The Four Loves

I admire CS Lewis and his writings o so much. I often have found myself reading various quotes online of this magnificent mind and one book that was quoted often was "The Four Loves." However, despite the attribution I never heard of this book like his other noted works. I decided to pick up this book and give it a shot---if it's that highly quoted, I want to know what those quotes really mean in their context.

"The Four Loves" describes the four different types of love that exist--affection (essentially, but not limited to family), friendship, erotic love, and charity (God's love). What I love about Lewis is that he is a philosopher--but he makes so much sense. You can't give up on him at the first inkling of not understanding what his point is but stick with it....once you do, slowly your eyes are opened to a whole new understanding. He fills his work with analogies and builds his books like a building--beginning at the foundation and working his way up.
I highly recommend that everyone read this book. For the Christian it is one of his most practical works--explaining truly, what is love. So everyone go grab a copy and a nice cup of coffee, you won't regret it.

Birthday!!!

I’m 20. 

Surreal? Yes, I have had mini panic attacks of “O my goodness….I’m growing up! What?! Why?! How?!” I’ve noticed if I don’t think about it too much it helps. haha. Peter Pan complex….I mean, I’ve always been the kid…even when I want more responsibility of an adult, I’ve always been at least by age still a teenager and kid. It’s a comforting fallback. I’m weird. 

But this day was completely unexpectedly awesome and yet very simple at the same time. Moving to a new town I wasn’t expecting to see any friends on my birthday. Well one of my friends from Liberty who lives about an hour and half away called me up and said “come outside” around 10 am. WHAT?! No way. She couldn’t have. No! Really? For me??!!?!?!? I ran outside and she greeted me with a white chocolate mocha in hand from Starbucks and some wonderful gifts. It was so refreshing to see her and catch up. Having a July birthday I don’t usually get the surprises on my bday cause most people are out of town or I’m on vacation, so it was special. 

Besides that today was just spending the day with my mom shopping for some wonderful seafood, cooking and eating a delicious meal with the family. It was a very relaxing day but my mom and I are going to do some more celebrating tomorrow “activity” speaking. 

I am also extremely blessed by the crazy happy birthday wishes my friends have been showering me with- from phone calls, texts, #happbdaypico countdown on twitter, to ridiculous fb posts (beanie babies and all :) ), this day was a special day. 

20-the best year yet. I can feel it :)

MY DAD GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After four years plus of unemployment, my parents took a leap of faith and decided to move our life up here for opportunity. God has blessed us in less than two weeks! SO. EXCITED.

Crisis

I haven’t dealt with a per say “crisis” since leaving Liberty. I’ve had a few different ones to deal with this past year and I guess the best way of putting with them is I err “deal” with them as they come. 

Today at work it was the lunch rush and pretty busy. I noticed that there were two ladies bent over on the ground and I thought that one of them had slipped. Well, before I knew it my coworker and manager were over there and I saw there was someone else on the ground passed out (it’s difficult to see because of the counter). I was stunned in the moment…wasn’t sure if I should go help or what had happened. I mean I’m not the most equipped in dealing with medical needs, but I know the basics. After making a split second decision that crowding her was probably not the best idea and my coworker showed that he was equipped in a medical emergency. I knew my job was crowd control. In a sense I had to tell myself to pretend like nothing was going on and continue taking orders so that the crowd doesn’t do more harm than good. This was hard for me, mainly because I was slightly shaking and what scared me even more was it was completely silent. All 20 people in line or so were just watching what was going on and no one was talking. Going from very noisy to nothing in seconds is noticeable… I asked for grace in the moment and continued my job realizing it was the best thing I could do. 

