The Ballad of Kaycee Frederick

Waiting...

2007-06-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

Ok...Ok...I'll update my blog

I have to say I'm impressed with all of you who still check it from time to time.

I figure the best place to start is to follow up with my past post. As most of you know I do now have a job. God is faithful...ALWAYS!

The week before spring break I all of a sudden had like 5 interviews which compared to the big 0 that I had before was a lot! Before I left to go on my mission trip I asked God to give me one offer to whatever job he wanted me at. So Monday while I was on the mission trip in the valley, I got a call and I received my one job offer to work at a health club called Aerofit. The sovereignty of God is amazing…had I got a job offer any sooner I seriously doubt I would have been able to go on this trip…really…what kind of a job would give me a weeks worth a vacation right off the bat!?

So I started at Aerofit as a membership consultant the Monday after spring break. As a membership consultant, my job was to sell memberships. Everything about this job seemed great. I’m really interested in health and fitness and it was working with people so all and all I thought good times. More importantly, God gave me one offered like I prayed for.

After a few weeks I began to struggle with some of the “sales tactics” I was advised to do. I began to ask the Lord…”really?”…”this is where you want me?”. Don’t get me wrong…I believe God spoke clearly about me being there. I was never forced to do anything to compromise my integrity, just encouraged. Plus, I was able to minister and reach out to a handful of souls.

But I was just starting to wonder and wouldn’t you know…the doctor who I went on the medical mission trip with asked me to be his new office manager. SWEET! And just so God made sure I heard him clearly…He had the current office manager ask me to consider taking over her job completely separate from Rusty’s (the doctor’s) knowledge. God had clearly laid it on both their hearts and on my heart SO starting Monday I will have this new amazing job!

All that to say that WAITING on the Lord is the most beautiful thing ever! While it might be the hardest thing we humans will ever have to get…it’s the most freeing lesson ever. Waiting on the Lord teaches you so much about our gracious and wonderful God. The favorite thing I learned is that God speaks SO clearly when He wants you to move. The Christian life doesn’t have to be a guessing game like so many of us have made it out to be. If what to do does not seem clear…do nothing but seek Him, wait for Him and hope in Him. He will let you know when you NEED to know.

Here are some Scriptures that God used to speak to me about waiting (seeking and hoping) on Him:

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. – Psalm 5:3

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. – Psalm 27:14

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. – Psalm 37:7

Wait for the Lord and keep his way. – Psalm 37:24

I wait for you, O Lord; you will answer, O Lord my God. – Psalm 38:15

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. – Psalm 130:5

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! – Isaiah 30:18

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. – Lamentations 3:21-27

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. – Micah 7:7

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Then the Lord replied: - Habakkuk 2:1-2

Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength ; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. – Isaiah 40:31

So here’s the deal…my “waiting” time was not NEARLY as long or as intense as I know of some other believers. I want people to post testimonies about waiting, seeking, and hoping in the Lord. I know there are a lot of ya’ll out there and probably too many stories to count but really…let’s share them and rejoice in our Good and Faithful GOD!!!

More Valuable than a Bird

2007-01-28T20:13:00.000-08:00

Ok…so its time for my yearly blog update. For those of you who still actually check my blog…bless you. I am the worse blogger ever! One would think with me not having a job and all that I would be blogging all the time just to pass the time away, but I’ve found plenty of other ways to keep busy I guess.

So I’ve been thinking about my topic for my update and I’ve decided to use this time to answer the question that EVERYONE has been asking. Actually, the same question comes in a variety of forms but here are the main two…

“Do you have a job yet?” and/or “What do you want to do with your life?”

Short answers:
No
Glorify God

Long answer:
Well, the answer is the same, but since I don’t feel my readers would be satisfied with just a two paragraph post, I will elaborate.

For those of you who don’t know I graduated with my masters in December. My study was in Atmospheric Sciences, which at this point (and probably never) I have no desire to use.

Here’s all I really know…God wants me in College Station. So knowing this I started applying for all sorts of jobs starting way back this summer. And here it is…3 days from February and I still don’t have a job.

At this point a lot of you are probably thinking a variety of things…

Q: “If you can’t get a job in College Station then why don’t you move to where you can get a job?”
A: I already said…the ONE thing I know is that God wants me here…right now, leaving is not an option.

