God is Love

I've been thinking... 

I suppose for all of you that know me this is not an uncommon occurrence.  

Just the other day I was reading a friend's post on Facebook.  She had posted what I believe is one of the greatest love texts in the bible... 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."

Of course, as with all Facebook posts, there are generally a string of comments that collect and I proceeded to read those.  My friend in particular had responded to someone and made mention of replacing the word 'love' in the text with the word 'God'.  After all 1 John 4:16 states, "God is love."  If we did that 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 would look like this... 

"God is patient. God is kind. God is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. God does not demand His own way. God is not irritable, and God keeps no record of being wronged. God does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. God never gives up. God never loses faith. God is always hopeful. God endures through every circumstance."

Wow!  If you're thinking what I'm thinking... then you must be blown away! What a spin this was for me.  Okay, it was more than a spin, it was a blatant slap in the face.  Lately, I've found myself to be low on patience, low on kindness, rude, demanding, irritated, and the list could go on... but you get the picture.  Reading this with God replacing the word 'love' put things into perspective for me as a human; it made me realize just how far I am from living out the characteristics of Christ in my life.  God is patient. God is kind.  God does not demand His own way, God is not irritable, God never gives up. God never loses faith.  God is always hopeful.  What I noticed, that struck me as particularly profound, was the use of the words "never" and "always".  I don't know about you, but I was taught growing up to be cautious when using words of finality that were so concrete.  You can never say 'never' or nothing is 'forever' come to mind, but what does that really mean?  Why are we as a culture afraid to be concrete? Final? Committed?  God wasn't and I'm so thankful for that.  His heart is something I long after; His character is something that I pray for everyday.  I know that alone I have a zero percent chance to reflect the character of Christ.  Anything good someone sees in me is a direct reflection of Him.  Today, I bank on the promise of Philippians 1:6 and I am confident that He who has begun a good work in me will carry it on to completion.  Hallelujah.  

As far as life goes...

I made the drive across the country to California! I made a few pit stops along the way; which always make traveling well worth it.  

Bathroom break somewhere in Maryland!

Made it to North Dakota 3 days after departure to hang out with these fine young men. 

Nighttime North Dakota sky. 

Photo Credit: JLK 

This young lad was snooping in his Christmas gift bag a little early! 

Got to love him though. 

Photo Credit: JLK 

Did a little afternoon ice skating! 

Fun! 

Got festive hanging tree lights! 

Okay, I didn't really hang much, I took pictures and held light strings. 

I did help fix some lights! That counts, right? 

Got a few lessons in E-85.

Thank you for that! 

Next stop Colorado! 

My car post drive from North Dakota to Colorado... 

She has seen better days.

 Rocky Mountain National Park! 

Photo Credit: MCTG 

  

 Long horn sheep! 

Colorado

Hanging with Melanie - checkin' out those Stetsons! 

Estes Park 

Melanie 

Sent out around 170 Christmas Cards! 

December 14th, 2014

12 days later...

 I made it to Fresno, California

 Some pictures of my place! 

Where I'll be working for the next 13 weeks! 

Stopped to get myself a tree! 

They were shipped in right from British Columbia! 

Noble fir 

She's quite the looker! 

All decorated! 

 

California Christmas

Tomorrow is my first day of real work in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) at Valley Children's.  I'm excited and nervous at the same time.  The feelings are always the same with the first day on a new unit no matter where I go.  I never really know what the functionality of the unit will be and what kind of team I'll be working with.  I'm hopeful for a happy 13 weeks.  

After this holiday week of 6 out of 7 days on the unit (YIKES) - I will be off until January 7th.  Excited to be heading back to Phoenix, Arizona for GYC! 

I can't wait to share with you some of the blessings of that trip.  Until then friends, I wish you the merriest Christmas and happiest New Year.  I pray that it is a slow-burning season, a season of good news, the best news.