Participate

Today was essentially the perfect Sunday. I woke up earlier than I usually do, was able to enjoy a cup of coffee before church and get to the service about 15 minutes earlier. The only downside to this morning was when I walked out to my car to discover I had left my sunroof open overnight...in a thunderstorm. That was just spectacular...let me tell ya. I don't even care that my car is kind of (really) soggy and probably smells weird, the greatest tragedy was stereo. It is fried. DEAD. It ceases to produce any type of music...and no longer displays the time either. 

Thank God I was blessed with a sense of humor because I was able to laugh at this and look at the positives (my car still runs) and put the negatives in perspective (I'll just have to sing all the time if I don't have a radio). After church I had lunch with the family as usual and feasted on my frisco melt from Steak n Shake, literally hit the spot for me today. Capping off my afternoon with watching New Girl on Netflix, wearing leggings and a hoodie, I had pretty much felt like I accomplished the perfect Sunday already. I decided randomly throughout the afternoon that to get my chocolate fix and save money (also avoid going into the public), I could just make some fudge here at home. Well...I made said fudge, it was delicious, and throughout my roommate and my Grey's Anatomy marathon we have somehow managed to eat nearly the entire pan. I'm not even sorry, I'll just run the stairs a few times tomorrow. 

While watching Grey's Anatomy I slipped into something between a food coma and a diabetic coma and I woke up wide awake...at 12:30am. Did I mention that tomorrow is Monday? Did I also mention that I have a meeting at 8:45 and court at 9:30 for work? All of these things are true, yet here I am...wide awake at 2:42am. I don't know if it's the caffeine or the nap but either way I'm awake for awhile. The plus side to my bizarre sleep schedule is that it's way more conducive to talking to my boyfriend on the west coast. With our two hour time difference I'm often a few hours from waking up for work and he's a few hours from going to bed. I live the 9-5 office job and he's the rockstar ;-) 

It was so nice to talk to him today. I figured that I wouldn't really get the chance. Sunday's are always busy days for me between church, lunch with family, and whatever errand/chore I usually have to get done before the week starts. On top of it being a typically busy day for me (even though today I was uncharacteristically lazy), he was having a MUCH busier day by anyone's standards. From 3:30-5:30 Pacific Time, he and his band would playing for thousands of people at America's Cup Park in San Francisco. Let me tell ya...as busy as my day was, at least I didn't have to talk to thousands of people and perform on a stage. I don't know how he does it. I am so proud of my boyfriend everyday, you don't even know. I don't care if you think it's annoying or if you find our love disgusting, he's amazing and I have every reason in the world to be proud of him. 

He is a rock star in every sense of the term. The man was clearly born to be on a stage, his presence just gravitates people to him, yet he is the most humble. I fell in love with this quiet, soulful, deep thinking man who was so respectful and kind. He had this dorky giggle when his cousin would make him laugh really hard and he annoyingly sagged his pants. He was this amazing blend of everything I wanted in a best friend, partner, and boyfriend. He makes me laugh harder than anyone can. He pushes me to love God more, to show love more and to be the very best woman I can be. Talking to him on the phone tonight was such a blessing. As if long distance relationships aren't hard enough, I got my phone shut off this week, we're texting via an app on wifi and he gets terrible cell reception in San Francisco. I smile every time I hear his voice. We can talk for 5 minutes or 5 hours and I still feel the exact same way when we hang up. I am blessed. I used to say that "I'm the luckiest girl in the world." I stopped saying it because it wasn't true. I'm not lucky. I was blessed. I am blessed. We are blessed. I believe with all my heart that God placed the two of us together for a very specific purpose. Every day we learn more and more of what that purpose could be and how we can work harder for God. I can tell you one thing. The core of our purpose is love, in every sense of the term. Today was Sunday. It was the Sabbath, a day of rest. Today I did exactly what I needed to on this Sunday. I basked in the love of God and it was so perfect.

Leaving church this morning I heard the words of the sermon echoing, "Participate in new life". The sermon called for us to go live in community with those who need to see Jesus. Help those around us take those steps. Those who are alive, help him live. I pondered these thoughts in the afternoon, I sketched some ideas after my nap, and now again I sit here thinking about the words. Tomorrow...I will be exhausted. I will have to go do my job on little sleep and lots of caffeine because I made choices today. I slept at odd hours, I ate too much fudge, I drank too much soda...I was a bum. It doesn't really matter though. I needed it and it gave me the opportunity to see something. Sometimes having a Netflix marathon with your roommate or staying up super late to talk to your long distance boyfriend are all the things you really need to understand God's love. The great thing about God, is just like Pastor Todd says, he wants to fill you. He wants to use you. It's sooooo easy. Whenever I get really overwhelmed by God's love (like today in church or when I realize how blessed I am with my Craigslist roommate and rockstar boyfriend) I just get really excited at how I know God is going to use me. He's filling me so I can pour out. Tomorrow is Monday. It is supposed to suck. That's what Monday's DO. I know that my Monday is going to rock the pants off of the entire day...because God filled me today and that means tomorrow he is going to do some amazing work. 

I'm going to bed now. It's 3:00am...my alarm will be going off in 4 hours. When I was a camp counselor I worked in the hot sun for 12 hour days and ran on 3 hours of sleep, I can do this. Tomorrow is Monday...I operate on God strength. I'm going to participate in new life.

TGBTG