This is my norm

” This world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.” — 1 John 2:17

“When this tent we live in–our body here on earth– is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever.” — 2 Corintians 5:1

Wow what a chapter. It ceases to amaze me how cool God is and how His timing is so perfect. Over the past several months I have been dealing with these strange and crazy thoughts about death. How it can be frightening to think that I have already lived 22 years of my life and that is probably almost a quarter of my lifetime. I think the scary part is that I feel like if I died today my life would have counted for nothing. I have been a Christian and lived a fairly good life, but what have I done with the wonderful gift of salvation that God has instructed me as His child to spread. I have only actually led one person to the Lord ever! Not that that one person was a bummer, but I know that I have come in contact with so many people over the years and never mentioned the Love of God to them. That is sad to me.

And just the thought of dying was scary to me. What would death be like, would it be instant, what would heaven be like. Something that I also didn’t think of was that I just assumed Heaven was a guarrantee. I mean it is for those that walk with Christ, but that is a day by day thing, I can’t just assume daily that my life is right with Christ and that I am going to heaven. I have to work at my relationship with God, just like you work at any other relationship or marriage. If I were to assume that BJ loved me every day without ever telling him or showing him then pretty soon, we would be two people in a marriage that didn’t know each other.

And what do you know today’s chapter is Made to last forever….We are…God made us to yearn for immortality. It is natural characteristic that God inbred into us to want. Our time here on earth is so short and it is just a practice run for what our eternity will be. If we spend our time on earth apart from God, then our eternity will be apart from God–in hell. But if we have a relationship with GOd, we will be able to continue and further it in heaven for eternity.

It grieves me that many people here on earth, good people, take for granted their time here on earth, thinking that they will have heaven as a second chance. But its not like that. Our life here determines our eternity. There is more to life than just here and now.

If we live our life with this mentality, things of the world and little things don’t seem to matter as much. The amount of money or the number of achievements and accomplishments that we have just don’t seem to have as much weight anymore. Instead people that we share the gospel with and how much time we spend developing our relationship with Christ are the top priorities.

I pray that no one that I know will ever suffer eternal separation from God after death. The post-death is very real for those who are not saved as much as it is for those who are. Once you die, you don’t just end, one way or the other you live forever, it just depends where. I pray that my friends and family all have active relationships with God and if they don’t that they will strive to have one.

This chapter solidified alot of fears I was having and allowed me to feel confident in my beliefs an knowing that one day I will end my time here on earth, but that is just the first day of the rest of my life in heaven with my Father. It will not be a sad day, but a day of rejoicing, just like the song says. I know that “when the role is called up yonder, I’ll be there.”

Will you?

Ok….just curious, but what on earth do receptionists do ALL DAY EVERY DAY of their life?? I have nothing to do, I mean besides things that deal with my own personal life, like take out last years day planner pages and put in this years, while updating all birthdays, anniversaries and so on….Then of course I have my daily reading which I will do after lunch, but other than that what do I do….I answer the phone maybe five times an hour? I need activity!!!!!!! I need diversity!!!!

I guess its probably better when this is your actual job–that way you can organize your desk, file, blah blah, but this is not my job, and I can’t organize the desk or whatever. I just sit and watch the minutes roll by….crawl by….I think sometimes it takes the clock so long to switch over that I wonder if it forgot to change minutes…….

The lady across the hall was just holding a cup up to her ear..oblivious to my observation. Hee hee…maybe she achieved utter delirium like I am inching towards, and thought that was the phone and wondered why she couldn’t hear anyone on the other line…Or maybe she did think she heard someone?? Hmmm……..

Well today I am working at the front desk, because the regular receptionist is out of the office today. So I am answering the phone and all that fun-ness. I even just got to have a conversation with the automatic teller at Fed EX.

So the countdown is on for the start of my last semester at Baylor….11 days and the rest of today…how sad, yet exciting at the same time. It feels like the holiday has zoomed by way too quickly. Since I have been working every day basically, I haven’t felt like I had a holiday, but that is ok because I got to make some extra money on the side.

I need to get a ticker so that I can have a countdown on here….hmm…let me see if I can locate a fun graduation countdown ticker.

TaTa from the receptionist substitute.

Today’s chapter is entitled What drives your life? This is a great question to ask because if you don’t know what is driving your life, how will you know if you are on the right track to your goals in life?

Some of the common things that drive people’s life today are:

-Guilt

-Resentment and anger

-Fear

-Materialism

-Need for approval

The benefits of purpose-driven living are:

-Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life

-Knowing your purpose simplifies your life

-Knowing your purpose focuses your life

-Knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity

-Knowing your purpose motivates your life

AND– Fulfilling your purpose will create an eternal legacy!

“You weren’t put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.”

“You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you .”–Isaiah 26:3

Nothing matters more than knowing God’s purposes for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing them.

Ok, so here is the recap of Day #2 of the Quest. The topic was I am not an Accident. It was really neat because we are here only for one reason and that is because God created us and we are here to be a specific part of His master plan. That is an amazing concept. We are not here for us to become the best lawyer or teacher or baseball player. We are here to be directed into the position that God designed for us to fill.

I guess being raised in a Christian home I have taken this for granted. I know that God gives us desires and He wants us to be happy in our life, but ultimately our happiness has no bearing. If we are fullfilling the work that God has us here for, whatever it may be, we will live and walk in happiness.

