Cloverton and Conversations with Carlos

So, just a bit of an update on what has been happening lately. Last night Paul, Joshua and I went to the first ever concert of Cloverton, an awesome new Christian band from here in Manhattan. They were celebrating the release of their first EP Into the Beautiful. The concert was absolutely phenomenal, and the turnout was amazing. The little theater where they performed was completely packed from wall to wall. In fact they had to remove rows of chairs so that more people could squeeze in. Needless to say, it totally surpassed everyone's expectations, and the Spirit of God was definitely at work in that place. I am definitely glad I decided to go, and I pray God's continued blessing upon the guys in the band as they passionately work to make Christ known through the musical talents that He has instilled in them.

And today was my first weekly meeting with Carlos. We have been chatting a great deal lately about all sorts of things, and there is just so much that we can learn from one another and what God has been doing and is continuing to do in both of our lives, so we have decided to meet on Saturdays and delve into the Word together and just see what God has for us. Today we met at Radina's and the focus of our discussion was fear. We all have fears that hinder us from truly allowing God's will to be done in our lives sometimes, so we were just trying to get an understanding of what we are afraid of and how to overcome these fears. For me, it has really been knowing what to say sometimes, or knowing how to say it, or whether or not I should, or just worrying that it won't be good enough or silly things like that. I know that God will guide my words through the Holy Spirit, and I know that it is silly and that I shouldn't be afraid of such things, but it can still be difficult to trust God when fear sets in. It's easy enough to say that you will, but when a scary situation actually arises, sometimes you just totally forget. Anyways, in an effort to overcome my fears, I have really just been trying to do a better job of communicating with people about what God has been speaking to me or what He has been doing in my life because you just never know who is listening and may need to hear it. One thing Carlos told me is not to be afraid to speak up, even if I am just agreeing with something someone has already said. You may have something to add that is very meaningful to someone.

Basically, it just came down to turning to God when you are afraid, which I'm sure most people understand, but like I said, in the midst of fear, that can be easily forgotten. Carlos told me he always remembers Psalm 23:4--"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Also, Psalm 27:1 reads--"The Lord is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?" I mean seriously, we've got God on our side--He walks with us through death's shadow--why should we fear anything but Him?

Another point that we both came to is that nothing is to small for God. I mean, so often people are told that their situation isn't too big for God to handle, which is definitely true, but I think it is also important to remember that no situation is too small for God either. So often I feel like my needs are minimal in the grand scheme of things and that God should focus on other people who's needs are much greater rather than worrying about me, but the fact is, God is perfectly capable of doing it all, and my not asking is really doubting that ability, and I definitely don't want to be doubting God. I mean how can we trust Him with the huge things in life if we can't trust Him with the small ones. Anyways, when I said this it just kinda jumped out to both of us, so we will be exploring this through scripture next week, so I will let you know how that goes. Anyways, meeting together was very helpful for me, and I am very excited to see how God continues to teach and encourage us both as we continue meeting together.

Oh yes, I also got the game Would You Rather from Sophie today...that was quite a wonderful surprise! She is so lovely! Thank you very much my love!