Q: “Well, certainly God knows you need to have a job.”
A: I am certain that God knows every NEED I have and provides for every NEED I have so I guess as of right now…I don’t really need a job.

Q: “What about paying your bills…what does God think about that.”
A: He has already provided for every bill I’ve had and will have within the next month.

Q: “Aren’t you FREAKING out!”
A: As a follower of Christ, that’s not really an option for me. Jesus said in Matthew 6:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Notice that whole “do not worry” part…that translates to worry is sin for those who are followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus commands me not to worry.

The Bible also says in 1 John 2:4: The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

I claim to know Christ so I will do what He commands.

(By the way, for anyone who reads that verse claiming to know Christ and feels it comes off a bit too harsh…you might want to ask yourself why…is it possible that you are a liar?)

Q: “The good Lord helps those who help themselves.”
A: Can I get the reference for where that’s found in the Bible?

Look, I am in NO WAY promoting a passive lifestyle. Laziness is sin. Let me make it clear that I’m not just sitting on my couch watching old seasons of Friends as each day goes by saying…”Gee…if God really wants me to have a job I’m sure someone will come knocking at my door and offer me one”.

Waiting on the Lord is an ACTIVE thing. It involves seeking Him, being in His Word, and constantly observing everything that is going on around you.

I have 75+….yes 75+ applications out there. From anything that would require my degree to something any regular Joe off the street could do. Anything from full-time to part-time. I’ve had 2 calls back. The first one led to an interview in which I got a bad check in my spirit from and the other was just a call from a lady saying she didn’t understand why I was applying for that job with my qualifications. So…2 out of 75…I’m not expert on these things but I think that’s a little unheard of.
There is an interesting component in all of this. A couple of months or so ago, I mentioned something to Melodi about feeling like God might not give me a job until after the trial on February 8th. The past year I was really able to help out and spend time with the kids given my flexible schedule, but if I were to get a full-time job it would really put a stop to that ministry. Well, here we are 11 days from the trial and no job…hmmm…very interesting.

While I’m not 100% sure what God’s reasons are for me not having a job right now, I have learned one major thing. God’s really not as concerned about what my job situation is going to be as He is in what I’ve learned from all of this. This time in my life has really had nothing to do with a job. It’s about experiencing Him and increasing my faith in Him. It’s about coming to know Him on a whole new level and realizing life’s not about a job or a career or a title. It is about knowing my Savior, and making Him known. That’s it…that’s all our short time on this earth has anything to do with. All the other stuff falls into two categories…they are either the means, tools, or ways which we know Him and make Him known or they are just distractions from our main point in life. I fear that we’ve taken things that God has meant for us to use to bring Him honor and glory, and turned them into idols…things that take our eyes and hearts off Jesus.

While I’m not entirely fond of waiting on the Lord, I would not have traded this time and experience in my life for anything else. I think so far it’s been one of my favorite times with the Lord. I love the fact that He loves me so much that He’s always taking me through things that challenge me, that grow me, and ultimately that lead me to fall even more head over heals in love with Him than ever before.

If you are reading this and thinking I am a complete nut case, there is good chance it’s because you’ve never come to experience a true love relationship with Christ. If that so please, please talk to me or someone else who you think is a complete nut case for Christ. One day we will all spend eternity in Heaven or Hell…there is no middle ground…no “waiting room”. The choice is yours and God not only wants to spend eternity in Heaven with Him but He also wants you to experience His amazing love now…right here on earth…then you can become a nut case like me!

Confessions of an adult blanky sleeper...

2006-12-11T21:48:00.000-08:00

Word on the blog is that I’ve been tagged. I do not quite understand this phenomana but I will participate anyway simply because if I don’t update my blog soon, Melodi will stop letting me into her house. Here are my five things that most people don’t know about me:

1) I sleep with a blanky.
Yes, I am 24 years old, but I’m not ashamed of this fact. My parents tried for years to hide my blanky from me as a child, hoping that I would just forget about it but their plot failed miserable. Being away from my blanky only made me desire it more and know I am obsessed. I can’t help it. I like soft snuggely things, and there shouldn’t be an age when you have to give those up. BTW, I also have a moose too…his name is Moose.

2) I HATE the word “panties”.
Normal people hear the word “panties” I hear nails running across a chalk board. Seriously…it pierces my ears and sends chills up my back. So please…please…just call them underwear!

