Aren't we tired of the B-word......?

I know I am tired of it.  It controls my life sometimes... you know the one; B-U-S-Y.

Yep, that one.  I am so tired of losing the only resource we cannot gain back in our lives.  Especially when I am losing it in a season where I am spending the majority of time doing things I don't even want to do.

BUT, (my favorite B-word), but I am coming up on a time that I will enjoy, very soon.  I have my field study for graduate school coming up.  This field study just happens to be in Mongolia, and I just so happen to get a few days before hand in Korea (yes the Asian nation that stole my heart).

So I will enjoy great food, lounge in jjimjilbangs, meet up with friends, and get to enjoy two services with my church. I haven't planned a lot about it, but I am going to be in Seoul and Busan.  And I am going to be so happy.

Other updates:

• The woodpeckers have fledged and after much chasing with lenses we were able to spot one of our banded ones in the wild.
• Burn season will close in the next few weeks, bringing our increasingly smaller team down to 2 people which means more fun scienc-y land management will be in my workdays.
• I am hoping to meet my dad, stepmom, and dog down in Savannah just before heading off to my field study.  I am beyond joyful about that too!

Joyful Little Things

I finally got to enjoy the aspect of my job that is not related solely to setting the forest on fire...as fun as that is.  This time, I got to do some post burn evaluations and even monitor the endangered red cockaded woodpecker.  We have three banded ones that hang around here, and they just had chicks.  So the wildlife commission came out and we got to be a part of getting the new little guys tagged...how cool! 

I am glad to be getting more into that aspect of my job, and I needed the pick me up as well as the break from burning.  I have been getting fatigued a bit here, and at times I forget all the things that used to make me so joyful.

Today was communion Sunday at church, and as I sat there preparing my heart for that, I got this mental picture.  I had just been telling God that I was sorry that I get so bummed so fast, and that I wanted to renew the way I joyful sought Him and did His will.  But as I was thinking this, I saw a version of that scene from Genesis 15 where God renews His covenant with Abraham.

It was an odd custom back then, but at that time, if you cut a bunch of animal sacrifices in half and walked with another person down the middle of them, then whatever you just agreed on was set.  That was like a "blood promise".  Whoever breaks that covenant has that blood to pay...

But God made His promise to Abraham and then He walked it by Himself...He didn't let Abraham enter in.  Basically God said, "it is on Me and Me alone to handle what I have said."  And surprise, even when the humans fail in our agreement, Jesus' blood still covers it.  WOW!

Anyway, when I got thinking about this, I was relieved.  I know that I want to try so much harder, and do so much better to joyfully seek Him.  I want to commit to have Him be the source of my peace. I want to make Him all these promises of how I can better serve Him, like prayer walks, practicing gifts, or reading more of my bible.  BUT, I really just felt like God was saying, "you can try to hold up your end of this...but remember, it's on ME not you".  Such a great reminder that it is by His strength that we can do all things, and when we fall short.  He's got it.

With that said, let's hope for some more awesome days of finding the joy, seeking Him, and saving the world...one prayer walk, one forest fire, or one red cockaded woodpecker at a time.  What an odd season we are in, huh?