When Faith takes over...

On Thanksgiving a couple days ago, I was watching Miracle on 34th Street on TV..(1994 version) ;)
I love the original...but this one did it justice. But one quote that "Kris Kringle" said to "Ms. Walker" just really stuck out. The whole movie is about FAITH. Faith in...Santa Claus...and what it is to have some Faith in general...

"If... you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt."

What's going on in this scene is Ms. Walker, head of staff at Coles department store, is talking about how it doesn't make any sense to have faith in things that seem unreal, less stable, illogical, or things you simply... can't see.

Kris, aka Santa Claus, tells her basically that if you can't accept anything by faith...then you will lead a life completely won out by fear and doubt. He says that she'd question everything and never give in to the idea that something GREAT is out there.

Faith, in our life, is also everything. IF we let ourselves get so tied down to a world where we have faith in SOME things...and use our "logical sense" for other things...we start taking away from God's and putting everything into OUR hands. I'll be honest, the more in life I try to "figure things out" and "work through things logically" and "according to plan"...is when my life gets all screwed up into a mess that only leads me to doubting good can even happen.

Even lately thinking about "the job" that I want, or graduating and looking for "the career"...I sit and go crazy trying to figure out where to look, how to search, who to talk to....and it COMPLETELY overwhelms me. Then I remember one thing that apparently I forget too often....

My GOD is SO Big.

HE can handle the little things in my life. HE can handle the things that I think are little that may be even bigger than I'd ever know. HE knows what's going on when I'm completely blind to it.
HE tells me to Trust Him. He reminds me that if I put absolutely ALL of my faith in Him, that He'll just go farther. The more we release to God...the more HE takes over. He says its our free will to give our will back to Him. Faith, may be very scary....I know this.

But living a life "dominated" by doubt...is honestly I whole lot scarier. So try to release more and more, day by day, to a God who just wants you to put your faith into Him. A God who loves you...and will SHOW you just how much...all He wants from us...is to put our FAITH in Him.

Back in the city....just a little "less" city ;)

So exactly one week ago today, me and my friend, Jessica, moved to NYC. We packed up all the "stuff" we could into my new/used...AWESOME car...(which btw holds a LOT my than the little Mazda would have) and drove to NYC. (oh...plus 2 little dogs in their lil pet taxi's)

I have been meaning to blog to give an update more quickly, but its amazing how fast time flies and the day is over. Maybe it's just the night-time getting here at 4:30pm. ha I dunno. I've just been really busy trying to get settled in.

So we came up here on a little leap of faith. Neither of us have a job. We didn't already have an apartment. We brought enough money though to last us awhile if we were homeless and jobless a bit longer than expected.

Currently, we have an apartment...and currently, we are both still jobless. Prayers please. :)

Here's how the Beginning went down...

FIRST OFF....God is good. We found an awesome apartment in a matter of 2 days.

But to start...the first day, which felt like an absolute eternity... we were in Staten Island looking and calling for apartments.
We met with a man and his father who told us we could have their "mother-daughter" apartment... (supposedly that's what it's called when your apartment is like a basement attached to a person's home)...they told us we could have it IF we gave him Dad's social security number. That was the very first guy we met with. Weird....he asked for it about 4 times.
"I mean neither of yous guys have jobs...so...I'ma hafta have your dad's social security number JUST IN CASE."
To say the least...I had a bad feeling about him. Sooo we told him we'd get back to him on that. Then we prayed about it.

Still DAY ONE... we called a bunch of other landlord people and they kept saying ONE thing to us over and over again..."No...I don't allow pets."

Finally it turned dark out and we met w/ one lady who lived right near the ocean of the south-side of Staten Island...
She lived in a very nice and ritzy neighborhood. We waited for her to get home. (ha...not stalking...just waiting)
She led us down to her "mother-daughter" apartment and it was MUCH nicer than the first guy's.
We loved it. Already had 2 twin beds. Had brand new appliances. Great layout. Had a spot for washer and dryer....BUT it had carpet. Eh...well...the dogs are SORTA potty trained...Either way...we wanted it. The lady looked at us...and said..."How many dogs you have? 2? I'll call you back tomorrow"

We actually thought she liked us. We prayed that she would pick us.

The next day came and we were still checking out apts. Many STILL said "no" about the pets.

Eventually Jessica found this one guy who said we could come by at 4:00 and check his out. He posted it that day. The apt seemed cool on craigslist.

We had a lot of time to waste...and once again, this day, DAY 2, seemed very long...being in a new city without a place to call "home" was a little hard. I don't know why it seemed so long...but I guess anticipation was killing me. The "unknown" was becoming overwhelming.

