eat, pray, loved it

I saw the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" and it lived up to the book I read as I traveled around Europe last summer, so many great one-liners that just speak to your soul. While the author's religion is questionable, she says so many things that can be applied to the Christian's life. sidenote: finding God's fingerprints in books, songs, movies, situations which seem to the world secular, is one of my favorite things. One quote that got me is, "Ruin is transformation"...so when the weight of this world gets the better of me, God slips little reminders like this that He is changing me, that He is using me to bring others to Him. Even though it feels like my world is falling apart at times, and sometimes when I am sitting on the couch next to Dad I have to pinch myself to remember our reality so I soak up the moment. Through what seems like ruin, I know there is transformation in all of us.

One more, "I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet to come surprises". This leads me into Francis Chan's sermon I heard this past sunday when I was in SB, he continually reminded us that we do not need to worry or be afraid of the unknown because we already have a table set for us in heaven. Furthermore, in Big God yesterday I read, "God is the God of details so that we don't have to be caught up in and worried about them", and "we should have a faith that is willing because God first said 'I will'". So by waking up each morning and taking that first sip of joy to keep me going all day, I am able to leave the details to God and instead use that room to focus on helping others-whether that be campers from this summer, training my athletes, bringing a smile to someone whose gait cycle I am analyzing, or being friendly to the hundreds of strangers I pass by across the sjsu campus know may not know Jesus. Now I am going off on a tangent, but to bring it back, my point is that by choosing joy I can show people what life with Jesus can be despite the valleys that we stumble across. One of my campers the last week of camp commented that she would be such a mess and not be able to go on if one of her parents had cancer...I replied that I used to say the same thing concerning my friends who had similar situations, but then it happened and look I am running around all summer doing ridiculous things filled with so much joy and with so much love to poor out on these lovely ladies who crossed my path. By just living each day with a smile and a bounce in my new pink running shoes (that I got half off of because of one of my 2 best jobs ever) I am leaving space in my life for the future and for others and for God to take care of the things I do not have control of/need to worry about.

I am going for a long long run tomorrow because I don't have any work until 2:30 and I have not had enough Jesus time this week.