I'm an introverted extrovert

I spent a lot of time around people.  I'm in classes with 60 or more people at a time.  I live with six other people.  My job consists of spending lots of time with people.  And most of the time, I have evening and other extracurricular activities that require me to...yep, you guessed it, be with people!  And I love it!  I love being with people.  I'm very much a people-person.  I love talking with people, hanging out with people, spending time with people.  I am an extrovert (sometimes to a fault in that I am a loud person).  However, sometimes I just have one of those days where I get people overloaded, and I think, "if I see one more person I'm going to blow my head off."  Today was one of those days.

It's not that anything bad happened.  No body said anything to make me mad.  I didn't get in a fight with anyone.  It's just been one of those weeks where I've been with people so much and I've had so much going on (mid-terms are next week) that I need to not be with people so that I'm a much pleasant person when I am with people again.  So I cancelled all my evening plans and made new plans to do nothing.

Well, not nothing.  I got a work-out in, to rid myself of stress (see below if you'd like to try my circuit).  Afterwards, I made some tea for the stress-induced sore throat I've come to house in my body.  Then I spent two hours studying and doing homework.  This was all very nice "alone time."  But something was missing; my mind still felt "heavy."

Jesus was missing.  The one person who is THE stress-reliever, THE healer, THE rest I needed today had only been spent time with while I had my discipleship group this morning, and even that was with other people.  Don't get me wrong, we had an amazing group this morning, got through all of Luke 2 (which I thought would be impossible) and had corporate prayer and worship, but that doesn't substitute for a personal reading of Scripture and prayer.  What I needed was ALONE time with Jesus.

I opened to Psalms 27:1-6

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.

When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh,

my adversaries and foes,

it is they who stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me,

my heart shall not fear;

though war arise against me,

yet I will be confident.

One thing have I asked of the Lord,

that I will seek after;

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord 

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord 

and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

he will lift me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tend sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

What a beautiful reminder of the power of Lord, even in times of distress.  I needed to be reminded that the one thing I should be seeking (more than good grades, more than a raise at my work, more than lots of friends and favor among my peers) is the face of the living God.  He is the only one that can sustain me.  He is the only one who can save me.  He is the only one who can defeat my foes.  And praise Jesus that he does!  I am glad that I don't have to do it, because I never could.  I will be confident, that my God can!

And on a completely unrelated note, my d-team worked through Luke 2 this morning, and this little verse about the prophetess Anna is completely amazing and inspiring to me. 

Luke 2:37

[Anna] did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

What a role model for all of us!

September 27 work-out
rotation of 21-14-7 of each
     thrusters
     single leg lift to dumbbell (lie on your back with arms extended upwards with a dumbbell in hands, crunch up and lift your leg towards the dumbbell until the dumbbell touches your shin)
     burbees
     alternating bicep curls
     pushups

The One With The Life Update

So, 4 months ago, you heard from me...and here we are in Fall of 2012, when my last post in May felt so long ago.  I will try to keep this short and sweet so not to bore you with the non-excitingness of my life, but I was reading Jon and Katie Alligood's blog today and felt inspired to update my blog on my life.  So here it goes...

Summer 2012

It went by WAY TOO FAST!  I spent the month of May taking an Epidemiology Maymester class at UGA, which is basically fitting a semester long class into 15 days of 3 hours a day.  I was thankful to have friends in the class with me, but needless to say, I spent most of the class on Pinterest of Facebook and still made an A...so bam!  

 After class, my sister Sarah and I spent a week in Guatemala with a team (seen right) from our church (Watkinsville First Baptist Church) working with missionary Nathan Hardeman and Engadi Ministries.  It was such a blessing to go with Sarah on her first out-of-country trip.  Engadi is building a home for boys with the aim of breaking the cycle of violence and gangs by training them to be godly men.  We spent most of the trip doing construction on the property.  The picture of Sarah and I below is us in front of a large pile of dirt that we pulled from all week.  I have never been so captured by a mission's trip.  I have seen Nathan's heart for the boys of Guatemala and love his mission so much that I am already planning on going back again this summer.

After coming home from the trip, my summer consisted of a family vacation to Asheville, NC at the end of June and then a family reunion with the Holt family (see picture at left) in Folly Beach, SC at the end of July.  The beginning of August met me with the start of a new job and my senior year at UGA.