I realized a few things today…My heart rate sure goes up in crisis situations. It’s a rush, not the kind I like to say the least. I am no where near absent from crisis situations. I’m going to deal with them next year. I pray I won’t but reality is, I will. I just have to jump into crisis mode and make quick decisions and go…Process later. It gets easier to deal with those kind of situations the more they come, but I don’t want to be a doctor or anything like that…On the flip-side I wish I was trained in medical needs so I could help people better. Then the other realizations- my future job is ALL about crisis situations. Making quick important, split-second decisions, mixing logic, emotion, reality, all my knowledge and knowing what role I play and doing it with excellence. I just feel like I’ll never be prepared ENOUGH for what will come. That’s why I’m so glad God’s grace is enough. Always. 

Moving Part 2

Charlotte. It’s been my home for well, my life. I took a two year hiatus when my family and I lived in Greece and I guess moving to college was another two year hiatus being at Lynchburg. But for all intensive purposes, Charlotte is the place I call home. 

I was driving home tonight after saying more good-byes to people that I love, the farewells that are open ended, the just-in-case-I-have-no-idea-when-if-etc our paths will cross again in the future kind of goodbyes. I realized a few things. I’ll put them in a list, mainly because it’s 1:30 AM and I think it will keep my thoughts organized. 

1. I don’t know if I have ever realized this, but man I am a homebody- it’s comfortable being here. I came back on Wednesday and have been essentially overloaded with living up my life here. I have seen countless friends and have been trying to fit my entire summer outings into a few days. It’s kind of exhausting, but it’s what I have to do. I feel like I owe it to people to say good-bye as hard as it might be. But despite how easy it is to jump into life here, I don’t think I ever thought I would actually end up in Charlotte. I have always had the desire to travel, to be adventurous, to explore. I guess the difference is I just wanted my parents to stay here so I could always have a place to come back to. But in reality, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. My parents are just as adventurous and willing to try new things as I am. They’re rational and know as hard as it is to leave, it’s time. 

2. I have a ton of friends. No joke. And I don’t say that in a cocky way. Looking back, I don’t even know how I have been blessed by getting to know so many different people, not just surface level things, but really well. I’ve always been the one to like to talk to everyone. I’ve never had just one friend…and like my Dad, I can talk to anyone and everyone, and well it shows. But the friends I have here in Charlotte, I have had to work for those friendships, just like anything else. However, my closest friends for the most part are Liberty people. There are a few from this town, but my Liberty friends, for the most part know know me for me now, not just who I was. They’re my current cohorts. They understand my environment. On the flip-side, it’s refreshing to be reunited with people that I have known before I have gone to college. I think I learn more about myself when I interact with them and remember a lot of different events that took place to shape me. 

3. Change can be good. This might come as a surprise from my previous posts, and my optimism might be based upon the cinnamon sensation sugar high I’m on right now, but it’s true. I think simply one of the biggest defining moments in my life of something that I chose was to attend Liberty. The other day I thought for a split second “What if I had never come to Liberty….” Well I don’t know anything with certainty for that answer, but I do know the facts. To name a few, my relationship with the Lord grew exponentially since I’ve gone to school, I have learned and had incredible opportunities, and to top it off, you my friend reading this…well, you wouldn’t be. Whether I met you at school or you are from home, these very words or the concept of blogging all came about from Liberty related things. I can’t imagine my life if I chose a different path. It’s just too weird.

4. The song “Sometimes” by David Crowder has been on my playlist lately. The lines “Where you go we will follow/I’m on my knees/Where you go we will follow/Oh God send me” has been resonating. This is my prayer. God has made it clear that He is sending me and I am entrusting Him. My life is one of total abandoment. He knows the big picture when I can’t see it, and I am at peace with that. 

5. I’m excited to begin working. I start next Tuesday and I couldn’t be happier…mainly, because I know that work will bring consistency. Also, I am confident that God brought this job along to me for a reason, jobs don’t normally fall into people’s laps so quickly.

6. I am emotional about moving and I’ve shed tears. It’s a pretty big transition. It’s bittersweet. Right now I’m feeling positive about it, because I’m ready. Doesn’t mean tomorrow I won’t be positive and sad at the same time. It’s going to be hard to leave, but I’m excited to begin and to be able to boast in the Lord of how far He has brought me…

I’ll toast to a new chapter in my life. 