Anyway, we drove over to his house, knocked on the door....VERY nice house, nice neighborhood...a kid answered the door. He told us to hold on. His mom opened the door and she told us her husband wasn't home. She made her oldest son show us the apt. It was ALSO very nice. AND...had tile floor in every room :) We liked it. It was furnished already...come to find out...it was the last renter's stuff. Well...the dad gets home and starts asking us if we like it. He told us we were the first to respond to his listing on craigslist..(WAY to go Jessica!) He then told us he liked us and just needed to go talk to his wife. So we drove off...well, sort of. We drove about 3 seconds down the road and made phone calls to our parents telling them we THINK we got one. About 2 minutes later we start driving off again and the landlord guy calls us. "Ummm me and my wife talked...she asked if your dogs barked...I told her they meowed like a cat...haha....yous can have it if you want it"

WE were SOOOO happy. It was much better than the first apt...much better than the 2nd one that we even loved...and the best part...LOWER IN PRICE. :) God is too good to us.

Well to sum it up...I know its a long first post...

We have had our work a bit cut out for us. The last renter is kinda...under some weird circumstances...and his stuff should be taken out sooner or later. We moved all of it to the bedroom...good thing the couch is a pull out bed. Much better than the Blow-up mattress we brought to "rough it" till Dad brings the furniture. Once again, God is good...though its a little weird because we feel like we are "renting" some of his stuff...but hey, its in our apt right now. Soo...might as well. Ok I'm gonna stop here. This was just a really long overdue update.

Thanks for all the prayers. God is amazing in so many ways. Now just trying to keep the faith as the job hunt continues...

:)

The End....or is it?? ha

This is my last blog....at least on here. Why? Because...I'm no longer in NYC ha.

Truthfully, I've been slacking. I meant to write a CLOSING post right after I left NY and EVERY time I started...I couldn't finish. I just didn't feel like saying anything. I now know why. ;)

So, New York and my internship... all I can say is that God took me there. He did it ALL. He got me the internship in the city I never imagined having it in. He got me to fill out an application 4 times because I kept messing up. He got them to call a random girl from Alabama. AND he somehow convinced my parents to let me go. God knew what He wanted. (and I had no idea how anything was gonna play out, but there I went!)

I really thought NY would be about me getting "my foot in the door"....well, I found out, it was more of something else. God moved me when I was in NY. He opened up doors and I got way more than a foot in....I got attached to the city. Really, the people in the city. Lots of reasons people move to NYC...and truth is, these people may be the most honest with themselves than most. They don't seem to hide who they are as much. They may not have life figured out...but wait a second, I don't think we do either. They just seemed more REAL than most people. In NY I met a lot of DIFFERENT people. DIFFERENT cultures. DIFFERENT lifestyles. DIFFERENT experiences, etc etc. And the city screams this....

"THIS IS ME....I NEED to CONNECT"

And God opened my eyes to THE connection. It's simple. It's Him. People will search forever and ever and go anywhere and everywhere to...connect. And its not just people in NYC...its people one step outside your door. And its us. I found out how much I desire to connect. To connect with someone or something....but the ONE thing my soul screams to CONNECT with is more of a WHO....to my Creator. (just like every soul in the world)

So God gave me AWESOME friends in NYC. In a matter of 3 months...I met AMAZING people, and formed everlasting friendships. (call it corny, but I'll just call it the truth) He spoke to me through conversations that literally moved me. He gave me Moments that will stick with me forever. He didn't bring me to NY for just an internship....He brought me to NYC to connect.... with Him.

As people, as His CREATION...we will ALWAYS have a Desire to Connect. We'll try to with anyone and anything until the day we die....because they can't fix the lost connection. Only One can. And more than anything, He wants to. Jesus made THAT possible...so now...we have to daily be open and desiring of the Connection with our Creator. Everyone is looking. "God is not Dead nor does He sleep..." He loves us ---He just wants us to reconnect with Him.

So that is what God taught me in NYC.

Tomorrow I start my final semester at UNA...and that's scary. And weird. AND scary. Yes, it's that big to me. No telling where I'm going after May. I'm open to anything and everything...cuz HONESTLY, i have NO idea what is to come. I don't have any specifics to even ask for. So...time to trust Him again. As best I flippin' can!

Let the semester begin ;)

oy.... ha

****God connects people to each other too. For a reason. Just trust Him to bring people into your life and let them go when life takes them another way....its ok. We're all headed to the same place in the end anyway, when we follow our Creator's lead****