Today, Pastor Norm said that CCK was "25 with kids. She is in the age of distractions."

This struck a particular chord with me due to what I had read this morning:

I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple—in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things—your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.

I want you to live as free of complications as possible...All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions.

- I Corinthians 7:29-32, 35

That last verse is really familiar because it's the "undistracted devotion" verse. But, it seems so much more straightforward in this context. We can be distracted by so much more than guys or girls. I don't want to be distracted. I want to keep it simple!

Well, on a separate note, tomorrow begins my summer schedule:

Mondays: Work 7-noon at Honda, 1:30-5:30 at the clinic

Tuesdays: Work 7-noon at Honda, 1:30-5:30 at the clinic

Wednesdays: MORNING OFF!!! 1:30-5:30 at the clinic

Thursdays: Work 7-noon at Honda, 1:30-5:30 at the clinic

Friday: On/off, 1:30-5:30 at the clinic

Saturdays: 7-4 at Honda

Sundays: 2-7 at Honda

whew! And at the end of the month, I'm adding an online class to that schedule! crazy!

I just keep whispering to myself: "Oxford, oxford, oxford, oxford, oxford..."

Well, to end on a grateful note (btw, I'm soooo grateful for work!), today at work, someone had changed the XM radio to a Christian station, and it was left there until the last hour of my shift. I've never been so grateful to listen to Steven Curtis Chapman, Newsboys and Jacqui Valasquez... But there were some good ones too :-)

Thank you Jesus for day brighteners!

Pray for me. I'm really hitting a wall.

I have 1 week till I'm done with my sophomore year...

but I just don't want to do my homework anymore.

I need passion. I need fire. His fire.

I need the inspiration to create.

I think it wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't working so much.

Between now and my last final, I am slated to work 30 hours.

That is a lot! Plus all my homework.

Ah! I need inspiration. I need him!

But every time I go to work and I'd rather not be there,

I just whisper to myself, "Oxford, Oxford, Oxford."

Then it would be worth it...

Jesus, help me, help me not to burn out!

I don't ever want to grow weary of what you're calling me to.

I know your grace is sufficient...

Jesus is soooo good!

No questions. No doubts. You can trust Him!

So, Sunday night, I came home from work and planned to start on my homework straight away. I opened my computer--and it was dead! I mean, the hard drive totally crashed! Non bueno! After a momentary freak-out, I reminded myself that God is good and he is in control.

More than being upset about possibly having to get a new computer or about all the things I lost (I did have the most important stuff backed up)--I was worried because I had no idea how I was going to finish this quarter! I mean, there are papers and online assignments and now I had no computer. Fortunately, I had just 1 month left of my Apple Care, so I made an appointment with the genius bar for the following day. I was just hoping they could do whatever repairs quickly because I didn't know how I was going to do all my homework!

So my mom and I went Monday morning and the guy looked at it and confirmed that it was indeed dead, quite dead. "But," he said, "we can replace the hard drive in about 20 minutes, is that ok?" Wow! Yes, that would be perfect. He started taking the computer apart and said, "Ok, looks like you had tiger. Would you want to upgrade to Snow Leopard?" Hmmm... a hard drive that is two generations newer--sure, lets go with that one. :-)

So he went to the back to get the hard drive while my mom and I were totally cracking up! Then he says, "So, we didn't have the 80 gb replacement, which is what your computer had. So we're going to have to give you a 250 gb one." Ha!

So, I pretty much got a brand new computer that is newer, bigger, and faster--for free! It should now last me so much longer than it would have if this had never happened. Basically, the Lord's "creative provision" is beyond human logic and is so much better than anything we could have planned!

Jesus is soooo good!

No questions. No doubts. You can trust Him! :-)