impending departure

I love how God works in our lives. It's silly that we're ever in a place of not trusting Him. Think about who He is! He only created us, this entire universe, this galaxy we call the Milky Way (yummm), and oh wait--all those other hundreds of billions of galaxies out there that we don't even know about!! And we think we can contain Him. Ha. He shakes His head at us sometimes, I think. See Psalm 113:5. There is no one like Him!

My first sentence refers to how God has shown me himself these few weeks at home. In a way, it's hard to come home after school. I was missing my friends there, the community of believers that I have been so blessed with in Chapel Hill. It's easy to do this relationship with God when you're studying His character in the Word with these girls on this night, worshipping His sweet name with all these people this morning, etc. What if all that isn't going on? What if you don't have those people? Guess what? That's not a crutch, that's a blessing. Given to me to better my view of God. So though the people around us, encouraging or not, change, move away, pass away, God doesn't change. He is the only constant in this life. He's still there, pursuing me like crazy, even if my schedule has changed some. I'm so grateful for Him, for His faithfulness.

Deuteronomy (on God's faithfulness):

• 29:5 "During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet." (says the Lord)
• 30:4-6 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
• 31:6 Be stong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
• 32:4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

Bam! Bam! Bam! One truth right after the other!And there's more where that came from! Wow, don't we serve an awesome God?

So I'm about to leave Jacksonville for Durham. The City Project.... is about to begin. More importantly, God is about to rock my world (and the worlds of about 25 other college kids doing this with me). I'm stoked, to say the least. Also, I needed about $153 more for the cost of the City Project as of last Friday. The yard sale on Saturday brought in $276!!! Wow God is good! Case in point. And we were practically giving stuff away! (I got my dad really motivated to get rid of stuff... the second floor of that little house is cleared out.) Thank you to the ones who prayed for my time of support raising, and for those who physically took part in that!

Until next time.... from Wendy's house in Durham! :)

Yard sale!!!

Saturday at 7am. Be there. Yes I know it’s early, but the Harts have a lot to get rid of!

Seriously though, this should be interesting. One, because there is so much STUFF to sort through and try to sell. I’m really banking on “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Two, we’ve never had a yard sale! At least not as the entire Hart family (my Dad said they did this once in California… that was a long time ago). Three, it starts at 7am. Yikes.

So Thomas, my younger brother, and I were upstairs in the 2^nd floor of the “little house” last night. The little house is basically a big storage shed in our backyard, and no one in their right mind would go up to the second story. We braved the mood lighting (dark) until I brought a lamp up and we figured out which outlet worked. Thomas discovered a huge spider (that was definitely a killer in it’s prime) and proceeded to name it Shelob. We brought a lot of stuff down the steep, narrow stairway that we unfortunately couldn’t avoid, and set it up on the back patio. Today is for getting more stuff out of the little house, cleaning, determining what can be salvaged, and staging (my Dad’s word) the items in their proper place for the morning.

The awesome thing is, my parents agreed to let all the proceeds of this yard sale go to my summer. They are sweet for helping me out in this way. I’m really close to having all my support raised for the City Project, and so I’m hoping this is successful! Plus, like I said before, we just really need to get rid of stuff. I’ve been thinking lately of how much we have, and I think it will be good for all of us to have less stuff to look at, think about, worry about, clean up. I like the idea of living simpler. I know I’ll definitely experience what it means to go without this summer. I’ll be living in downtown Durham and, though I’ll be perfectly provided for, it will be different from the safe and quiet neighborhood that is Beech Tree. And that won’t even be close to the poverty I see in Kenya. There’s a perspective there that I don’t have yet… that I can’t imagine yet.

creating the name

I was enjoying pizza at IP3 one of the last Saturday nights of the school year. Alex, a close friend, asked me to describe this past year with one word. Why did she do that? Because she likes to ask thought-provoking questions, and she's awesome. So I thought about it a bit, but my indecisive mind was not fast enough, and the conversation moved on.

I did think of a word, however, and "refining" was what I came up with. I knew that I had grown and changed; that I had been challenged and even tested in the fire at some points. And through that, God showed His power despite my weakness and inability to do right. Every situation, whether I feel confident and successful or horrible and unworthy in its outcome, God uses me. Even in my disobedience, God is working to do what He wants.... and what He wants is good. Romans 8:28 ("And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.") doesn't say that in most situations God does this. It doesn't say He only does this when we're good or when we please Him. It says in ALL things he works good. That says a lot about His power.

Being refined isn't easy. If we're talking about metalwork, like silver and gold (what God refers to in Zechariah 13), then we're talking about purifying the metal by heating it up til it is molten. It's real, real hot. Not comfortable. So God removing our impurities to refine us is not exactly a day at the beach!! And if the beach is not something you enjoy, disregard this metaphor :)  But we can even have faith, be joyous, and actually REJOICE during this refining process! "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:3-4). As we allow God to refine us now, we can look and hope for the day when we will be comepletely refined, totally restored, and finally redeemed to the perfect children that God originally created us to be!

So in all actuality, I'd say not only this year was refining, but my whole life is a refining process. In His abundant mercy, He continually washes off my guilt and purifies me from sin. He tests my faith. He is good.
I love Romans 8, by the way. It's probably one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. So full of good truth.