When I'm Alive

Ever since my friend posed this question to me, it's been on my mind. When do I feel alive? Well, foremost, I feel "alive" when I'm in the presence of my God. As Augustine said in his message Sunday, I also feel alive when I love others - by loving others, I am loving God. In the process of thinking of when I am alive, I was thinking about what makes me excited. Not just excited, but really really excited. Then I thought about this - is being excited the same as being alive? I don't know, but I think it has something to do with it because God made all of us individually, in our unique ways.

Here it goes - I feel alive when:
1) I am part of God's work. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." This definitely applies to missions, but it also applies to everyday life as well.

2) I take pictures - surprise! I can read and talk about photography for hours. If you let me, I will keep talking even though you and I both know you have no clue what I'm talking about. I realized that I do get really excited talking about photography. I also love capturing certain moments, especially taking pictures of kids. It's beautiful having the privilege to capture God's creations. (:

3) I come up with ideas and make them happen. It's better to just make things happen than talk about it for hours and hours. I'd rather talk about how to make it happen than talk about possibilities. If it's not going to happen, why keep talking about it?

4) I finally get to know someone, when we reach that moment in our friendship when we can be honest with each other.

5) I am worshiping God - through music or whatever way.

6) I am part of the ministry. I think I really like all the parts of it. It really amazes me each time how all the different bodies work together. Each person is so valuable - so much more valuable than I can imagine to God. From the outside perspective you see the messenger, but there's so much work that goes behind everything. People who set up chairs, prepare lunch, prepare special songs, praise team, people who work behind the praise team, etc. It's so beautiful how everything works together. (:

here's a picture from yesterday!
Oh, yes. I forgot. I feel like people often just see me take pictures and that's all there's to it, but the fun part of photography is the editing part. That's where you can really change the lighting, contrast, and everything to totally change a picture of you want.