Becoming Pieces

Brokenness is a terribly, painfully, wonderful, beautful thing. Now, I say that on the fringe of becoming broken. I am not in the middle of brokenness ( at least not as I have known it to feel in the past). I am however about to be broken. I say this with such confidence because of how things are lining up. First, I was asked to speak at a girls' conference about finding satisfaction in Christ. How to speak about that when you don't know how to do that to begin with is extremely humbling. Preparing that lesson was a huge lesson for myself. So that was the tip of the "get ready to be broken" iceberg. Next, I picked up a book that was suggested to me called , "Shattered Dreams". It is wonderfully frightening to pick up a book with that sort of title. I am on chapter 8 and every word I read pierces my heart. The reality that, in order to show us that our deepest dream is knowing Him, The Lord will shatter our other dreams, is not a fun reality. And then there is the Beth Moore bible study. I have gone to the church that host that bible study for all my life and have never once even considered going to the bible study. I love Beth. She is an amazing teacher, but I tend to avoid anything with that much hype. However, before the beginning of this semester, 5 people asked me if I was going to go. Since no one has ever asked me if I was going or not, I felt that the Lord was saying, "Erin, get over yourself, you are not too cool for hype. you need to go." So I am going. She is doing a study called "Breaking Free". Doesn't that sound fun. Breaking....Breaking free....not being free, not becoming free, not flying free....no no....BREAKING.

And alongside all of those terrible, wonderful things, my heart is aching more and more to be in ministry. I am aching for girls in churches that don't have a girls' minister. Girls that, if they get their heart broken or get taken advantage of or are lonely, can't talk to anyone on their youth staff because they are all men. It breaks my heart. And I am seeing doors open for me to walk towards girls ministry, which is super exciting.

So, that, my friends is why I can say so confidently that I am on the fringe of being broken.

Becoming Infected

Becoming Updated

Well, it has been over a month. I have been at REI for almost 2 months now and some awesome things have been going on there. I have had some fabulous conversations with co-workers about the Lord. AND...I never initiated a single one. One co-worker, Alex, is really searching for truth. I got to giver her a Bible...the first Bible she has ever had. It was awesome and she was so excited.

But, retail is hard and not my cup of tea. I love what the Lord is doing there but I don't like retail. If you are going to be in retail, REI is for sure the place to be, it's just not what makes me come alive. I decided it's because I don't have much patience with people that get so upset over material things. They can't find the right size in the brown northface so they throw a hissy fit. I just want to shake them and remind them that there are more important things in life to worry about. Geeze! But enough ranting.

I had two interviews this last week, both for girls' ministry positions. I feel really good about one of those...the other I can't figure out. But, I am excited to see what God does. December 28th will be my last day at REI so hopefully one of these other jobs will come through. If not, it will be ok. God is good.

I really miss my College Station friends (the ones that are still there and the ones that are not). I miss Breakaway and Coffee Station. I miss Walton street. I miss being able to get anywhere in 10 minutes or less. I miss Living Hope. But I also love my new friends. I love HFBC and the Lighthouse class. I love that I get to sing here. I love the community. I love that I have free rent.

Overall,life is great. Some things are hard. Somethings are hard but improving. But most things are great. ...because God is good.