” From one man he made every nation, … he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” Acts 17:26

God allowed me to be born into my specific family for a reason, for me to inherit specific characteristics and genetics that I would need to accomplish His work through my life. THat is amazing. For children born out of rape or sin or human error, God took all of this into account in His plan and though the child may have not been planned by the parent, God knew it all along. No person is placed on this earth by accident.

Poem by Russell Kelfer:

You are who you are for a reason.

You’re part of an intricate plan.

You’re a precious and perfect unique design,

Called God’s special woman or man.

You look like you look for a reason.

God made no mistake.

He knit you together within the womb,

You’re just what he wanted to make.

The parents you had were the ones he chose,

And no matter how you may feel,

They were custom-designed with God’s plan in mind,

And they bear the Master’s seal.

No, that trauma you faced was not easy.

And God wept that it hurt you so;

But it was allowed to shape your heart

So that into his likeness you’d grow.

You are who you are for a reason,

You’ve been formed by the Master’s rod.

You are who you are, beloved,

Because there is a God!

“I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born.” Isaiah 44:2

I am excited from reading this chapter. I know I am here for a purpose and I am eager to find out what that purpose is. For anyone reading–so are you. You are special and you are here because God has a purpose for you as well. We are all part of His master plan.

By the way…I wanted to say some stuff about day #2 of my quest…I’ll have to recap tomorrow…i’m tired now 🙂 It was a good chapter though and had some good thoughts to ponder. More on that later …night.

Well my birthday is coming to a close and it has been nice. Poor BJ had all types of things planned for me tonight but all of them fell through. But we still had a nice evening. He took me out to eat, my choice, so I picked Italian;I wanted to try a new place so we went to Baris . It was really good food, casual atmosphere, but nice and we had a good dinner. Talked about life and just enjoyed each other. It was a great time.

Then we came home and watched Message in a Bottle, which is a good movie, LONG, and then has a sad ending, so I was sort of bummed out. But oh well, it had a nice love story to it.

Now BJ is trying to redeem his coupon that HE gave ME for Christmas this year…in his card to me he wrote, ” this coupon is good for one free back rub to me (BJ) by you (Lindsay) any time I want and is non-expirable. ”

Now somehow it seems like I should be the one getting the backrub, being that it is my birthday…. 🙂

Anywhooo, I’m about to go off to bed. I had alot of runs today and I’m pretty pooped. And gotta do it all again tomorrow, except earlier! So nighty night….its been a great day and here I am a year older. I feel it. I like 22. I think I’ll stay this age for a while 🙂 Maybe forever. I feel like it is going to be a great year….kind of reminds me of how I felt at 17….17 was a great year….the year I fell in love ❤

Today is my 22nd birthday! We don’t have much planned, or I should say , I don’t have much planned…BJ usually has a few things up his sleeve 🙂 We are about to go to Camille’s for brunch. It is a new sidewalk cafe up here and its really good and cute!

Last night we watched The Recruit. Cool movie with a twist ending. I got it for Christmas. And yesterday I went shopping with the money I got for Christmas. I was in need of some new dress clothes for work. I found some great deals since it is after Christmas and for like the first time ever EVERYTHING fit. But it was fun and I got some great stuff.

Well I have to get ready for brunch and then work. This is my first time to ever have to work on my birthday. Kind of weird….one of the many changes of almost graduating. What a bummer 😦

So today I started a quest….I am reading the Purpose Driven Life bye Rick Warren. It is a 40 day reading to enable you to find your purpose in God. It states that we live appoximately 25,000 days in a lifetime, so 40 should be the least we can do to give to God to show us how to walk in His purpose in life.

So I finished chapter one and I’m ready for more. It is awesome. Its wierd because I have been wanting to read this book for a long time and never have gotten around to it. But I think that now I am ready for the book. God’s timing is so awesome. I think if I had read this book three years ago, I would have loved it, but it wouldn’t have had the impact that it will have now in my life. God has brought me to a place that I should remain in forever, to a place that all I have is Him, that I need to look to Him for everything daily, not just when big things come my way. If I can focus on asking Him to guide my every step, He will lead me to situations daily that I am destined for. I’m so excited about reading this book. I am ready for God to show me the plan, show me a little glimpse of what I have been placed on His earth to do. Basically that is all we are here for, not for ourselves or for someone else, but for Him to do His work. And I’m ready.

Steps to finding life’s purpose:

-Consider my dreams

-Clarify my values

-Set some goals

-Figure out what I am good at

-Aim High

-Go For IT!!

-Be disciplined

-Believe you can achieve your goals

-Involve others

-Never give up

“Obsession with self in these matters is a DEAD END; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.” -2Timothy 2:7

So today is my first day as a runner at Fletcher. Its not too busy right now and I haven’t been able to do any runs yet. It will be an easy way to make a little money onthe side though so that will be nice.

My commercial for Wendy’s is running now. How embarrassing. I can’t believe that I did that. I wonder if I look like a complete goof or if people will know it is me or not. I HOPE NOT!

It was really funny to do. All the people in Wendy’s were looking at us while they ate their lunch. I got to meet Rusty Garrett and Angela Montoya from Channel 10 news. It was a good experience but totally hilarious. I am hoping the one that I had to speak in didn’t make the cut. I hate the way my voice sounds when its recorded.

Well….here I am sitting and waiting to be called upon to do a run.

Its cold outside finally and was sleeting earlier today. They say it is supposed to snow between now and Friday. I hope it does. It is even forcasted to snow in Houston! I think that would be soo cool. We’ll see if it actually happens or not. Houston doesn’t see much snow.