This is a list of people at SPU who continuously fill me with Joy:
(in no particular order)
-Shelby Spear
-Erin Pearce
-Marcella Weber
-Professor Davis
-Jason Jay
-Mariah McCarthy
-Landry Desmond
-Katt Holbrook
-Alyse Bradway
-Chris Vertefeuille
- Susan Haldeman
-Noelle Ciaciuch
If you are on the list, you are such a blessing in my life and have made it ten times better. I owe you so much because you have given me something priceless: your amazing friendship. You guys have my heart.
Sometimes we just need to be reminded of who God is. Today God reminded me of who HE is. On my wall I have a banner that has around 30, give or take, adjectives of who God is to ME. They fell down the other day, well more like I took them down in my sleep lol. I just hung them back up a little while ago and a couple of them stuck out to me.
Pure....
LARGER than my problems.....
Beautiful....
The Lover of my Soul....
and My Loving Father......
I just sat on my bed for awhile looking at those words and they resonated with me. At first they were just a cute little decoration, but now they are a daily reminder of just who God IS and what I am NOT. There is one thing that I definitely am though, not worthy.
So here is my challenge to YOU, yes you reader of this post, take a few minutes of today and think about or write down some adjectives of who God is to YOU! Trust me, it is worth it.
HAPPY NOVEMBER 1ST! =D
Here are some pictures of the little banner. (sorry for the bad quality)
Seeing this as my 18th day of being here at SPU, I have been through a lot of internal struggles. There have been a lot of "Where the heck do I fit in here?!" moments. Back at home, I knew that I was a certain thing to one friend, or number 10 in my class rank, or a leader in the church, but here no one really knows me. I constantly wonder what I am putting out as who I am, which made me think of the question who am I? So this has been looming over my head for the past couple of days and it has caused me to be a little depressed. Fortunately, my lovely community at SPU has played a big role into helping me discover who I truly am.
In my politics class (who would have known) my professor taught us about philosophy and how it is all about questioning everything. Not just questioning authority, but questioning the root of the actions that we do. He then also told us to measure everything to the idea of mortality. For example, Do I want to spend my life doing (fill in action here) knowing that one day I will die? Crazy deep, right?! So I have been really evaluating EVERYTHING that I have been doing these past couple of days. Some of the revelations have been really hard to swallow, but it makes my heart happy to know that God has been revealing these things to me.
Also, tonight in group we went through a couple of verses in Joshua chapter 1 and God's command to us rang through the room. "Be strong and very courageous." The speaker told us that God called us to be set apart and then he said some super deep stuff that I would mess up if I even tried to repeat it. But he revealed to us that we are now a part of Israel and that even though we are not preparing for battle like the Israelites, we need to be courageous to be set apart. That hit me like a ton of bricks because I had been trying to blend in and in that process was losing myself. After the speaker talked a little bit more, he gave us a time for quiet reflection. In my quiet time, I prayed that God will give me the courage to be able to reflect God's call on my life to be set apart. As I was praying that, I seriously had this overwhelming feeling of God's anointing on my life to be set apart.
So my challenge to you all is to reflect on if you are living a life separate of the norms of the world or if you are living a life that is conformed to the perfect will of God. If not, I repeat this to you "Be Strong and VERY Courageous." Take courage and take the first step in walking in God's will for you.
7“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.8Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.9Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:7-9
This quarter I have the lovely opportunity of working in Gwinn Commons, which is the cafeteria at SPU. I actually enjoy working in Gwinn because you get to see almost everybody in the school at their best and worst. It is downright hilarious. They all come in with a hungry look in their eyes, scanning for the best plate of the day. It really does crack me up. Also it is so amazing being able to talk to people while I serve them. Gwinn is where it is at!
