Another hurricane and other random thoughts

It has been awhile since my last post. Ironically, it the last time I posted Hurricane Charley was the center of my attention and today Hurricane Francis has my full attention. We are not in Florida to experience this hurricane, but our family is. I can't imagine worse destruction but that is what they are predicting. As we talked to Mike's parents two days ago, already the lines at Lowe's and Home Depot were 6-7 hours long. Water was long gone from the grocery store and the gas tanks were bone dry at filling stations. Please join us as we pray urgently for the people in Florida as they face this upcoming hurricane. Pray for safety, resilience, and courage to face the next weeks and months.

On another front, my life has felt similar to a hurricane these past few weeks as I figure out how to manage work, school, clients, and time with my husband. So far a typical weekday entails leaving my house at 8am for school, work, and clients and dragging in again about 10pm that evening. I love everything that I am getting to do right now so it is not near as miserable as it could be. I was afraid that my relationship with God might struggle more this year, but so far it has been much easier to rely on him because I know I cannot accomplish all of this on my own.

He is amazing in the strength he provides. Several sessions with clients this week have been totally God led. It blows me away when I come away from a session thinking, "Where did those words come from?" All I know is that God responds to people in distress and uses the voice of his children to call them back into relationship with him. The amazing thing is that this isn't done by shoving it down their throats that they need to go to church, but by showing them love and compassion when they are hurting. This is what keeps me going everyday - hoping that God will use me to transform lives.

I long to be in full-time ministry again. I know that therapy is ministry to hurting people but it frustrates me that relationships outside of the therapy setting is prohibited. There is so much that happens as you walk beside someone through a difficult time in life - being able to call or go to lunch, anything that builds friendships. I only pray that God will bless Mike and I the opportunity to be in ministry together in the near future.