Ch-ch-changes

Last Friday night, I went to lecture for singles from Lina Abujamra. She is a pediatric ER doctor in Chicago and I think she is also women's ministry director at Harvest Bible Chapel. She has written two books, Thrive and Stripped. 

She was speaking at compass, a church in Naperville. I got there about a half hour late, since I had another meeting prior to it. I walked into a room of maybe 80-90 singles and she struck me immediately. She;s originally from Lebanon, so she has that middle Easter accent. And she is so demonstrative with her body language and direct with her words. She makes no apologies for her passion for Jesus or for his amazing ability to transform lives. 

Even though I had $11 left in my wallet, I decided to buy thrive, which is targeted to Christian singles. As much material and info as there is on marriages and families, it's nice to have a book targeted for us. I've only read four chapters, but her book is as hard-hitting as her lectures. In those early pages, she has addressed topics like contentment, holiness, masturbation, and pornography. So this is clearly not a book that strives to be culturally pleasing. The attitude from Lina is "Here is what I have to say. I hope you'll listen. But it won't be easy. Take the ride with me if you dare and it will be worth it." So far, it is worth it for me.

So I've made a few changes in my life lately. I switched my bank from TCF to Chase. It's nice now that I don't have to wait till Saturday to go to a bank to deposit a check. I've upped my running; I'm doing five miles in 41 minutes. I'm actually getting ready for the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle, which is an 8k that is being run in downtown Chicago at the end of March. I have never done an 8k before, but I think I'm going to be ready. I'm committed to running five miles twice a week for a month and I'll see how fast I can get. And then two weeks after that, is the Willow Creek 5k!

A few nights ago, I prayed on my knees for the first time in so long. I wasn't desperate, I just really longed to be closer to God. I wanted to surrender more. I wanted to take my faith more seriously. I'm truly feeling more at peace when God is a higher priority and not just something to fit into a busy schedule.

I'm considering getting baptized. Willow Creek is having a baptism service in two weeks. I've thought about it before, but I keep making excuses. Usually, it's that I feel like I'm not good enough or a fear that I'll keep making mistakes. Last Sunday, there was a meeting after the 11:15 service for those who were interested. I walked down two levels from the balcony to get to the meeting, only to see the meeting was already in progress. I realized I would have had to walk in front of everyone and I knew I was going to feel embarrassed. I'm not saying it was right for me to feel that way, but that's what was inside me at that moment. There is one more meeting next weekend. Hopefully, I can still have it done even if I missed the first one. I haven't decided for sure whether to do it, but it's weighing on me.