Life in the States

It has been such a whirlwind experience being back! I'm still waiting for a chance to catch my breath, which will hopefully come this afternoon.

Being the crazy girl that I am, the night I returned home, I stayed up giving gifts to my parents. I could have waited until today to do it, since we were doing a combined Mothers Day and Fathers Day celebration, but I simply didn't want to wait that long to show them what I had found for them. I was so excited while I was travelling to find things that I thought would be perfect that I kept telling them in my e-mails "I can't wait to show you what I found!!". I was just so proud of myself that I was able to find meaningful gifts rather than cheesy tourist souvenirs. Later on, I was reflecting on this, and I remembered being a little child and picking little flowers, which turned out to be weeds, and proudly presenting them to my parents as a gift that I had picked all by myself. It was with that same child-like pride and confidence that I was still giving these gifts to my parents. Regardless of the true quality of the gift, I had spent time thinking of them and no matter what anyone else could tell me, I knew that my parents would love them.

Why don't we still go to God that way?

Too often we get stuck in the rut of saying "I'm simply a miserable human being who can't do anything on my own. There is nothing I can bring to God that He doesn't already have.". That's all very true. But that never stopped us as kids. Those flowers were in the backyard that my parents owned. If they really wanted those weeds, they could have picked them themselves. But I never thought about that. I went ahead and brought them anyway. Yes, everything we have is God's. But don't let that cause us to stop bringing it to Him. How much more terrific would life be if we could run into the very presence of God saying "Daddy! Daddy! Look what I have for you!", bringing our gifts, talents, time and our very selves before Him. We can acknowledge that He already gave it, but that shouldn't keep us from running in with any less joy.

But on to other matters...

Saturday I spent the day with my high school marching band. I had breakfast at a local restaurant with them, and specifically with one of my best friends and her mom. I went to their final parade (which was always my favorite one) and saw their terrific show which helped them beat the crosstown rival bands a couple weeks ago (for the first time in 20 some years!). It was so great to see how far they've come compared to last August when I first heard them at band camp and wondered "will they really pull it together?". That evening was my good friend's grad party, and it was so amazing to see so many people I haven't seen - some of them in a year! I got to catch up and start to make plans to spend more time with everyone this week. As I was driving my best friend home, we were discussing what it was like to be home at this time of year after finishing a whole year of college. It's so different because "the old gang" isn't around anymore - everyone is off at summer activities. And so many others we've failed to stay in touch with, simply because of how busy college kept us. There's also a feeling of not quite belonging anymore. As if we're still trying to find our place in our own hometown now that everything has changed without us. It will be an interesting summer for sure!

Then today I went to my home church, which was incredible! It was so nice to see all those familiar faces and to have people welcome me back and tell me how much they were praying for me. I told Pastor Gary that his sermon was the best sermon in English I had heard for several weeks ; ) In reality, it was quite good. He was finishing his 6 month series on the Sermon on the Mount, challenging us to build upon the Rock rather than the shifting sand. Next week he'll be starting a series I'm really looking forward to hearing. It's going to be on Psalm 23 and God's stress busters that are revealed in there. It's his summer series, so I'll actually get to hear all of it!!

And now my family and I are spending Father's Day relaxing around the house. I'm reviewing over my book this for the summer to figure out how I'm going to tackle it. This is how it's shaping up:

The main goal is to read as many of C.S. Lewis's works as possible. I have already read The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and A Grief Observed. The summer list is shaping up like this:

The Problem of Pain
The Great Divorce
Miracles
The Abolition of Man
(those are the ones I already own)

Till We Have Faces
Surprised by Joy
The Four Loves
The Weight of Glory

...and we'll see how far I make it before I begin to add more than I can swallow.