weekend

Okay, so I didn't take any pictures. I was not very motivated to because I left my camera in the van from the start of the trip because there was too much stuff to unload. It was pretty fun though. It wasn't the "getting away to nature" kind of trip I was expecting. You have to laugh at the southern california nature in comparison to most other places (I miss colorado and hawaii!). We couldn't swim in the lake because they used it as a drinking water source or something and so we couldn't pollute it although they didn't really regulate the kinds of boats going in it. Anyway, it was really hot, and overall an "okay" camping trip. One really cool thing though was that the stars were great. I couldn't even tell where the big dipper was cuz there were so many stars that I wouldn't normally see. It was beautiful! It made me really thankful, although at the time, the people I was walking with were trying to freak each other out and it was a little distracting.

Anyway, we got back today and I went to the first alumni bible study. It was awesome! There were only 4 people there, me, Rosey, Jon, and James. We studied Luke 7:24-35. I don't think I've ever studied that passage inductively before. I feel like it made me think about really cool things that I haven't thought about in a long time. Strange, but it feels like it's been forever since I really thought about grace. Such a fundamental idea in the Christian life, but when I thought about it again, it surprised me and seemed really new to me that our place in the kingdom of God has nothing to do with us, but only to do with the grace we're given from God. Then God showed me something really applicable to my life right now in his metaphor about the people of this generation. "They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep." -Luke 7:32. Jesus emphasizes the importance of rejoicing with others when they rejoice and mourning with others when they mourn. I thought about the way I've been feeling about
people lately (like what I posted on my last blog entry), and I definitely haven't been so sympathetic. I think especially about the mourning when others mourn thing. People have
People have been talking to me a lot lately about relationships they feel negatively about, that they're not happy about the way things are going. Whenever I hear them talk about that, it just makes me think of all the relationships in my life that I feel really crappy about.There are way too many, and it makes me sad, but I think for the wrong reasons. So I think I have been running away from those people, even though that's like the opposite of compassion. We talked in the bible study about how to deal with that, and we came to the conclusion that we need to be at a place where we've come to terms with the hard stuff that's going on in our lives, so that we are able to help others. Not that it's going away anytime soon, but we can't just keep pushing all that stuff on the side and not deal with it. At least we need to come to a place where we have a peace that God can and will take care of it. So I'm going to try to apply it, and not run away from the hard stuff.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good after that. God's really good about showing you what you need to know when you need to know it :).