Week 2

If you've ever moved somewhere completely new I hope you'll resonate with what I'm saying. And even if you haven't I'm sure we can all relate in some way...

When I chose to move 15 hours away from everything I knew and loved I had no idea what God would teach me, but from what I've experienced (and what many of you know), because of my hard-headed self, he often uses physical isolation and getting me out of my comfort zone to open my eyes and give me a sweet smack in the face, and this was no exception. So when I got here and found myself alone and feeling insignificant, I'm not sure why I was so surprised that everything didn't come so easy.
Everything from work, to finding friends, to finding a church (and still is, to a certain extent) just didn't seem to fall into place. It was hard. Really hard. My extroverted self screamed to burst out of my office cubicle and be out in the open, where at least I could see other people. And my flesh longed to feel accepted and loved by people here, but I just wasn't getting it. Trying to cover every spare moment with busyness and keeping myself around others, even if it meant going to the gym for two hours, I found myself creeping back into my biggest struggle of approval and insignificance.  My flesh desires something tangible-a group of girls (which, by the way, having my 5 best girl friends in the whole entire world being taken from you in an instant definitely did not help! ;), my boyfriend, parents, family, friends, the list goes on and on...
But Jesus reminded me this morning these simple 3 words:

"I. Am. Enough."

My circumstances do not define who Jesus is. And even if I was exiled on an island with nothing and no one, still, He is, and will always be enough.

Now, of course I believe God greatly values relationships with others; however, I also believe these are gifts that he chooses to bless us with. I was gently and ever so kindly asked by Him this morning "Victoria, where is your source?"
Finding my source of joy in people, relationships, successes, progress, food, experiences, etc. will lead me down a road of emptiness.
So, my prayer for this week is that Jesus would be our source of joy and we would not wallow in circumstances or put our hope in things that will quickly pass. I pray we would "take hold of the eternal life to which we were called..."

In other news, here's a quick hodgepodge of snapshots of my time here. They're pretty out of order but you'll get the picture;) Enjoy Enjoy!

 

(First day of work selfie)
 
I've loved getting snail-mail from friends! Thanks Christy!
 
 



This AWESOME card from Vance

 

Some sweet girls at a store wrote a list of things for me to do in Grand Rapids which included

• Vintage stores
• The #3 farmer's market in the US
• A city bazaar
• A yummy cafe
• A free trade shop FULL of stuff they buy from villages in India, which I spent a good hour in!
• Coffee shops (of course)

 

Lakes and Lattes

Currently, I am sitting in a sweet little coffee shop called The The Bourgious Pig Cafe in downtown Chicago. Thanks to my girl Christy, she suggested I check it out. And if you know me, and my obsession of coffee and cute coffee shops, I made a detour from O'Hare to come here. So I'm playing around on my blog and relaxing on my last day before full-time job begins.

So as a lot of you may know, I moved from the beautiful, 90 degree city of Charleston, SC to the (still beautiful), 70 degree state of Michigan! Although I wouldn't describe it as the "northern" I have definitely noticed some differences:

• Like I said, the weather. Since I live on Lake Michigan, its much more breezy and chilly!
• The accents, enough said.
• Sweet tea=lipton ice tea
• Coke/soda=pop
• Free parking...everywhere! Definitely a plus!
• Dunkin Donuts overtakes Starbucks. And "Biggby" is a huge coffee chain too.
• The sunsets here are UNBELIEVABLE over the lake.
• Many people I've talked to here call the sand along Lake Michigan the "beach." 

I'm sure there are more differences than I can identify but those are it for now.

I'll be up here, living with a sweet older lady for three months and working on global marketing plans and projects for a major corporation. God has been so good to give me a great place to live, an incredible church, and meet a friend. I have also been blessed to have my friend Chelsea up here with me for the past three days to help me get settled into my new home and get ready for "big girl world." While she's been here, we have done as much as we can to check out local scenes, and Chicago. 

 

If you like snail mail, post your address and I'd love to write you! I purchased some cute letters I'd love to use;) More updates to come! Happy Tuesday!

A New Season

(find more prints at http://www.sacredmadeshop.com/)

The current situation :

In two days I'll be packing the car to live in a far away state and experience something completely new, working in marketing and putting to use the gifts and experiences I have been given. There have been so many ups and downs, unknowns, being tossed to and fro, lack of trust, and battling internally with the lie "What if this is not God's plan? I'll mess it all up." But this morning, He calmed my spirit by supplying me with this verse:

"I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted." (Job 42:2) Just knowing that I can't mess up God's plan is a huge weight lifted. He has chosen his children to carry out his plans, and those plans just can't be messed up. 

Through it all I can say now say with full assurance It is well with my soul. 

I have, however, made time to do some fun things with friends and family before I leave, which included a wine tasting at a vineyard here in Charleston, a roommate beach trip,mini road trips to Charlotte, and buying my first pieces of gallery artwork (for a graduation present). So excited to begin this next season of life up North! Thank goodness I'll only be there during the warm season;)

Can't wait to update on life up North! Prayers for traveling and finding a place to live would be greatly appreciated!