Home

I just wrote a quick post on my adventure blog (liz's great adventure 2013) titled the same thing: home.

When I was in MN this last week, I overheard my mom telling someone that Colorado is really my home now. MN will always be where I was born and grew up. It will always be an important place for me where a home of mine is b/c my family is there. My parents, my brother & sister-in-law, grandma, aunts & uncles, cousins, etc. I have good friends there. It is a part of my history and my story. MN is a wonderful place that I love to visit and I will probably live there again one day in a very long time from now. :)

My mom is right though - Colorado is home for me in this season of life. I am so grateful to live in a place where the sun shines over 300 days a year. Where there are majestic mountains that I get to look at everyday. Where I live with amazing people who I get to walk life with, even when they aren't actually at home. :) I have an amazing dog - TEVA! - who isn't really my dog - but she lives in the house I live in and pretty soon I will be taking care of her - so let's just pretend she is my dog. I have an amazing church family here. Even though I don't work at CCPC anymore I am still going there b/c its family and home. SO much joy going back this morning after two months of being away. So looking forward to reconnecting with everyone.

Anyway - I'm home. At peace. Full. Grateful.

Lessons from a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Its confession time. I ate a few chocolate chip cookies a few days ago. In a moment of blatant rebellion I ate them. I broke my commitment to eat only rice and beans with a cookie. Really??

The wave of guilt and shame have sufficiently washed over me. Thinking of all the people I let down: my team of Advocates, my Partners, the hungry children around the world, God, myself, etc. And all for the immediate gratification of a cookie. Wow.

So first, I ask for your forgiveness. I know some of you reading this are thinking, "Liz - its just a cookie! Move on with your life!" And yes - that is true. This was not a life altering choice in the sense that there is a negative domino affect. But I made a commitment, and I broke it. So for that I am truly sorry and ask your forgiveness. I am not going to stay stuck in guilt and shame and I have moved forward with a renewed commitment to finish my 25 days of rice and beans, covered by God's grace and yours.

As per usual, God has used this failing of mine to interject some life lessons:

• I am a broken human being. Prone to wander! But God is bigger than my wanderings.
• How often do I settle for immediate gratification of what is right in front of me or of what I want? When I do this, I miss out on the RICHES of all that God has for me.
• When I am overwhelmed, lonely, fearful or sometimes even happy - I try and feed those emotions with things that don't satisfy. Only God can satisfy. I know this. I struggle with living it.

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."

- Augustine of Hippo