I had a really nice morning with LeeAnne today. We met at the Hanamasa at what seemed like the crack of dawn...make that 9:30. We commented on the sadness of our perceptions that 9:30 is early. Not like the 5 and 6 I had to get up when I was working breakfast at the OBBH or picking daffodils. Yup. Pretty sad. She came for a little breakfast and we got a chance to chat.
A few points that hit home with me and have stuck. Mostly they are intertwined. In 1 Peter 1 it talks about the sacrifice that God made because we are His Children and that has always resounded in my soul for me. We are not to take the gift of Salvation that Jesus offers lightly. The other is that being a Christian is not about being good, it's about surrender. This is where they intertwine. We surrender our lives, our hopes, or own wills to Him because He surrendered Himself and was obedient in order to make us free. We want to be obedient to the Father because Jesus himself was obedient. In the garden, He asked that Father to get Him out of it "Take this cup for me", but He still went ahead with it because that was what was needed. If He can obey to make us free, then we can obey to thank Him for that freedom. We also briefly touched on that when we make bad choices that it breaks the Lord's heart and grieves the Spirit in us.
Thanks for the good morning, LeeAnne.
I finished my last day of regular classes today. Now it's just a week of Christmas classes and then two weeks off. I'm glad to have the time, but 14 days just doesn't seem like enough. I want two weeks just to sleep, and then like 2 more weeks to go play around Japan. I hope to get out skiing at least one day, if not two, and I'll go to Kamakura on the 26th for Boxing Day. Not that we're going because it's Boxing Day. That's just a coincidence.
