I definitely have not been blind to the fact that my faith in this season has been severely lacking. I've told countless friends and family members of my inability to see God in our current situation. I've been prayed over more in this season than in any other time in my life. Not that I was unable to see our blessings in this time, but that I was unable to walk into the midst of what is/was an extremely hazy situation and see any real path.

I hope this doesn't embarrass my sweet friends up in Richmond, but we can't wait for you to come back. Also, these people don't realize how hilarious they are.

Since Chris is a personal trainer/wellness coach he's always talking about/researching foods, nutrition, and exercises. He works with a lot of clients and has spent a lot of time finding things like apps and websites that make healthy living easier. We both don't have smart phones, but we can usually access most of these on our normal laptops anyway, and I was curious about one site/app he found called My Fitness Pal.

Chris is super wary of "calorie counting" sites because he knows the danger that severe calorie restriction can have on a person..mentally and physically. He's super against this type of dieting and really promotes clean eating and healthy amounts of exercise.

Anyways, he mentioned this site and how he was going to show it to clients interested in tracking their food and activity, and then he downloaded it on his ipod touch. My roommate (Morgan, not Chris.. :) and I have been doing Insanity together and I started to really wonder if I was getting enough/the right kind of calories for that kind of strenuous workout. I know a lot about the right kinds of foods/healthy eating, but if someone were to ask me about how many grams of protein I was getting in a day, I would have no earthly idea.

Aren't you curious? Anyways, I decided to set up a profile (it's free) and it allows you to put in everything you've eaten in a day, and any exercise you've done, and then it calculates everything for you. There is a database full of foods with the nutritional content already in there, and a full list of exercises (even just walking.) It does all the work and shows you how many calories, how much protein, how much fat, and how many carbs you've taken in. Pretty neat.

It also allows you to pick a personalized fitness plan if you're trying to gain or lose weight, and then it calculates for you how many calories you have left to eat to gain or lose, all the while compensating for any physical activity you're doing...if you exercise more for the day you'll see your calories left to eat increase.

As far as I can tell (and Chris can tell) this site is legit..check it out if you're interested in seeing what kinds of stuff you're putting in your body! Here's the link: My Fitness Pal

I think it'd be even easier to use with a smartphone (never thought I'd say that) because you wouldn't have to log on to the computer to input your data. The app is super simple, from what I can tell from Chris' itouch.

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. -1 Corinthinians 7:17


These last couple months have been crazy for us. Chris got into nursing school at Anderson which is awesomesauce, and I have been furiously job-searching to find something I can do (along with photography) while Chris is in school. Well, and after..I want to be working until it's family time. :)


Chris had originally expressed interest in applying to the nursing school in Charleston (where I grew up) and I was pretty pumped about it. However, that school wouldn't have started until January, whereas if he got into Anderson he'd be able to start THIS August. If he didn't get into Anderson, then he'd still have enough time to apply to MUSC and get down there before January. 


Well, he got into Anderson (not surprised at all) which means he won't be applying to MUSC, and he'll be done in just fifteen little months. This is good for so many reasons, and I'd much rather see him start sooner and finish sooner than have to wait until January to start a different school.


I'm talking about all of this because although I know this is where we are supposed to be, we both thought we'd be living somewhere else (aka somewhere near a beach) by now (and I also thought I'd have a job by now.) God has been providing me with a good bit of photography work, which is awesome because I only really "advertise" on facebook..and it has been so fun. But I also want to utilize my degree. So basically, I've been learning about trust and faith and contentment. 


Anyways, we just returned to Clemson yesterday from Charleston where we stayed with some dear friends that moved back there last winter. Since I grew up there, it's sooo very nostalgic every time I go back. Chris isn't from there, but he's always loved it..and we are totally beach people. (We love the mountains, too..but I'd rather live at the beach and visit the mountains.)


