This Is A Story...

I finally sat down in my blog long enough to figure out how to put pictures onto this thing. Do you like this one of me and my buddy Chris...

CHRIS TOMLIN!!!

This picture was taken about a year ago at his concert. Don't we make a fabulously looking couple?!? A couple of my campers this summer sure thought so. Haha...

a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2675/1216/1600/Julie%27s%20Pics%20July%20-%20Dec%2005%20207.jpg">


This is a picture of my dog Chip. He lives in Iowa. He is 14-years-old. That's ninety-eight years in dog years. I miss Chip.




Here is a can of Mt. Dew. Yummm! Mountain Dew is good.




These are some of my friends. We like to climb mountains.




This is where I live.

a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2675/1216/1600/Picture%20180.jpg">

C-O-L-O-R-A-D-O

That was my story.

THE END

I Did It!

I finally got around to emailing my Denver Christian family to say hello...and I still cried.

I played Settlers of Catan on Sunday at Andy and Genna's...it had been way too long!

I had the best piece of chocolate-chocolate cake this afternoon...yeah birthdays!

I am going to do some crunches and then join my roomate for a "reading tea party". I would like to finish reading Wild At Heart again tonight.

Peace

The Love of My Life

Wow! These past two weeks have been very good for me. I have found myself seeking Christ again in new ways. Along with that, I have had to re-examine some areas of my life which has not always been fun. I have some tough decisions to make this year...even in the next month...but I believe with all of my heart that God has already paved the way for my benefit. The promises of God stand true! Leadership camp was a breath of fresh air. Not because I was in the mountains, but because I was able to begin the process of release...God and I had a nice cry in the mountains. My heart was soft. Just what I needed. Since that time I have been "dating Jesus". God broke through all of the lies Satan has fed me these past couple of months. I am falling in love again and that is just what I WANT and where I want to be with Him!

I've had a number of discussions about "heroes" lately...what makes a good hero...ect. One of my heroes in the present-day Christian faith is Billy Graham. How awesome to be in your eighties with Parkinson's disease, a debilitating disease I know first hand (my grandpa died from it four years ago), and still out there boldly sharing the gospel of Christ. Talk about passion! How awesome it must be to be able to look back on your life and see God's faithFULLness...even in the areas of your faithLESSness! I cannot imagine anything greater than walking through life with Christ, proclaiming the gospel until he calls me home, no matter where I am or in what capacity I am able to do so. God is stronger than our struggles and temptations, greater than our abilities, more powerful than health or money or ANYTHING else. That is so cool!

Lesson I'm learning: God speaks best when I am still. This is so hard for me...
I like having an active social life. But I know that the past year of my life has not allowed for many quality quiet times with God. I have realized that it is not how many things I am involved in for Christ that matters, but how much I am daily in communion with him.

A simple reminder of this lesson came to me last night. Young Life. Sometimes I get home from work and am exhausted and my attitude coming to club is not so uplifting. Last night was one of those nights where I would have rather stayed home. So I prayed. And what do you know, God stepped in, gave me a ton of energy and I had a blast meeting some new kids and talking to old ones too. It was the best club so far this year! Lots of good relational ministry was happening with our team. Such a simple action of ASKING requires such a HUGE praise!

Wanting to Want

It is good to be sitting in bed at 10:16 on a Monday morning. I hope this day goes slowly. So far today I paid most of my bills for the month and am getting a huge pile of laundry done. I finished dog-sitting yesterday afternoon so it is nice to be back in my apartment after being gone for ten days too.

Next weekend is Young Life leadership camp. I am really looking forward to getting away and to hopefully be inspired to get another year of ministry rolling. Club was small again last week so we went out for ice cream at Cold Stone. I didn't mind. I love hanging out with kids in smaller groups, but it is discouraging to know that I should be getting to the high school to do contact work but cannot. I think I am underestimating what God could do if I would just ask. I also need to find more creative ways to reach kids. Perhaps what excites me about my new job is that I will have a couple more hours free to do ministry. On the other hand, the new job is not challenging me, which can be frustrating. I am now finished with assessment and hope to start doing some reading groups with the emerging readers tomorrow. I can't wait to teach again!

On another note, I have decided not to get that second job just yet. One night last week I sat down and made a list of all of things I have been meaning to do but hadn't, including a list of friendships I need to rekindle, and things I just didn't have time for last year. When I was finished my list was over 150 items long! God is giving me this year to encourage me to be more humble. He is also giving me this year to sort out my future and what is next for me...I still don't know having been out of college for more than two years...wasn't I supposed to be on some sort of track by now?? He is giving me this year to catch up. But He is also giving me this year to rest in Him. There has been some distance between me and God lately. I'm not quite understanding what He is doing and I'm frustrated. I want to want Him again. I want to want to pray on a more regular basis. I want to want to know Him more. I have gotten in the way. I pray that I want to want God. He can't work in my life if I don't let Him. I think I would be blown away by the things I have been keeping Him from allowing me to do.