hello, my name is adriana...

and I'm addicted to coffee...again.

About once every two years I quit drinking coffee. I just get to a point where I realize that I'm addicted to coffee and I don't want to be, so I quit. The last time was last summer. It lasted for MONTHS. It was beautiful! I would wake up and drink water.

Well, one cup of decaf led to another, which led to a regular cup here and there...and well, here we are again.

This morning I woke up and I went to make coffee, but I was out of "the good stuff," so I just made some "maxwell house" coffee and i put some decaf starbucks in there to help with the taste. It didn't help. It tasted terrible, and it didn't have enough caffeine in it so I got a headache.

Maybe one day, maybe one glorious day I will over come. But until then...lets raise our coffee mugs up for a toast to the good coffee!

Bridge

I went on a drive a few days ago with Lauren Schoenborn and we came across this bridge. Its times like these that I really love living in Radford.
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is this for real?

I've been studying the Gospel of Mark this semester with the bible studies that I am leading at Radford. We're doing a study by Tim Keller, and it has been fantastic!

One of the reasons I've been enjoying it so much is because of the way TK asks really good questions that lead you to really examine scripture to be able to come up with an answer. There's something so exhilarating to see something new in scripture, something you've never seen before!

On September 30th I will celebrate my 9th spiritual birthday! I committed my life to the Lord back in 2000, at a retreat that Campus Outreach did in the mountains of North Carolina. The more I walk with the Lord the more convinced I become of how real He is...He knows "the depth of my heart, and He loves me the same..." The Gospel - the good news that has been proclaimed that Jesus, has come into the world to call me out of a life of slavery into a life of freedom in Him - becomes more and more real the more I defend it and the more I walk with Him.

In Mark we see Jesus calling men to follow Him. He says: "come follow Me and I'll make you fishers of men." These men were already fishermen, so Jesus calls them into something greater. They had been fishing for fish...now He's calling them to fish for men. To "pull" men out of darkness and into light. He gives them a calling that is UNBELIEVABLE and then He gives them the "how." He says I will make you fishers of men.

Before I became a Christian there were many things I was living for. I would say the biggest thing was the assurance that I was important in someone's life - that I mattered in the long run. I remember, as a senior in high school, wanting so bad to know for sure that my life was making a difference. My heart longed to know that I was valuable. 9 years ago I was beckoned to trust Jesus and to follow Him, and I did. I said "yes" to Him, I was scared because I did not know what all that would mean for me. I didn't realize He was calling me to be something greater. He was calling me to the very thing I was longing for - to make a difference. I have been following Him ever since, and it is very clear to me that He is the one making me into something.

I used to be scared that if I became a Christian I would be this boring, religious, non-relevant, person, that had none of the same characteristics and passions that I enjoyed about myself. Turns out He has awaken those passions and characteristics even more so.

Thank you, Jesus, for "waking me" 9 years ago.