Tuesday, July 24, 2007

I May Have a Job When I Graduate!!

Yep, you heard correctly. I may have a job when I graduate from Southern in December! Where would I be working you ask. Right here, at Southern. That's right, I'll be traveling really far. Lol. Here's the story.

I have been tutoring at Learning Success Services at Southern for a little over a year now. I love working with the students and seeing them succeed. Most of what I have been tutoring is for the Academic Power Tools class. This is a class to help students who are struggling in school. It teaches them about note-taking skills, test-taking skills, how to get the most out of a textbook and other such things. Well, I was thinking the other day that I would LOVE to teach this class rather than just tutoring for it. Well, I talked to my boss about the prospect of teaching this class when I graduate in December. She was excited about this idea seeing as she wants to teach fewer of the classes. She just got a lot more added to her job responsibilities, and she was hoping she could get more help teaching the APT classes. She was ready to get me signed up as Adjunct staff right then and there. Then, we both decided that it might be better for me to get my degree first and wait until January.

I am supposed to talk to her again in October. I don't know if this is God's will for me. I don't know if my boss will change her mind about having me teach. I don't know if Southern will hire me. But, I do know that the prospect is certainly an open one. I know that I would really enjoy it. So for now I pray, and come October, we'll see what happens. Maybe in January I'll be an Adjunct teacher at Southern Adventist University. Woooo Hoooo!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Peace


Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ~John 14:27

Monday, July 16, 2007

Reminders of God's Love...EVERYWHERE

This morning an interesting thought hit me, "What if I put reminders of God and His love everywhere? What if everything around me continually pointed to Him?" This concept seems fun and appealing to me. While I know it could get a little out of hand, I don't know that the idea is all that bad. Let me explain.


Imagine if every time you picked up your water bottle to take a nice refreshing sip of water, you were met with this phrase: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14). Thoughts of Jesus as you drink!

Or, what if every time you went to wash your hands, you found this inscription on your soap: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin" (Psalm 51:1-2).

What about when you open the bread box, or pull out a loaf of bread and the card attached to the bag read: "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness" (2 Corinthians 9:10).

Above your stove or microwave could hang a sign: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16).



This is so much fun, and I could go on all day. But I can't help but wonder if these reminders of God's love, if this constant direction to Him would change my life at all. What if I thought about God all day in everything I did? Hmmm.....

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Matthew 28:19

Photo taken by Emily Ford

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Saturday, July 14, 2007

That Haystack Hidden Needle




Some people would call me a visionary. Some may even go as far to call me a passionate visionary. I have a passion for life. I have a passion for all the wrongs in life being righted. This may sound honorable and noble, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. The problem with all of this is that in order to want to change life, to want to make things better, I have to first become focused on this world. I have to recognize what's wrong. I also have to be aware of all of the barriers that stand in the way of change and restoration.

The truth is I know deep down inside, that if I just focus on those barriers, on all the things that are wrong or difficult, I will never find my way through. So often I allow myself to be torn town by the huge obstacles in my way. So often all I can see is what's wrong. It's like looking for a needle in a hay stack. If all I see is the hay, if all I can focus on is this huge mound, then I will be filled with so much sorrow and an overwhelming sense of impossibility. Yet, if I trust that God is there, that He is with me, and that He truly has made a way, I will have hope and faith that the needle really is there. So suddenly, my eyes will be turned from the massive hay stack to the God. He knows where that needle, where the tiny way through is. Prayerfully, I will search for that needle until He helps me to find it. Then, when I have the tiny, shiny object in my hand, the stack of hay will not seem so overpowering.

If I focus on all of the things that are wrong in my life, in the world, in other people's lives, and fail to see the way that God made, I will allow myself to become lost and trapped. I will roam around in the dark. This is not what God has called us to do.

In Colossians, (3:1-2 to be exact) Paul tells us:

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.


So that is what I will strive to do. Rather than focusing on the trials and obstacles this life may hold, rather than allowing myself to be overcome by all that is wrong, I will focus on Christ. I will look to Him. I will allow Him to be my point of focus.