oh! oh! real quick . . .

i would be ENTIRELY remiss if i didn't say a big ol'

happy birthday!!

to the amazing kelley kirker. here's how things would be going if we were celebrating together. . .

there are no words to sum up how i love that girl. so i'll just leave it at that.

the view from here

i know i haven't written much - i've been busy. there has been city to expolore, people to meet, and lots of reading to be read. at last, though, right now, this evening - there is pie crust to be made, an andrew peterson cd to be absorbed, whiskey to be drank (or is it drunk?) and a post to be blogged. honestly - life feels almost as good as i know it is.

the past two weeks have been a blur. school is much more consuming than i expected for both justin and myself. we both spend a lot of time reading. any spare time i've had has been spent looking for a job and attempting to make this apartment my own.

for those of you who know me well, i seriously doubted this school thing at first. now, i can't imagine why. every day i get to go to class and talk about things that matter. my primary responsiblity right now is to come home and read works by these great men of God about the One who truly matters most. already i've had to read the likes of os guinness, sinclair ferguson and lesslie newbigin - i'm talking whole books, people. not to mention articles by guys you won't know but probably should. it's almost not like school (until i hit 11 pm and i've been reading since 3 with only minor breaks - then it's exactly like school). my favorite thing for now has been ferguson's book on the Holy Spirit. it's hundreds of pages on the person of the Holy Spirit and it's so intriguing and genuinely life changing. i challenge you to read about the person of the Holy Spirit and it not rock your world at least a little bit.

besides that there's the job search. after only one week i've gotten to the point of desperation. what does that mean? it means i've started thinking that manual labor jobs don't sound so bad after all. it means that youth ministry doesn't look that good on an application for a high-end cookware store. it means that i've gotten really good at writing down my last three employers and their contact info. it means that i have to rest in God's provision in a way that i only had to talk about before moving here. i'm really thankful for the whole thing.

for now, i'll leave you with this:

" The Spirit's role in Jesus' ministry is now evident, He serves as the heavenly cartographer and divine stratagist who maps out the battle terrain and directs the Warrior-King to the strategic point of conflict. he is Christ's adjutant-general in the holy war which is waged throughout the incarnation." - s.f., The Holy Spirit