Friday's trailmix

This week has gone by SO fast!! Faster than any week I can remember in the history of weeks! Well, maybe not quite that fast, vacation weeks go by pretty quick and all of last year is now a blur.

I read 1 Samuel 7 today. I'm not sure if I mentioned previously how I decided that I will no longer read my Bible chapters looking for something to apply to my own life, but just enjoy the story. So instead of writing a verse, of my choosing from the text, in my journal I'm writing a brief synopsis of the chapter. It's fun although I have a hard time keeping it short and by the time I'm finished I've used up an entire journal page. Although I don't mind using up pages, so it's all good. Today's chapter had the Ark sitting in the same place for quite a few years, the Israelites getting all sad about God leaving them (from what I can tell, they brought it on themselves). Then Samuel invites the people to come back to God and get rid of their other gods. So they do and meet in one place and Samuel sends a word up to God on their behalf. (There is a point to all this, but I have to share the story first). Then the Philistines (who stole the Ark and gave it back in the previous 2 chapters) decided it was a good time to pick a fight, because they were all in one place. Knowing the Philistines were going to attack, the Israelites started to freak out, so they started pleading with Samuel (why him, I'm not sure other than he was the priest so had the direct-connect to God) to plead with God. So God gave them victory and for the next 20 years the Philistines laid off and things were good.

So, as I read this I thought about how many people lived and died during these 17 verses. Hundreds, thousands! They gave birth to babies, died, married, had relational drama, cried, and laughed. And we don't know any of them but one man, Samuel (and a couple other random peeps).

We are all the lead in our own story. I am the center of my own universe. I feel totally self-centered saying it, but it's absolutely true. And unless I'm in someone else's skin, this is the way life is. In other words, I am the most important person in my life. It sounds horrible! I don't always choose to do things that serve me first, but for the most part, I'm the main character. And I often forget that I'm not the main character in everyone else's stories as well. Just ask Barb or Mark ;)

In the 1 Samuel story, there were thousands of people that were the lead character in their own story and we know nothing about them. Everything they lived and thought and felt and experienced is not remembered, written about, wondered about, or even cared about. It's easy to lead into thoughts about my own life. "So, is this life worth nothing? What the heck am I doing here if I don't mean anything to the existence of the world?"

"You knew me before I was born. Each day of my life was recorded in your book and each moment laid out before a single day had passed." from Psalm 139.

It really shows how personal God is. He didn't just create us all to do something so momentous that it gets recorded for all eternity (like Samuel or Moses or the others), but we each mean so much to God that he already knew our story before it started. He is a personal God and he brought you on earth because he wanted you here and you mean something to him and he wants to hangout with you. That's pretty crazy cool!!

I hope that all made sense. They are just random thoughts from my brain.

Tonight is dinner at Macaroni Grill with my best friend EVER, Mark ;) I was weird today and wrote down a few notes of things we could talk about. Not that we ever run out of things to talk about, I just thought it would be fun. Here's a little preview of the topics: How much money should we give to help support a friend in ministry? What's your dream vacation? What are 5 things you want to accomplish in your life time? What is your "perfect day" and it has to be doable? I'm sure we already know the answers to some of these things for each other, but it's fun to be specific.