Monday, May 13, 2013

Bottlerock 2013

I have to take a minute to say how blessed I am!

So a few months ago I heard about this festival in Napa. It was suppose to bring in thousands and thousands of people and make loads of money for the city. Some of my favorite bands would be playing there, but the problem was that it was $140 a ticket per day. So of course I gave up on the hope of going. There was no way I would be able to spend $140 on a ticket to Bottlerock when I am leaving for New York next week and then to Oklahoma. There is just no way.
So I dreamed, and looked at the band lineups and wished I could go, but I worked on being content without going, because I just didn't have the money.
The concert was a five day event and each day my coworker and I would discuss all of the bands that were playing that day, and how busy Napa must be with all of the people. One day my other coworker (who also happens to be the mother of one of my best friends) jumps in on the conversation.

"Oh my husband is working that!" She says. I remember that her husband is a police officer and would be working the concert that weekend. My jaw drops to the floor. He gets to spend five days listening to incredible music, while making money.
"I bet he can get you tickets!" Again, my jaw drops.
I try not to get to excited! These tickets are ridiculously expensive, how in the world would he be able to score us a pair of tickets. So I go about my day, trying to not get to excited over this slight possibilty of going. Then, around 5pm in the evening a get a text from my coworker.
"I scored a pair of tickets for tomorrow!" The text reads. I am sitting in rehearsal trying to contain my excitement, but a huge grin spreads across my face without even realizing it. Of course everyone is asking my what happened and I recount the details.
My friend and I were able to go to Bottlerock for FREE and see way to many good bands. It all worked out perfectly, and we even got free parking. We were sitting in the parkinglot line and a guy in the car behind us runs up to our window and hands us a free parking voucher.
So by the end of the day I had seen Carolina Chocolate Drops, Jackson Browne, Allen Stone, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Iron and Wine and Kings of Leon.

It was such a beautiful day, and I got to enjoy it with one of my best friends.
I am so blessed!!!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Don't Waste Your Life

Three weeks and two days from now I will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma kicking off my summer of serving the Lord. I know serving the Lord should be something we do all the time, and it is something I try to do all the time (although I often fail miserably.) The difference is that I will be spending all my time this summer serving the Lord. My job will be working at the church, sharing the gospel, caring for people and showing them Christ's love. Life will be centered around serving the church, and ministering to others in the community. I wish I could say that I have already been doing this as much as I can, but unfortunately I have seen myself living for me lately. I have found myself pursuing worldly things and not Godly things. It is so sobering to realize how weak, selfish and full of sin I am.
Ever since I was a child I dreamed of getting married. I have always been someone who wanted to have a husband and a family, and spend my time taking care of them. Other thoughts have crossed my mind like, "maybe I could be a teacher," or, "maybe I could go to school for music," but my desire has always been to be a wife.
The pre-summer reading list for Oklahoma is a book called "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper. This morning I sat reading through the book and I got to a section called "I bless you, mono, for my life." It is definitely a funny title, and as I read the section it was kind of a funny story. John was getting read to start medical school and as the semester started he didn't show up to chapel or any of his classes. His wife, Noel, wondered where he had gone and found him in the health center, lying on his back, diagnosed with mono. He spent three weeks recovering, which meant he had missed the beginning of the semester and there was no catching up. During his time of recovering he listened to many sermons and christian radio stations. All of the sudden his eyes were open and he realized he was lying in the hospital wing for a purpose. He had mono for a purpose that God had planned. He asked his wife what she thought about him going to seminary instead of medical school and she said,"if that is where God is leading you, I'll go with you." He had never regretted his decision to go to seminary and become a pastor.
Suddenly I thought back to the book by Kevin Deyoung "Just Do Something." I have had this dream of getting married, but if that is not what God wants for me I can't sit around and wait for my will to come true. So I am going to do something. I am starting school in the fall. I will get my general ed done and pursue a degree in english so I can become a high school teacher. I want to travel to a foreign country and be a missionary and a teacher.
Pursuing God's will is just doing something and doing it for His glory, not sitting around and waiting for Him to reveal His "big plan."


Suffer?
Yeah, do it for Christ!
You're trying to figure what to do with your life
If you make a lot of money hope you're doing it right
Because the money is God's you better steward it right
And stay focused
You ain't got no ride
Your life ain't wrapped up in what you drive
The clothes you wear, the job you work
The color your skin naw you're a Christian first
People get to living for a job
Make a little money start living for a car
Get 'em a wife a house kids and a dog
Then they retire they're living high on the hog
But guess what they didn't ever really live at all
To live is Christ and that's Paul I recall
To die is gain so for Christ we give it all
He's the treasure you'll never find in a mall
Your money your singleness marriage talent your time
They were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is Divine
That's why it's Christ in my rhymes
That's why it's Christ all the time
See my whole world is built around Him He's the life in my lines
I refused to waste my life


Don't Waste Your Life - Lecrae