Ed.

Today I went on arguably my best run ever. I went through Tyson Park on Knoxville's beautiful greenways. I took the path towards Bearden today, a path I've never done before. As usual I listened to my "Jesus Muzik" playlist... it has all my Christian rap to get me pumped with the Spirit.

As I reached a fork in the paths I took a breather for some reason. Seriously, I usually don't stop when I run. Promise. But today I did. As Lecrae's song "Send Me" (one of my absolute faves) came on, I started thinking. Do I really tell God that I'll go? I was singing the song to my self, kinda praying and telling God YES. I'll go! So here I am telling God that I'll spread the Gospel and this homeless looking man on a bike rides to where I am, stops, and sits down. Umm... God telling me to do something? YES.

Not gonna lie, this old homeless guy looked a little scary. He was smoking something; I'm just going to hope it was a cigarette. I'm also out in the woods where nobody else is around. But God was seriously pushing me to talk to this guy so I did. We talked casually about the weather, what I was studying in school, and what I wanted to do with my life. Suddenly this guy starts telling me about some mean things he said to a friend yesterday. He told me he felt so bad that he called out of work today to find his friend and tell him he was sorry. So I told him I knew how he felt. I've messed up a lot too, but there's always forgiveness from God. I didn't get to share the entire Gospel with Ed... He was more of a talker than a listener. But before I left I asked him if I could pray for him. He was more than happy to have me pray with him. So we held hands, I said a prayer, told him I would be praying for him, and continued on my way. I'll probably never see Ed again but the simple words I said to him clearly meant a lot to him. As I continued running I pressed play on my Ipod and the words came back on:

Send me! I'll go! Let me go! Let me go!


Isaiah 6:8-10

For Future Reference

First of all, I must put a link to our new song on Youtube called "Sunday." Its a remake of Rebecca Black's Friday. Its quite entertaining in my opinion.

Anyways, tonight was TNT at the BCM and I learned a lot today! Right now I'm on a mountain: I'm growing in my faith and things are good. But as Rami (Pastor of Grassy Valley Baptist Church) said, there's going to be a time when I start falling down the mountain. For those times I need to cling to the promise that God will fight for me! If I feel like I'm losing the game, its just because God hasn't been up to bat for me yet. And I understand this analogy because I'm currently on my first intramural softball team right now! And yes, we're undefeated :)

Just like the Israelites fleeing from the Egyptians towards the Red Sea, I have a tendency to start complaining as soon as things go wrong. The Israelites were freaking out when the Egyptians were headed towards them, and probably for a good reason. There was a huge sea between them and safety. They wanted to go back to slavery rather than trust God. But then Moses, undoubtedly inspired by God, said something that has changed my perspective on the hard times. "The Lord will fight for you; you only need to be still" (Exodus 14:14). How great it is to know that we serve an all powerful God! While the faithless Israelites were running around like chickens with their heads cut off I can just imagine God smiling and chuckling because He had it under control the entire time. My favorite part is a little later when God declares that He gained glory through Pharaoh (v. 17). Seriously, it takes somebody super awesome to be glorified through a ruler like Pharaoh. The story of God and the nation of Israel is so beautiful and so much like me. He provides, one thing goes wrong, I start freaking out, God puts me in my place and redeems me through his perfect plan. Repeat.

Forreal. God is good. All the time.

Going through the motions

Sometimes I find myself just going through the motions and not actually stopping and thinking about why I do something. Recently I've been reading through 1 Peter and it has become one of my favorite books of the Bible! (Although I feel like I say that everytime I read a new book...) The 4th chapter stuck out to me last night as I was drugged up on Nyquil because of a pesky cold:

Living for God "⁸Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."

I particularly love verse 11 because it talks about serving and thats what I love to do. But sometimes when I serve others I just do it because I know its right; I don't go the extra mile or challenge myself because on my own strength that would be "hard." Well guess what, Kristi, its not supposed to be easy! You're not supposed to do it with your own strength! If I rely on the strength of God to serve others or go on mission my actions will glorify Jesus Christ. And that's a whole lot better than glorifying Kristi Perrin. Trust me.

Well, this is my first blog post...

So this is blogging. My purpose in writing this blog is not to write page long posts about theological things... I'll leave that for other people to do. I just want to share the simple things that I draw from life here at UT and abroad.

Today is Valentine's Day... oh la la! Did I have a Valentine? Nope. But I realized today that I have received more love than I could ask for. My family and friends both in Knoxville and Virginia took time today to tell me they appreciate me and love me. Who needs a boy when you have such great family and friends?! Not to mention a Savior who loved me enough to die for me...


"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." -1 John 4:16

So today, and the rest of your days, rely on the undying love of God. And share it with others!