Well it is the end of a very busy but very productive week. I had 2 tests that hopefully went well this week, and my stomach is beginning to feel a little better... but not completely there yet. My trip to Costa Rica is inching closer and closer, and I am beginning to get excited and realize that I am actually leaving the country for the first time! I think this will be a very freeing experience... Yeah the trip itself will be a lot of fun, but it will be good for me to get a glimpse of God's glory as he expresses it through nature. I really look forward to sitting in the silence of His creation and praising him for everything He has given me. In my day to day life I take things for granted (as I'm sure most people do), and I am making a somewhat futile attempt to slow down, breathe, and look at everything God has blessed me with in my life. At HIS retreat tonight, the beautiful Katie Van Ess talked about joy. We are so caught up in US... it is hard for us to find the joy in everything that happens. Yes, I may be thinking about the crappy day I had at work, but I need to stop and think about what in that crappy day of work brings me joy. Joy does not have to be happiness... we do not need to over-express it with a gigantic smile on our face. Joy is just that feeling you have when you recognize that God's will is being lived out in your life. With Joy comes Freedom... Knowing that every situation happens in the hands of God is a freeing feeling! So as I experience physical freedom while in the forests of Costa Rica, hopefully my spiritual freedom will be enhanced by orders of magnitude from where it is now. My eventual goal is to have joy all the time, without even thinking about it. I presently have to stop myself and ask, "What good came out of this? What brings me Joy about this situation?" But ideally, children of God should strive to have this attitude ingrained in their hearts such that every action they perform is carried out to the fullest for the glory of God. And the past minutes I spent writing this... may they be for his glory, honor, and praise.