is there a purpose in everything?

i got home this evening from work, kicked off my shoes, and then my dog peed in them.

shameless endorsments

i have been working so much lately that i have time for little else, but i have discovered a few things around the web (and in the real world) that deserve a shout-out.

1. i found out that my friend sara is in Asia. Random, huh? pray for her!

2. i am big into financial responsibility and such. My brother showed me this awesome website that helps you budget and pay off your debt. (just don't pay attention to the credit card ads). And its free, and we all know how much i love free stuff.

3. i have been podcasting sermons from Bethel church in california for a couple years now, but i just discovered that you can watch the worship online also. Maybe this is old news, but i was pretty excited when i found out. i have been turning it on while doing other things like cleaning, writing blogs, etc. good stuff.

4. i am a sucker for good customer service. Seriously. i will travel great distances and pay more money if i know that you are going to work for my best interest. Yesterday i took my 3+ year old macbook (read: outdated) to the apple store sans appointment with the idea that they could help me put all the things i need onto my computer without having to buy a new one. this super nice guy spent like 20 minutes with me coaching me through all the things i need to do. turns out i just need a software update and some new RAM and he sent me a link to a website where i can get it cheap. So instead of a $1,000+ new computer i am only spending $80 to make mine good as new. and i feel more computer savvy. i mean if you had told me two days ago that i would be ordering RAM online and that i actually would know what it is, i would not have believed you. So, all that being said, if you need apple help, go to the apple store in perimeter (and ask for kyle, you won't be sorry)

5. Covenant Care is a great organization that supports women in unexpected pregnancies. They help them make important decisions about the life of their child and match them with adoptive parents if that is what they choose. Covenant Care is having a fund-raising drive right now. They are finding a greater need now amongst decreased giving. I encourage you to prayerfully consider donating to this great cause.

6. My baby sister is in Guatemala this week. please pray for her and check out what they are doing HERE.

i think that is all the advertising that i have for right now. Sorry my posts are few and far between, there is not much going on unless you want to hear about dog poop and custom framing.

this is karen

so, the other day, my mom and i were headed to racetrac to get our free icee refills, of course, and she asks me if i want a snickers ice cream bar. the answer to that is yes. as she is digging change out of her car she mentions that she thinks they cost 1.79. i turn to look at her.

"and why do you know that?" i ask

"shut up" is the reply.

so the next day, my mom calls me on her way home from work and she says:

"i'm going to hell."

wait, what?

so this is the story i get:

"you know i have a thing for snickers ice cream bars. well today i was really looking forward to rewarding myself with one and as i bit into it a song came on the radio that was all about how Jesus is our reward and what we look forward to, and i was relating it to my snickers ice cream bar...

i'm going to hell."


remind me to turn down her future offers of ice cream

work and play

ok, so i haven't been blogging, but you will have to excuse me because i have graduate school to pay for people and i have been super busy.

one of my jobs stealthily increased my hours and before i knew it, i was working a ridiculous amount each week. This week for example, i am pushing fifty hours. ouch. and they wanted me to take some more! tomorrow will be day nine worked in a row before i finally have a day off and start over again. hopefully i will make it through tomorrow though because i will be working fourteen hours! i have never done that before. yikes.

but thankfully, it has not been all work and no play. i credit the Lord with having the fourth off and i got to spend time with a bunch of my newlywed friends, swimming, eating, and watching half of the fireworks in Atlanta. (literally half because we positioned ourselves right behind a building.)

also, partly for my own sanity and partly as an aid for my spiritual life, i have been drawing and studying Hebrew in my free time. in addition to reading my Calvin and Hobbes and Get Fuzzy comic books.

that is, when i am not napping or going to bed while it is still light outside.

i can only motivate myself with the fact that this is only temporary.

it is only temporary, right?

(repeat: "i'm going to school, i'm going to school, i'm going to school...")

grateful.

you can't see it, but i am doing a happy dance right now.


why, you may ask?

well let me tell you.


i got a scholarship for school. and i am taking four classes this fall.

my heart is about to burst.


i don't have all the money for the classes, but i know who does!

