Keep Your Eyes on the Right Things

Today was a really great day. I woke up and watched a little of the ceremony at Ground Zero this morning. I still can't believe that it has been 10 years. I was really moved by the reading of the names of those who were killed that day and seeing our past and present presidents joined together with the mourners. Mom and I headed off to church after that. Church today was excellent. I believe that the Lord was speaking to our congregation about trusting Him as well as remembering to align our lives with His word. Sometimes we have no problem filtering out things that we know are not in line with God's word but if we're not careful we allow those things or other things to creep back in and we think that we can get away with it because we've gotten away with it before. But I believe that our time for doing that is wearing thin and will run out. And Pastor Gool's message was entitled "Keeping our eyes on the right things." He was talking about how we need to look to Jesus for all that we need and we don't need to be concerned with what the world is looking at or looking like or what our situations look like but we need to have faith in our Heavenly Father for all that we need. It was a really great message. He spoke about how what we visualize and focus on in life will determine our future and our destiny. We should see ourselves as victorious no matter what our current circumstances are. It was a really great message and made me mindful of things that I need to be more vigilant about in my life. Like not being ruled by my emotions or feelings especially when things don't turn out or look the way that I want them to. Just this evening I was thinking about how much I want my own home and my own community. I desperately want to be plugged in to a community and have my own space. Over the past decade I feel like there have been these periods of disconnect or interruption. I graduated from college after four years, lived at home a year, went to grad school two years. lived in D.C. for two years and then lived in Jersey for a little over a year. Now I am in Charlotte and have been here for the better part of this year unexpectedly. I really desire to have a city, neighborhood, and community that I can plug into and become a part of. I felt like that was happening in Jersey, I just needed the job to be able to have my own space, but I was becoming more and more connected to my church community and the people there before I came here for what I thought was a temporary visit. I hadn't intended to be here as long as I have been or even to look for work and hear back answers but it happened. I just didn't know that was part of God's plan. I was thinking about all of this just a few minutes ago and I was thinking I don't really feel at home here in Charlotte. I narrowed it down to a couple of reasons. First of all I never really wanted to stay in Charlotte. Even when I was a young person I never really wanted to stay in Charlotte, I wanted to move somewhere bigger. Second, I am not really connected to anything in Charlotte at this moment. Right now I am working from home, I don't have the opportunity to connect or socialize with anyone outside of my mother who is generally working from 8 am to 8 pm. So I feel disconnected socially here. And then third, I still am holding on to the hope of being somewhere else, Jersey or New York, preferably but I just have difficulty imagining being in Charlotte for the long run. But it's still too early to tell. Charlotte may be for a year or for years. I have no way of knowing. And if it is the place for me to stay I believe that the Lord will open up more channels of connection for me to have the community and sense of belonging that I would like to have. Also I just thought about something that Pastor Gool said this morning which was that this world is not the permanent home for the Christian believer. Our home is in heaven with the Lord. And so it makes perfect sense in that context why any place would fall short in comparison to being at home with the Lord. I have to work on keeping my eyes on the right things when it comes to where I am. I believe that the Lord knows what is best for me and leads and guides me to the places I need to be when I need to be at them. So for the past year it was New Jersey, and for much of this year it has been Charlotte. I believe that this has been my divine interruption. God knows exactly how to get you to where you need to be. Some things may seem or be inconvenient at the time but I believe that the Lord leads us to what we need rather than what is most comfortable or desirable. So I have to trust that there is something in Charlotte that I need to receive or give while I am here whether that time is temporary or extended.

After church today mom and I went to the Greek festival. I first went to the Greek festival as a 6th grader. And I have loved it and Greek food ever since. I promise I had one of the best gyros I have ever had in my life today. It was delicious! Filled with strips of gyro, tzatziki sauce, onion, lettuce and tomato. Then to go with it I had thick cut Greek fries and a wonderful lemonade, not too tart and not too sweet. With the exception of the almost 100 degree heat it was a wonderful time. I wish I had taken pictures but I forgot. After eating and walking around and doing a tour of the church I got some loukoumades. Lightly fried dough balls with honey and powdered sugar. And mom got a baklava sundae. Then we were pretty much done with our experience and we got some baklava to go. It was a great day. I loved being able to participate in the Greek festival again and I also enjoyed doing something out of the norm.