3) I can’t swim.
This is a very important fact for anyone whoever gets in the pool with me to know, because if you’re one of those people who likes to play the “dunking” game and you try it on me…expect to decked in the face! It’s not because I hate you but because I am fighting for my very life. In junior high, there was this girl who was not aware of my swimming disorder, and she got a fist right in the face. So beware people…no dunking the McKaycee, cool girl drummer!

4) I love feety pajamas.
These things are the best. I love them on little kids. In fact, I think I will make my kids where them everyday of their life, even if it’s 100 degrees outside, until they are atleast 18. Do you think they make adult feety pjs? That would be awesome!

5) I am a former member of the official Britney Spears fan club.
I can’t believe I’m finally admitting this out loud...it’s my most shameful secret. And to top it off I owned two of her cds. This lasted for about 3 months until I got to college and my freshman year roommate sternly informed me that this was NOT cool. “Hit Me Baby One More Time” was soon replaced by Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin” and I’ve never like hip-hop or pop music since.

So those are my 5 things but my question is what if I’ve been tagged more than once. I think I’ve been tagged like 2-3 times now…does that mean I have to add 10 more “things”?

Oh, yeah, I guess I have to tag some people...hmmm...I think everyone I know in the blog world has been tagged but how about Will Ferrel, Michael Flately (Lord of the Dance!), the commercial announcer for "Head On...apply directly to the forehead", the inventor of the Magic Bullet blender (I want that), and last but not least...Mark Henry. By the way, I'm not sure if any of these people are frequent visitors to my blog so get the word out!

KayceeSaga.mov

2006-10-31T18:58:00.000-08:00


The dramatic re-enactment of me turning in my thesis to my committee Hollywood, here I come!

I_love_the_Henrys_017.avi

2006-10-31T10:47:00.000-08:00


Drag racing in the pimped out stroller... Gotta love those Henry boys!

Brace Yourself...

2006-10-30T14:31:00.000-08:00

for the return of Kaycee…the master blogger.

For those of you that have had withdrawals…I apologize. Today I began to hear the masses chat…blog…blog…blog…blog. So here we go. An update of my past month.

Many blog worthy events have taken place since my last post; however, it seems that my life was so consumed by these events that I had no time to blog about them.

Event 1: CityFest

It was this awesome skateboard/BMX demo thing (sorry John Mark, I probably didn’t do the explanation justice).

Wow!

I could SO do that!

It’s an actual ministry that some Christian skates/bikers have put together. Plus, Steven Baldwin was there.

There were lots of other forms of entertainment there to but I think favorite was sliding down the big park hill on pieces of cardboard…however, this eventually became outlawed.

I'm convinced this was Patricks favorite part...mostly because there wasn't a line

I was also in favor of things to do without standing in line...the two options for that were sliding down the hill (which I did do once) and sitting down and being beautiful :)

Stunning!

Event 2: South Dakota

I took a quick trip back to the north. It was actually a surprise for my mom, which I don’t think I’ll do again because she was convinced that some one had either died, or I had a terminal disease or I was pregnant or several other awful possibilities.

It was a pretty busy trip.

I...

watched my sister Kodee show her cows…yes this is an actual competitive event

Found my old fort…or what used to be a fort

Played golf with my dad, step mom, sister Lacey and brother Zane…or attempted to play

And many other things that I’m probably forgetting to mention.

Event 3: Back to Texas

I came back to College Station only to find that the show “Pimp My Stroller” had come to town.

(I'll get the video out soon boys)

flippin' sweet rims!

Event 4: Renaissance Festival

The Texas Renaissance Festival had school days (no hoochie mama outfits or drunken sword fights make for a much safer environment for the kidos) so I want with the Henrys.

It was a grand ole time (as you can tell by the excitment on Patricks face) full of funnel cakes, kettle corn, mazes, mud fights, people addressing me as “me lady” and asking if “thoust werst haveth a fair day…eth”.

All the fun had taken a lot out of us...

Yes...that is drool hanging from her mouth

Event 5: Submitting my publication

And this might be the greatest event of all…my publication is submitted. YAY!!!!!

The end is in sight...I graduate in 2 months. YAHOO!

Event 6:
hmm…Other than me spitting up in someone else’s pretzels, that’s pretty much it. A quick update on the life of Master Kaycee. I will try not to hold out on my fan base like that ever again :)

A few of Kaycee's favorite things!

