Just a thought.

3 things that I hope never cease to exist:
1. Music by Brooke Fraser
2. Books written by Donald Miller
3. Tea bags...lots and lots of tea!
(sadly the first two won't last forever, much like myself, because we are only human.)

I don't love you...I don't even know your name!

As most of you know I work at Starbucks and I do enjoy my job! I get to meet some incredibly interesting people and I do believe that it is no coincidence that God has placed me there. It is normal for me to see the same people everyday, some folks come in about once a week. After your 3rd or so visit I have your order memorized, it is just another stalker quality that I posses. I never mean it to come off as creepy but sometimes it kinda freaks people out. My bad.

Well today was one of those days that I just creeped the crap out of a guy. I have seen him several times, he always gets the same thing, so I thought nothing of it to have his drink ready by the time he got to the register to pay. As he approaches the counter to pay I let him know that his drink is ready, and well naturally his first thought was that I made it magically appear. After we explained to him that I do not practice witchcraft and knew his drink because I have seen him several times before, he proceeded to flirt with me. I am sure he had good intentions, he was a nice guy, but he looks exactly like my ex boyfriend and that freaks me out...a lot...mainly because my ex had a lot of the same qualities you would come to find in the devil. Anyway, I immediately get really guarded and won't make eye contact while he is trying to talk to me, and the awkwardness doesn't stop there. He informs me that he won't change his drink order because he appreciates me remembering. Now I just feel like a horrible person, I won't make eye contact with the poor guy and now I never want to make his drink again...just because he looks like my ex and I am pretty sure he thinks that I love him.

I am sure there has to be another person in the world who is more awkward then myself. If you find them, please send them my way, I would like to spend the day with them to make myself feel better. I think this guy thought I stalked him, but that would be silly because I don't even know his name, I only know what he drinks every day, which is far more creepy.

"Made of different stuff then when I began..."

I have a friend and her name is Sarah. She loves Jesus, a lot, and her love for Jesus is very inspiring. I met her for coffee on Friday and we spent an hour and a half talking about the sweet love of our Jesus. It wasn't until today that it hit me, not once did we talk about boys, hair or clothes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with those topics, they happen to be a few of my favorite things, but to see that God was present in the cafe of a Starbucks is so amazing. How do I know that He was present? Because our conversation was centered around Him and we never went off on a tangent. All my life I have heard this verse but I actually saw it lived out in MY life last week:
"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20)
I believe with all my heart that God was present in that conversation. I believe that he was sitting next to us, smiling and saying: "These are my daughters."

Every blog entry I make is inspired by something, this one just so happens to be inspired by a song. Today I caved in and purchased Brooke Fraser's the "C.S. Lewis Song" on iTunes, since this afternoon I have been listening to it non stop. The first line of the song goes like this:
"If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy, I can only conclude that I was not made for here."
That is how I felt after my coffee date with Sarah. I felt full of joy, full of happiness and most importantly, full of hope! There are times when I randomly smile or tear up and those are the times that I know my faith is real. There is a real God up there and I 100% believe this because there are desires within my heart that no human being can satisfy! Not even the most amazing man in the world could fill the void in my heart and that is how I know that what I believe is true and real. How great is my God to finally show me all of the things I have been taught all my life. He is taking scripture and making it real, what a wonderful thing to experience the Word in my everyday life. I can't say it enough...boy do I love my God!!

Am I a creeper?

Such a random question but once you hear the reason why, you too would ask yourself the same thing. I have a slight, completely healthy obsession with Tim Tebow. I do believe that he could possibly be my soul mate...we have to meet first, of course. He is pretty, athletic and best of all he loves Jesus. What is there not to love about him? Now I don't have any Tiger Beat posters of him hanging in my room but I do think he is slightly amazing. [For those who don't know, Tiger Beat is a teenage girls magazine with posters of heart throbs in it. I don't imagine Tim Tebow would do a photo shoot for that type of publication anyway.] This past weekend we had a girls night where we watched the UT football game and carved pumpkins. Well we changed the UT game because they were dominating Mizzou and found the Florida game to be more interesting. Watching the Florida game inspired me to carve a football helmet out of my pumpkin and put a picture of Tim Tebow in it. We all thought it was genius and very funny but the more I tell people the more I feel like they are judging me. I would like to punch them in the face for judging me [joking of course] but I am also starting to feel like it might be as creepy as they think it is. I am going to stick with finding it extremely funny though, for the sake of my pride.