We visited my old home church, went to the part of the beach I grew up going to and surfing at (and I got to get back on the board which felt soooo good even though it was pretty rough out.....and I wasn't on my own board...and I am extremely rusty.) As soon I stood up on that board in the ocean I instantly remembered why all I ever wanted to do was to be there in the water. All of these things contributed to the fact that I found myself extremely anxious about our living situation up in Clemson and I seriously didn't want to leave. This isn't good. I want to desire to be where God wants us. Not to mention, it's not like we have this awful community up here, we have AMAZING friends, and amazing church, and we have so many fun adventures where we are.


So then I read 1st Corinthians. And meditated on that verse up at the top. I realized I've had such an envious heart lately. Of friends with houses, friends living where I want to live, friends having jobs that I don't have, the list goes on and on. But then I remembered that I should be rejoicing in each day he has given me. And I remember everything I've been so blessed with. And I know everything is going to be so good. 


I seriously have nothing. nothing. to complain about. nothing.
I seriously have so much to rejoice about. so. much.
I have everything to rejoice about.

I absolutely love this passage from this book. I have narrowed it down a bit in order to keep the length down, but you'll get the point. So good.

"We all have blind spots. Areas in our lives that need to be uncovered so we can see correctly and adjust our lives accordingly. But they are hard to identify. Often others can see them in us, and we rely on friends to point them out. But the reality is, even then we have a hard time recognizing them. We don't want to admit they exist..often until it's too late. I can think of at least one glaring blind spot in American Christian history. Slavery. How could Christians who supposedly believed the gospel so easily rationalize the enslavement of other human beings? Churchgoers with good intentions worshiping together every Sunday and reading the Bible religiously all week long, all the while using God's word to justify treating men, women, and children as property to be used or abused.


They actually thought they were being generous when they gave their slaves an extra chicken at Christmas. This frightens me. Good intentions, regular worship, and even study of the Bible do not prevent blindness in us. I can live my Christian life and even lead the church while unknowingly overlooking evil.


Today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than two dollars per day. That's nearly half the world struggling today to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money I spend on french fries for lunch.


More than 26 thousand children today will breathe their last breath due to starvation or preventable disease. Suddenly I began to realize that if I have been commanded to make disciples of all nations, and if poverty is rampant in the world to which God has called me, then I cannot ignore these realities. Anyone wanting to proclaim the glory of Chris to the ends of the earth must consider not only how to declare the gospel verbally but also how to demonstrate the gospel visibly in a world where so many are urgently hungry. If I am going to address urgent spiritual need by sharing the gospel or building up the body around the world, then I cannot overlook dire physical need in the process.


Frighteningly, I have turned a blind eye to these realities. I practically ignore these people. Literally millions are dying in obscurity and I have enjoyed my affluence while pretending they don't exist. But they do exist. The book of proverbs warns about the curses that come upon those who ignore the poor. The prophets warn of God's judgment and devastation for those who neglect the poor. Jesus pronounces woes upon the wealthy who trust in their riches, and James tells those who hoard their money and live in self-indulgence to "weep and wail because of the misery that is coming" upon them. In a humbling passage, Jesus says to those who turn away from him by ignoring the physical needs of his people, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."


Now, I immediately want to guard against a potential serious misunderstanding in this chapter. The bible nowhere teaches that caring for the poor is a means by which we earn salvation. The means of our salvation is faith in Christ alone, and the basis of our salvation is the work of Christ alone. We are not saved by caring for the poor, and one of the worst possible responses to this chapter would be to strive to care for the poor in order to earn salvation or standing before God.


Yet, while caring for the poor is not the basis of our salvation, this does not mean that our use of wealth is totally disconnected. Indeed, caring for the poor (among other things) is evidence of our salvation. The faith in Christ that saves us from our sins involves an internal transformation that has external implications. According to Jesus, you can tell someone is a follower of Christ by the fruit of in his or her life, and the writers of the NT show us that fruit of faith in Christ involves material concern for the poor. If there is no sign of caring for the poor in our lives, then there is reason to at least question whether Christ is in our hearts.


