Prayers - Take 2

Sometimes I wonder if God humors me and my logical, perfect-puzzle loving mind. Like when I throw out a "bigger" prayer request and let it float out there, forgetting about it for a while, only to be blown away by how precisely He answers it. Now that's not to say that all my prayers get answered precisely. There are plenty of them that He answers in different ways than what I was hoping or expecting, and those are just as amazing to come to the realization about. I already wrote about that a bit in this blog post. But sometimes God gives me answers that are so exact that it makes me smile.

Like when I prayed off and on for a good part of 2011 about a mission trip to go on knowing that I probably wouldn't have enough paid time off saved up until late 2012. And how He provided a weeklong trip that would only require using 24 PTO (paid time off) hours, and how I had exactly 24 hours left for 2011.

Or one of my more "practical" prayers, like when I prayed off and on for the last year for an opportunity to refinance my house. I wasn't sure it was going to be possible to get the balance on my home down low enough to get the 80% loan-to-value that I wanted, but I prayed for wisdom about when to pursue the idea. Fast forward to today when my house appraises at an amount that makes my remaining principle balance exactly 80% of the value of my home, which will perfectly allow me to refinance into a traditional mortgage. I couldn’t have predicted what the housing market would do, and consequently couldn’t aim to pre-pay my mortgage down to this exact amount, it’s just what happened.

As I mentioned in my other blog post, recently I've taken notice of how sometimes He answers prayers more quickly than I'd expect, and sometimes He does so in ways that I couldn't have dreamed up myself. And then sometimes He brings about exactly what I'd been asking for in a way that couldn't be more perfectly wrapped up with a bow than it already is. 

If you're wondering why I'm blogging about prayer for a second time, it's because I feel like God's been trying to teach me something about prayer recently as prayer itself has been on my mind a lot. For one, because I think I need a better understanding of it and that's something I'm still working on. I think I have a good concept of what it means to pray within His Will, but there are other facets of prayer that I'm still working on. But mainly, I think that God has been gently reminding me that He knows what He's doing at a time when He knew I'd need it.

Recently as I was discussing a situation in my life with an older and wiser woman, she told me that I needed to keep praying about it. Initially her answer frustrated me because I was sick of praying about the situation, I wanted an action to take. I wanted a solution...pronto. I wanted my prayer about the situation to be answered by her telling me an action to take. The idea of continuing to pray about it for who knows how long just had me agitated. It was then that I came to the realization that due to the fact that I wasn't feeling like God was going to answer this prayer that I didn't want to keep praying about it. Instead of trusting Him with it completely, I was going to try to find my own way (while praying about it for good measure, of course). But sometimes God has gentle ways of reminding us about the fact that He is indeed in control.

I've written this blog post mainly for my own benefit as I want to be able to look back on it someday and remember where I am at now. Hopefully someday I'll be able to tell you about one of two things. Either about how He answered my prayers about this current situation the way that I want it to be answered, or about how He used this frustrating situation in my life to teach me about something far greater. At this point I have no doubt that one of those two things is going to be the end result.

My Current Favorite Album

I’m a huge Chris August fan and I’ve been able to see him live on two different occasions. Both times he had awesome stage presence. His first album was the main CD in my car for months on end (and yes, it is autographed). I was thrilled to hear that his 2^nd album was coming out and it’s about the only thing I’ve been listening to since it came out this past Tuesday. I don’t actually own it yet, but I’ve been listening to it on Spotify and every time I get in my car it’s the only thing I have on my phone’s playlist.

Sadly I won’t be able to get the 2^nd CD autographed anytime soon because I’ll be out of town when he comes to Phoenix in September (at my old home church no less).

The lyrics of this latest album are wonderful. I haven’t found a song that I haven’t liked yet. If you’ve never listened to Chris August before, or even if you have, I highly recommend taking a look at this album.

Some songs that have stuck out to me so far:

Center Of It

I’ve been hearing this song on the radio for a while now and honestly, I just liked the fact that it was upbeat and nice to listen to on my way home from work. It wasn’t until the album came out that I started listening to the words. And of all days, today specifically is a day where every word in that song is ringing so true for me personally.