2006-09-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

As you look at this picture you will see two of the things I would never want to live without...coffee and my cell phone. Look how happy they make me! They are just a few of the many blessings God has brought into my life.

Coffee...it's what gets me out of bed each morning. Every morning the first thing I do is walk into the kitchen and put some Texas pecan coffee beans into my coffee grinder...oh, the simple pleasures of life. The taste of that freshly ground, freshly brewed caffeinated goodness is the highlight of my day. It's the sweet nectar of my life.

Cell phone...while I have times in my life when I may not like the actual phone it, I love the fact that I can call anyone at anytime. And I love that people can get a hold of me, especially since I'm one of those freaks who fears something awful might happen and no one would be able to get a hold of me to tell me about it.

Now, I know that we are to have no idols before God but these two things come very close. I believe this is why God took me through period’s time without them.

About a year ago one of my best friends was trying to quit smoking. I said, like an idiot, that I would give up something too to support her. As like a SUPER idiot, I let her pick. Of course she had to pick the one thing that brought me to tears just thinking about a day without it...COFFEE. It was pretty rough the first week but after that not to bad, until I fly home for a visit. I have this "thing" when I'm traveling in an airport that I must fill my layovers with a latte and a book. I've never noticed how many coffee places there are in airports until that day...or maybe I was just hallucinating. Visions of a white chocolate mocha bigger than the size of Texas haunted me that whole trip. Then to top it off, I met up with some friends at my favorite coffee place in the whole world! They make this drink called the "Kupachella" and you just can't get anything like it anywhere else. It was devastating that my one trip a year back there, I had to pass the "Kupachella". BUT, eventually my friend quit smoking (YAY) and I got to go back to sweet deliciousness!

Now, the time without my phone was a much more dramatic event. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am known for wearing hooding sweatshirts in the winter time...they are my fav! But the pockets in the front just are not very practical. However, that doesn't stop me from putting stuff in there. So, one evening I'm in my apartment and I go the bathroom. I do my thing and turn around and flush. This is the point where time went into super slow motion (so envision the rest of the story happening very slowly). At exactly the time that I push down on the handle my cell phone slides out of my impractical pocket! My phone splashes right into the toilet (before you get super grossed out, my business was only #1). So me being the genius that I am, doesn't just reach down and grab the phone. Oh no, that's way too easy. I say to myself "I know, I'll just make the toilet stop flushing". So I take off the top of the toilet as fast as I can and just start pulling and jiggling everything I can. Of course, this accomplishes NOTHING! As I look down in desperation, I see my phone swirling and it finally goes down with a loud sucking noise...NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! It was gone...tear. I just sat there stunned and thinking "WHYYYYYY" in a Nancy Kerrigan voice. It was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. I went 4 whole days without a cell phone, plus I had to do the walk of shame to my apartment complex office and tell them the story. Needless to say, at first they did not believe me then they broke out into hysterical laughter.

So, I do know what life is like without my two favorite things. Those times have made me more grateful for coffee and cellphones. Why would one want to function without them?

2006-09-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

If you think my awkward story below is funny you've gotta read this!

2006-09-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

AWKWARD!

I hate awkward moments. While I hate them, usually they are the funniest moments of my life. I would like share one of the awkward moments of last week…one, I’m sure several of you have had.

Last week I was with my roommate, Courtney, eating at McAlisters. They have the best iced tea ever and apparently just ordering one of their gianormous glasses of tea makes me have to go the bathroom like Whoa! So I get up and go to the bathroom only to find that there is ONE stall and it’s currently in use.

One stall…in a women’s bathroom…who was the idiot that designed this bathroom! So as I was waiting (and doing my “Pee, please don’t come out” dance) I started to scan the room. I observed what one would typically see in a public bathroom: paper towels, sink, urinal, garbage can…wait…rewind (record scratch sound)…URINAL!?

The little people in my brain started working over time applying the same methods I learned in my inductive bible study classes…

OBSERVATION: There is a urinal in this bathroom.

INTERPRETATION: This is NOT the women’s bathroom!

APPLICATION: Get out, Get out, Get out!

Here’s where the awkward moment comes in. You just know that someone watched me go in there and they have been sitting there sipping on their big glass of iced tea just waiting for me to come out in the “walk of shame”.