"For as many are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us." 2 Corinthians 1:20

the long term.

my laundry basket can give you a good indication of what my life looks like right now. because in my laundry basket the only clothes you will find will be either clothes for working or clothes for working out.

that's it.

because that is all i do lately and in the past few days i haven't even had time to work-out.

this recent streak of exhaustion started when i decided that it would be a good idea to go to my friend april's going away party on thursday. after i worked that morning. so i got off work at one and drove to athens. i spent the afternoon with the most handy DIY person i know getting some advice on a project then headed over to the party. Overall, i am glad that i went because i got to see a lot of people that i love, but when 9:30 rolled around and i was struggling to keep my eyes open and still had to drive back, i was having some serious second thoughts.

i made it back safe and sound then got up bright and early friday morning to work, then worked friday evening, rinse and repeat on saturday, worked one 7 hour shift sunday, add another double today, and one more tomorrow and you get six days in a row. rewind to last monday and you get nine out of ten days worked. at least i am getting wednesdays off. not that i do much besides lay around in a semi-coma for most of the day.

but really, when i think about it, what did i do when i didn't have a job? watched too much tv, spent too much money, hung around with the wrong crowd. really, it is good to have me off the streets. really.

yesterday, after i overslept, i decided that i would watch a sermon online from my favorite teacher, Bill Johnson, and he said something that really resonated with me: "If you don't have your mind on the ultimate, you'll be driven by the immediate"

this is kind of something that the Lord has been teaching me in the past year or so. Long term versus short term. i have a hard time thinking abstractly sometimes, so i am not much of a forward thinker, i am pretty much a "what will make me happy right now" sort of person. but the best things in the world are things that are invested in, things that are worked towards, things we have to fight for.

and that is what i am doing now, in more ways than one.

turning down the sweet that will taste good, not spending money on things that i want, working extra shifts, slugging my way through the spiritual wilderness in the hopes that this will all pay off in the long term. (and i have a feeling it will)

oops! going to be late for work!

writing on the sabbath, but not ON the sabbath

i had never really thought anything about the sabbath until my sophomore year of college. the guy who sent out the weekly email for the Wesley Foundation mentioned in one of his emails that he tried to get his school work done on Friday and Saturday so that he could honor the Sabbath. that was a really interesting thought to me and i decided to try it, because i was really into doing everything back then. unfortunately, i was also really into procrastination and could never really get the hang of doing things in advance.

my roommate used to always tell me "if your ox falls in a ditch on the sabbath, you can dig him out" meaning, the sabbath makes exceptions for emergencies (aka tests and projects) i took this to heart.

it wasn't until that summer that i felt any sort of conviction about keeping the sabbath, of course, at the time i was going to school in Athens monday through friday and then driving to kennesaw to work saturday and sunday. no rest. the Lord told me then, as clearly as i have ever heard Him, to stop. so i did. i stopped working on sundays and trusted him for the income. and He provided.

oops, speaking of work, i just got called in...to be continued...

how ironic to get called into work while writing about resting...anyways...

ever since that summer i have made an effort to take sundays off and to honor the sabbath as we were commanded. i mean, have you looked at the ten commandments lately? every one of them is like one line "You shall have no other gods before Me" You shall not murder" etc but the commandment for the sabbath is a whole paragraph. Then God brings it up over and over again through the rest of the books of the law.

check it out:

"Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death" Exodus 31:14

it sounds like God is pretty serious about this sabbath thing.

and you know, i am not sure that i really understand why.

i mean, i get the whole rest thing, especially giving your lands and animals a rest, it makes since, but what makes a day of rest holy? and why it a sign between us and God? and why is breaking the sabbath deserving of death?

The closest i have come to understanding this was when i was living in Tanzania and i worked with people who NEVER rested. seriously, they worked seven days a week and never took any time off. They are some of the hardest workers i have ever met and they walked the fine line of legalism (or just jumped right over it).

i was really burdened with the importance of rest in ministry, because really there is so much risk in leading people to God if you are not taking the time to go there yourself. and you know, a lot of people who stop taking that time of rest and restoration do find death. Just like your field will stop yielding and your animals will stop performing if they never get rest.

one morning while i was in Tanzania i woke up with a phrase running through my head:

"there remains for us a rest"

This comes from Hebrews chapter four when Paul tells us to be "diligent to enter that rest"

yikes. this really is serious.

so anyways, the reason that this has been on my mind again lately is because i have been working a lot and i have been working on sundays which i don't like to do. but really if you think about it, originally the sabbath was on a saturday, so does it matter what day it is? should it be a literal day of rest or is it the heart of the law that really matters?

honestly, i don't know.

i hope you weren't looking for some sort of answer because well, i don't really have any.

sorry.