just another friday...

It's Friday.

2 weeks exactly until Mission Year officially begins. 12 days until I leave Alabama.

Eek.

So, I'm kind of scatterbrained this morning, so this post from this point is going to be in bullet list form.

Deep Thoughts from this week:

• Henri Nouwen's Spirituality of Fundraising is something that if you're raising funds for something spiritual...you may want to read. I'm going to share some thoughts on this...later...after I get my copy out of my car. I was reading it (not while driving. I PROMISE.) in the carpool line. Gee that sounded Mom-ish.


• I did a post on "Plans" a little over a week ago. And then, something during Wednesday night service stood out to me that kind of sort of related to that post. So, I thought I'd share it. Right here.


• You see, we like to do/say things like "all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose". And that's all fine and all, I mean, it's BIBLICAL. But, we like to twist it around to say that "All things WILL BE good." And everything is always going to be amazing and easy and just how WE want it. Which isn't biblical. At. All. I mean, look at Joseph (the colorful coat guy) from Genesis. I mean, he was sold into slavery by his brothers. And then worked as a slave. And then some GOOD happened, he was promoted. But then, Potifer's wife wanted him (but he just wasn't that into her...) so, she claimed he raped her and then he got sent to prison. More bad stuff. Then, some good stuff happened and he interpreted the king's dream and was promoted to like....the vice president type position. And it was GOOD. I mean, he had some major ups and downs. It wasn't ALL good. Yet, it wasn't all bad. Because God was always there. At the end, Joseph says to his brothers, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (Genesis 50:20). God's always in control, we don't need to pretend like we're the one in charge.  End of mini sermon with super quick bible story. If you want to know more about Joseph and all the tiny, important details, go to Genesis 37-50.

• And.....that's all the deep stuff from this week.

Links that I like this week:

• New Dress a Day


• Serving His Children in Uganda


• Mindset List (Never heard of this before...so, I went and found out my "year")


• Littlest Learners (I want to be this kind of teacher. Haha)

In Conclusion:

Two quotes that have been tweeted by people I follow have stood out to me this week.

• I don't think we have to evangelize more, although evangelism is necessary. I don't think we have to preach more, although we must preach. I think we must live together and show forth the Love that Christ has for us. ~George J. Taylor (tweeted by MissionYear)


• Exciting things happen when the people of God believe the Word of God is worth spending their lives to teach to others. ~RadicalBook