Still living, just not writing as much

Ya'll who read this blog, sorry for the long gaps.

Tired and busy.

Dad has given me speeches about what to look for with depression.

I've had some tough battles with relationships that have broken our hearts.

God continues to draw me nearer to Him, and that's often through trials.

I've learned of people talking about me and criticizing without going through proper Biblical channels (offendor first, then with witnesses, then before church). But God teaches me to love and forgive.

I think I'm supposed to be resting more and taking more time with The Lord more. It's so easily justified to figure that there's so much of the Lord's work going on all about that "quiet time" is not an option. But that's a lie. It's actually a requirement-- not in a legalistic type way, but just for the path to peace that God is plowing in our hearts.

I realize that my journaling has become somewhat reflectional, but that's just where I am right now. I know pictures are "funner"

I'm starting to do more visiting with the people and that's been a huge blessing. I think maybe God may be drawing me back into "full time ministry" despite my aversion to the system. Life's just too short not to be living the way God gifted us to thrive most. Still a ginormous gap exists between the way people feel when they know they are ministered to by volunteers and by "paid ministers"

I met two men today both of whom lost family in the hurricane's aftermath. One just got his mother's body from the Feds Tuesday. There are still over 300 unclaimed bodies.

I've been learning a lot about FEMA and the whole process. Did you know that unless impoverished before the storm, everyone is required to fill out an application through the Small Business Administration? It's part of the "system" of getting help from FEMA. And you can't get anything until you make that application process happen. People are afraid of getting the loan, so they don't fill it out. But they can't get help unless they do fill it out. The gist is that the uneducated are the ones who lose because the system must be explained in the funked up way that it is, which doesn't make sense to most people.

Had an amazing presentation at a staff meeting:

I want to tell you of a group of people who were thrust into a ministry together. They were all different backgrounds, of all diverse talents, diverse strengths and weaknesses, there were some who were better at some things than others. They had a leader who would quietly pray for them and pray that they would simply just get along and do well.

Everybody knew the story was about us. We have been living together like church camp that has lasted 12 weeks. Tensions have run high. Janet prays for us and tries to hold us together. We all do different jobs. Some people click with others and some people clash with others. So then Becky flips the page on the chart to reveal the group she was talking about.

Peter
Andrew
James
John
Phillip
Bartholemew
Thomas
Matthew
James
Thaddeus
Simon
Judas

Their leader tried to hold them together. Tried to get them together on the things that mattered most: Loving one another. Sometimes they just didn't get it. There was always a power struggle as to who would be the greatest among them. But he stuck with them and stayed faithful to his own call that he had given them, not because they were deemed worthy to fulfill the task.