The title pretty much sums up our last few weeks. Passion was awesome and I can't wait to share some of the TRUTHS that came out of that weekend, but sadly Pollen seems to have taken over my body and thus my life.
In earlier posts, I mentioned that I have been sick, for a while - over a month to be precise. (And no, I am not pregnant....different kind of sick). Basically what started out as really really bad allergies/head cold never actually went away (thanks to an unusually bad year of Houston allergens) and then two weeks ago it escalated with fever, chills, etc. I still wasn't very proactive about going to the doctor until that Friday when our school nurse told me I had pink eye. UGGGHH. So Friday afternoon I finally went to the doctor, was of course, diagnosed with Pink Eye and also a respiratory infection. Loaded down with antibiotics, I cancelled all weekend plans (including the wedding I was supposed to coordinate), watched bad movies and slept. Despite the Z-pack, Mucinex and eye drops, I still wasn't feel better (I actually felt worse) by Tuesday and ended up going back to the doctor to figure out what was going on. Basically, he said my allergies are worse than I believe they were and I need to be on serious allergy medicine. So after taking some Claritin-D and pain medicine, I actually woke up on Wednesday feeling better than I had in a month. Of course, with allergies you never really feel great (constant stuffy nose, coughing, etc.) around this time of year but just to be able to swallow again without intense pain is a wonderful blessing. So there is the pollen saga in all of its nasty glory.
I knew I had to get healthy again before Thursday, because thus started another round of individual family meetings with all of our 11th graders. Basically 3 straight days of constant family counseling, headaches, etc. I love my kids and could talk to them all day long but the parents (especially back to back) are a little much to take. So on Thursday I had 25 of these meetings straight (literally I ate lunch in 5 minutes). On Friday, I only had 15 and then Monday I will have 10 more. I knew I had to get healthy before those started. So, basically, this past week was rough and I am looking forward to a less intense, 4 day week next week. Also, David had to fly to Boston Thursday night to show some investors around on Friday. He has had to travel a good bit lately, so we are both excited to have NO plans this weekend (besides a Grill Off at church tonight) and to just relax!
So those are the mundane but real aspects of our life lately. It is hard to believe the Passion Conference was only 2 weekends ago, because it feels like so much has happened since then. But basically, it was an awesome time of worship, teaching and fellowship (with David's sister, Melissa and brother, Mike - I don't usually like to make new friends). We are technically too old to attend (you are supposed to be university aged, or at least under 25) but we thought this would be a great experience to share among the four of us, all in very different places in life right now. I will just share some of the highlights and random anecdotes, and my favorite lessons:
1. Music was awesome. Brought back so many memories of Buckhead Church and the hour long sets certainly worse me out! Also, Kristian Stanfill (you should check him out if you don't already know about him) is the brother/brother-in-law of some of our best friends, Taylor and Sally Stanfill (check out their newest family addition - sweet Daye) and so we love getting to see him perform. Not only because he is amazingly talented, but because he looks SOO much like Taylor and it just reminds us of our sweet friends.
2. Part of the weekend was centered around Community Groups - where you are basically forced to interact with other people. Now I like people but I am very uncomfortable in those forced situations and basically wanted to skip this part altogether and just hang out with Mike and Melissa. But I got over-ruled and so we went to the "lime green" community group the first night, only to be paired with a bunch of college students who to be honest are just in a different place in life than us. We endured that awkward first meeting and eventually found out that we should actually be attending the "leaders meetings" since we are older. And bonus, these leader meetings got to hear a second message from each of the speakers! So we did that the rest of the weekend and it was awesome! A much more intimate setting (of about 600 leaders) and chance to learn from other people actively involved in ministry with high school and college folks. We still had to break into smaller "family groups" but there was a school headmaster in my group and he and I were able to share a lot about working and ministering directly in a school environment.
3. And of course, the teaching was incredible. Louie Giglio, Francis Chan and John Piper were the speakers and I came away with so many take-aways. Here are the ones that continue to resonate with me:
- Do NOT look to another human being to pattern your life after. ONLY look to JESUS. (I definitely struggle with this)
- What is at the root or bottom of my joy? We always have so many secondary reasons for why we do things, but at the heart of the matter is Jesus and my desire to glorify Him driving my decisions?
- Do I pray as the Lord taught us to pray or like the world (ex. I need....)?
- Importance of memorizing Scripture...to conform to Christ, as a comfort to ourselves and others, to incite conflict with sin, communicate the Gospel and have communion with God.
So to sum up this random post, I can so easily get distracted in life by daily nuisances like pollen and annoying parents, etc. but I need to be constantly reminded of God's larger purpose in my life. Next week I am excited to share some ways that God has been specifically leading me and David, partly through some of the things we learned at Passion.
Lastly, although this post is devoid of any pictures, check out Melissa's blog for a few pics.
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