"Oh, we're halfway there!"

How in the world have I already been in Estes for 6 weeks?! My internship is already halfway over and I can not believe it. It has been a summer of some of the highest highs and some lows. God has blessed me immensely with incredible people that I get to work with. I prayed that I would have a Christian community here in Estes and he has gone above and beyond what I ever could have hoped. I have gotten to take road trips with my friends and have had the best times. We were going through west Colorado and we were all in absolute awe of God and his creations. One of the things that has been difficult is not being able to go to church since I have been here. My schedule is typically pretty crazy. In the past three days I have worked 37 hours {hellooo wedding season!}. I didn’t realize how much I would miss my Journey Church community that I have back in Norman. It has been hard not being able to go to church and worship freely and praise God through song. I find my heart yearning for that. Through this though, I have had to improvise. On my days off, I typically go to my favorite coffee shop in town and have my quiet time by the river, and then listen to some worship music. I have had to create my own Sunday, since I work on Sundays. It has been awesome learning about and worshipping God in different ways than I have before.

What has been so sweet is that different people from home have been in Estes Park vacationing, and I have been able to see them and have dinner and catch up. That has been one of the biggest blessings. It is nice to have a familiar face in my home for the summer. One of my best friends, Kailen, and her family drove up for a day in Estes and we got to go hiking and explore Trail Ridge Road. The Haskins, family friends, invited me over for tacos, a game night, and s’mores, and it was exactly what I need at that time. The next week, Mike and Renee, people who are like family to me, invited me over for ice cream and just some catching up. Tomorrow I get to have lunch with Kathy McCollough who is one of the funniest and sweetest people! Getting to see people from home has made this summer even better. I thought that I wouldn’t see anyone I knew until I flew home for my best friends wedding, but God had a different plan and of course it has been the best!

Also a quick shout out to Marvin and Kelly aka my parents for being an incredible support system. With working crazy hours and being a little sleep deprived they have been there every step of the way. My Dad is quite the wise guy {I say this in all seriousness} and has been able to help me see things through a different perspective. My mom has listened to me talk about all sorts of things and has been sending me different bible verses that correlate with what I am going through. Also a shout out to my sister for sending me pictures of goats and making me laugh. I am so pumped to see what the last half of my time here in Colorado holds!

Deuteronomy

When I got to Colorado I had just finished the book that I was reading, so I was thinking about what book I wanted to read next in the Bible. I thought and prayed about it, and the book that kept coming to mind was Deuteronomy. I was excited to start Deuteronomy because I have quite a few friends who have learned so much from this book and truly love it. I’m not going to lie, as I began the book I was a little skeptical. I wasn’t sure what Deuteronomy was about, {thank goodness for ESV study bibles}, or what I would learn from it. I haven’t read as much in the Old Testament as I have the New, and was honestly a little intimidated. The New Testament has so many incredible books and those “go-to bible verses” that I have learned so much from, and so many times people say that the Old Testament is dry or not as interesting {totally not true!}. When I started Deuteronomy, I prayed that the Lord would reveal himself to me through this book and that it would be relevant to what I was currently going through. Man oh man does God answer our prayers.

One of the first things I began to notice while reading Deuteronomy was Moses’s obedience to exactly what the Lord was telling him. The Lord commanded him to take possession of villages and new lands, and he did exactly that. He didn’t go meet with his mentor or pray about it or talk about it in his small group first. God gave Moses a command, and he followed it immediately. After I read this multiple times in the first few chapters of Deuteronomy my first thought was, “yikes!”. I am so guilty of taking my sweet time and making sure that I think it is the right thing to do before I act on something that I know God has commanded me to do. Something my Dad said multiple times while I was a kid {and may still say from time to time} is that, “delayed obedience is disobedience.” When I know that God has called me to do something, but I think it may not be the right timing or I need to think or pray about it, I am disobeying God. This is something that I had never really thought much about previously. I am now trying to make sure that my heart is tuned to God and his commands and that I follow what He has told me to do right when I am called to do it.

Another overwhelming theme so far in Deuteronomy is that God fulfills his promises. What sweet words those are. God promised that these many different lands and villages would be delivered to Moses and they all were. God fulfilled his promises to Moses and he does the same for us! God even fulfilled his promise that the Israelites would not see the promise land for 40 years because of their rebellion and doubt of the Lord. After reading about one fulfilled promise after another, I began to feel God’s immense and ever flowing love. He loves His children and will fulfill the promises that He has made. God also says not to be afraid because he will fight for you, and that is a promise. God will fight for me. That was so awesome to read and I read it at just the right time. I’m not sure what exactly is going to come out of this summer, but I know that I serve an incredible God who fights for me and fulfills his promises, and that alone is the most wonderful reassurance.