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| Ok, what do you do when you feel like you are so busy, you can't even hear the still small voice of God anymore? What do you do when you love so so many things and want to pour your heart into so many things, people, ministries, and end up feeling like you have whiplash everyday? What do you do when a friend whom you don't even see that much tells you that he's under the impression that you are so busy all the time? It's like I know this about myself. I know I like to do this to myself. I actually took a break and consciously dropped things from my schedule about 4 months ago, and here I am again. What is it about my personality that has this insatiable need to be busy all the time? No, no, I'm really not trying to be busy. I promise! I just love so many things and have become quite indiscriminate and thus, busyness has "happened" to me. Haha, can that happen?? God, help me.
P.S. Hello xanga, whom I have not loved in a while.... 
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| Attempting to go Green!!
So Kathy and I are going to try to go green, at least as much as we
can! My motivations come from a combination of wanting to holistically
care for God's creation and also to save money by using resources more
efficiently.
A few things that Kathy and I have done...
1. We each have a cotton bag sporting the very cool words "Stop Using Plastic Bags," with which I have gone grocery shopping with a couple of times already, and saved a few plastic bags in the process.
2. Since we live in an apartment complex, it's very difficult to
recycle. If you don't have a house (and therefore, your own blue
recycle bin), then you must drive your recyclable items to the nearest
drop off location. Currently, Dallas only has 32 drop off locations
(that's so few!!), but this year, they plan on increasing that to 70
locations. Hopefully, that trend will continue. We plan on recycling
all plastics, paper, newspapers, and cardboard, and glass and metal,
should that occur as well. The nearest recycling drop off place to us
is at a church on Spring Valley and Coit. We plan on making regular
trips and drop off our recyclables.
3. I also went out and bought a few compact fluorescent light bulbs
(CFLs) and replaced all the bulbs in my bedroom and closet and will try
to replace a few in the living room (though they're hard to reach right
now). These can save up to 75% of energy and can last up to 10 times
longer. They also look more like the sun!
We will try to be more conscious of a few other more "typical" things, such as the following...
4. We will turn the temperature of our A/C up a few degrees whenever we leave or do our best to use fans when at home. --> This is what I meant to say...
5. We will only buy food that we truly plan on eating, so as to reduce food waste.
6. We will carry water with us in Nalgene-type bottles vs. the throwaway plastic bottles.
7. We each have ceiling fans in our room (which is nice!), but
currently none in the living room. We're going to use a stand alone fan
there as much as possible, reducing the need for running A/C.
Unfortunately, it's still hard to walk/bike to in Dallas or to make our
own compost, and I don't think either of us plan on going vegetarian
just yet, but hey, this is a start!!
For some cool websites, especially the one about recycling in Dallas, including locations where you can drop off recyclable items, check these out:
http://www.dallascityhall.com/sanitation/faqs_recycling.html
http://www.dallascityhall.com/sanitation/dropoff_locations.html
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3915
Signed,
Green-Wannabe
(aka Lucy) | | |
| Sometimes I feel like I have so many passions and things I want to try, that I don't know where exactly God wants me to be, where to serve, what my true gifts/talents are, or what He might want to develop out of me that is not already here. It's almost downright confusing at times. Then I step back at times and realize I am just making things too complicated. In the end, there are two things I must remember first and foremost. I must remember that I am one of God's children, beloved by Him. I can never do anything to earn more grace from Him. I can never do anything more to prove myself to Him. And therefore, I must live peacefully in that truth, no matter what I face or decisions I must make. Secondly, it's not really about me anyway. It's not about my gifts/talents or struggles/things I must work on, but rather in the end, it's about obedience to Christ. If God called me to do something that I really think I am terrible at, so what? Do I talk myself out of it because I think I do not have the right "skill sets" for it, or do I walk in obedience and follow God one step at a time? I think it should be the latter. It should be obedience coupled with faith, and hopefully fruit will be produced from it, God willingly.
There are a few things that I do love or have enjoyed as I experienced them. Hopefully as time passes, God will show me how I may use these things for His glory. I like sharing the message of eternal salvation through repetence of sin and a life lived for Christ. Although, in the same breath, I am terrified of this as well. Perhaps I shall never be an evangelist, but rather simply be called to do the "work" of an evangelist (ref. 2 Timothy 4:5), which is different, but something that all believers are called to do, and I think I do fall within the confines of "all believers" hehe.
I like being involved in missions work, whatever that may be - learning about what God is doing overseas, even going on occasion, or simply having an understanding that our God works outside of Plano/Dallas/U.S. To me, missions work also means the spreading of the holistic gospel, meaning not just preaching the good news and not just aiding and bringing relief to people physically, but more the holistic healing and sanctification of people. I've had the opportunity to think about this much more again in light of the recent tragedies with the Myanmar Cyclone and the China Earthquake. I praise God for organizations like World Vision who have made their way in there to hopefully share the holistic gospel which heals physically, mentally, and spiritually.