So I did what any dignified woman who just walked into the men’s bathroom would do…I kept my head down…dodged straight from the men’s bathroom into the women’s bathroom…relieved myself…then walked out confidently, sat down and enjoyed my tea!

So, ladies…next time you’re in McAlister’s and you have too much tea and you need to make a mad dash to the restroom, just remember…veer RIGHT!

2006-09-08T07:26:00.000-07:00

It's on!

Who will be the last one standing? For those of you who don't know, I spend an abnormal amount of time with my second family, The Henry's (I've even started getting phone calls there). With a family of 6 kids (no...that's not a typo) it's the craziest place I know and I love it. It's the funnest place on earth! But with this fun comes the danger of getting any strange disease/virus of the week that is floating through this house.

Wednesday...the first Henry goes down. Poor little Hannah throw ups just before school. Thursday...the second Henry goes down. This time it went down in the mini-bus that this extremely large family transports itself in. This is the first time in my life that I was thankful NOT to be with the Henry's. So Melodi (this is the amazing mom that takes care of this plethora of children) takes them into see The Amazing Dr. Bacak and he says that this virsus was probably making it's way to all of us days before Hannah even got sick.

Hmmm...days...lets see where I was during these "days"...Friday night...with the Henry's...Saturday night...with the Henry's...Sunday afternoon...with the Henry's...Tuesday afternoon...with the Henry's. Conclusion...I'M DEAD MEAT! I'M A SITTING DUCK! The virus could be making itself at home in my body right now! I feel fine...no throw up feeling at all. This is a sneaky virus...I can tell. It's going to wait until I'm somewhere extremely inconvient like stuck in my car at Texas Ave. or in Walmart (I always get sick in walmart...what's up with that!) to start squeezing my stomach.

So Melodi and I decided that as we sit and wait for projectile vomit to start coming out of our mouths, we're going to make it interesting. A contest...who will be the last one to throw up? Winner gets PRIDE and a certificate that says "I took a punch from Mr. Puke Your Guts Out Virus and I did NOT go down!"...Loser gets nothing but to see the contents of their stomach projecting out there mouth (and if you're like me, your nose).

The update today is that Patrick went down. So Hannah, Joseph, and Patrick...you get nothing. Who will win...stay tuned!

2006-09-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

MY LIFE STORY: The old...the new!

So for those of you who haven’t heard from me in a while, I’ll try to get you up to speed. The most recent news that I have is that I successfully defended my thesis in August. That’s right…Master Kaycee. That just sounds so much better than Doctor Kaycee and takes way less time to get! I don’t “officially” graduate until December. So this semester I am publishing my research and am a teaching assistant for radar meteorology. This naturally leads to the next logical question, “So what are you going to do after you graduate?” But to answer this I must take you back on a journey through time…roughly six years ago. I must warn to only take this journey with me if you have a little extra time…it’s a loooooonnngggg journey but an AWESOME one!

It was October of my freshman year of college. I was back in my hometown, Miller, SD, under unfortunate circumstances. A high school classmate had just died. I was driving from our ranch into town for his funeral and suddenly it dawned on me…a revelation like non I had experienced before…God was real and loved me.

What was interesting is that I was always pretty confident that God existed. Absolutely certain…hmmm…probably not. I had always wondered a lot about him. I used to wonder if I was good enough to get into heaven and what standards I should even be comparing myself to know if I was good enough. Should I compare myself to my mom, my dad, my pastor? I didn’t know. They all seemed like good people but who were they comparing themselves to in order to see if they were good enough for heaven?

What was even more interesting is that I was involved in our church. My family started going to church my sophomore year of high school. I was involved with the youth group and the worship team. If you would have asked I would have said I was a Christian. Strange thing was, I didn’t know much about Jesus. Sure, I heard his name a lot in church. But again, the questions just kept coming. Who is this Jesus guy really? Why did He even have to die such a terrible death for my sins anyway? What did that have to do with me? So is this Jesus guy a man or God? Ahhhh….what a migraine. Did I ask anyone these questions that were so overwhelming me? Yeah right…and have people look at me like I’m some sort of idiot who doesn’t know something that everyone else in the whole world seems to have figured out…no way…that’s not my style.

