The repercussions of a surprise birthday party.

Earlier this month I bought a lottery ticket.
Why? Because I can.
Why? Because I have a really believable fake I.D.

....

Haha, kidding. It's because I turned 18.

And let me tell you my birthday was the bomb diggety! I had a surprise visit from my parents, was introduced on the Missouri House Floor, and was surprised with cake at TWO restaurants. And that's just the summary.

But these things didn't all happen on a whim. They were perfectly coordinated by none other than my amazing boss and close friend Jessica.

See Jessica's one of those people who is really into surprises, so she gets kind of excited about birthdays. In fact, she even TOLD me she had big plans for my birthday. And I was super stoked to hear that.

Because Jess knows me really well. She knows the kind of things I'm into, things that are really exciting to me and stuff I'll be blessed with. She knows the kind of surprises that will embarrass me, the ones that will make me laugh, and the type that will touch me so much that I will cry. And she also knows how to coordinate.

So I wasn't nervous when she told me she was doing stuff for my birthday. I was actually pretty pumped.

Scene Switch.

Earlier this week I ran into something from my past that shook me up a bit. It was a rough experience and not something I was planning on having to deal with.
But the situation came up. And yes, tears started to roll down.

I won't go into detail, but I was a mess.

And I was also really confused. I didn't understand why I was having to go through this pain again, when it didn't seem like anything productive was going to come out of it. Nothing changed, except that I wasn't feeling okay anymore.

After an hour of crying, a phone call to a friend, and a few screaming fits, I finally put my car in drive and went home.
Make-up came off, pajamas went on, and I pulled out my 40 Days devotional book. (Again, shout out to the Douglas's, this book is amazing.)

The theme for that day was "I Am With You". Yeah, okay. I get that. I knew God was with me earlier that night. And while it was a comfort, I still wasn't exactly thrilled to have to go through that experience.

But as I read through the devo, I started marking the page up with my blue marker. Because some things stood out.



      "I know precisely what you need to draw nearer to Me....Accept every event as My hand-tailored provision for you needs....find Me in every situation."     

Accept every event?

Well, God must have meant every event besides this one. Because this one hurt. Bad.
But the more I thought, the more I was humbled and I realized every event means just that. Without exceptions. Every. Event.

And that's when I started thinking about Jessica and my birthday surprises. Because I know the outcome of my life is a surprise that God is coordinating. And just like I trusted Jess with planning my birthday, I need to trust God with the outcome of my life.

And every event that leads to it.

Because God knows me really well. He knows the kind of things I'm into, things that are really exciting to me and stuff I'll be blessed with. He knows the kind of surprises that will embarrass me, the ones that will make me laugh, and the type that will touch me so much that I will cry. And He also knows how to coordinate.

See, I trust Jessica, I knew she was going to make my birthday special.
And I think I need to start realizing that God is that exact same way. I can trust Him to orchestrate every event-every event- into His big plan. His surprise.

Which doesn't exactly make the rough times fun, but it makes me want to act a whole lot more joyful during them.

Maybe He's using my painful event to get my attention. Maybe it's supposed to draw me closer to Him. Maybe it's to help the other people involved. Or maybe it's something that me, on my level, can't understand. Because I'm not God.

I think sometimes, when these things happen to use, we tend to forget just how massive God is. We've placed in him our own definitions, our own limitations, and really kind of belittled Him.
I know this video really put things in perspective for me. I know it's an extra link to click on, but seriously, watch it. It's humbling.

http://youtu.be/qnrJVTSYLr8

Now I'm not saying every situation is God designed. My friend Jessica (Not birthday-Jessica, bookwriting-Jessica) once said a very true, very serious statement. "God can upon doors. But Satan can too."

But regardless of who opened the door, we are supposed to find God in every situation. And just as importantly, act as God would want us too.

Because, if God did design the situation, we can't risk acting the wrong way and losing an opportunity.
If Satan plotted it out, we can't risk acting the wrong way and fulfilling his plan.

I want to end with a text I literally just got, as I was writing this post. My friend Collin and I were talking about being a witness for Christ, by the way you live your life. He sent me this:

Every action made is either a positive or negative toward a persons witness. There is no neutral.

Live without pretense. Love. Drink more water. Relax, trust Him. Act as Him.
A.Diez
   

But the party don't stop..

I've always tried to be one of those "every day" Bible readers, and usually I can accomplish this pretty well. Even days when I am dead tired, I open the book, read a verse, hit the hay.

It works well. And besides, I've been reading the Bible ever since I learned how. Everything is just kind of a review for me now. The Bible does say to be in the word daily, so I always try to make sure I'm able to check that off my Christianity checklist for the day. Read Bible- check. Pray- check. Boom. Done. Then I'm be able to breathe easy for the rest of the day.

Until this morning.

My youth pastor and his wife gave me the cutest book ever for my birthday. It's called 40 Days with Jesus, Celebrating His Presence. It's just a nice little book with a page a day that has a two paragraph devotional written from Jesus to the reader. I highly recommend it. And I'm only on day 2.

Here's a short blurb from part of today's letter:

"These quiet moments with Me transcend time, accomplishing far more than you can imagine. Bring Me the sacrifice of your time, and watch to see how abundantly I bless you and your loved ones."

And just like it is when God screams something to me, I felt a realization hit me in a quiet and gentle, yet very apparent, way.

[Bring me the sacrifice of your time].
 I'd never thought of it that way before. Sure I'd spend time reading the Bible, but after I felt spiritually full, I'd close it and be done. Even if that meant only reading it for three minutes.

Nights I wanted to watch The Office, I'd pray long enough to get through the necessities (say thank you, repent for something, ask God for help, ect.) and then wrap it up pretty quick.

I'd never really thought about blessing God through giving Him my time.

But it makes sense. God wants us to sacrifice our money (10% tithe), He asks us to give Him our dreams and goals and energy. So why not our time too?

And honestly, the more I've been thinking about it, the more of a relief it is. Because sometimes, I'll read my Bible for FOREVER, and I'll still be like "Well. That was a waste of time. No heavy revys, no energy re-charge. Just a bunch of words." Especially if I'm reading something in Numbers.

But today I realized, it's not a waste of time. It's a gift of time, from myself to God. And that is never a waste.

I met with someone last month who had previously worked for one of the Presidents of the United States. This man said during meetings with the President, every person was to keep their cell phones off. If someone forgot, and it rang, the President would turn to them and say "And exactly who is more important that the President of the Unites States?"

I can just picture God saying that to me now. "Alonnah, exactly who is more important than the Creator of the Universe?" Uh... yeah. Still trying to come up with a good answer for that one.

And I know this is probably freaking some of you out. Because you feel like you don't have a lot of time to give. I understand, I have obligations too. But when I thought of this, I was instantly flashed to a story from the Bible.

Mark 12-
⁴¹ Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴² But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
⁴³ Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴ They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
.
We all have different amounts off free time, different amounts we can give. I'm not trying to say if you're busy, you get off scott-free. Not at all. But more in retrospect, that days we have a lot of free time, well, we have a lot more time to give.

Tick tock on the clock, but the party don't stop.
There's always going to be other things to do. Facebook. T.V. Socializing with friends. Eating. Drawing. Reading. Cooking. Taking a shower. The possibilities are endless. If you're waiting for a time when you have nothing to do, you'll be waiting forever.

Live without pretense. Love. Drink more water. Sacrifice it.

A.Diez.