Shake Shack

Finally, I had a Shack Burger for the first time in my life! I went to eat dinner with Allison Low today, and I think we picked a pretty good day. The weather wasn’t exactly the warmest, but that also meant a shorter line at the shack, yay for us! I feel like it didn’t really reach my expectations, it came close though. The meat of the burger was pretty darn good I have to admit. The whole time we were eating in the park the squirrels just kept staring at us. I started getting paranoid that they would attack us for food, because it really did seem like something they would do. We talked for a bit about the future of Seekers, and I guess I haven’t been as prepared as I should be. I mean this whole summer, I think about preparing or planning for things, but the actions never really came through. Sometimes it was so tempting to get up in the middle of the night and start working on something, but I really need my sleep too.

So last night I actually had a hard time settling myself down for bed. The whole thing about my praying routine, or lack thereof, kind of bothered me for a while. But with a little encouragement from a friend, I think I’m gonna put myself back on that track, even if it doesn’t feel right. Today being able to pray for the kids at VBC really felt fulfilling. I know that God is doing His works when I prayed that prayer.

I love car rides with Jeff, because I feel like that’s where our more meaningful talks occur (either there or in either one of our rooms late into the night). I was just reminded of our personality difference years back. A lot of times I try to compare myself with the person I was and try to identify any significant differences. Right around the time that we moved to New York, I remember Jeff as being the more introverted sibling, while I seemed to be surround by friends all the time. I can never recall how I was able to communicate through the language barrier, or how I picked up the language. I think some people are surprised to learn that I grew up in Taiwan for 7 years, so most of my basic foundations were built there. Anyways, as the years passed he started to open up a lot more. And I guess I learned from his example and I really try to reach out to people I don’t know. There are still a lot of stretching that the both of us need to do in terms of communicating with different types of people, but it’s definitely come more naturally. If there was one thing I could say that being with the girls on the softball team has done, is that it opened my horizon to the realization of the real world. I guess I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life, and to be honest I was shocked to find out about the lives of the others. But the whole experience has been able to teach me in communicating with people who are not like me.

When Jeff told me how he was surprised to find out about my bitter change toward children ministry because he didn’t realize how quickly my fuse would burn out, at that moment I realized how God has started to change my heart. While it’s still true that sometimes I can snap on them, and that sometimes I would much rather just not be involved, lately I’ve been more accepting of my role as a leader inside children’s ministry. He can be really stupid sometimes, but watching his social interactions and service in ministry has really encouraged me to correct my approach. If we were still in June, I would’ve rather taken the week off for the roadtrip with Alice. But I think now I would much rather stay another 6 hours with the kids.

What I’ve been hearing at the beginning of the summer still rings true in my head; do your part and God will honor you.