I'm spinning....

Life is insane. INSANE. Well, kind of.

I sure love it though...

This is the latest version of my world:

My days usually consist of work or rest with the social networking of my friends swirling around me....
I have two main groups of friends who are slowly getting to know each other (and crushing on each other).
I have two really good guy friends who communicate to each other through me. It usually goes like this. Jared: Hey Shar, can you invite Mark to join us for ______. OR, Mark: Shar, could you somehow get a message to Jared and get him to call me. He is invited to attend ____ and I need to talk to him. You see... Mark has a cell phone but no Facebook. Jared has Facebook but no cell phone. My Blackberry accesses ALL.... -- including friends in other cities. Sometimes Mark will grab my phone in order to instant message with our mutual friend in another city...

For some reason, I've become the central knowledge point of what's going on with everyone. I get random texts or messages from people wanting to know what's going on that particular evening, or if there is something, or if we could plan something and then get me to send out the messages. Oh dear. It's rather entertaining. My parents literally shake their heads cuz I am never home. I was at a games night a couple weekends ago and there were some people there that I knew of but we had never officially "met". In talking to them about how we know each other this guy says: "You know Shar! Everyone knows Shar. She knows everyone. The Mayor checks in with Sharlene before any decisions are made! Come on!!.... of course you know Shar!".
I cracked up. Oh my. Wow... Seriously.

My grandpa asks my mom if I have a boyfriend. My mom responds with "One? She's got about 6!" One week I brought home a different guy 3 days in a row (only for a few minutes to pick up something I needed for wherever we were going) and the guys come into the house and chat with my parents for a few minutes. I think after they leave ma and pa ask each other "Now which one was that??"

My car got toilet-papered Saturday night... so, I decided to get the guys back last night. I "pinked" their vehicles. I got them both, good (pink balloons, pink streamers, pink lei's). It was fun to be so sly - and the guys do NOT believe I acted alone. They will never know. Heh heh... Last night Mark asked me if I wanted to live to see 2010. This morning after Chapel at Teen Challenge he texted me to tell me that if I came to his office he wouldn't stab me. [-so, if i left without visiting him, i would have been shanked? He is a man of his word and he reminded me of that. After saying hi i did thank him for NOT shanking me... he told me that I came to his office so it wasn't necessary.] Jared on the other hand, thought it was a perfect pay back and perfectly executed. He was at volleyball and NOT expecting it then AT ALL. Dun dun dunnnnn.

Friday I am meeting one of the young adults pastors in town to discuss how I can work on a sermoning/talking. He seems to think i'll be a natural at it (from MC'ing at the city-wide stuff) and conversations we've had about what I do work-wise. He also seems to think i'd do a better job than him. HA! .. uh... right.... It'll be interesting to see where this goes though. It actually excites me because I have no idea where God is going with this... Yeah. Crazy. But... I know I'm influential in the group I am with for a particular reason, I know my friends see me as a leader for a reason -- I just have to really seek God out for that. And what's really funny is that my heart has been really discontented this week. Monday I really felt as if I need to dig deep into God and His word and His desires for my life -- and that day I chose to cancel my 'social events' for the week. No sooner did I do that then I got the coffee request from the pastor, and then I got a hang out request from one of my guys...

Work is crazy cool. I connect with youth and pour into their lives (or at least feel like I do) when I talk to them about the opportunity they have to turn their lives around. I have had 2 mom's cry on the phone with me this week about their sons involvements in drugs and the law. While I can't relate to them in that aspect I do think about some of my favorite people and how their mom's must have felt when they got into drugs -- about how I would feel if they got back into drugs. ... and then I talk to the youth and I pray that my words can be encouraging to them, that my words can spur them into seeking positive lives, that God can use me in this situation to push them back to "life" ...
And then I call a family after the conference to see how their youth is doing with his agreement and i hear "You know, Restorative Justice is the best thing we ever did. Our son has completely changed...." While I can't take credit for that change, I do know that I spent 40 minutes on the phone with that boy talking to him specifically about what he wants to do with his life, how he can get there, what are his dreams/goals, how a criminal record could wreck that, how despite his past and what he has lived through, he can take tomorrow and start living new with the purpose of fulfilling his dreams...

Wow, God. Wow.

Sometimes I wish Jesus were a person that I could touch - because on these days I just want to hug Him. Some days I need him to hug me, but mostly, I want to hug Him in thanks and praise for how He seems to be working in my life and providing ME with fulfillment....

Huh...

*reflecting....*