Grow'd Up

Time for an actual update.

February always goes by really quickly. Yeah, yeah - I know that there's only 28 days in the month, but it usually feels significantly shorter than any other.

All in all, this was a beautiful month for me. I've felt super motivated, super productive, and super happy about where I'm at. After the initial struggles of culture shock and trying to fit in, I feel my new mindset really kicking in. My work and life in Vancouver are just beginning to take off and I am excited to be here for the long haul.

I love that Spring has begun to peak its head around the corner. There's this one tree outside my church; and after I walked out of the building today, I saw that all the little flowers were basically in full bloom already. How cool is that?! February! I'm used to the weather still being bone chillingly cold this time around. The sun has been out the past couple weeks, and I've been much happier as a result.

I'm slowly beginning to exercise again, but it's definitely a struggle. Probably the most important thing is going to be cardio, which is still somewhat difficult right now as it's not as warm as I want it to be in order to run outside. However, I've begun pushing myself to really be a little more active. I was really starting to feel the fatigue on my mind and body from being a vegetable in the office and at home all day. The strain was felt, especially in my eyes. I'm not sure why, but I think my vision has taken the biggest hit from this inactivity. Especially on the days where I'm really tired, I have a lot of trouble seeing and focusing on things properly. Too much staring at a screen and book is causing my eyes to strain and it's not good! Breaks will need to be enforced just to give my eyes some rest.

Touching on my different approach to maintaining a budget, I know I'm starting to be at that "grow'd up" stage when I'm so stoked that I have money left over that I didn't spend. Because of the many events and suppers I was invited to this month, I didn't spend my full budget on groceries. So going to Superstore today, I allowed myself to treat myself by buying some junk food that I normally wouldn't get because I needed the essentials first. So now I've got cookies, pop, and other snacks in my cupboard. Nice! The only hiccup I had this month was my gas portion. I didn't think the price would go back up so quickly, so I probably should've given a few more dollars here, but whatever.

Last Sunday, I took a risk and did something different from my series that I was preaching. I mentioned in my last post that these things have been stirring up in my heart for a couple months now, and I decided to preach on one of the topics despite feeling like I know next to nothing about it. Well, I shouldn't say I know nothing, it was just my knowledge base of the subject was shaken up a bit. I spoke on the topic of calling: receiving messages and words from God. All in all, it's been what I've been going through. I really believe I'm going through the process of interpreting a call from God right now, so I decided to preach on it. I'm glad I did, because I think that it was probably the best feedback I've heard on any message I've ever given. So I hope that it was able to help someone in my congregation. I guess sometimes you just have to preach from conviction and deviate from the plan a little bit. If anything, it was a message I needed to hear myself; that is likely why I was going at it so hotly.

Since it's apparently a huge deal here, Happy Chinese New Year to all! Our church definitely celebrated this occasion, all while I was completely ignorant to the fact that it even was Chinese New Years.