Moving Part 1

Today I felt like me, distinctly, in three moments. 

The first was at church surrounded by a few Liberty friends in worship. I felt like somehow I was actually not even in my new church, but rather at Thomas Road. I felt at peace worshiping my Savior. I began to feel like myself again. 

The second was after church talking to my dear friend and RA from my freshman year, Danielle. I hesitate to say I felt like me, but it’s true once you reach a level of friendship with someone no matter how long it’s been since they’ve seen you they can literally look right into you and just know. It’s just like everything I’m feeling surfaced when I talked with her…

The third, I felt most like myself, was actually when I was talking to a complete stranger. I went to a little church mixer from my sister’s small group. Most of the people there were older and I felt out of place. But one of the mother’s told me that she wanted me to meet her daughter who was coming and needed to connect with other people my age and she was falling away from the Lord. Once she showed up I literally snapped into “make her feel welcome and reach out to her” mode. I felt like I was no longer the new kid but felt comfortable. I felt like me and that luckily continued into the night.

With moving I have ups and downs of emotions daily. There’s just a lot of change. But God is so faithful in it all. Of all the places I could have moved to, I know more people in this one area alone from Liberty which definitely makes the transition easier because I don’t feel completely alone. There’s an exciting city to explore, new church to attend, and the field I want to go into here is prominent everywhere. 

It’s not home, yet. Maybe once I have a real bed to sleep in at night and stop waking up at 4 AM like clock work it will be home. Or maybe right before I gear up to go back to school it will feel like home. I’m not sure because I always feel like I'll have a pull to Charlotte in one way shape or form. That's what home does. Maybe it's just a lessening of that pull will help....probably not. Charlotte will always be my first home and there are way too many people I love there to forgo the desire to want to go back. 

For now, I’m just gonna take it one day at a time and be grateful for the moments I’m not in a funk. 

O Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A at the Arboretum. My first job. This is the fountain they installed in the back of it in the latest remodel and it is just a glimpse of the excellence and class that this store has (let’s be real, what other fast-food restaurant has a fountain in the back of the store to admire while you wait in the drive-thru?)

Today I said my precautionary good-byes, as it might have been my last day there due to the move..I can’t quite accept the fact it was my last shift ever, it just doesn’t seem right to stop working there, it’s just become a part of who I am. When I told the owner, Art, I was moving and possibly transferring to another Chick-fil-A his response was entertaining. He said, “Don’t do it. You’ll be miserable. We do that on purpose, we show you how awesome you have it here and when you go somewhere else you won’t be happy.” It’s true though. I don’t know any other job where the owner greets every single one of his workers with a hug and smile, takes time to get to know them personally, invites everyone to his house for pool parties just because, makes smoothies to reward for hard work, opens up the word of God to every one of his employees, and created a system where he allows his employees to give less than a week notice at anytime to come back to work or take off for vacation. It’s a pretty sweet system. My third training session Art had the new employees over at his house where he had us do an exercise about our personal “signature.” He had us write down the name of two individuals closest to us and the characteristics we would hope they would say about us; then we signed our names. This exercise was to demonstrate the Chick-fil-A purpose. As an employee the signature of Chick-fil-A “is to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that He has entrusted us with.” 

One shift before I clocked on I was talking with Art about life and I said I needed to go start working up front. He stopped me and said, “Hey Pico when you go clock on, I want you to go make people’s day. You have the opportunity to interact with so many different people here and serve them. Go make their day.” And honestly, working at Chick-fil-A has helped me to learn how to do that. When God’s glory is the goal, everything else falls into place- even loving a perfect stranger who is buying chicken.

I have learned so many lessons from so many different people at Chick-fil-A from customers to co-workers to managers.

I know that while I might be moving I always have a home at the Arboretum Chick-fil-A. They are my family and I will come down and work a weekend just for old time sake because it’s a place I want to work because it’s refreshing.

There are few jobs people can say that. 

I am very blessed.