I like encouraging and exhorting people to walk closer to God and to grow spiritually. I think this is actually a great passion of mine - something I hope to develop even more. I like listening to people's real issues and be able to talk them through it or at least be a listening ear and hopefully offer advice that points them back to God. I think I actually like public speaking, which may come alongside the whole encouraging/exhorting deal. Hidden in here may be a secret desire to learn how to teach (or even preach - dare I say that) better. I haven't had much of a chance to do any of that. My full-time job thus far as been primarily working with people on a more one-on-one basis, although since it's been in sales, I've had to be somewhat professional and forthcoming in my speech. God has used my sales experience to teach me so much and give me an insight on working with people, broken people and difficult people. I think I read on someone's Facebook page about a quote a DTS prof said once. This is something to the affect of, "There are hurt mean people, and there are mean mean people." I really love this quote. I tend to think there are many more hurt mean people, which has so many implications for understanding how to teach/counsel/exhort/understand people. Anyhow, I digress...
So at this point, I am trying to simply lay it all down before God almighty and hope and pray that He will reveal to me little bits of His path for me one by one. I am simply along for the ride. Yes? Amen!
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| RIP to My Poor Titanium Powerbook... Almost
I purchased my Titanium Powerbook back in June 2002. I've had it for almost 6 years now. I must say that many times, I am quite proud of the fact that I am using such an "old" machine and that it's been so good to me. Whenever people suggest that I buy a new machine, I make comments like, "Oh, nah, it'll last for a while longer." or "Why? It's so expensive to buy a laptop."
In these 6 years, I have never EVER replaced my battery, and so now, if I leave my laptop unplugged for more than say 10-15 minutes, it will surely die. This is fine in of itself, except that my power cord (right near where it plugs into the base of my laptop) has started fraying. Yes, fraying! But usually I can find a good "sweet spot" for the cord so that it's at least still charging my laptop. But this did begin my wariness of my little machine that was breaking. I started seeing the importance of backing up all my files, which I did. Again, more gentle coaxing from good friends that now is the time to buy a new computer.
Then last week, I tried closing my screen, and oops, half of the screen literally snaps off the base of the laptop. I stood in there amazement, looking at the screen basically half tangling there in mid-air. I think for a moment, and then decide, ok, yeah, I really need to buy a new laptop. So I went to apple.com and purchased the mid-range white Macbook. It takes about a week to get here, and I figure, I have plenty of time.
So in the last two days, things get progressively worse. Every time I open and shut my screen, more "stuff" starts falling out of my laptop... I'm talking chip-like looking things, sponge-like looking things (I guess parts of the insides of your laptop need cushioning or something), little pieces of metal are falling out or simply hanging there. The "sweet spot" in which I must rest my power cord in order to maintain a charge is slowly getting harder and harder and harder to find.
Yesterday, I twisted and turned and pulled and curled the power cord for at least 5 minutes, trying to find the place where my laptop would charge, fully aware that if I didn't find that spot within the next 10 minutes, my computer would die on me. I must say that I did fully back-up my entire hard drive a few days ago, with no major changes since then, so I should be ok. Today, I was writing a thank you email (which as of this moment still hasn't been sent out!), and again, every once in a while, I had to re-find that "sweet spot". While I was doing that, there were a few occasions where it actually started smoking, yes, SMOKING, and a nice sweet burning smell came with it! A couple of times, there were even a few sparks that came out of my power cord. Exciting! Like 4th of July!!
Finally, I decided this was it. I think I should stop looking for the sweet spot. I mean, my laptop might explode. Or catch on fire. Or electrocute me. Or something else bad might happen. I closed my screen and let my laptop go into its final, deep sleep. I shall wait for my Macbook that's on it's way to me even as I type this, I hope!
I will use Kathy's laptop for a few days. Please don't be upset if I don't respond to your email right away for a little while. I probably just can't check it!
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People
with blue Interests like job responsibilities and occupations that
involve creative, humanistic, thoughtful, and quiet types of
activities. Blue Interests include abstracting, theorizing, designing,
writing, reflecting, and originating, which often lead to work in
editing, teaching, composing, inventing, mediating, clergy, and
writing.
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People
with blue styles prefer to perform their job responsibilities in a
manner that is supportive and helpful to others with a minimum of
confrontation. They prefer to work where they have time to think things
through before acting. People with blue style tend to be insightful,
reflective, selectively sociable, creative, thoughtful, emotional,
imaginative, and sensitive. Usually they thrive in a cutting edge,
informally paced, future-oriented environment. You will want to choose
a work environment or career path in which your style is welcomed and
produces results. |
Hahahaaa.... this is Lucy? Is this what I am doing everyday?
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