffee break at MFM soon, so I'm going to leave you with a fantastic new word that Lori and I found. Are you ready for this?

MUMPSIMUS -noun
--adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy

Love it!

The Battle Within - June 2011

This month's radio spot highlights the battle some people experience about giving.



If you listen closely, you can hear the lovely name I gave myself. :)