The Upside of Down

I’ve often thought that I’m closer to God during the down times of my life. I've tended to push Him away and become pretty self-reliant during the up times in life and that's something I've been trying to work on. Currently, this is my favorite track of the album.

The downside of being up is my inside is empty of
The one thing my heart truly needs
When I feel invincible a million miles from miserable
It’s always all about me
I don’t know why I don’t love You like I should, like You would
Through bad and good oh

Restore

I listened to the lyrics of this song for the first time while I was taking a walk the other night. A song that truly addresses the marriage problem that exists nowadays is a rare thing, and I really like this one.

Nobody's growing old together,
We've made it easy just to quit
Love has become a negative percentage,
Why do we bother to commit
We've got a long list of excuses,
Ways we try to justify
Well, I propose to you the truth is,
Marriage does not have to die

1989

This song narrowly missed being my favorite song of the album. I know I keep saying this a lot, but I love the lyrics and they ring true to feelings that I’ve had. Just go listen to the song, you’ll love it too.

A Little More Jesus

Growing up in the church, I’ve become pretty familiar with rules, regulations, and opinions. And humility isn't always my strong suite, so (once again) this song resonates with me.

We've got rules and regulations
Got a stance on everything
It gets so complicated
When all we really need

Is just a little more Jesus
And a little bit less of me
I could be a little more humble
If we’re speaking honestly
The more I see this heart inside of me
The more that I believe
That I could use a little more Jesus
And a little bit less of me

Meant To Be

This song is a good mix of mellow with a bit of upbeat that just makes me happy.

What I'm Loving - August 2012

I'm loving food pins on Pinterest. I've been on a recipe pinning spree recently and feeling very motivated to cook. Granted that motivation is never there at the end of the work day, but late at night I always get way more optimistic about what I'll accomplish. Most of my pins involve cheese or dessert.

I'm loving the mix of all the end of Summer social events that seem to be happening right now paired with the fact that Fall schedules are starting to kick in and life is becoming a bit more routine. I've decided to drop one of my weekly commitments this year and I'm excited to look for new ministry opportunities that might be possible with more flexibility in my schedule.

I'm loving the fact that home values are up high enough (for now) to get my house refinanced the way that I want!

I'm loving Evernote. Seriously, how have I had my phone for a year without using this app for all my notes? And now I'm using the Evernote Firefox extension like it's my own private version of Pinterest.

I'm loving all of the Olympics that I have saved on my extra TiVo hardrive. I don't have every single Primetime airing, but I have a lot of them. I'm already going through Olympic withdrawals and plan to re-watch all the gymnastics stuff again in about a month just because I can.

Answered Prayers

Recently I was going about some various mundane tasks at home on a Sunday afternoon when I started to once again think about a situation in my life that had been on my mind a lot. And then it hit me...God had answered a major prayer I'd had about that situation. The same situation that I'd been moaning to Him about all week. The same situation that I felt like there was zero chance of seeing any resolution to within the near future. Just that morning things had changed, and at the time it hadn't even clicked in my head. But standing there in my kitchen I realized that God had answered that prayer of mine in a way that I wouldn't have expected, and much more swiftly than I had ever dared to hope for.

Standing there in the kitchen I started thinking about other things I'd been praying about recently and I realized that He'd also answered another (albeit somewhat trivial) prayer of mine on that exact same day. So I started thinking even further back for things that I'd prayed about that were long term prayers that I may or may not have talked to Him about recently, but that I had given over to Him awhile ago. And then it clicked in my head that earlier that same week He'd answered a major prayer request that I'd been praying on and off about for a good part of 2012.

I realize that everything I've said above has been pretty vague. My goal is not to draw attention to a specific answer to prayer that God has provided, rather my point is that I often fail to stop and notice how incredibly God answers prayer. I always pray with the expectation that God is at work, but I don't always do the best job of stopping to thank Him when He does provide an answer to prayer. And having three very obvious prayers so clearly answered around the same time grabbed my attention on that Sunday afternoon for whatever reason. In fact, my initial reaction after realizing that my prayer had been answered was surprise. Not because I was surprised that God had done something, but because I hadn't noticed it sooner. I've let myself become complacent.

