Day 16. the peak.

wow. here i am. a few hours ago i pulled into the santa monica pier. it was about 8:30 at night. there was no one else in sight on the beach. in the distance i saw the santa monica boardwalk. big ferris wheel and lots of rides. and in front of me with just enough light on the moon...the pacific ocean. 2,179 miles away from home, i finally made it. its funny, because in a way, it almost feels like the peak of my trip. and don't worry for you guys who i already visited, i LOVED all of your places. but i never imagined actually getting in a car and making it to california, and here i am, sitting on the beach. listening to the waves hit the beach with a cool wind coming from the north. amazing. beauty. calmness.

its exactly the kind of calmness that allows me to think. no distractions. just me and the open air. i had the opportunity to go to Joshua Tree here in cali today, and it was beyond belief. i climbed up a mountain peak and just sat there looking around. not a building in sight. just valleys, mountain peaks, and deserts. amazing. i love that even though humans have taken over and destroyed so much beauty in this world, there are still glimpses of it all around us, we just have to take the time to notice it.

so i'm here in cali and is going to be awesome! i'm going down to san clemente tomorrow to go to the rainbow factory, and then up to santa barbara to hang out with my great friend kailey! its gonna be an awesome day just driving along the coast.

and tonight i had a chance to hang out with my old friend from high school jj. he goes to school at pepperdine in malibu, which of course i thought was up in north cali haha. stupid me. but it great to see him and catch up a little. its funny, cause jj is always a guy i have looked up to. and since he's a year older than me, i've always been able to see where he is at a point in his life and compare it to mine a year behind. for instance, jj is at a point now where he is deciding exactly where God is taking him after he graduates. in his case, he is taking the road less traveled. the one he might not be as comfortable with, but he is still taking it nonetheless. which is an amazing testimony to faith in where the Lord can take someone. he's going to do film-making out here in LA, which first off sounds freakin' sweet, but he said something interesting yesterday. he said not everyone is called to travel the road of ministry, because the Lord not only calls us to do well in that and be Christ-like, but be the best in whatever we do and still be that way. i'm learning more and more that you can work hard in everything you do, and still glorify the Lord in every way.

and i look at my life, and throughout the last few weeks i wonder that same thing. where is it that i'm going in my life that will allow me to be the best at what i do, and still glorify the Lord? of course, i've already expressed that ministry is what i feel most called to do, but why? is it because its an easier path? the one traveled more? and i feel that the answer to those questions are no. it is by no means an easy path to travel. it is long, hard, and tiresome. but it glorifies the Lord, and shows people how amazing the gospel really is in a real and raw way, and that's the goal here.

on a completely different level, i've decided to delete my facebook page. a good friend of mine just did that, and says that the amount of time she has now is amazing. its really funny just how much of a distraction something as simple as facebook can be. i guarantee that if you're reading this right now, you're facebook page is open on another tab. i waste time on it when i could be doing a million other things. i would love to be at place where its just a casual thing, but as of right now, its more of a distraction that doesn't need to be in place. so after i come back from my trip, i'm just gonna delete it.

so yea, that's where i'm at right now. i'm loving the sunny cali weather, and i'm pumped for this next week as i travel up the coast! laters.