So when this “revelation” hit, I knew at that very moment that I had to figure this out. By the end of that following summer I had learned that sin had separated me and everyone on earth from this Holy God. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. So this answered my first question, “Was I good enough to get to heaven?”…according to the Bible, NO…not even close. That’s right; this sweet, brown eyed, curly haired girl was heading straight for hell and eternity spent without God. BUT, reading on to Romans 5:8, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. YES! Finally, answers to my overwhelming questions. Come to find out, Jesus is both man and God! Wow! If this blows your mind, join the club. But it’s true…%100 man (1 Timothy 2:5 and Matthew 8:20) and %100 God (John 1:1 and Colossians 2:9)…check it out for yourself. So basically God put skin on and came down to earth to pursue us and died in our place (“for the wages of sin is death”-Romans 6:23) so that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will be saved from this eternal separation from God and be restored into a right relationship with him (Romans 6:23, Romans 10:9, John1:12 and Mark16:16). And when I say “believe”, I do not mean just to believe the facts…for example, that he existed. Like I said, I was pretty confident that he existed but that really isn’t enough because even the demons believe that He exists and know far more facts than I do and they shudder (James 2:19). You must have faith (Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 3:22-26, and 1 Peter 1:5) in Christ which allows you to accept him as your Lord (Mark 8:34-35) and your Savior (Romans 4:24).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” – John 3:16-17

So is this blowing your mind yet? It should. It blows my mind. But I’m only getting started. As if Christ saving us from hell wasn’t enough…he saves us from a life of sin in this world too! The moment we are saved (this is a term Jesus used a lot…a shorter way of saying delivered from eternal condemnation) we are filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) and we become a new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). We aren’t the same sinful creatures anymore!

Now, I know most of you think I’m a pretty good person, but I’m really not apart from the grace of God. And most of you have probably always thought of me as a pretty happy person…I wasn’t. I was always very discontent with this life…always trying to find something to truly satisfy…a true sense of purpose. I was always insecure…always trying to earn love and never thinking that I deserved it. This led to a life depression, anxiety, drunkenness, and many other sinful things in which I will spare the details of for this blog. Some of you right now will need to pick up your jaw from the floor. Others are saying, “Yeah, I saw that in her”. And a select few of you would be able to fill in these “sinful details” I’m leaving out. But all this stuff doesn’t matter anymore. I am a new creation AND the Bible says “there is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” –Romans 8:1. As my Pastor would say…Boom Shockalaka! I am now a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17). Hallelujah!

I will say, however; that the most dramatic changes have taken place within the past two years. While a lot of things changed in me once I put my faith in Christ, there were a lot of things I was still holding on to. This then led me back into a spiral of depression and anxiety. I was being torn apart by living with one foot in Satan’s world and one foot in Christ’s world. But what was confusing is that for the first few years of my new Christian life, I didn’t think that there was anything wrong with continuing in these sins. After all the majority of “Christians” I knew lived like I did and the Bible does say “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…not by works.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) So this means a Christian should be able to live however they want cause we’re covered by grace…right? WRONG! 1 John 2:3-6 says “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

So long story short (well this isn’t exactly short), through the power of God’s Holy Spirit in my life I was set free from the sin that I had become a slave to. I am truly a miracle of God and can in NO WAY take credit for any of these changes in my life. GOD is so AMAZING! If you have never experienced this, I HIGHLY recommend it…a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ…not RELIGION. Religion will give you nothing more than a set of guide lines to try and help you earn your way to God…can’t happen. And it doesn’t have to because of what Christ did for you 2,000 years ago.

So back to the question that took us on this long journey…”what am I doing after graduation?” Whatever God tells me to do. At this point, I highly doubt I will be doing anything with my atmospheric science degrees accept to chase a storm or two. Shocker, huh? A change of heart that big only comes from God. He has taught me that “10 year plans” don’t work when walking by faith.

Out of all the different people in my life that will read this, some of you will agree with what I’ve said, some of you will be intrigued by what I’ve said, and some will completely disagree with what I’ve said. Whatever category you fall in I still love you. Whatever your stance, if you’re reading this, you are a part of my life somehow and my life is now Christ. That’s it. He’s all that I have and all that I am. He’s the reason my life’s not boring and that I even have a reason for a blog!

Sorry for all the references to Scripture without writing them all out, but this thing is long enough. If you’re interested in what these say, email me and I will type them all out for you. Or you can even go to www.biblegateway.com and get the entire Bible online!