Fall 2012
School
I am a senior at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.  Go Dawgs!  I am studying Health Promotion and Behavior, and if you don't know what that is, it's exactly like it sounds...I promote health.  I got accepted to my major for Spring of 2012, which means I am in my second semester of taking major classes.  After this semester, I have two semesters left...one semester of classes and then my last semester will consist of an internship. I am supposed to be graduating in May of 2013, but I may be pushing it back to December of 2013 (still praying about this).  I am taking 12 hours of classes which, unfortunately, have proved to be pretty boring, but so far fairly easy for me.  I am looking forward to being done with school, not because I don't like it (I am the nerd who actually really enjoys school, but because I am finally fell in love with a job and can't wait until I can do it full time after graduation.

Work

Last semester (Spring 2012), I took an elective for my major entitled "Intro to Personal Training."  This class was designed to teach you how to be a personal trainer and prepare to you take the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Personal Training exam.  I took the class not because I was interested in a job as a personal trainer, but because I was interested in learning more about exercising for my personal fitness.  I loved the class from the moment my professor started taking.  And then halfway through the class, I realized "I could do this as a job, love it, and be good at it."  The day after my final in the class I drove to Lawrenceville, GA to take the NASM test and PASSED!  I have been blessed with two jobs as a trainer: UGA at the Ramsey Student Center for Physical Activities and Tribe Fitness.  I started working at UGA in August and with Tribe in September.  (the picture to the left is my profile that hangs in the gym at Ramsey)

I LOVE IT!  I have always enjoyed working, but I have never fallen so much in love with a job that I could actually see myself doing it the rest of my life, as a career...until now.  I've been working as a trainer for only two months, but I've already experienced the old phrase "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life."  I currently have six clients between the two jobs and love spending time with them while working out, learning about their life.  Training is my mission field and each one of my clients is an opportunity to show/share the gospel with them. (the picture to the right is my personal training business care with Tribe and the photo below is of another UGA training and myself doing a foam-rolling workshop on campus)

Life etc
When I'm not in class or training my life is otherwise pretty busy.  I am involved with the technical team in our worship ministry at church and am also on the leadership team for the college ministry at my church.  One of my favorite parts of the week consists of my Thursday morning discipleship group with four other girls who also go to UGA.  We are currently studying through the book of Luke and, after 5 weeks of meeting together, have just finished chapter 1.  These girls have become some of my closest friends.  We studying the Bible together, pray together, and keep each other accountable by confessing sin and speaking truth to each other (even when it hurts).  We also "do life together" by going to dance parties and UGA games together. (seen below are pictures of my d-team; missing is a picture of Kalie Hall)

                Phi Slam party: (L-R) Meredith Holt, Kay Parker, me, Kimberlyn Wilson

UGA game vs Florida Atlantic University: (L-R) Kimberlyn, me, Kay

UGA game vs Vanderbilt: (L-R) Kay, Meredith (Redcoat trumpet player), me

Another favorite part of my week is my Tuesday afternoon babysitting date with my favorite little boy, Asher Fitzgerald.  I have know his parents (Jess and Chris) since Spring of 2010 when they led my small group. Jess wasn't pregnant yet and we used to take walks together weekly before he was born. I got so excited when she got pregnant with him (an answer to prayer), and after meeting him for the first time at the hospital when he was only 15 hours old, we have spent much time together.  I have been keeping Asher every week on Tuesdays since he was 4 weeks old so Jess can volunteer at the Athens Pregnancy Center.  We've also spent many evenings together so Chris and Jess can have a date night to themselves.  He is now 19 months old and expecting a baby brother any day.  Whenever he sees me, a big smile spreads across his face, he runs to me yelling "tatty tatty" (that's Asher-talk for "Catherine").  He brings so much joy to my life! 

If I could choose one verse that I have been clinging to these past few months, it would be...

Galatians 6:9
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

In the business of life, especially this "season" of my life that seems to be especially busy, I have a tendency to become weary of doing "stuff", even good stuff like church and ministry.  However, I know the work I do in Christ and for Christ will not be done in vain.  Even the seemingly mundane activities of life, if done for Christ, will spread the Gospel of Jesus by the Holy Spirit working in me. This is truly "glorying in the ordinary."

Last few pictures of some of my closest friends...

            Julie Hinson and me (we are both Health Promotion majors and have a lot of classes together)

 

Chelsea Jay, Kay Parker, me (girls from church)