Why don't you take a look for yourself.
Here is my creation:

I should probably not get in the habit of going a month without a new post, I might bore some people. That is, if anyone actually reads this blog. I wonder if anyone does?? If you feel inclined to tell me, by all means please do. Leave me a comment and tell me! Haha.

Just because I have failed to blog does not mean God hasn't been turning some ashes into beauty recently! I just want to take a second a share an AMAZING, AMAZING quote that I was given after my new fitness class. Yes, I attended a fitness class. It was fun, more on that later though. Here it is:

"There is nothing- no circumstance, no trouble, no testing- that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment.

But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift my eyes to Him, and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, and I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord it.

That is the rest of victory."
-Alan Redpath
From: "Victorious Christian Living"
Fleming H. Revell 1955

If that doesn't bring a HUGE smile to your face while reading that I think there is something wrong with you. No but seriously, it is too good of a quote not to share.

Well that is all from me, better get back to work...

New season, going through the same motions.

Fall came back to Austin, Texas in a big way. After hot summer days with highs in the 100's, the first day of fall brought in rain, and dare I say it...a "cold front". Temperatures in the 60's and I wasn't sweating, woohoo! The seasons weren't the only things that were changing, God was also changing my thoughts and plans. I have become restless with what I want to do with my life.

For the past couple years I was a coach and that was my identity: Coach Barrera. I liked working with my girls every year and having them come to me for advice outside of sports, it was comforting to feel loved by so many wonderful girls! Coaching filled that void that I had after being frustrated with not being able to finish college. Even though I wasn't in school, I had a job that, to me, meant something and my self worth went through the roof! God took that away from me back in May '08. I should have seen it coming, after all I did pray for Him to shake up my life a little bit and He did just that!

I have spent the past year and a half running through the motions. I work two jobs on a daily basis, I am single and have about 0 responsibilities. Sounds good right, but somehow I still want more. I want a title again. Yesterday I began to think and my thoughts went a little something like this: Ok Trace (yes sometimes I call myself Trace), God brought you back to Austin for a reason, you are single for a reason, you have two jobs that are incredibly flexible for a reason...and what are you doing with all these "blessings"?

BLESSINGS????? I have spent the past 6 years seeing them as burdens NOT blessings!! I have spent the past 6 years trying to figure out what I am here for and why I haven't dated anyone in 2 and 1/2 years and why I don't have a title anymore?!?! See the theme: ME. ME. ME. I have pretty much spent the past several years doing the same things over and over: working my butt off and dwelling on all the "don't haves" in my life.

God is teaching me to have a "so what" attitude. So what I don't have a degree or a husband or a job in which I get a company credit card, I can still be used for anything. I have a stinkin' nice apartment, a dog that loves me even though I make fun of him, and I have a job that gives me sooo much extra time. And what do I do with that extra time? Nothing. Well that was until yesterday.

Yesterday I decided it was time to stop running through these motions, it's time to do something different and ACT on it. I decided I needed to stop looking at the volunteer opportunities on the church website and start signing up for some! I needed to stop dwelling on the fact that my life isn't like all the others I graduated high school with, it is different and it is about dang time I start making the most of it. I don't want to focus on all the things that haven't gone right and focus on all the things I can be doing and see where God takes me from there!

Oh, how good He is and how He never fails us. This should be fun! I wonder what it is like to live a life where the only thing that matters is what God wants you to do. I want to be successful in the eyes of my Lord and how can I do that when I am looking into the eyes of others?

Brotha!!

As I was flipping through iPhoto trying to organize some photos, I realized that a certain pose with my brother has become a reoccurring theme. Take a gander!