I'm convinced it's super-important to reach back into the past every once in a while and remind yourself of the way things used to be. For example, I watched some home videos yesterday and the memories flooded back. There was one when I was 10, another when I was 15. One had me playing guitar. I was good for a year of playing guitar, but horrible compared to now, so that was really encouraging, considering I've had a nagging thought for the past few years that I wasn't really growing in my guitar-related skills. It was interesting to get sort of an insight into my 15-year old mindset, during one of the toughest times of my life. It's so amazing what Jesus has done in the past 9 years, from then until now. I'm blown away. God help us not to take for granted every single blessing we receive from a God who had and has every right to remove everything good from our lives due to our repeated failures and sins. Grace is truly amazing. It's interesting that this post comes during thanksgiving season, when we're supposed to thing about stuff like this. Shouldn't that be every day? I'm guilty of becoming complacent with the things around me and with God Himself. My desire is to find delight in the small things of life and see God where He is, everywhere.

Hell on earth: the sequel! Duh Duh DUHHHH! Just kidding. No really, I was having a terrible day until about 3 minutes ago. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a splitting migraine headache, so I was up for about 2 hours. Then I woke up in a bad mood, and have been grumpy/nappy ever since. I tried to vote, but I'm registered in another county, so they won't let me vote in Shelby county, and it's likely that Tipton won't let me either since I'm a resident of shelby county. UGH! ..but at least I tried. On top of all that, my right eye is swollen almost shut- some kind of freak thing that happens once every month or so, out of nowhere and lasts 24 hours and disappears. So I'm a big grumpy Quasimodo now. All I need is a hump and a bell tower. Please excuse the horrible analogy.

Over and over again, I've been asking myself "why is this happening" and also asking God the same thing. Then a smile came over my face when I realized why. This keeps me from getting too prideful. It keeps me humble, and since God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, that's a cool position to be in. I feel like such a lunatic for being happy about that, but I guess that's just who I am in Christ. Maybe I've gone sane in a crazy world.

Wow. Almost another month gone by. I'm so terrible at this.

I just finished reading Islam Unveiled by Ergun and Emir Caner. What a great book. It gives you everything you need to reach out to the muslims around you with the love of Jesus while still respecting their customs and understanding their history and culture. It was an eye-opener. And yet another example of how the media distorts facts into politically-correct lies. The people who say that Islam is really a religion of peace and not hostility (A) don't read the Qu'ran and (B) most likely believe that all religions lead to the same God (C)lack the backbone to speak the truth. Sorry for the scathing remark, but it's true.

Another book I'm almost done with is The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. To sum it up with two words- Very Interesting. He has a very different viewpoint than most Christians or even most Americans. I certainly don't agree with everything he writes in this book, but it makes you think a lot about America and what being a Christian is and is not about. One of the lessons I've learned from it i guess would be that if you're not reaching out to your community (including outcasts, poor people, people of different backgrounds/heritages, etc.) then you're missing a big part about what it is to be a Christian and we need to better manage our money here in the big U of A. But the book's funny, because this guy is on the hippie side of Christianity, and it really shows through his writings. He's an activist, and participates in demonstrations and protests and quotes Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi and Doris Day and other socio-political activists and gives the whole thing a Christian twist. But I agree with Todd and J.R. that it's a good idea to expose yourself to opinions and perspectives different than your own. This book is the epitome of a different perspective. Wow.

God has been doing interesting things in my life. I'm at a point where I'm asking more questions than I am making assumptions. Also God's sort of training me to trust Him no matter what the circumstances. Good cliche for sunday morning, but to actually do it when nothing makes sense at all and you want to give up is another. But time after time God is faithful and He makes everything work out okay.

Latest news- I got a call 430am this morning from the police. They said that our store had been broken into. So I dragged my sleepy, nappy rear end up there and saw a busted front window and 80+ missing phones inside. What a day. So now we're cleaning up the collateral damage so to speak. I wonder if God didn't allow me to be manager here at this store for this particular reason. Maybe only eternity will tell.