calculation

See, i’m being consistent. Today’s title is brought to you by “The Calculation” by Regina Spektor.

I started writing this a week ago, but got busy/lazy (there’s a fine line). Today is Saturday. It might be my last free Saturday for awhile, so I’ve tried to relax. I might have been too successful, as I have achieved that moment where boredom and laziness meet. You might remember the experience as a child, where you couldn’t think of a single thing to do that sounded remotely appealing.

My notes from the beginning of this entry a week ago were “last night, bike, coming week plans”. Let’s address them, shall we?

“last night”- This really means last Friday night, which was fantastically fun in many ways. I ditched Friday night traffic from work at the OC office to home in Azusa in favor of hanging out with a couple friends in that area. (Last night’s hellish hour-and-a-half crawl home confirmed that this was indeed a good decision.) The evening began with tuna melts, rock band, and general quality conversation. It ended at the beach, which is never a bad decision. I laid on the sand between two dear friends, listening to the waves keep rhythm as seals sang in the distance. Up above, stars danced between constellations. These are happy moments that I save to relive when things get bad.

“bike”- There’s a bicycle in the garage leftover from Soph’s stepdad’s sister. I rode it the other day, and it was crazy fun. However, I have been too lazy/busy to ride it since. Though i’m considering taking it out in a minute to enjoy the exercise before the week-long rain begins.

“coming week plans”- eh, this wasn’t too exciting. I worked. I did register to do extra work with Central Casting, and will try to make that happen at the end of next week. I’m back and forth between Glendale and Orange County as the January-month-of-transition continues. Oh, and rehearsals for the Masquer Easter show start tomorrow, so woot.

So I will leave you with a short devotional thing I wrote for my parents’ church in Ohio. Enjoy:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”
-Proverbs 3:5-6

It’s that time again. Every so often, life seems to turn upside down. There are changes, decisions, and questions. It would all be so much simpler if God’s will were easier to understand. I’ve begged and pleaded for it all- a divine billboard, a heavenly roadmap, or some kind of meeting where God and I could sit down and discuss strategy. Instead, He hands me a jigsaw puzzle.
You don’t complete an entire puzzle at once, but piece by piece. You examine each part and focus on one area at a time. The edge pieces create the frame, while similar colors fit together. The top of the box acts as a reference, showing the whole picture and the final goal. And God works like that, too. He doesn’t give us a cross-country map, but step-by-step instructions. Sometimes He shows us the big picture, and other times, just enough so we know what to do with the pieces in our hand.
Remember Moses? If God showed him the big picture, Moses would never have known how to go from baby-sitting sheep in the wilderness to leading a nation to the promised land. Yet, his shepherd skills trained him to baby-sit the Israelite “sheep” wandering the desert all those years. God’s perfect method guided Moses from a burning bush to negotiating with Pharaoh, and all the way to the revealing of His glory.
My favorite part of a jigsaw puzzle is fitting the last piece in place and marveling at the completed picture. How much more amazing is each step of God’s journey when we’ve arrived at His big picture destination?