Goal # 19 & 24!!!!!!!!!

Even when I'm not actively trying to accomplish goals, they just happen...

19) Find what is beautiful about Jackson
24) learn how to take care of my car

19)
This morning my dad and I went to church at Redeemer Presbyterian Church which is a church that actively seeks to bridge diverse communities in Jackson.  I've realized in the past few weeks, that I do not follow my own philosophy when it comes to fighting for racial reconciliation. I have failed to CELEBRATE! And celebration is the key to growth. So I've decided that I am actively going to look for ways that Jackson, a place with a deeply entrenched history of racial segregation and tense race relations, has made strides toward racial reconciliation. Because really and truly there is beautiful work happening here, beautiful work rising from the ashes of this community! And that is something worth recognizing. Church this morning was beautiful. Seeing people of different races stand beside one another in the choir makes my heart sing. Seeing families from different communities shake hands and exchange information is what should be happening in the church!!!!!!!!!!!!  So it was good, and I am glad to know this church is growing in Jackson. 

2 Corinthians 5:17-21
^"17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

24)
When my dad and I returned to my car, the cup of oatmeal I had left in the car was swarming with ants. It turns out there is an ant colony living in the car. What? My dad said that they probably found their way in while I was in Evanston, and I said, "When the car was parking in a parking garage?" Ha not likely. Whatever the case, there are ants making their home in my car. So my dad and I proceeded to vaccum all the carpets in the car as well as take it through the carwash. Now I highly doubt the vacuuming scared the ants away, but my carpets are now clean!!!!!!!!!!!
     Anyway, I realized today that anything you care about, you will work hard to keep it safe, protected, clean, and good as new. This is how God feels about us. When we get dirty, he makes us clean! He washes us clean. Wonderful.
1 Corinthians 6:11  "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."