::A Little Longer::

...

MAY 1ST?!?!?!
ALREADY?!?!?!

Dang. Time flies when you're alive. It's amazing.

So. It's May first... and it was basically a blizzard outside today.

Unbelievable.

I love the place I live... but can really do without the loooooooooong winters. The random blizzards during the months April - July. They kill me.

But this past Tues, I was able to get together with a long-lost friend of mine over lunch who had just gotten back from doing a 6 month YWAM mission in New Zealand and Nepal.

It was really nice to get together, we went up to one of my favorite places on the side of the mountain... a place where I can overlook the city and "dangle my feet..." =) .... and talked about God and life and how we can make those two things merge as much as possible and as evidently as possible in our lives.


As I begin to talk to Mark, I was amazed in seeing how much God has grown in him. We've been friends since freshman year of high school, not necesarily best of friends or even friends that saw each other a lot... but we kept in touch and have known each other for a while.

He's you're typical reserved, introverted guy sporting the "hot surfer" style. Long, shaggy bleached blonde hair, really athletic and good at soccer, extremely smart and top five of his graduating class of 500+, very cynical, extremely sarcastic, and absoutely OBSESSED with photography, hiking, and God's creation.

He's the type of guy that doesn't stay in one place for very long. I'll randomly call him up one day and I'm like "Mark, where are you?" and he's like "Hey Jo. I'm in Africa." or one time, this was probably one of my favorites, I called him up and this is how the conversation played out:

-------------------------

"Hey Mark! How's it going? Wanna hang out soon?"
"Hey Jo! Well, I would... but I'm in Durango."
"Oh cool. What are you doing there?"
"I'm living here. In a tent by a river."
".... are you serious?"
"Ya."
"Whoa. Why?"
"Why not?"
"Ok sure I guess. So you live in a tent?"
"Yep."
"What do you do all day?"
"I got a job as a server at a restaurant."
"Wow. Where do you shower?"
"In the river."
"... wow."
"Ya. It's cold. But great. I've been out here for a month."
"A month?"
"Ya."
"How much longer are you staying there?"
"Until whenever my dad is thinking of coming down to get me. I only have my bike out here."
"Woooow."

-----------------

That was probably one of my favorite conversations. I told everybody I knew that I had a friend who was living in a tent on the side of the road in Durango, working as a server, and showering in the river. Ha!

It doesn't end there tho. Mark's biked across the state of Colorado, hiked almost all the 14ers in Colorado, gone to Africa to do the "World Race," gone to New Zealand and did a back-packing missions training where he then went to Nepal and back-packed in the mountains for 2 months. He hikes up 14ers in his ski boots, just to ski down in like 30 seconds. He's constantly somewhere totally random... like last week he caught a ride up to Vancouver Canada and spent a few days there. (Why? I'll never know.) Anyways. This is my friend. And I've always admired how obsessed he is with Nature and how I can call him any time and he'll mostlikely be on top of a huge mountain being with Jesus. :)


I love having friends like that. I love having friends that are obsessed with something amazing, and bend their lives around it. So anyways I hadn't seen him for a good 10 months as he had been gone in New Zealand and to the ends of the earth... so catching up was good for us. Really good. He talked about God and how He'd become SO real to Him. How he'd realized God is more than just something to be intellectually grasped. He told me he realized that the one thing more important than "Doing" God's work is actually "Being" with God Himself!! (I called it the Mary/Martha concept.) :)

That's huge! And so true! So many times we get caught up with doing things for God and going and going and going, and we miss out! God's just up there going, "Jo! Stop for like, 5 minutes, be quiet, and just be with me. I think it's great that you're doing this and this for me, but you have to remember what I want most is to just be with You!"

There's a song that this girl, Jenni Johnson, wrote. It's called "A Little Longer" and here are the Lyrics:

A Little Longer - Jenni Johnson

"What can I do for You? What can I bring to You? What kind of song would You like me to sing? I'll dance a dance for You, Pour out my love to You, What can I do for you Beautiful King ?

Cuz I, can't thank You enough. No I can't thank You enough."

Then I hear You sing to me...

You said "You, you don't have to do a thing. Won't You please stay here with me, in love with me a little longer." He said "Wait, this moment is too sweet. Just please stay here with me and love on me a little longer... I just want to be with you a little longer.... because I'm in love with You."

:)

That's so nice. I love the God I serve.

So Anyways. It was a really nice talk. Sometimes we just sad there, dangling our feet in silence for a moment or two, just enjoying the sunshine and staring at God's amazing creation. Other times, we had pretty in-depth conversations with each other and then with God as we prayed together for each other. Good, quality time with a dear brother of mine that has an overwhelming desire to keep God on the throne of his heart.

Well as we were talking, we both realized that we're in the waiting room of our lives: with nothing to do but sit, listen, and see what God's plans are for us. Mark is torn between going up to Boulder and getting a degree in engineering, or going and helping at this YWAM base in California for the rest of the summer... and I'm torn between doing YWAM in the September in Honolulu, or just staying here and finishing up school for another year. I'm definitely leaning toward the former... praying a lot about it and waiting to see where God leads me.

I hate waiting rooms. I even in fact at times will arrive to the Doctor's office a few minutes LATER than my actual scheduled appointment, JUST to get in there right on time. I hate having to "fakely" occupy myself for a good 5-10 minutes, reading a dumb health magazine that everybody else in the room knows I'm not at all interested in. I'd rather just check in and go in. That's the way I like it. :)

But, to my amazement, God is continually showing me that I don't always get things done the way I like them. Basically... it's not about me, people. *GASP!* Oh... I know. I had the same reaction.

But it IS about God. It IS about loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is about putting Him on the throne of Your heart and keeping Him there. It is about submiting your plans, time, money, and LIFE to Him day in and day out. It is about loving other people enough to want to see them in Heaven. It is about overcoming sin and Satan's hold on your life... living victoriously in Jesus. It is about being in constant communion with the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to speak to you and guide you in EVERY SINGLE LITTLE decision you make. It's about standing on your tippy-toes... desperate to hear His voice. It is about loving people. Doing life with people. Picking up your cross and carrying it everywhere you go. It's about being Jesus to people. That's it. :) Live it!