Week 10

Week 10.
Journal Entry no. 9

This week has been.... Interesting.

Monday was fun! We ventured out and visited the Easterfest office. (Easterfest is a giant Christian Music Festival that takes place here in Toowoomba over Easter weekend.)
It was so cool to hear about what goes on "behind the scenes", and to get a bit of insight about what the Christian music industry is really like.
I thought it was neat that the folks at Easterfest pray about each step of planning the festival. If God were to tell them not to have it one year, they'd cancel without hesitation.
They're so committed to the Lord before anything else. I like that.
I also like that when booking artists, they don't necessarily look for the best of the best, but rather who will have a big impact. Last year, they had a band that was not a 'Christian' band, but the members were totally followers of Christ.
And apparently, they were one of the highlights of the festival for a LOT of people.
I like that concept, by the way.
Christians creating music that speaks foundational truth into the lives of those who wouldn't go near a 'Christian' album.
Yes, that's right: I think that there should be more Christians operating outside of the Christian music scene.
I totally love Christian artists straight up praising God, but what about the people who don't know God? They're left with very little music that actually speaks life.
And so they tune in to the catchy songs about so-and-so cheating on so-and-so.
How uplifting.
I applaud Christians who are willing to break into that scene and speak Biblical truths through really amazing music.
'Cause we've got talent, people! We could really shift some culture for the better if we accepted our God-given gifts and carried out our responsibility as stewards of God's earth!

Thank you for enduring my rant.

Tuesday was cool. Our speaker was a leader of a YWAM school here in Australia.
He also is a filmmaker who just finished filming a movie. He showed us some 'behind the scenes' clips and talked about what it's like to make a movie.
And he also talked about working as a Christian in a non-Christian entertainment industry.

God was really talking to me in the beginning of the week about taking life one step at a time. As in, one day at a time.
If I'm 1. Enjoying God,  2. Being obedient to God, and 3. Trusting God every day, life just works better.
Really!
Whatever challenge that comes your way, you can handle it with God's help one day at a time.
Don't think about anything beyond every moment or you'll get overwhelmed.

Which is precisely what happened to me on Wednesday.
See, on Tuesday night I may have gotten a total of two hours of sleep.
(Understand that I typically only get 6 1/2ish hours here,  so I'm usually a little behind on sleep anyhow)
So on Wednesday, this is what happened:
I was exhausted from thinking and thinking about future, taking in tons of information in lectures for 10 weeks straight, I was feeling homesick, not caught up on sleep at all, and we were talking about the Holy Spirit in lectures (which isn't a bad thing at all, just one of the harder topics for me to think about. Especially when I'm already running out of steam), and I wasn't feeling too wonderful physically, either.

So! I basically had a total breakdown at morning tea time on Wednesday. Ran to my room and had a good weep. From then on, things started getting better.
A good cry usually does help, you know ;)

Anyway. We continued talking about the Holy Spirit for the rest of the week...
There is a lot to think about with that subject, and I'm still thinking.
I'll let you know when I've processed it more or have had a big revelation about it.

The main things I learned this week are:
1. That I can trust God to lead me every step of the way, knowing His character enough to rest assured that He will not lead me astray. Especially if I walk in obedience with Him day by day.
2. God is always, always right there with me. I felt His presence so strongly this week.
Particularly when I was having my little breakdown... It was like His arm was around my shoulder and he was whispering, "it's okay, you can cry. Really, it's okay and I'm here for you". There were quite a few moments like that this week.
God is so good.

I get to sing on the worship team on Monday! I'm excited, thinking of it as "Monday's step of obedience" :D plus, an amazing roomie of mine is the worship leader. Woohoo!

And one week from today Outreach phase begins! Again I say, "woohoo!"

That's all for now..
Chelsea