pass the tea please...

I feel like crap today. I've been coughing for the past few days, and today it has finally escalated into this old-man-with-emphazema-about-to-hack-up-a-lung thing. I think it's just my allergies that are causing it, but regardless, I'd really like for it to go away! Rob and I are headed to Ft. Lauderdale as soon as we get off work today for a weekend with his family, so I'm really hoping not to be miserable.

In other, more pertanent news, yesterday was a really good day for me, spiritually speaking. Lately I've been feeling like I haven't been getting quite as much out of my quiet times as I probably should. I've been reading, but it's like it just hasn't been connecting all the way. Then yesterday, I read, and it's not so much that I "got" any extra out of the actual passage, but rather that the passage reminded me of something that sent me off on a tangent of thought that I felt was quite beneficial. I got off on the idea of how our faith is supposed to be relational, not formulaic--an idea I had the opportunity to think a lot about while reading Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What a while back. This all started when I was remembering an incedent from high school where one of my teachers at my Independent-Baptist-run private school was insisting on the validity of a particular belief of hers, when in reality it was an issue that not only cannot be completely proven one way or the other, but also is an issue that doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things. It just really got under my skin that she was so insistent upon something like this, rather than using that time more beneficially to express to her students the more significant issues. You know, like showing them the love of God, and all. But what do I know. Anyway, my point in saying all this is simply to tell you God used that tangent thought in a big way yesterday to speak to me about living my life in a way that exemplifies who He really is so that the people around me can see that, rather than getting wrapped up in our haughty Christian arguments about completely unconsequential details. And if I am to exemplify who He is through my life, that means I have to be getting to know more and more about Him through my personal relationship with Him. Last night at Fusion, pastor Walter spoke to us about sharing/living out our faith for those closest to us. His message seemed to tie in really closely with many of the things I had already been thinking about. And then, after he finished speaking, we were singing a song that really just completely grabbed me. It says "How can I stand here with You and not be moved by You? Would You tell me how could it be any better than this?" Relatively simple words, but they hit me in the face last night. It's not often that I cry during times of worship, but I definately did last night. I was at the sound booth, keeping track of the words on the projector screen, and I was just broken. (Luckily I managed to keep the words going though!) God was saying to me, "You have complete access to Me all the time. How can you experience My presence daily and not be changed by that? Do you think there's anything in life that could possibly be better than what I have already given you? You have to be moved before you can move others for Me." So those are my thoughts for now. Yesterday was good, and I'm looking forward to everything else God is getting ready to do. "He who began a good work in You will be faithful to complete it." I'm claiming that today.