So, I am on a bit of a soapbox these days.  And, I'm pretty sure most of the people in my life (including myself) are guilty of putting the box in my path.

Here it is...WHAT is the deal with people always wanting COMP TICKETS TO EVERYTHING?!  Let me put it this way:  Let's say you have a good friend who you would pay money to go have dinner or drinks with.  You probably just dropped at least $20-$30 on that endeavor...and that happens often, right?  SO.  Why are you unwilling to spend $10-$20 on supporting said friend in their LIFE, their BUSINESS, their DREAMS, etc.?! And, for the most part, the people asking for comp tickets HAVE THE MONEY to buy the ticket.  It's the college students who are paying for the tickets that could use a comp ticket every once in a while.  ARGH!!!

A lot of my close friends are artists, musicians, writers, etc.  Why WOULDN'T I want to invest in their life?  It seems a bit selfish to think that just because you know someone, you should get their product and their time for free.  I wouldn't walk into a clothing store that a friend owns and just take clothes, so why would I TAKE tickets from my friends in the biz?!

Told you I was on a soapbox!  And, for the record, I have been SUPER guilty of this in the past.  Free tickets, free books, free CDs, free swag...whatever I could get.  I just realized a while back that I was guilty...and now I am striving to be a little more responsible and RESPECTFUL.

Ok, I'm done.  Thoughts? :O)

Lately, I have been reminded that I have lost my focus a bit.  There was a time when I was wiling to rid my life of unnecessary things, things that are considered "luxury", things that don't have Kingdom or eternal impact.  I've noticed, however, that my thoughts have traveled elsewhere as of late.  I have become worried with "stuff" and my ownership (or lack thereof) of this "stuff".

Time to get back on track.

Time to realize that God's provision and blessings are not always monetary.  In fact, MOST of the time they are not monetary.  And I never want to become dependent on believing that they are.  I struggle with the whole concept that God's favor is expressed monetarily.  I don't believe that is a Biblical concept.  After spending time in Africa and seeing faithful, joyful, happy people who have literally nothing, I "GOT" it.  I just forgot that I "got" it.

And now it's time to get back on track.

Over and over throughout the Bible, God tells us, shows us, imparts to us wisdom and truth.  That, to me, is the TRUE blessing of God.  It is not something that can be purchased or earned.  It is something we, by faith, have to take and digest and apply to our lives.

Dig in!

Trusting that God has the bigger picture in front of me is tough, but I want to be faithful to do just that. So, my prayer is for my faith to increase, trust to skyrocket and fears to subside.

Ok, that is all. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

And while I appreciate that you weren't able to come into my house and take all of the rest of my stuff because my dog probably scared the bejeebies out of you...

I DO NOT appreciate you taking my Macbook.  The white one with the kickin' art gel sticker on it?  The one that had over 4,000 pictures of my travels, friends, dogs, etc.?  The one with my bajillion iTunes songs on it?  The one that had my most important documents strategically arranged in well-labeled folders?  Ring a bell?  Hmmmm???

And, NO.  I do not have a backup.  Thank you to everyone who has asked, though, because it makes me feel ALL the better about losing all of my stuff.  Apparently, I deleted all of my files on my .mac/mobile me account so that I could restructure and update.  Just hadn't actually DONE that yet.

So...

It's just a computer.  I know that.  It's just music.  It's just pictures.  It's just my personal information in the hands of some hooligans.  My life hasn't ended, everyone is safe and the world is still spinning away.  I just need a few days to accept it.

Therefore, east nashville thieves, I will soon be able to forgive and forget.  Just don't try it again or you are going to get more than my dog barking at you when you climb through the window.

Psalm 62:5-8

There's so much to take from that.  I love how The Message phrases it..."why not?"  Seems so easy.  Wish it were...trying to make it a bit easier by continually trusting and hoping.

Just some words of encouragement for us all today!

Anyway.  My migraine medicine has some crazy side effects for the first few weeks that I take it.  These side effects involve me losing feeling in my fingers and toes.  Or, at least that is what I anticipated happening.  I woke up this morning to go for my run with my friend Tracey and didn't really feel any different...maybe just a little tingling in the extremities.  By the time I hit my first hill, though, I definitely felt like something was "odd" with my feet.  2 miles in to my run and there was pretty much no feeling from my thighs down to my toes, my arms were numb and my face was numb.  Not the best feeling to have when you are 2 miles away from home.  We ended up having to walk about 1/2 mile of our 3 mile run.  Once I got back to the house, I ended up having to go back to sleep because I felt so craptacular. 

I realized, upon waking an hour later, that my dosage was considerably higher than it was the first time I started on the medicine years ago...which is why I had such a drastic reaction this time to the medicine.  So, now I know what to expect the next few days.  Fortunately, I know it only lasts a short time before my body adjusts...and the benefit of not getting migraines is a definite plus.  But, seriously...what a crazy morning.

I'm still in a bit of a funk.  I can chalk that up to several reasons, though...