Some might consider this is taking things too far, but consider another scenario. Imagine a man who claims to have Christ in his heart but indulges in sexual activity with multiple partners every week. When he is confronted by Scripture about his sin, he nevertheless continues in willful sexual immorality. He disobeys Christ persistently with no sign of remorse, contrition, or conviction. So is he really a Christian? We are not his judge, and the sexual immorality would not need to stop for him to be saved per say, but he needs to trust in Christ, which will result in a changed heart and a desire to obey Christ in this area of his life."

Lately I've been working on a TON of photos, which is super exciting, but sometimes I get caught up in the business side and forget to just take my time looking at photos that keep me motivated. I usually look to the work of others for inspiration, but I'm trying not to be so critical of myself these days..so I thought I'd post some of my favorites as of late. (It's so hard to view your own photos objectively without being super hard on yourself...something about artists never being satisfied with their own work. I'm workin' on that..) My favorite pictures are ones that capture personalities and moods without being super structured and posed! Here are some of my favorite recent ones.

I wish I could say that I've been more trusting lately. I can't really. But I did have a funny trust-related moment I might as well share. I love that in our community up here we always talk about how our friends and  family have planted seeds in us and that we are constantly planting seeds in other people that God will make grow in his own time.

My dear friend Kim is a huge joy in my life, always, but especially this summer because she has summers off from teaching. But, actually..it wasn't something she said recently that struck me..it's a story she told LAST fall that really resonated with me today. She told this long story last fall about how when she started her first job it was really difficult (she's a special ed teacher...sooo crazy and awesome and challenging.) Anyways, she cried out to God multiple times for guidance and strength and all kinds of fun stuff like that. And in the midst of seeking peace she recalled a time where she was out walking in the woods, pondering about all of this and praying, and then she just realized, "Well..............(drum roll)............life goes on." And it wasn't in a pitiful way she said it, it was just very matter-of-fact.

And I remember hearing that story and thinking..hmm, that's not what I expected. For some reason I expected her to tell me some great revelation God brought to her in the midst of the woods. Something she could run home and tell her sweet husband and be pumped about starting a new day. But she simply realized that God is still there, he's not going anywhere, and if this truly is where he wants her to be....then life is just going to go on and it's all going to be okay. God's already given me everything I need. He's given me his spirit. And life goes on, and we go on, but we go on with him...or, rather, he's already gone before us..and also with us.

Kim's story hit me today after my 72,843th job search. All you can do really is wait. So I sat there...and then had the same realization as Kim's. Life is going to go on. Does this count as a tiny improvement in my trust? Does it!?!? Haha...I'm kidding, I'm not looking for words of affirmation. That's not my love language anyway. Hugs, however, will be accepted.

Unfortunately for me this realization hit me in my living room, not in a cool atmosphere like the woods. But whatever, beggars can't be choosers. There are way too many things to be thankful for to worry about this stuff anyway. So, boom shaka stinkin' laka-life goes on.

That quote doesn't come from my head, although it sounds like it coulda. Chris and I don't have cable so sometimes we get sucked into funny youtube videos (mostly family vlogs) like Arturo Trejo and Amigos. Hilarious. This is a completely unrelated sidenote. You're welcome.

"Do not go where the path may lead..go instead where there is not path, and leave a trail."

The following was shared on facebook and I couldn't help but post it. (Thanks, Kandace!) It's funny...I didn't even write this myself and I'm STILL nervous about posting it! Eek, a bit unsettling. Regardless, I know that it is a valuable review and one that I have felt strongly about ever since I saw the trailer for Magic Mike (quite late, I suppose, since we don't have cable...I started seeing "Magic Mike" pop up all over facebook statuses. Call me naive, but when I looked up the trailer online I was just a little bit shocked.) This awesome, heartfelt review is from Melissa Jenna's Blog. I'm not here to make people feel bad, but I think this is important. Before you read, I want to stress this point that, as she states, this is directed towards the Christian community. She tries very hard to make that distinction--because it would be pointless to try and apply any of these points to someone who does not identify with Jesus.

{50 Shades of Magic Mike (In Which I Am VERY UNCOOL)