Isaiah 55 :6-13

Seek the Lord while he maybe found, call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts declares the Lord, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. As the rain and snow came down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater so is the word that goes out of my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. YOU WILL GO OUT IN JOY AND BE LEAD FORTH IN PEACE AND THE MOUNTAINS AND THE HILLS WILL BUST INTO SONG BEFORE YOU AND ALL THE TREES OF THE FIELD WILL CLAP THEIR HANDS..Instead of thornbushes there will grow pine trees and instead of briers myrtle will grow. This will be the Lord's renown for an everlasting sign which will not be destroyed.............

As i think about what I want this time in Chicago to be for me I realize some of my goals for these next two months include learning to really see the heart of God and what his purpose is for me. Trusting that his ways are best and even though people (including my family) might not always understand (I might not always understand the why's of things)I still want to be able to follow my intuition and faith that what I feel is God's calling really is and that even though I don't always know everything I can be comfortable with that. One big example of living by faith is the team that was supposed to go to Sweden. They ended up not being able to go to Sweden due to visa issues so for a few days they were left in uncertainty about where they were going, however today they found out where they are going......

I continue to see God's beauty in Chicago. As we did our service projects today (we ripped up carpet and helped to fix up a priest's house as well as box 2,105 lbs of bread to be shipped out to local food pantries, salvation armies, schools, etc...) I saw the greatful smiles of the people we were helping and the thanks that we recieved in many forms ranging from a simple smile to the priest offering to buy us pizza for lunch. These are some examples of beauty that I find in the city. Another example of the beauty that I saw here would be on labor day in the evening when a group of us decided to go to Millenium Park (a park in downtown that is by lake michigan) to a free jazz concert for the jazz festival that they had last week. While listening to the jazz music I took notice of the patterns that were made on the chicago skyline (the patterns of the skyscrapers against the sky and the patterns that the lights made coming from the buildings) as well as the multitude of people that were of all ages, races and gender seated and listening to the music, the sound of the jazz band and at the end of the concert there was fireworks....Such beauty. Such a movement of God here.