A week and six days ago I arrived in Lubbock, Texas for my summer internship. I started working the next day. It took me awhile to get into the swing of things, and I think it was because I was so burnt our from finals week, to singing in a friends wedding, to driving 9 hours to Lubbock. Speaking of finals...ish, I got a 3.8 to end the semester with and I made the Dean's list for the second semester in a row (last semester I had a 3.9, which is the highest my gpa has ever been in my entire life). And this last semester was my hardest one yet, so I'm pretty pumped with the results! Another year at Ozark has successfully gone by and I am now officially an upperclassman in college.
Back to Lubbock...I am interning in the Worship and Creative Arts department at Trinity Church and I have loved every moment of it thus far! Most of the work I've done so far has just been office work, but I have had the opportunity to lead worship for the college group on Tuesday nights and will continue to do so throughout the Summer, and I had my first guitar lesson ever. My fingers still kind of tingle, but yesterday they were burning as if someone slapped my fingers in between two hot plates of a straightening iron. At some point I'll pick up the drums, and lead worship for the entire congregation (Trinity is a mega-church of about 4000 members), amongst other music things. The people here are absolutely wonderful, and especially wonderful is the family I'm living with: the Cox's.
Rhonda Cox used to work for my dad when we lived in Lubbock 10 years ago. Her and her husband, Stephen, have three daughters: Taylor (14), Sydnee (9), and Rylee (6). In all honesty, when I first found out who I would be living with, I thought the experience might be overwhelming, but it has been far from. I like being a big sister! I only have one sibling of the five I have who is younger than me...and he's a boy...Sydnee and Rylee both told me the second day I was here that they were going to be very sad when I left at the end of the summer. They both also made me beautiful crafts at art camp this week. Taylor and I have had many good conversations getting to know each other and are planning on spending some time together tonight at Starbucks and then the movies. Stephen and Rhonda are pretty great, too. I couldn't ask for a better family to live with (not to mention, not only do I have my own room with a walk-in closet, but I also have my own bathroom, a luxury I have never had until now).
This past week I took the time to read a new book, Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel. In a nutshell, Groeschel writes about people who "believe in God, but live as if He doesn't exist." One of my favorite chapters was one titled "When You Believe in God but Still Worry All the Time." In my early blogging days, I wrote a post about worrying being a sin. Not to my surprise, Craig agrees with me. This is a topic that really hits home for me because, as some of you who know me well enough, or who have at least read some of my earlier posts, I can tend to be a worry-wart. But as Groeschel so put it, "Worry indicates we're not willing to let God handle certain things--at least not in his way, and certainly not in his time." He then quoted Mattew 6:27, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" and finished by saying, "I wonder how many hours of worry has shaved off the end of my life? (Now I'm really worried.)"
Worrying, as Christians, becomes an issue of trust. It discredits the power of God (wrongfully so!) It's like telling God, "I know that I have no control over this situation, but instead of giving it to you, all powerful, trustworthy, awesome God, I'm going to sit here and worry. It's the last thing that I have any control over, so instead of giving you any control, I'll just worry." Rather than sitting around and worrying the sweat out of us, Groeschel coined, "We still have responsibility to do what we can, but doing what we can't isn't ours anymore." Whenever we begin to worry, that should be a read flag that it's time to pray. Do what you can, and then bring your worry to God, trusting that He is not only in control, but that He will take care of the situation, and just that revelation alone should bring such a peace about you.
As brief as this post is, I hope it satisfies some of you until the next time I blog (which will not be two months from now, I promise!)
It won't be two months from now, because it'll probably be four months from now.
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