Jonese's Blog

So it's been well over a week since the Labor Day Retreat and I know you're all dying for an update. Ok so I only know one person is, and well he doesn't even know me and I just "discovered" him. Go figure, the internet is a cool place.

So how was it? It ROCKED! Seriously I had expectations of grandeur and it totally shattered them.

First off Brennan Manning is an amazing man of God. Talk about someone who knows God's love, trust and compassion, this man knows it, lives it and shares it like no one else! The biggest thing I took away from him was to trust in God. This sounds easy, especially to someone who's given his entire decision making ability and life to Him. But you'd be surprised how easy it is to not trust in Him. Ok some of you are telling me "no, it's actually very easy and I do not trust in Him".

That statement is a whole other blog post.

Seriously though we followers of Christ lose trust in God and God's plan on a daily basis. Don't believe me when was the last time you doubted something would turn out good, even though you knew it would turn out good. Or how about worry? When was the last time your worried a guy would call, or a girl would return you call? All these things and SO much more is us not trusting in God, and more importantly in His plan for us.

You see if we did trust fully in him then we wouldn't worry, we wouldn't doubt, we'd be secure that things are going to be a-ok. We'd know that even though bad thing A happened it can only lead to good thing B, C or D.

This was my problem. I love God, I know He Loves me. I trust God and believe he is in complete control of my life. But I still had doubts. I don't worry much, but I still worry at times. Doubts though are something I wrestle with all the time. I've never doubted him directly but I've doubted circumstances in my life which I SHOULD know he controls but just don't. I can't help it I'm human.

You know what's great about this? God doesn't love me any less because I think or feel this way. He knows this is something I'll probably struggle with till the day I die. He'll keep on showing me signs and revealing things to me only to have me doubt it. Then he'll show me something bigger and more obvious, again only to have me doubt it. Then he'll laugh at me and smack me on the forehead pretty hard and watch me stumble back and say "ok ok I give, I get it trust you".

Have you ever been smacked in the forehead by God? It's actually a pretty good feeling...

Oh yea. Pictures didn't really take a lot of them, and those i did take i might not be able to show you because people get all kinds of wierd when you combine a camera with bathing suits. Guess