Forgotten God

I'm sure most of us have that same moment at the end of every day. Head is on the pillow. A big yawn and long stretch. Sleep is beckoning. Oh yeah.......heeeeeey God. I make my peace. Throw in some requests. Say goodnight in a sense. I am grateful for this time...He's always faithfully
waiting... judgement free. Tonight, in our goodnight chat, a question comes to mind. "Did you use My power today? Were you even aware of it?" I know without a doubt it is HE that is asking....reminding.
I just finished reading Francis Chan's 'Forgotten God' and it has reminded me of so many truths and ignited a stronger desire to live a life that respects, knows, and USES the power of the Holy Spirit in every moment of life. How precious are those nights when we have our goodnight chat and I get to feel like my day was used for eternal purposes. There is literally NOTHING in the world that compares to that feeling. Sadly, they are too few and far between. I don't want a day to go by that I can't pinpoint a moment or moments in my day that the presence of God was undeniably evident. Moments that could not, would not happen apart from Him. I hope that saying this, recognizing it outloud, will help keep the fire lit. I have all the resources I need in order to love others perfectly, have self-control, keep my foot out of my mouth, speak for my Saviour, have words of knowledge at just the right time, prophesy, heal, and the list goes on and on and on on on.

Holy Spirit, I don't want to neglect a single moment that You could be alive through me. Change me. Renew my mind. Help me remember.

You will be known and fully know

Psalm 119:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them,they would outnumber the grains of sand.



A day is coming when I will literally see the face of God. Our eyes will actually meet and He will KNOW me, recognize me. He will know me as a friend recognizes a friend, as a Father recognizes His daughter. The thought of this makes me well...literally...with honor, expectation, humility, joy. It's almost infathomable. You known that feeling, when you're in one of those hugs, and you don't want to let go? The embrace is a picture of the love that is felt...it wraps around you, holds on tight, it's just good. I will experience an actual embrace with my Jesus one day. I will feel that feeling of His arms all the way around overlapping in the back (cause those are my favorite). And we won't have that moment when it gets akward and one tries to let go and the other isn't ready...we will just linger there so long (we have all of eternity, I call a 12-15 year hug). Man, I can't wait.

The picture and expectation of this day will, I pray, cause us to do everything in our power to please him in this life. This life and all it's struggles are just a breath.....nothing in the span of forever.

Father, I'm sooo excited to one day lock eyes with You and be held in Your arms. In the meantime, change my desires so they are in line with Yours. Compel me to obedience. Compel me to love...Your brand of love. I love You.

I Corinthians 13:12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Day Three, Der-by, Sore Feet, Grammies

Another super fun day. Our feet are blistered and sore from all the walking, but There are reasons to love it. A. Lots of exercise and B. We feel like city girls. We're so LA right now. We didn't have to be at the booth until 1, so we took advantage of the morning and explored the city a bit. I just love all the old buildings. There are these 100 year old buildings that you would think they would be ritzy and expensive, but it turns out most of them are totally ghettofied on the inside with sheets hanging in the windows and everything. Weird. Wish we could've seen this place in the days of Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe.





This is an old theater that has been turned into a cathedral.


The LA public Library. The grounds are so beautiful.


JBoo getting in some reading. She's so sophisticated.


We got some coffee and breakfast at this little hole in the wall place that was literally about a 10' by 10' space. The bantar with the sales guy included the typical,"so, what are you guys in town for?" and we told him and he had no idea what we were talking about. So Jessica turns around and points to a sign in the dudes store window welcoming the NYWC. Still, no response. It was funny. Laugh. Come on....give me the courtesy laugh. Yup, there's the sign!


Right up the street was a big Soap box derby. They shut down a few streets for this thing and there's a very steep couple of blocks that the cars race down. We didn't get to see them race, but we got to see the cars. What an interesting cast of chracters.


Spaceballs.


FALCooooooR!!!


We headed back to the convention center for a bit and met some more peeps. Then we headed to the Grammy Museum which is right down the street. This was my favorite thing we have done so far. It was all about the history of the Grammys but also had so much music history and so many music artifacts. I kept wishing so many of you were there. Especially Doug and Jonathan. They could've spent hours upon hours reading each history thing and listening to all the music. I wish I could describe it to you better. Some of the things I remember: the history of each genre of music, the history of sound and you could listen to how it has changed throughout the years, the history of the studio, sound mixing and recording demonstrations, a Roland hands-on display, Michael Jackson tribute, actual pages from the songbooks of songwriters, and it goes on and on. For you Doug. Dave Brubeck's actual stick bag and a hand written lead sheet of Wayne Shorter's.



Funny.


For Jahfin, the actual page that Jimi Hendrix wrote the song Angel on.


and Bob Dylan's 'Absolutely Sweet Marie'


Some sic Roland drum machine that I could not stop playing with. See....you guys would actually know what this thing is....I just know it sounds ridiculous.


I had to take a picture of this quote by John Phillip Souza following the release of the first machine that recorded voice using a hand crank. This makes me laugh.


The Jessicas. That is how we are known in these parts.


