Celebrations & A Power Cord

So with the new year, I learned some new lessons.
We are told certain things over and over but sometimes it just doesn't click in our minds or hit our hearts. Recently, I was hit. And, now, the knowledge is rocking my world.

Uno. 
Since college began, I've had the mentality that I was always just waiting for the next trial or bad situation to arise. And they did. From one bad thing to the worst I thought I couldn't endure. So I kept expecting God to continue raining down the bad. Yes, I knew that God was good. His plan was perfect. He didn't give out cancer like candy. However, for an unknown reason, I couldn't stop expecting God to send the next tough situation in my life. So I subconsciously let this belief seep into the deep end of my heart, which caused me to pull away from the Lord. I still wanted to praise Him for all the blessings he gave. I was still thankful for the life I was given. But I pulled away because who wants to be close to someone when you expect them to hurt you. Recently, I've changed.

I am still expecting. But I am no longer expecting pain and grief. That doesn't mean I won't experience those emotions again. There will be situations that come up in my future life that are hard, possibly  unbearable again. But God's purpose in ALL of the situations is to bring Him GLORY. And when I see that, even in the mist of the trials, joy comes through. And the Lord gets even MORE GLORY because of that joy. So now I expect a celebration. I expect my God to continue to use me to bring Him glory. Even if it makes me low.  When that happens, a celebration will in fact be due. I expect celebrations.

You know that excitement you feel when you know you are about to attend a party or some type of shin dig with your favorite people, food, music, dancing? My everyday is now filled with that sense of excitement and joy. 

"The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift." - James Rollins, The Last Oracle

1 Peter 1:3-12
Read those verses. It's a monster of a complex sentence. Don't give up on it. Dissect it and take the words to heart, hearing their full power. It's good stuff. 

Dos.
I rely on my relationships to satisfy me. I'll skip all the life details that lead to my conclusion: I NEED to be satisfied by the Lord, not my friends. My friends fail, often, in making me feel noticed, loved. But God wont. God is love. And Love never fails. AKA God never fails. Currently, my reality is not meeting my expectation. My wants don't even match my needs. I am searching for what it looks like to live a life where I am completely satisfied by God alone. I am SUCH an extrovert, getting my energy from others. But I want to be powered by the Lord. yep, that's what I want.

Crazy metaphor: I need to stop relying on dumb AA batteries that die out after 4 hours of use. I need a power cord that will forever feed me power and energy as long as I stay plugged into the source.

Don't let me be the same I was last year. Or last month.