Home.

This is the song of the week, and one of my new favorites.







It's very good to be home after such a treacherous month. (I'm kidding when I say treacherous, but at the same time it's been very exhausting.) Now is the time to relax and wrap Christmas presents and listen to Christmas music and watch TV and catch up on some reading. I'm glad that we get to spend this first Christmas in our new house. There's so much room to do thing. Past Christmases were a little hard, but out of every house we've ever bounced in and out of, this house really feels like home.
 And I think that we'll be here for a very long time.

I'm feeling the need to spend time with God and fill my heart up over the break, especially before and during  the Ramp retreat. We can always come as we are and God will pour into us when we open up to receive his love, but there's just something about coming hungry and craving more as much as there's something about coming empty and broken. Either way, God is faithful. I remember how I used to respond to every altar call (the altar call for repentance or backsliding from God) because everytime I went on youth retreats or conferences there was always something wrong or some empty feeling in me that I never dealt with. But one year there was an altar call and I felt in my heart that I didn't need it at that time. I was suppose to stay in the same spot and just worship and pray for the people going to the altar. I would be part of the ones in the back that didn't feel the need to go. I'm not saying that I never need the altar, because I am not perfect. But the truth is that I didn't need to respond to every altar call and go back home and do the same thing over and over again. It's a significant growing point. The definition of repentance is "the turning away from" and so I turned away from the things that were putting me in the same hole, and very soon, things changed. It was finally a bad habit of insanity that I grew away from with the help of God.

Other than that, I say that the itch for adventure is still in me. I'm excited to travel again, even if it's only 2 hours away, to be with my Ramp family again. I'm excited to climb mountains. I'm excited to possibly go snowboarding, and I'm excited for phenomenal encounters with God to come during this retreat and life-changing things, and I'm excited for 2013. With some much needed time with God, friends and family in store for the next few weeks, it's time to make it the best.