Hoping to get to Venice Beach tomorrow. Hope someone is reading these. Missing home a bit now and all my loves....especially the bod.

Hollywood...It Was Good

What a fun day. We started out by sleeping in, which we both needed desperately. Here's the view from our hotel room. Fire escapes are so cool. They make me think of Pretty Woman.


Then headed to the Convention Center again for our morning round of meet n greets. We met some really nice people and made some promising contacts, oh and had iced lattes and the most ridiculous egg and bacon sandwiches on cibatta bread. Jessica built one of her famous brochure towers to spice up our booth a bit. I think this is her tallest one yet. We'll see if it makes it through the weekend. We chanted jenga, jenga as she put the final couple top layers on.





On our afternoon break, we headed to Hollywoooood. We took the Metro which strangely required you to buy a ticket which you never used. Anyway, as we waited and searched for some sort of direction on how to get there, we recognized some other booth vendors from the convention who very kindly helped us figure out which trains to take. They were headed to a taping of Conan. So jealous. Have I mentioned how nice people are here? Seriously, everyone we have come across has gone out of their way to help us and just be kind. A change of pace from south Fla.


When we got of the metro we were ON the walk of fame. Pretty cool. The first thing we notice however is a huge Forever 21 which we can't pass up so we peek inside. Across the street was the El Capitan theater and playing there was Snow White and Toy Story 2. Wish we had time to go watch one.


Here are some stars we noted.





For Todd.


We saw the famous Kodak Theater and took some cool pics.











As I took this one I looked up and my heart jumped a bit because I thought I saw Samuel L Jackson. Turns out it was his wax figure. It looked soo real.


We were so impressed we decided to go into the wax museum. It was so much fun. We got to hang with so many famous people. I kissed George Clooney, talked with Simon Cowell, danced with Beyonce, Carrie and I are BFFs now....great day.


For Angie.


For Kyra and Bailee.


For me.








I helped Tiger with his birdie shot. He asked me to be his caddy but I told him I was just too busy with OE.


Mikeeee!


Oh Jack...


We did some more shopping cause you know women be shoppaaan. Then we headed back for some more booth time. We met some more booth vendors on the train on the way back. They were so sweet and one of them said she was legally blind. JBoo snickered thinking the lady was making a joke about being clumsy or something, but we soon realized she was not joking as she needed the arm of the other woman to get around. Whoops. Hehe. Here's a nightlife shot.


We finished the night at this old diner that has apparently been around forever and old Hollywood peeps used to go eat there. It was like a homecooked meal. Yummy.





I fell in love with our waiter. I want him to come home with me. He tried to teach us Spanish. We stunk. How cute is he?








Bed time. See ya tomorrow. We're hoping to catch a boxcar derby or go to Venice beach. (Venices beeeches!!)

LA, First Day, Baybay

Well, Jessica and I traveled to LA today for the National Youth Worker's Convention. We have a booth at the convention to promote Oceans Edge. (I'll take some pictures tomorrow). Traveling anywhere with Jessica is a fun adventure of Griswald proportions. Here is a taste of our day in pictures.


Airplane shot. A snorer was next to me on the first leg. That was amusing.





Beautiful J Boo.


We got stuck in the plane for awhile in Houston. It smelled like bodies.


Had the most amaazing lunch (at 10:30 our time...weird) at Pappadeaux in the Houston airport. Crabcakes with these perfect little potato straws on top and a sauce that caused Jessica to say, "I think might cry" after the first bite. And lobster bisque with garlic bread. Redonkulous. (I will probably talk about food a lot on this trip. Mmmm food.)


Too full to walk.


Watched a bit of this on the plane in honor of you Mikey.


California from the window. It looks fake. So beautiful.


The second leg provided a new character. I noticed the guy across the aisle kissing his own forearms repeatedly. He continued to smell and press his face into his own forearms over and over for the whole 3+ hour flight. An obvious case of OCD. Poor buddy. I'll give you an impression when I get home.


Waiting for the shuttle. We met another character. (she's on the left). She had 3 gigantic gold hoop earrings in each ear and white eyeliner and hated her job with a passion.


Thought of you again mikey. We are going to the Grammy museum hopefully tomorrow. It is right next to the convention center. We met another character here. A homeless man with a tube in his neck that he hda to cover to speak. He asked for some money so he could have a place to sleep over by Skid Row which apparently is not far away. After we talked with him for a bit, he moved on to ask some people next to us as well. They straight ignored his existence. This broke my heart. How do we become so hard? He is a man with a mom and dad and dreams and hopes and a soul that is eternal just like me. How am I so blessed? I don't begin to understand God's sovereignty in these situations but I choose to be thankful and to know He is good. -sigh


There was a huge Michael Jackson tribute that we happened upon. How cool is LA? We just happened upon a huge news crew and went to check it out. It was Michael's actual background singers doing an interview about the movie tribute coming out next month. I'll try to post the video.





And we eat again. Pizza with bacon and avacado on it. Myriah and Jennie, you would've loved it.


This was in Rite Aid of all places. A taco boxcar. There is a big boxcar race in the city this weekend. I hope we can go.

This blog was inspired by JBoo and Jennie. Don't hate.