District of Columbia, Day 1

Today was our first full day in the DC area, and it was a complete blast. (: This morning Brandy and I headed off to church with my cousins and we enjoyed the music and sermon. The church is really nice and the music is up-to-date stuff, like Crowder and Hillsong and I’m sure they would do some JesusCulture stuff, too. After church, Heather, Brandy and I headed off to Georgetown, DC for a day of walking around and window shopping. We stopped in a few stores, toured the beautiful indoor mall, and took a short walk down the canal. We also stopped and ate some dessert (at about 4pm or so) at La Madeleine and tried some of their very chocolatey and delicious items. Also, we got cappuccinos. Huge ones. And I drank mine and half of Brandy’s. I don’t know if she liked it or not, but she wasn’t drinking it, so I helped myself. (; I love me some cappuccino! Coffee, in general, really. Hollaaa!

So, after we toured the city we hopped back into the car and came back home to Heather’s and ate dinner and now we’ve all separated. Syd is upstairs doing homework, or she’s supposed to be, and Brandy is in our room doing whatever she’s doing (maybe reading and journaling?), Heather and Jimmy are downstairs in the basement watching tv, and I am in the living room doing homework. Or, I was doing homework. Now I’m typing this, and nagging Syd about whether or not she’s done her text notes. (;

Also, on a separate note, I’ve really started to come to terms with the fact that I will never be able to plan my life. Sure, I can physically sit down and think about how I would like my life to go, which careers I would like to pursue, and things like that… But ultimately, everything is up to the Lord. He already has a blueprint ready for me, I’ve just got to decide to throw my own out. I watched a Status podcast last night before bed and Josh Loveless said something about how God is dance choreographer, and we are dancers. And God is so excited about the dance He choreographed specifically for us, but each one of us is so enthused about the dance moves that we have come up with and that we’re really good at that we keep pestering Him to let us dance our way. But God keeps saying, “but… I’ve got this really great dance… and I made it just for you. You’re the only one who can do this dance I made for you…” and we keep insisting, “no, God! you’ve got to check out this sweet move I came up with! Check out this jig!” and we just go on and on. But at some point, we have to, as the dancers, give in to what the choreographer wants. That, or go out on our own. At some point, we as people have to throw out our own plans in order to see and pursue the ones that God has for us.

My plan was to do the camp travel team for the summer, and my plans fell through. Now I have to throw my plans away and figure out exactly what God is wanting me to do for the summer, for my life. It will be a long month and a half of praying and being patient and trying to listen to the Lord, but I know that His plans (at least for the short term) will be made clear in due time. I’m just excited to see what’s going to be happening in the next few weeks and months. And maybe it won’t even be anything big, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to look back and point to this summer and see that God was moving. (;

Love to all.