God, Oklahoma City, and a Cab

I'm sitting in the airport in Oklahoma city. It has been an interesting four days. I really can't say that I am ready to go home. It's not that there is so much to do here in Oklahoma; because there isn't. It's the fact that I'm away. Oklahoma city is eerily quiet. When my coworker and I were walking to the building in which our training was held, I was taken aback at the fact that I could actually hear birds. I looked up and saw a group of birds flying amongst the branches, chirping. The sky was so blue and the air smelled so fresh. It's totally different from the DC area. I would love to wake up to that every morning. It was different not hearing car horns honking, seeing people running to catch trains, smelling the burning of the metro trains as they pulled off, or having to fight to push my way through the crowd just to walk across the street. It reminded me of Alabama. Half of me was weirded out by the quietness and the other half was comfortable with it.

I will miss the serenity and friendliness of Oklahoma. Everyone, and I am not exaggerating, smiled and spoke. I didn't run into one person who didn't acknowledge my presence. People in DC think you're crazy if you're too friendly. Even the homeless (well, I'm not so sure they were homeless. But the only other word I can think of to describe them is bum. That's not nice) were friendly! One guy told us that we were "beautiful, in the name of Jesus." LOL!

I had awesome food at Toby Keith's restaurant, watched Black Swan (this movie deserves a blog post by itself. It was CRAZY!!!), and visited the memorial for the Oklahoma City Bombing. But the best part of this trip was the last day.

On my way to the airport, God spoke to me through a cab driver. He gave me direction and instructions regarding two things that I have been in prayer about. I was sitting in the back of that cab in pure awe. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was one of those things where you know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is speaking to you. And to top it off, in order to give me confirmation that it was Him, this cab driver's daughter's name was ALMOST the exact same as mine. The only difference was our middle names. However, they both start with D. :) 

God is so awesome. He shows up when you least expect Him to and in the most unconventional ways. This is why it's important that we live. Go out and live your life. Talk to the Lord about everything and watch Him move. It's the only way. I used to believe that God would drop everything I needed into my life simply because I was a "good" Christian and went to church every other day of the week. But faith without works is dead. We can have all of the faith in the world. But how can God bless if He has nothing to work with? Would you invest in someone who sat on their butt all day only talking about what he wanted to do? Neither would I. 

Another thing that I'm learning is that God loves in spite of ______________. Fill in the blank. He loves you in spite of that mistake you made yesterday. He loves you in spite of that habit that you're trying desperately to break. He loves. He is love. The last thing I expected God to do was speak to me about my concerns. I hadn't even taken time out to talk to Him this morning. Yet in still, He loved me enough to use that opportunity to speak to me. 

I encourage you to never give up on God. It sounds cliche, but He NEVER gives up on us. He is always there, showering us with undeserved grace, mercy, blessings, and love. This path gets hard. This way of life sometimes feels impossible. But I've found that the easiest way to get through it is to simply walk. Mary Mary was on to something when they made that song. I'm walking, trusting, and believing. 

That's all we can do.

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