Thank You for Your Prayers

Well, only a small handful of you knows this, but the prayers you've been saying for Katie and me have helped immensely. What happened was last week I was pulled into my boss' office. There were 3 branch heads in the room and me. It was kind of intimidating. One branch head told me of a new position that has opened up in Washington D.C. Long story short, there's a project that needs to be completed by October, so they need someone out there ASAP.

This is where your prayers have affected Katie and me. That day I was told I had to give an answer the next day. So I went home and started to pray. I felt the words "comfortable" and "trust" come to my heart (read earlier blog). In the end, I felt God telling me to say 'yes' to this opportunity.

So the next day I told them I would like the opportunity. So immediately I became a candidate to go out east and work. The job is a technical position for electrical engineering, and I have never used that side of my degree in over 4 years. So that's where I really have to trust God.

Over the course of last week, there were meetings to discuss all the different candidates to fulfill the roles of electrical, mechanical, air, hydraulic, and structural engineers. I was one candidate out of many different branches of the Navy throughout the country. I was told to send in my resume and they'd select a candidate this week.

On Thursday (yesterday), one of the branch heads came to my office, shook my hand, and said, "Congratulations." I got the job!! They basically saw my resume, circled and highlighted my GPA, and said, "YES! This is the candidate we want to support us." So bottom line is that I'm moving to Washington D.C. until October.

There is a couple of catches though. 1. I will be moving most likely within the next week or two. I will know more of the logistics on Monday, but I know they need me out there pronto. 2. After much prayer and consideration, we felt it best for Katie to stay in Lynnwood. So I will be without my wife for almost 3 months. I know Luke and Nisha were apart for a very long time, and thinking about 3 months really is killing me inside. But I know I'm doing what is right, and I'm stepping out in faith and trusting the Lord on this. So continue to keep us in prayer.

I'll let everyone know on Monday what the plans are. Unfortunately, my summer 2009 in Washington is coming to an end soon. :( I'll miss everyone, my lovely wife the most! If people have time and money, I'd like to have you fly out for a visit. Again, I'm not sure about all the logistics, but I'm told that I get to choose any place to stay, and the place I had in mind is SUPER nice.

Anyway, thank you for your prayers once again. Blessings!

Happy 5 Month Anniversary!

Before writing about the 4th of July weekend, I'd like to take the moment to say Happy Anniversary to my lovely bride, Katie. Today marks our 5th month of marriage. Of course 5 months isn't really a long time, but it's just significant to me because it always reminds me of my favorite day in my life--our wedding day. 5 months ago today, we both said our "I Do's." I have cherished the past 5 months together. Each day is new and exciting with her. There is never a dull moment with my baby. We have overcome battles already together, and that to me tells me how much God is in our marriage and how much He blesses it every single day.

So Happy Anniversary to my one and only sweetheart, the love of my life!

So Long, My First Brand New Car

Happy belated 4th of July to everyone! I had a wonderful 4th. I will post something soon regarding the weekend. I hope to have pictures by then. Lisa won't let me steal her "copyrighted" pictures anymore like I did for the Chelan post. Boo on Lisa!! Anyway, hope to post something soon on that.

Also, there was a post about selling my car, Shadowfax. She is indeed gone for good. A nice couple from Cle Elum called me while I was in Chelan and expressed interest. And it was a huge blessing to sell because a) we didn't need an extra car really, b) we needed the money, and c) nobody is buying anything these days, so for someone to buy my car after only posting it for 3 days is nothing short of a miracle. Anyway, I will miss my car immensely. :( But I have my wife, my health, my house, my family, and my friends. I think I'll be just fine. Goodbye, Shadowfax!

Joe = sad

The final kiss goodbye

One final ride with Shadowfax

Those who've read my previous blog about trusting the Lord and not getting too comfortable, please continue to keep Katie and me in prayer this week. We need some major direction, and we need to hear from the Lord soon. I will let you know what's going on soon.

Comfort and Trust

The Lord has recently challenged me with something. As I was praying and meditating on something that has just occurred in my life, the Lord kept bringing me to the words "comfort" and "trust." At first I thought the word "comfort" simply meant that the Lord will comfort me. Don't get me wrong, He will definitely do that for me. However, the word the Lord was really getting to me was a form of the word "comfort." The actual word was "comfortable."

The Lord showed me that I am way too comfortable in my life. Lately I've wondered where my passion to serve Him has gone. And I realized something; I had the greatest passion to serve Him when I was least comfortable--when I was making difficult decisions, not on my own accord, but in the trusting in Jesus Christ. And that's where the word "trust" falls into all this. I'm too comfortable right now, and therefore I don't really need to trust the Lord as much as I would if I were uncomfortable.

Reading through some stuff online, I came upon two great quotes:

1. But God does not call us to be comfortable. He calls me to trust, and if I don't take any risks, then I'm not really growing in trust. That is, I don't get the chance to see how really trustworthy God is. If I listen carefully, God will call me to do things that I could never do on my own. He's calling me to take risks, to face challenges that, when I tackle them with his help, will help me grow.

2. God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.

Somewhere in my walk with Christ, I've forgotten how to trust Him full-heartedly. I truly believe God wants me out of my comfort zone, especially in this new season He is presenting before my wife and me. I am so thankful for the house I have, for the Lord's provisioning in my life, for my family who has worked so hard to get me to where I am today. But I'm afraid that I have grown too accustomed to the pleasures and the normalcy and the redundancy, that I have not needed to trust the Lord as much, and therefore my relationship with Him has taken a backseat. I need to get Him back in front of this life I'm leading, and make Him lead my life.

Therefore I'm going to trust Him. I'm going to let Him take control of my life once again. I'm going to live for His glory. I could seriously use everyone's prayers right now and join Katie and me. Pray for God to continue showing His love, grace, mercy, power & glory, and sovereignty over us. Pray that we would never get to this point of comfortableness again. Pray that we will always trust Him with all whole hearts and lean not to our own understandings.