I used to have a prayer journal that I would use to keep track of the main things I was praying for so that I could go back later and mark when God had answered one of them. I found it to be a great reminder of how God always provides, and also how sometimes God's provision is different than what we were initially expecting. I'm not sure why I started slacking on using it, but I couldn't even tell you for certain where that journal is at the moment, it's been that long since I've used it. I've decided to start using my phone to track my prayer requests now, and I'm excited to start doing a better job of taking stock of how God has responded.

To end this blog post I would just say...don't forget to take a step back and notice what He's doing in your life, and don't forget to thank Him for those answers to prayers. And most importantly, don't forget to create opportunities for Him to answer your prayers. =)

Golden West Camp 2012

OK, you guys all knew this blog post was coming. My "scrapbook" wouldn't be complete without a post about camp after all.

I've just recently started to feel like I've fully recovered from camp and it's been nice to spend the last week or so relaxing a bit. I've been majorly procrastinating on finishing my post camp work (think balancing the checkbook, ick), but one of these days I'll get around to it.

Golden West Camp 2012 had its ups and downs like any other year of camp, but at this point it's one of my favorite years ever. There were a lot of things about this year that were unique for me, but there were also a lot of things that were just camp like usual. So without further ado, the list (you had to have known it would be a list, right?):

1) Cabin 12 My wonderful Citation achievers (plus 1) cabin that I was blessed to be the counselor of this year! Aren't they cute?

2) The wonderful blue team.  I hadn't been a counselor on the blue team since my first year as a counselor back in 2006, and I enjoyed being back on one of my favorite colors. This team was by far one of my favorite teams I've ever been on, including my years as a camper. The team jived together amazingly well and I'm proud of their attitudes and teamwork throughout the week.

3) The awesome blue team counselors. The blue team had two first year counselors in JV and I think they both make stellar counselors. It was also Mr Good's first year as a Varsity team captain and he more than rose to the occasion.

4) The weather. Despite the fact that rain has a way of ruining the schedule, I always enjoy a chance to experience a good dose of it. My umbrella was probably the most essential thing I packed that week.

5) Getting to have new counselors like this one come to camp. Working with Kelli DiPietro throughout the year in Journey is already a blessing, so having her at camp was an even better blessing.

6) A bear skit. You had to be there. And even for those who saw it, what they didn't see was the 15 times the girls practiced this before they did it. Or how many times I almost fell off of my bunk laughing at them as they figured it all out.

  7) Theme days. We're still rocking them.

8) Citation achievers. 2012 was one of the best groups of Citation achievers I've seen as a counselor. I'm really proud of what these students have already accomplished and I'm even more excited to see what God does through them in the coming years.

9) Floor hockey. And speaking of those Citation achievers, they play a mean game of floor hockey at 11 PM on the last night of camp. The staff still beat them though. =D

U of A hats year #5

10) Traditions live on. You knew they would.

And last but not least I'll leave you with this picture because these guys are awesome.

Relient K

Throughout junior high, highschool, college, and probably even post-college my favorite band has been Relient K. While I have other artists that I greatly enjoy, and sometimes my Relient K albums end up sitting in my library unplayed for a period of time, coming back to my Relient K songs is always a joy and they're a staple of any playlist that I make.

In 2004 (2005?) I had a chance to see them in concert in Tucson during my freshman year at U of A and failed to get tickets before they sold out. To say I was bummed would be an understatement. Since then things just haven't worked out for me to see them live.

Luckily, 8 years later, I was finally able to remedy that! I got to see them live on Wednesday night at Marquee Theater in Tempe.

Going into the concert I was a bit sad that I hadn't been able to see them in concert in their earlier days since the earlier albums were the ones that I fell in love with. I was pleasantly surprised when they played quite a few of their older songs and actually did an excellent job at giving us a spread that included songs from most of their albums.

 
I can officially cross a Relient K concert off of my bucket list!

PS: If you're wondering which Relient K song is my favorite...it's actually a Christmas song. Enjoy.