HAHA.

Hi My Name's Alaina and I'm a Sexist.

Recently, I have realized how sexist I can be. Not towards the opposite sex, but my own. After an amazing worship set at the Link, Leanna got up to introduce the speaker for the night, and it was a young woman who is a High School youth pastor at a church in Long Beach. Automatically, I assumed the message was going to be terrible. Why? Women are just as capable as men to present an incredible message, yet I still pre-judge the lesson on the presence of certain appendages or lack there of. Her message ended up being incredible and exactly what I needed to hear. She addressed stress not only within a college setting, but life in general. 

The young woman gave three ways in which God will present himself in stressful situations. First, Sometimes God just wants us to be still and let him be God. She used the example of the Israelites right before God split the sea. They cursed God and cursed Moses for leading them through the desert only to Die. Then God was just wanting them to CHILL OUT and let him be God. He split the sea, and they crossed to safety. 

The second way God meets us in our anxiety-head moments is by letting us know sometimes we need to be still in the moment and trust that He is God. The speaker described an imaginary situation to portray this idea. Say you are in the desert, and there is no way whatsoever to get water. Minutes from death, you start to pray for God to provide water and all of a sudden you spot a water bottle out of nowhere. But you ask God, "Cant you jut put it in my body for me? I'm too tired to even open the bottle." and he's probably just thinking , "Reeeaaaallly? You're grown up, do it yourself." Similarly, we become so paralyzed by our stress so when God provides us an "out" we refuse to drink the water that is right in front of us. We need to be still in the moment, let God be God, and respond to Him when needed. He'll provide the water but sometimes we just have to drink it ourselves.

 Finally, in stressful situations, sometimes God just requires every inch of our being to get through our current trial. When the Israelites were marching through the entire night to battle and after fighting all day, God then sent down hail to kill more than the Israelites swords did and also had the sun stay still through the next night. In the midst of the marching I'm sure the soldiers were furious and couldn't see how God would eventually move in miraculous ways. Yet after the battle, what do you bet not one person regretted seeing God work supernaturally that day/night/thing. So even if we don't see God in the midst of trials, he will work it to His benefit eventually. 

 Through everything that has been going on the last few weeks, her message was exactly what I needed to hear.  Not only did it show me that God is present in all situations, but it also made me realize how sexist I can be. Who knew?

Melancholy.

So I have this issue with authority figures. They always convince me to do the complete opposite of what I was planning on doing. I was planning on leaving Hope (see previous post) and I had become perfectly content with it. Actually, I was kind of looking forward to it. Today however, that little issue I have came into play. I met with the Dean and he actually was extremely nice to me and tried to do me a favor by waving the "administrative withdrawal" placed on my name so I could finish the semester with all my credits. I still have to pay the money but I need to work out a plan so I can pay it eventually. So naturally, I said okay. The problem is, I was really looking forward to working and saving up for Israel. I'm happy to be staying, but I am a little disappointed. I sort of feel like a kid who was looking forward to summer vacation, then all of a sudden it got canceled and the teachers assigned a ton of work. I guess I'm just a little melancholy. 

School's Out?

I am officially being withdrawn from HIU. I guess I owe a substantial amount of money (try 8,700) to the school and they sent me a notice a couple weeks ago saying I am going to be "administratively withdrawn." I met with my advisor today and tomorrow I'm meeting with the dean to make everything official. Surprisingly, I am actually okay with it. Andie has offered me a place to stay and now maybe I can work full time to save up for Ecuador and Israel. I still can't decide if its almost a blessing. I've prayed about it a lot though and I think it's best to just submit to the whole process instead of fighting it. I have a lot of time to go back to school, maybe now is the time to work and save up. 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." -James 1:2-4

I've joined the movement!

I decided that I need to attempt to be semi-cool and start blogging. I'm not exactly sure how this all works, hopefully I'll get a hang of it soon so I can update everyone from Israel!