So it feels really weird to me that it’s December right now.Out here in the San Diego the seasons are different from the Mid west.Thus far I have experienced summer, summerer, summererier, and some fallishness and then some more summer and then a little more early fall type stuff, and more summer and some rain and cool fallness and again more summer.So it’s difficult to get into the Christmas season because it is mostly still way too warm outside during the day.At night it cools down to what would be a warm night in the mid to late fall, but my body is still very confused by this all.Thus bring to light one of my biggest frustrations about this area being the lack of different weather (especially a lack of rain).And that’s about all I have to say about that.
On a different topic I love the elder who normally does the sermons at the church I’m at (they don’t have pastors they have elders).He’s very challenging and is great at revealing the mysteries of the Gospel to non-believers but also greatly challenging those of us who have been in the church for quite awhile.He has a way of doing so that challenges and gets you to realize that you need to work to do better but that you also don’t have to be perfect.In other words he preaches the Gospel.He has been doing a series on parties and Jesus, but starting this week, he switched to Advent and went with Hope.Now I was worried (and slightly relieved inside) to think that this series mught not convict like he has been because he was going to speak on such broad topics as Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.I was pleasantly surprised.When he defined Hope he defined it as (paraphrasing) something that we are certain will happen that affects our outlook on everything.He challenged us then to think about how Hopeful we are as well as what we (and other) but their Hope in.When he launched into a these things that we put our Hope in and railed on each one I realized that this is a very good church for me to be in for now.I feel that I should move to a place where I live in a community that is more of a poor area that has social issues. When I move there I feel that I should probably attend a church in that community, but I feel for now that his as a transition church will continually allow God to remind me of His call to me at the very least every couple of weeks.It is a place of a great reminder from God to me of His promise for me to be able to leave the silliness of “happy suburbs” for a place He wants me to be at.A place where He gives me crazy Hope because it’s one of those quirks He gave me that I Hope and Dream like crazy for Him when I’m in those places…or maybe it’s just the lack of distractions.I don’t know, but it’s where I need to be to thrive spiritually.That’s why it’s much more of a sacrifice for me to be where I’m at now than to be living in a place of utter physical and social poverty.
