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