So you may be wondering what this has to do with my title of the post, but I promise you it is relevant! On the first day that I worked my official shift at Gwinn, I was given the opportunity to serve people at the Classics Station. At Classics, you have your home cooked meals and comfort foods such as meat and potatoes and the like. Classics is always a popular station. So there I was at the station working with Amy and we had a huge crowd of students waiting in line all hungry and slightly irritated may I add. We were working so hard to get the food plated in a timely fashion, but we still had quite a line. We were working along when to our surprise we ran out of food. There were no plates in the burner and the chef told us that the food would be ready in 3 minutes. 12 minutes later, we had probably close to 70 students in line and grouped around our station waiting for their dinner. As we looked at each other anxiously and scared at the ravenous mob that was forming in front of us, I came up with an idea. Time to stall. So for about 5 minutes, I did what I do best; I cracked jokes and talked. I told knock-knock jokes, blonde jokes, and interesting pieces of news. One that I told that I now regret is the story of the bull semen on the freeway, but it got people to relax and laugh. After I went through my third joke, people were asking for more jokes, but by that time the food had arrived and Amy and I started busting out those dinner plates like no tomorrow. For this reason, I love working in Gwinn. I love being able to talk to people, ask them about their day, and hopefully put a smile on their face. I am so grateful that God has given me the gift of gab and this job.
Sometimes I miss my families so much that it hurts. Today is definitely one of those days. It baffles my mind to think that people who don't speak the same language as me, live thousands of miles away from me, and just live a totally different life style than me could change and impact my life so much. My families in the Dominican and Mexico have taught me how to live and love in a different and dare I say, better way? There are so many times that I wish that I was in Mexico or in the Dominican. Other times I get really angry that God has placed these amazing people in my life and have them live so far away from me. I know that it is silly for me to think that, but I feel like I only have 10% of my heart and the other 90% is always aching for my families. I hope that in the future I can make a lot of money so that I can always visit my families and support them.
Through times like these when all I want to do is curl up in a ball and pray fervently that I was with them, I seriously wonder how it is possible to live with a broken heart.....
So here at the wonderful school of SPU, I have noticed many trends here. One of them being the shimmy, shake, and booty pop. What is the Shimmy, Shake, and Booty Pop? Well, let me explain my friend. Here on campus, you use a campus key card to get into just about any building. You swipe your card at a little black box that has a sensor and that will let you into the desired building. One thing that students have noticed here is that the little black box has a SUPER sensitive sensor.With that being said, many students like to place their key card in the oddest places in order to see if their card will still be read. I have witnessed people shimmy in front of the box, rub their butts against, hip bump it, and even a very odd in-air hip thrust. But of course, my favorite has been the booty pop. Ahaha some students here belong in a rap video the way they pop their butts at that box. It is so hilarious!
So of course I cannot talk about this without sharing my own embarrassing experience. I used to have a plastic holder for my keycard, but that ripped. So I had to put my keycard in a place that I knew would never get lost; front pocket of my shirt it is. I thought this was genius until I walked into an elevator full of people and stood in the corner. Unbeknown to me, there was a little black box in the elevator that read key cards. Mind you that I am in an elevator full of people, when the keycard reader read my card which was located in the front pocket of my shirt. So everyone in the elevator heard the reader beep, not once, but twice and all at once all six heads turned and gave me a bewildered look. Then one of my friends asked me quite loudly, "JASMINE, Where the HECK do you have your card?!" ------_____------- A good minute of awkward silence followed after that as I wished that I had taken the stairs..... Needless to say, lesson learned.
So I seriously feel like the past 10 days have been a nonstop party. From singing some JBiebs in the bus, to having a dance party in the lobby, to Landry and I shuffling and dancing through the aisles at Fred Meyers, and the multiple times when random dance parties just seem to spontaneously combust, I have discovered that SPU really is the place for me. What other place can you find the Party Rock Anthem and Earth, Wind, and Fire played within the same hour at a campus event? I love it here! The second thing that I love is the fact that SPU knows how to show us a good time, but that they always bring it back to the main thing, which is Jesus Christ. I have learned so much as to what it means to be real, be myself, and love God. There is such a great community here and I feel supported in all kinds of way. I have an amazing PA and SMC! They are such lovely ladies and all the women on my floor are my kind of people. They are sweet, beautiful, and mayb just a lil crazy, but craziness makes everything just a little bit better. Also Emerson is the perfect mix of craziness and serenity. I feel so much at home here. We had an ice cream social as our Tradition and I laughed until I cried, waltzed with a semi-stranger, and fist pumped with friends. Oh ya...it was intense. All in all I can say that I am really blessed to be here in this beautiful city with the amazing family of SPU.
