Back in June I was kind of homeless and unemployed. I didn't know how I was going to pay my bills. Then a friend ordered this painting. Even though I had no clue how I'd get it to him in Jackson, Mississippi without UPS destroying it, he payed in advance. God provided. Pretty much, this sums up 2012 to a T. If you'd like to be caught up to speed, here we go:
-I had to be out of the donated SafeWorld/Starscape house at the end of April.
-A friend let me live with her for a month while I continued waitressing and waited to hear back from a potential job. At the end of May when I found out I didn't get the job, I decided to quit my waitressing job in Bristol (I don't want to squash anyone's dreams, but let me tell you, you can't make a living waitressing in Bristol, TN.) and move to Savannah, figuring I could make by waitressing there.
- Friends in Bristol were going on vacation though, and said I could house-sit for them the first two weeks in June. I put off going to Savannah and just painted.
-Right when this couple gets back, another couple needs someone to house-sit. While there two weeks, I meet a man out walking. He says he has a carriage house on a farm I can live on for the month of July for free.
-I lived in my OWN place on a BEAUTIFUL farm with an in-ground POOL for a month. I gave up on going to Savannah and decided (am persuaded by Carrie and Kayla) to just give painting a go.
-While driving back to town from a fun birthday weekend, I tell God, "Lord, I only have a week left on the farm. Could you please give me a job? Actually, you don't even HAVE to give me a job. You've provided through painting. But I DO need a place to live after this week.....and.....I don't have to but it would be SO nice if I could have a roommate." Before I get back to town, a friend calls and asks if I still need a place to live. I say I do. She says, "well we've decided to go teach in Malawi until *Christmas and would love for someone to watch the house. You can have it for free. Also, if you don't want to live alone, we know a girl who might be interested." Below is a photograph from the last time they were in Malawi, and the wife had me paint for the husband's birthday right before they left.
-AND a week before I move into their house I get a call from a family I used to babysitt for every now and then. They had no idea about any of this, if I was even in Bristol anymore. They ask if I can watch their kids part-time, every week, September to December. (*Christmas is in December.)
If you haven't picked up on it yet, there's been some remarkable timing in my life.
SoooooOOOOOOoooOOOo since the end of the summer I have been living in the cutest Bristolian house with the sweetest roommate, watching kids three blocks away, and painting at Starscape Media. It's kind of funny, but *knowing I'd have a place for 3.5 months seemed like eternity, because I even moved more than is listed. I had to move with my month-of-May roommate when she moved from one condo to another, I think I actually went back to one of the first house-sitting houses in between staying at the other, I had to go stay with family in Richmond in between the farm and the Malawi couple's house..... it's just been crazy. I know this is long, but I want to list everything so I remember, and so you too can see there's something more than coincidence taking place in my life. I watched this sermon the other night by Francis Chan and was like, "Yes! That's what's been happening to me!!". You really REALLY need to take the time to watch his talk.
I'm struggling so much with what to say. Like Chan said, I can't even tell you every talk with God and prayer answered I've seen in the last couple months because something amazing happens every other day. The list above is just God providing for my needs, but He so often provides for my wants too. I'll give you one. In my aunt's attic is a giant stuffed tiger. I keep asking her to let me have it. The kids are grown. It's not played with. All I want to do is take it to a certain Thanksgiving weekend football game in South Carolina for me and my friends to play with. I guess she doesn't want to see images like the one below with her daughters' childhood playmate. Sad. One day though, I'm driving through my neighborhood and what to my wondering eyes should appear? But a fat redneck carrying a stuffed dog to the curb. I pulled over and asked if I could have it. For months I knew I was going to the Georgia game, never the clemson game!!! In the exact moment I was driving by, God put that dog on the curb for me to mutilate! He's so good!!! But again, I'm telling you I could go on and on.
God is right here, waiting for all of us to come near to Him, so He can come close to us. I became a christian at nine years old, but it wasn't until after college I told Him to do whatever He had to to make sure He was Number One in my life. Not until then have I seen Him really moving in my life. (Man. I just want to dive so much into Chan's sermon.) But yeah, I wasn't receiving answers to prayers before because I wasn't abiding in Christ and thinking with an eternal perspective. Once I started yearning for the way better life after this one, I started caring about what He cared about. And realizing His kingdom and desires CAN come on Earth "as it is in Heaven", I began asking and seeing this kind of stuff. I feel so strongly that God has been training me up for bigger and better things.
Go back to the beginning of this year's moving and I was not a happy girl. But every time He provided I began to trust Him more and more, until it got to the point where I am now:
*Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money.
Yet
you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow.
I
found out ten days ago that my friends in Malawi were coming back early
(today). I had to quit my babysitting job. That was my main source of
income lately. I have NO CLUE, I mean.....
NO
CLUE
what
God is going to do next. But I can tell you that list above is not a
list of me complaining about moving. It is a list of God not forsaking
me one time. This is the first time I am truly anticipating something
awesome to come next, though I can't see but a week in front of me. I'm
excited to share with you that God hasn't done anything yet! Now y'all
can watch it happen with me. I don't have a place of my own. I don't
have a job. But I can finally say I have FAITH. Oh and I found out the family I babysatt for is driving in their spacious minivan to Jackson, Mississippi next weekend. :)
4 What leads to strife (discord and feuds) and
how do conflicts (quarrels and fightings) originate among you? Do they
not arise from your sensual desires that are ever warring in your bodily
members?
2 You are jealous and
covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you
become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are
concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to
obtain [the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you
seek], so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 [Or]
you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with
wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you
get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.
4 You
[are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world
and breaking your marriage vow to God]! Do you not know that being the
world’s friend is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend
of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God.
5 Or
do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says,
The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?
6 But He gives us more and more grace (power
of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully).
That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but
gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to
receive it).
7 So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.
8 Come
close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are]
sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been
disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your
hearts [of your spiritual adultery].
9 [As
you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over
your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to
dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].
10 Humble
yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord,
and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives
significant].
11 [My] brethren, do not speak evil about or accuse one another. He that maligns a brother or judges his brother is maligning and criticizing the Law and judging the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a practicer of the Law but a censor and judge [of it].
12 One only is the Lawgiver and
Judge Who is able to save and to destroy [the One Who has the absolute
power of life and death]. [But you] who are you that [you presume to]
pass judgment on your neighbor?
13 Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money.
14 Yet
you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What
is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff
of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then
disappears [into thin air].
15 You ought instead to say, If the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that [thing].
16 But as it is, you boast [falsely] in your presumption and your self-conceit. All such boasting is wrong.
17 So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin.
-James 4
