Day 1 - Year of Creativity - Church and sunburns

Oh man. It's 10:59PM on the first day of my "Year of Creativity" challenge and I'm just now beginning to write. Lamesauce. For those of you who didn't have a chance to read my Year of Creativity blog post, or who have no idea what this "challenge" thing is, you can feel free to zip on over HERE and read about it! I'm challenging myself to get into the practice of writing every day, and I'm digging up some of my unfinished projects, to complete them once and for all.

Today was one of the best days I've had in a very long time. It started out with a challenging church service at my beautiful little church Clarity La. If you're interested in attending with me, let me know! Currently, we're going through a series in Ephesians called "Awake" - good stuff, folks. I always walk away from Sunday mornings feeling challenged and/or as though I learned something applicable. In looking back through my notes, here's something that quickly stood out to me from today, it's a quote (sorry folks, I can't find the author!):

"Satan is a headhunter, he's a murderer. Your mind is his battlefield, your imagination his trophy."

I think the biggest thing I walked away with from this message was the fact that our minds and imaginations are incredible tools. And, if not kept reeled in and in-check at all times, or our imaginations used for good, we have a tendency to let it wander places, or to thoughts which could be potentially destructive to our beings. Here's a (slightly corny, hehe) acronym that pastor Nathan shared with us. These are the times that we need to proceed with extra caution, or be prepared to potentially "halt" the distructive thoughts of our minds, and the actions which could result from them:

Proceed with extra caution when we are...
 
H  - Hungry
A  - Angry
L  - Lonely
T  - Tired
E  - Entitled
D  - Discouraged

Out of these, I think the biggest area where I have a tendency to let my mind wander or to potentially act on destructive/unhealthy thoughts is when I'm lonely. Los Angeles is one of the largest-populated cities in the United States, and although it's constantly humming with action, people and noise, it's very easy to feel lonely and solitary due to feeling as though you don't necessarily fit in with the majority of the crowd. I've struggled with that off and on throughout the years though too. So, I don't want to use my location as an excuse. What's helped me is pursuing community, having accountability partners...people I can be real with...and staying actively involved in that community and those people.

In addition to seeing my Clarity family today, I had a wonderful time spending the majority of the afternoon with a dear friend! We shared a lot of laughs, enjoyed the glorious California sunshine, and I got a nice tan. And, by tan, I mean I'm a pretty adorable red tomato. 

I hope your Sunday's were just as remarkable as you are. And, here's to hoping tomorrows blog post will be slightly more exciting. ;) I'm sleepy.

Thanks for sharing in my journey with me, as always, invite me into yours too! I'd love to hear what's new in your worlds and if there's anything that I can pray for you for.

Luffs and stuffs, you ridiculously attractive faces, you.