we were created for joy.

Well I just recently moved to Saint Louis ..the Lou, home of the arch ..not arc, Sonia! ...and I have to say its growing on me. I have never wanted to live in a big city, still don't, however for the time I like it. I'll let you know when I see Nelly :) Anyway ...I've learned a lot here already and have only been here since March! Everyday is a battle. A battle for your joy. And its a choice. I can choose to have joy or choose to let the world swallow it up and I can wallow around just thinking of myself. Our life is supposed to be about JOY ...that's our light ...that's Jesus and in your brokenness its your light that God uses to help someone else that's broken! And we do this not to be a better person or to make God like us more ...or fear but because we have experienced this Joy and have been changed by it ...and we merely want others to experience it to.

All of who we are is to experience Jesus. All.

Its more that just talking about it ...seeing it ...but tasting it everyday! "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Its a battle between good and evil, yes but so much more! Everything that this world has to offer is biding for your joy. Your money, your time, your friends, your circumstances, the weather (hah yes ...this one is huge for me ...stl is cold ..boo), your gifts and talents ...and i could go on and on! But the point isnt to just go through life and let things not affect you. I have felt like this coming out of playing for the Eagles ....oh you cant react to not playing, for example ...or to the refs ...and i felt like i became someone who just tried to shove every emotion away and whenever anything bad happened i would not react and i felt like this was apathetic. Its a fight ...a battle ...and yes react!!! in a way that reflects Christ, yes ..but react ...and EXPERIENCE Christ ...experience Him ...because the times you most experience this joy ..this HOPE ...this living, breathing God that loves us is when amidst the suffering, the pain, the contradiction, the drama ...is when you have nothing to cling onto but God ..but love ...and that is Joy! Jesus died for the JOY that was set before him. The bible says that is was for the Joy that he endured the cross! That was his strength!

Joy is everything ...its how we make God smile. John Piper says this, "God created me—and you—to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion—namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. Enjoying and displaying are both crucial. If we try to display the excellence of God without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy and create scorn or legalism. But if we claim to enjoy his excellence and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves, because the mark of God-enthralled joy is to overflow and expand by extending itself into the hearts of others. The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples."

Also think about this ...the really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the
moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. True, yeah? God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.

I find it rather "intriguin", as my roommate would say, that the word enjoy has the word JOY in it! Our purpose is to glorify God and enJOY Him forever.

Everyday I wake up and have to tell myself to choose joy because most days I don't want to. Its easy to love people that love you. Its easy to find joy and smile when its nice out and the dogs are finally sleeping! But everyday I have to FIGHT to choose joy ...and I dont pretend to have all the answers ...not even close ...or in the right direction ...but I know that "the JOY of the Lord is my strength" (Neh 8:10) and that "He will always do immeasureably more that you can ever ask or imagine" (Eph 3:20)

love life, choose joy!
L

the geo.

Recently this past weekend, friends and I were conversing about car names. Every car has to have a name ...given its personality. My cars in the past have been named around the PITA concept ...Pain In The Ass :) However, the geo is a step up. With her two-toned color she really takes to her model name, Prizm. I dont have a real personal name for her ...the Geo works ...sums it all up in the make.

But recently she has been getting a lot of miles and things just start to sage, droop, and wrinkle with age, ya know? Well my current problema is that my window doesnt roll down (this would be the only great time for self roll up windows, i dont even know what they're called). I have power windows but no power is going to my window. Out of all the windows that could possibly not work, its mine. I mean no one ever really rides in the geo ...maybe willow so cmon geo ...

I was like okay no big deal right? WRONG! You dont realize how many things you need to roll your window down for and if you cant you look retarded. For example, everyday i go into work, into the employees parking lot (yes, i'm an employee somehow with no salary ..ha) and i have to use my access card to get through the gate and everyday i have to pull up close but in front of the access point and open my door and lean back, extend my arm, slam the card in without dropping the card because my elbow is breaking and then rush to pull the card out and shut the door all before the gate goes down. I think I break a sweat.

Example number two. Dont go to ATMs. I mean its been so long since i've been into a bank i dont even know what to do ...nonetheless my bank account number?!?!?!

Example number three. Drive-thrus are a NO. This sucks. Who really wants to get out and stand in line at starbucks or anywhere for that matter. I really appreciate the few places you can go through on the passenger side. hahah i've only seen that once at some random burger joint and laughed because i thought it was useless. Not now.

Example four. I freaking live in Florida. Its always hot and nice here. So I have my sun roof open (yes, the geo is that big time for a sun roof ...holler!) but my window up. Thats a fun breeze. No air coming in to feel the breeze on your face and sing at the top of your lungs.

