happy to report!

monday was a good day. i spent some time outside in the rain with God. i started reading over my journals from taiwan and the last year. what i'm astounded at are the words God spoke specifically to me. and i forget! so easily. my prayer is not that i can make myself less forgetful, but that i will live from my spirit, not my soul or body. all three are part of who i am, but it is my spirit that has been raised with Christ, and changed by God, so that is where i should live from! the mind forgets, but the spirit knows. something God spoke to me on my first day of ministry in taoyuan, taiwan, has stayed with me these past days.

reach down and love. reach up and love. go into the world and with joy, praise my name! sing freedom and love with abandon!

it almost sends shivers up my spine to think about how much God desires to LOVE us! he tells me, told us, to LOVE him! we are commanded to LOVE HIM! that is how badly God desires relationship with us. now in human relationships, we wouldn't trust this. we don't want to be vulnerable, but God's vulnerability is so much more beautiful because he is completely trustworthy. we can be COMPLETELY vulnerable with him, and we WILL NOT be let down. God is good. every other relationship WILL let us down, God will not. the answers to life's questions and pain are not available on the push of the "God-button", but the journey of loving and being loved reveals what you need. every need in your life can be met by a greater revelation of the character of God (last thought courtesy of Sandy Rosen).

and baseball yesterday... may i just say, it was as funny as watching luggage bounce off a van down in nicaragua! no really, it was a good time, but i must say, when you are playing scrub, it becomes beneficial for your legs/breathing ability to NOT hit the ball all the time and best to get out! my legs felt like noodles afterwards! and now i have a bump on my head, because a ball hit me. in my defense, the sun was COMPLETELY obliterating the ball from view, so i ducked. into the ball. but i'm okay.