when He appears

"Now little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming...Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." 1 John 2:28, 3:2

I've been thinking a lot about these few verses for a little while now.  In Focus (our weekly training session), we talked about Jesus' second coming, which was an interesting discussion. I find eschatology fascinating, and have done several studies on Revelation. But the thing that gets me every time is when it hits me anew: He is coming back for me. He is coming back, and I will see Him face to face. I know for some people this would inspire fear and trembling, but for me, my heart jumps and I smile. The longing to see Him face to face increases as I realize, this is not my home. God gives us things to enjoy and to show us Himself while we are on this earth, but soon we will be Home.

All the more reason to "abide in Him". I want to live a life that is pleasing to God. I don't want to "shrink away from Him in shame" when He comes. That image is just so pathetic. Like a dog with his tail between his legs. I want my heart to be pure, and to know that my life was not waisted on things that don't matter, but was spent running after the Lord and His ways. And I'm not there completely (really, who is?), but I still look forward to His coming with joy and excitement!

How do you feel about meeting Jesus?

God cares about the little things.

This past week I have been adjusting to my life back in the UK. When I was back at home in the US I began making an effort to eat more healthfully, exercise more, and drink more water. These are things that I really want to continue doing while I'm here, so even though my schedule has been crazy some days, I've been trying to make these things a priority. Its pretty difficult, especially when eating healthy food can sometimes be costly...and since I'm still slightly under-supported, I've been extremely conscious of the money I spend.

So anyway, part of healthy living is drinking more water. I find that if my water is in a bottle I am more likely to drink it than if I have to get up and keep re-filling a glass. I didn't have any room in my luggage to bring one, so have been on the lookout for a nice big one for a nice price, but had been pretty unsuccessful. I was looking for a nice Nalgene type, but those are pretty pricey so wasn't sure what kind I'd end up with.

Then, on Friday, I just happened to peek in Charlie to see if there was anything good in there. (Charlie is where people on our team put things they don't want for other people to just take if they need it.) I had looked at the beginning of the week and didn't see anything useful, but on Friday I saw FOUR Nalgene water bottles! I took a big one and a small one... and I'm pretty sure I did a little happy dance on the way back to my desk.

In those moments I felt God speak to my heart, "see, I do care about you. I care about the little things, and I care about the big ones." God knows our hearts. He knows about the little things we're searching for. He knew I needed some water bottles, even if it seems silly to us that He would bother about those things. If He cares enough to provide the small things, how much more faithful will He be to provide for our every day? I may still be a little under-supported, but God knows exactly what I need and He will get it to me when I need it. If only He didn't have to teach me this lesson a thousand times.

I'm here!

I arrived safe and sound in Carlisle Wednesday afternoon after a long but uneventful journey. England greeted me with a cold, windy, rainy afternoon. And I realized I forgot to pack my umbrella.

Hello house! Nice to see you again.

Wednesday evening I was entertained by some friends so that I wouldn't fall asleep too early...but due to my sleep deprivation it is a fairly safe assumption that I entertained them! When I finally did make it to bed on Wednesday I had been awake for roughly 32 hours. Sleep was much welcome!

Thursday night I wasn't too tired at bedtime, but convinced myself to go to sleep anyway. I fell asleep quickly, and only woke of a few times but was able to go back to sleep. So I think I'll get over the jet-lag pretty fast.

Today I came into work, and it hasn't been very busy graphics-wise yet, but I've had to do some admin things related to coming back. And then tomorrow is the weekend. I could get used to one-day work-weeks...