My 21st birthday!!

Well, my 21st birthday was yesterday and OH MY GOSH!!!! It was the BEST!!!

For starters, Friday night, 3 of my girlfriends (Kim, Cassie, and Monida) from the Bible College I attend came over. Cassie and Monida came over at 3 after my Journalism class. We had to wait for Kim to get off work, so Cassie, Monida, and I played Uno and Yahtzee while watching parts 1 and 2 of an HBO mini-series on John Adams (extra credit assingment for their history class). Then, when that series was over, we started playing Scategories. Monida is way to freakin' smart! lol. We were laughing so hard at some of the answers we came up with. Kim finally showed up around 7 and joined into our Scategories game which brough even more laughter. When we finsihed up, we ate pizza (Hawaiian with white sauce - my favorite) and watched Alvin and Chipmunks and the Squeakquel (which didn't end until 1 am. Kim and I were the only ones awake to the end).

Saturday, we got up, got dressed, ate toaster waffles, and left to go SKYDIVNG!!!!! Cassie unfortunately had to work, so she couldn't dive with us. She left early Saturday morning. My parents drove me, Kim, and Monida down to the Parachute Center in Lodi. They have the best prices, safety ratings, and drop zone in Northern California. We got down there, paid (my parents paid for me, it was my birthday present), then signed our lives away on the liability waiver/release. We got our numbers (jumpers 24 [Kim], 24 [Me], and 25 [Monida]) turned in our paperwork, went to the bathroom, then we heard our numbers called!! We went in back, got harnassed up, and went to the waiting area. Then, we loaded onto the plane. I was the first one in (last one out), Kim was the last one on.

Once we took off, my instructor made me sit all the way back against HIS 'chute and gear and he went and co-piloted the plane (that startled me). But, he came back as people were getting ready to jump. My friend Kim was sitting on the floor by the door and she didn't even notice that the door had been opened before she was out! lol. I was the last one out. The free fall was sooooo awesome, tho a bit cold (I was only wearing capris shorts and a t-shirt). And, I had to force myself to breathe. I kept like holding my breath, then realized "oh, breath out!". lol. There was one point, about 2 seconds after we jumped that I thought "HOLY CRAP!!! I JUST JUMPED OUT OF AN AIRPLANE!!" But, 2 seconds later, I was thinking "AWESOME!! I just jumped out of an airplane!" The camera lady jumped out with us and fimled up to the point my instructor pulled our chute. She free fell for a little bit longer, and in the end, had to deploy her back-up 'chute because her first one was tangled; so she didn't film my landing. But, my dad got some pics for me.

Basically, after my instructor pulled our chute, we floated down for a long time. Probably a good 5 minutes. Idk. But, it was fun. The landing was pretty easy. My instructor told me to put my feet up, and we made a running landing (which means we landed on our feet, not sliding in on our butts) lol. But, overall it was an AWESOME experience. Definately something I would do again. The only problem was that after I landed, I was exhausted. It's from the adrenaline rush, then crash. I was so tired the rest of the day (and running on not much sleep). But, it was SSSOOOO worth it!! I hope to be able to go again in the near future!! :D

Monida, Kim, and I survived our jump!!!

Pass the Salt

Recently, I had the privilege of preaching in chapel at the Bible college I go to. The title of my message was "pass the Salt." This post is the basics of the message I shared.

Let me ask you this question: "Is your salt, salty?" Matthew 5:13 says, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." Typically, when asked, "What is salt good for?" the most common responses I hear or think of are "to add flavor/to season" and "to preserve." But, there's another purpose of salt - it makes you thirsty. That got me thinking - if we, as Christians, are truly living as the salt of the earth, then the people around us should be thirsty for the Living Water. If the people around you are not thirsty, not noticing what it is that's different about you, then you're living too much like the unflavored world. It's time to stop saving all good seasoning for ourselves, and pass the salt.

Perhaps the reason people are not thirsting for Living Water is because we are only around other Christians. Are we in a position where we can pass the salt? And, if we are around those who need Living Water, are we holding it back and keeping it to ourselves because we're embarrassed by our faith, or afraid of what others might think of us? Or are we freely giving what has been freely given to us? Jesus is the Living Water (see John 4) and people should be thirsty for Him.

I've been thinking a lot about how salt affects the cells of our bodies. The ideal situation for a cell is an isotonic state. This is when the salt concentration is the same on the inside and outside of a cell. When this happens, water can flow easily in and out of a cell at the same rate. However, if there is more salt inside our cells than in the environment around them, the cells will take in water from their surroundings, swell, and possibly burst. This is called a hypotonic cell. And, just the opposite, if there's more salt on the outside than the inside, the water will flow out of the cells faster than it can come in, causing the cells to shrink and shrivel up. This is called a hypertonic cell.

Relating this back to Christians, I came to understand that if we keep all of the salt inside of us (if we never share God's Word and our faith), we become swollen, "stealing" the water from the environment. Furthermore, if we put so much salt out there, that all the water leaves us, our spiritual life shrivels up. However, if we allow the salt to saturate equally between us and the environment, we will live in a state where Living Water both leaves us and fills us. We need to be like isotonic cells and find the middle ground between sharing our faith and building our faith.

What kind of Christian are you? Are you hypotonic, swollen with yourself and your own righteousness? Are you hypertonic, shriveling away, concerned so much with others that you forget to build your own spiritual walk? Or are you isotonic, allowing God's living water to flow both in and out of you? Let's live as God intended us to, and pass the Salt!!