I've realized how much of a convenience I'm use to and when i dont have something thats accustom I'm perturbed. I'm working on it ...and finding joy along the way :)

the geo is good because GOD is good. Live life, choose joy.

good stuff.

coffee.

So about two years ago I would never touch coffee. I just simply didnt like it ...i dont think i had really given it a shot but I didnt want to risk the idea of being "addicted" to something ...I know ...sounds funny right ...but that all changed when i went to brazil.

Two years ago I made my first trip to brazil. Coffee or as it is called in Brazil, Cafe, is life ...its culture ...for brazilians its part of who they are. Everyone and I mean everyone, uses the same type of glasses to drink of out ...with the same type of utter to strain the coffee and put it in the same thermos to stay warm. Oh and I have to add that they all add tons of sugar. Every morning which might seem mundane to us is so essential to them. A french bread roll, buttered, and a small glass of sugary coffee. I grew to love coffee. I loved the process. It was work to make this coffee. As Americans we are so spoiled with our easy 1-2-3 coffee makers that do everything for us. I had no idea how to make coffee without a maker. However, its quite simple. As soon as we would wake up we would boil a big pot of water. Almost like when youre making pasta. As soon as the water boils you turn off the heat and add the coffee. Then after stirring it around you pour it through a strainer ...we would call it an utter (because of the shape) and put it into the thermos bottles to stay hot. Im telling you this, I dont know why ...but I guess this is where I fell in love with coffee ....oh yeah .....so now I'm addicted!

After returning from brazil coffee was hard to like here. Starbucks sucks ...too bitter. It just wasnt the same. I enjoyed making coffee at home and settled for that. Then one day I was at a friends house and she offered me a cup of coffee. You can never deny a cup! But what I didnt realize was that she made it from this really high-tech device that vibrated. She would place a coffee pod (coffee inside a closed filter) into this machine, hold down, and out came a cup of hot coffee with FROTH on top. Funny word. Froth. Anyhow, I was so amazed at this snobby coffee machine that I looked it up. It was a Senseo and they are pretty expensive. But I was so intrigued by the froth on the top. All of the sudden, I wanted froth in my coffee every morning! I used craigslist just to look but they were still too expensive. However, I found an expresso/cappuchino coffee maker for a mere $15. And now I'm really in love!

So this new buy of mine has the ability to steam milk! and i can have froth! I never thought I would be such a coffee snob but I have loved finding my own unique taste of how I like my coffee. Every morning now I love thinking about making a hot, dark, rich, creamy, FROTHY, cup of coffee with stevia! I love it ...coffee brings us together. Drinking coffee with friends is one of the best things in life. And with the caffeine as my friend Holly would say, "Im ready to save the world!"

A great cup of coffee would usually send us into creative mode or brainstorm mode. Tons of ideas would come about ...plans of action ...things to do ...people to see and save ...peace to be known throughout the world ...and much much more! Its great what a cup of coffee can do and I have loved to see my coffee taste evolve from unknown and nonexistent to a small dark, sweet cup in brazil to my new frothy invention!

I think coffee really does warm our soul and one should definitely take the risk and enjoy!

Space Age Peanut Butter

So I found this great ice cream place in Tallahassee called d-lites and its amazing ...and amazingly good for you. Anyway, so they sell this peanut butter here and its powdered. When I saw it I thought space age. You know how they sell food dry so if you go hiking or to space you can live ...like dry ice cream. When I was a kid I thought it was so cool and i guess somethings dont change ...so yes I bought some. It has 50 cal, about 3 fats grams, and i think 6 grams of protein for 2 tbsp of course because it doesn't have the oil in it. So you mix it with water and wallllaaa you have peanut butter. I love peanut butter ...natural ...with honey ...from earth fare or places you have to grind it yourself. This peanut butter has a texture of the old, boring, hydrogenated oil peanut butter and so I'm not a big fan. I put it in the frig and it got harder and wasn't as bad. Is it worth it? I don't think so. I can't sacrifice texture and flavor for stupid calories and fat. Besides natural peanut is really good for you anyway :)

the beginning

I just thought I would create this blog because there are so many things I would like to share. Writing just feels good ...ya know? and since I am computer-oriented the idea of creating and coding a blog is also fun to me.

Currently I am living in Tallahassee, Florida ...10 hours away from the beautiful western north carolina mountains where I grew up :( However, I spend a good deal of the day at a computer now and what a better way to relax than to write ...this is where this little guy comes in ...enjoy :)