the power

this is what i hear right now:
* a very loud clock (a hand-me-down gift from a friend from work. she said her husband was annoyed with the ticking... i understand where he was coming from)
* the occasional car door slam.
* affects from the wind outside.
* a man on the loud speaker from the GL high school
* some drilling here and there.

[side note, this may be a long one....]

yup. drilling. oh by the way, my power is out. so its also semi dark in my apt. (way to go sun... i could really use you on a day like today...). so thats where the drilling comes into play. apparently our power went out and consumers energy is supposed to be at our rescue. however, to find the cause from the outage, our driveway is being torn apart.. again with the drilling... oh life.

i was making my grocery list at lunch today. found this great recipe for some stuffed shells. thought i would make that tonight but can't. afterall i need a stove. i was also going to do some laundry. but can't. that takes hot water and electricity. i was also going to do the dishes while the food was cooking and the laundry was being washed... but can't. that too takes hot water. i was going to clean. but that... well that doesnt take power... i have no reason to not be cleaning other than it just sounds awful right now. :)

so plan B. i grabbed some subway on the way home and planned to blog, using the remainder of my computer battery and internet battery [a plus to having a mobile internet card!] i thought i would just blog about my weekend [which i still will] but then....

as i sat on my couch in silence, i could hear myself think. i could hear the wind, and the cars and the workers outside but in a strange way it was still quiet. i got up, threw away my trash, went into the bathroom to get something and already got annoyed. i flipped on the light [like routine] and thought "well that was stupid... your power is out. why WOULD the light work." so i had to grab a flashlight. then i thought "man you are on a roll tonight. open the shower curtain and use the light from the window...common sherlock." ;-)

now don't get lost, i am going to back track to last night....

last night i went to YAC [the young adult group at Trinity] and the message was on light. and comparing God to light. and if this [power outage] couldnt be a bigger opportunity for me to just be quiet for once...

the message from the sermon earlier that day [that i missed b.c. i was out of town] was about how God is our light. one of the questions was "what are the characteristics of light and how do they compare to the characteristics of God?".

in a nut shell my response was that without light we can function. but not correctly. we can use out hands and feet to guide us through a hallway or around a room. we also might pick up random things thinking it was what we wanted, but it really wasnt. so we would put it back and would keep looking. eventually we will find [maybe] what we are looking for but it will take a longer time than if we had light.

in comparison thats what life is like without God. He has the plan for us. He knows what we will do, when we will stumble and so on. so it seems really silly that we wouldnt use the light [God] because we have it available to us.

I guess the message at church in the AM also spoke on being plugged into the source but not using it... okay so that would be like me sitting in the dark voluntarily and walking through the hallway, guiding my hands along the walls to get to the bathroom and to search forever for the 1 simple thing that i was looking for [more Q-tips if you wanted to know what the item was] without any lights on...even though i had the electricity to use it. seems silly.

so now in God/light terms, that would be like me walking through life, attending church and YAC and calling it good without implementing anything that supposedly learned... actions my friends... do what you say you will do. I say i am going to work on giving more of my time to read the Bible, to read more books, to start a devo.... talk talk talk... its nothing if you don't DO DO DO [not like the poo...get it? do do? sorry i had to..]

ironically, i now sit in the dark, 24 hours after hearing this message- however i have candles... hmm... God is funny... :)

okay so now my weekend!!!

Atlantic is awesome. the guys are amazing. truly amazing devoted loving Christians who are hilarious and corky. have you ever had one of those weekends when you just need a great splash of fresh whatever in your face? well that was me this weekend. i needed some serious time with friends and God. and I got both. I got my time with my singles and i got time with my friends in Atlantic and i got God time with both groups of friends. Atlantic plays amazingly well. i mean great. and they are fun. they each are incredibly alike and incredibly different at the same time. they are so refreshing i can't even explain it. and you dont even know how refreshing they are until they leave you and head off to impact someone else's life... "see ya in a year Atlantic!"

we played college ball which is by far the coolest game that my dear friend kate marshall introduced to me and the rest of the gang that we hung out with this weekend. we ate a lot of food [well some of us did.... some didnt eat at all ;) you know who you are] i was able to bring out the sly detective in me [not going into details] and i was able to color some posters which was so fun.. sunday Atlantic played for the middle and high school youth groups and the worship was priceless.






on my way home i blared their CD's and sang as loud as i could like a middle school girl in love with the Backstreet Boys [cough cough...cory....] and drove home to the GL... on the way home i got tingly... i got a lump in my throat and a tear was shed my friends.

la ta di da....the power of worship, what ever it may be, is amazing.