My Version... Wha Happa?

Ok, so I've been giving a lot of thought to this whole, "what happened in Alaska?" thing. As for details, it's all just a blur, but here's the brief overview...
I went up there to make a positive impact on the people around me. I saw a change in the kids that go to camp, and I wanted to be a part of helping them maintain that throughout the year. I went up there as a part of a ministry that was the brainchild of one of my best friends, Amy. She was the dreamer and visionary I was the planner and more detail-oriented one. It should have worked out super well. But, as two people, we had our differences. And somehow, rather than work through those differences, we let ourselves become bigger than we are. It became a sort of me vs. her thing. We each kinda expected people to take sides, loosing sight of the fact that we're on the same side. (not "we were" on the same side, but "we are"...) We focused more on the ways that our views differed than on what we wanted to see get done. Rather than focusing on the positive change in the Kingdom of God that made her so passionate and that I got fired up to be a part of, we focused on ourselves and we scrutinized everything that was wrong with the friendship. In a nutshell, we lost sight of what mattered. Rather than loving the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:37), we fought. We did not keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2). We let ourselves become bigger than the God that we were (and still are) called to serve. We did not bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you had against one another. And we definitely did not forgive as the Lord forgave us (Col 3:13). It's sad that things are in the place they are right now. I was about to say it's sad that it ended up this way, but the end is not yet here. I don't know what things will look like in a day or a week, let alone a year or longer, but the end is not yet upon us. God is still very active in Haines and in whatever the heck happened between me and Amy. He continues to bring healing to me, and I can only hope and pray that he is doing the same for Amy.
Although I haven't talked to her, so I can't say for sure, I am almost positive that Amy and I still want to see the same things happen in Haines. We want to see kids be affected by a week at camp away from their problems. We want to see those kids have a support system in place for when they get back from camp. We want to see Rainbow Glacier Camp grow and expand. I hope someday we can.
That's the best that I can articulate it now. Maybe in another few months I will have a different take on things or be able to say it more concisely, but for now, that's all I got. I'm excited to see how God continues to work in me.

My Puppy... Tikka

Did I mention we got a puppy? I pretend that she's mine, but she's really my parents'. This pic is the day after we got her (two weeks ago). Note that she is far too small to make it up the one normal sized step...

My Niece, Calla

My favorite niece. She was born on Sunday, and this picture was taken on Monday, so she's real fresh.

My Nephew, Owen

Here's a pic of one of the two cutest kids I've seen... He's is just over 9 months old.

My Amazing Weekend...

I got to hang out with my brother, sis-in-law and nephew, and then my other bro and sis-in law had a baby girl last night!! So rad!!

Things will be good when...

Life is... good. I'm stoked for where things are going, but lately I feel like I've been looking forward too much and not living in the moment enough. Sometimes I feel like I've checked out and I'm just coasting until June when I can head to the Dominican. But I have been living that way for a long time. I constantly have these goals that I say, "life will be good when..." Right now, my thought is "life will be good when I can head down to the DR." But I'm tired of just waiting and coasting. By doing that I miss out on a lot of satisfaction that could be found along the way. So, I'm going to work on living in the moment and not focusing on the past or future. Not a small order, but I've gotta give it a shot.