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Great things never came from comfort zones

Fifteen days until I start on my adventure to Redding California for Bethel's school of Worship. I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday I was telling Nichole (my pastor and friend) that I would never be able to afford this crazy dream. Well- here I am, fifteen days away from it.
In my last post I talked about all the crazy amazing things that have happened for me to be able to go on this adventure, and a few things have changed since then. My mom can no longer come with me, and we didn't end up getting those free plane tickets. When this first came up I was SO disappointed. I was so confused. I thought those tickets were a huge testimony of trusting God to provide for this trip and I thought it was awesome that I didn't have to go alone. But I've been trying to look at things a different way and realizing that maybe this was the plan all along. Maybe God wants me to go alone. I'm not completely sure, but I think He wants to get me out of my comfort zone. So since then, we had to invest in a very expensive plane ticket and I've been trying to prepare myself for the adventure of a lifetime…. alone. But on the plus side, some exciting things have been happening as I prepare!
I received my plane ticket and I have a TEN HOUR LAYOVER in San Francisco. That excites me and scares me because I'm all alone. But I've ALWAYS wanted to see San Francisco, so I'm ready to take a little adventure while I'm there! So if you've ever been there, message me and I'd love some advice on what to see and maybe some easy transportation ideas! Also, I've been in touch with my roommates for while I'm there! They seem so nice, and I can't wait to get to know them better! AND I signed up for my classes!

We received a catalog of all the classes and had to choose between SO MANY. My brain started hurting from the amount of classes that there was to choose from! This picture is just a glimpse of all the classes. You can't see all the papers there, and my printer wouldn't even print all the pages. So there were A LOT to pick from. But that was a huge step for me because it really started to get me excited. For the past couple months, I knew that I was going but it never felt real. For whatever reason, in the back of my mind I always thought there was no way I would be able to actually afford it. But here I am again smiling to myself because God is always faithful. And if He wants you to do something or go somewhere, you better believe He will make a way for you to be where you need to be.
So I got all my first picks for the classes I wanted and after I was officially registered, this cool thing popped up. It got me even more excited! :)

So thats a quick update on what's going on in preparation for this! Now for a quick update on whats going on in my head- well I'm feeling a lot of things. I'm feeling crazy excitement, crazy nervousness, and crazy readiness. (Wow, okay, tears are actually forming in my eyes right now) I am so incredibly blessed for this opportunity. I am so so thankful for all the prayers, the donations, and friends and family that have encouraged me on the way to this dream of mine. I'm mostly nervous because I don't go anywhere alone. Really, there's always someone with me wherever I go anywhere and I'm flying to the other side of the U.S. alone and going to a school for 2 weeks, alone. So, thats why I've been so afraid… but like I said, also super excited, I've just never done anything like this before. I think I'm also afraid because I feel so deeply in my heart that God is going to move in my life in a way I've never seen or ever dared to imagine while I'm there. (I don't know why that scares me a little bit, but it does.) I'm excited too though, and I'm finally becoming ready to embrace it. I am ready for this adventure. I am ready to completely step out of my comfort zone and embrace the uncomfortableness of going on this trip alone. I am ready to be vulnerable. I am ready to make new friends. I am ready to completely let go and completely surrender into God's will and purpose for my life. 

Bethel released a new song called You Make Me Brave , and this song is going to be my anthem while I'm on this adventure.

"You make me brave, You call me out beyond the shore into the waves."

Jesus, You make me brave. I'm running to You, I'm running into the waves. I'm ready. I'm ready for an adventure of a lifetime with You. I'm ready to jump into the unknown. I'm ready to be brave, because You make me brave. I'm ready to go deeper than I have ever been before. I'm ready to get uncomfortable. And I'm ready to embrace the uncomfortable because great things never came from comfort zones.

EEEEP! I'm so excited. :) 

Oh how He loves us

So as we all know today is valentines day. A day that's suppose to be filled with love. Now to those of you with significant others I'm sure it will be, but those without may be feeling a little sad. But I'm here to let you in on a little secret.  Valentines day is about love. Love isn't categorized as solely romantic love, it means ALL kinds of love. That means you don't have to be sad about not having a relationship because valentines day is a day to celebrate love. ALL kinds of love. Love for your spouse, love for your boyfriend/girlfriend, love for your family, love for your friends, etc! So enjoy that. Be happy because someone loves YOU. And if you don't feel like anyone does, take a step back and look at the cross. Look at Christ. Look at how He loves us. I know He got it right when it comes to love. He loves us endlessly and unconditionally. Last night at Chi Alpha all of us came together and sang "How He Loves Us". It brought so much joy to my heart and that's when I realized something. He doesn't just love us on valentines day. He doesn't just love us when we're loving Him. He doesn't just love us when we've done something good. He loves us everyday and He still loves us even when we aren't sure if we love Him. So my question is- Shouldn't every day be like valentines day? Shouldn't we want to do nice things and love on people all the time regardless of the day of the year? Why do we wait until a day that's all about love to show it? God doesn't wait, so we shouldn't wait. 

So here's my challenge on this beautiful day. Go out and LOVE. Go out and do something for someone because you love them. Go out and smile because God made this day and it is no different from the rest. Go out and BE LOVED, because YOU are loved. Go out and do this not just today but everyday. Because even though valentines day is lovely, we have to remember that EVERYDAY is lovely and we need to share our love everyday, not just on February 14th. And most importantly, let's never forget the forever love, the love of Christ. He loves us so intimately. The Creator of the universe loves us.

Oh, how He loves us.