Can't get better friends... and a challenge for March..

I don't really know how to approach this blog.. The story I want to tell you fits in with the challenge I have been given by Phil (my boss) and Sharon (my other boss), so first let me tell you about the challenge, then the story, then I will tie it all in together.

THE CHALLENGE:

Phil and Sharon have presented Kathleen and I with a challenge to post a blog everyday, talking about what God is doing in our lives/something we have learned from Him/Challenges we are facing/an honest assessment of what is going on in our walk with Christ.. everyday... when I first heard this challenge my first thoughts were.. "I'm gonna fail".. not because of the spiritual part, just because I have become just plain forgetful. I have turned into one of those "checklist" or "to-do list" people.. I will forget it if it isn't on a post it note on my desk or in my Google Calendar.. so what did I do? I put an alert for everyday @ 5pm for my calendar to alert me.. problem solved, I hope. Other thoughts about the challenge included, that this is a forceful way for me to share what is going on in my life.. I still feel a little forced, but being forced to assess my relationship with Christ daily on a blog will have more good than bad consequences. So i accept this challenge.. now don't expect everyday for me to bring something deep and moving to the blog.. if you know me and anything about my walk with Christ, you know I approach my walk more than casual, with passion nonetheless, I just am not your typical theologian who is deep all the time. I love Jesus, I love that he is there for me and I love digging deeper into a relationship with him, but I do NOT know everything, or will i try to claim I do.. It will be an honest assessment of the day.. bad, good or neither.. ok that is the challenge..

STORY:
titled: Best Surprise Ever

ok picture this, I am lying in bed asleep Thursday night..we are talking deep sleep, and around 230 am I hear this banging on my door.. like multiple people knocking. I wake up, in obvious delirium from deep sleep, and walk to the door, in boxers only, with thoughts of Kathleen being in trouble/someone is going to kill me thoughts.. open the door to a surprise.. 3 of my closest friends had driven from Starkville, MS (God's Country) to surprise me and visit, as i have begged them to since I moved here. I am completely shocked, as I stand there in my pink polka dotted boxers and hear them yell surprise, and the only words I can say are (in muffled tone) "best surprise everrrrrr" ha. David, Kori, and Kelli had been in contact with Kathleen planning a trip to surprise me here in Ridgecrest.. I was overwhelmed with happiness and just feeling good about having friends that awesome. They stayed all weekend and I naturally hit all the Asheville/Blk. Mtn hotspots with them (Morning Glory, Tupelo Honey Cafe, Bier Garden, Downtown Shops, Take a Hike, Dripolator, and Hiked Kitazuma)... all the while just being able to catch up with them and share what has been going on in my life. They left, sadly, Sunday morning at 11am ET, ha. But as they left some of my last words were 45 days, that is until Super Bulldog Weekend when I will be going to Starkville for a few days! This past weekend was just one of the most perfect weekends in the words of Kori "Get a better weekend!".. this leads to the tie in..

THE TIE IN:

I found myself all weekend, thanking God for my friends. I pray daily for all of them, and for what they mean to me in my life, and I found out this weekend I am significant in their lives as well, which feels dang good. I love my friends from MS, to no end, and I have always said that I wanted my favorite people in one of my favorite places (NC), and this weekend it happened, and I am thankful for that. I was reminded this weekend that I am a blessed guy. I am blessed that God has had his hand in every aspect of my life from what happened to me as a child to motivate me to go to college, to the weird things that led to my being @ Mississippi State, to the friends he led me to, when I needed them the most, to putting me here, now in this internship. I am struggling to be content and ok with my future.. because I don't know what it is going to become. I try to figure it out on my own daily, and have to be slapped in the face usually by God to realize that I need to look to him for that it is like he says to me "how foolish can you be? Can you not see how I have led you and guided you so far? Follow my daily, and you path WILL be revealed.." I struggle with that.. greatly. And God used 3 little tools this weekend (Kori, David, Kelli) to remind me to count my blessings, these being in friendships and to recognize, he is STILL in complete control of my life, like he has been in the past with all my past blessings. It is a simple simple concept that my stubborn mind doesn't comprehend very often.

So special shout out to David, Kori, and Kelli again.. I hope you know what it meant to me this past weekend, everyone, just be jealous of my friends.. go ahead..

Psalm 73:24

So be looking for a blog everyday for the next month.. with the exception of this weekend because I will be at Disciple Now in Birmingham!! Some will be just that on the blog, others tied in with a normal one. Pray for me as I go through this challenge as well, That God will reveal himself to me in new ways, and give me the words to share how he is working in my life.

Grace and Peace!
Seth