Life transition update

Hello world!

I want to give an update on my life post-undergraduate life and into-the working world. I've been working 9:30am-5:30pm at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the department of Immigrants' Rights Project (IRP) as an assistant to the four attorneys in the office in NYC. We work together with the other national IRP office in CA. I feel very blessed about this job - I started working there as an intern during my junior year of college and it was my first glimpse into the world of law that has brought me to the point where I am now in my interest in social sciences rather than science and medicine-related areas of study that I entered Columbia thinking I was going to pursue. And in addition to the blessings of the past, God blesses me continually now through this job because though it's a legal career in litigation which is normally very fast-paced and very time consuming, the small department and laid back directors that I work under allow me to have time to pursue God and pursue God's people. I'm not going to lie though, in the beginning of the job towards the end of May when I graduated, I wasn't thrilled about the job. I never thought I would feel like others did when they graduated - bored and purposeless at their work. But I struggled with it, mainly because I felt that since I had already worked there as an intern in the past, it wasn't even anything new to me. I was definitely being prideful and so ungrateful for what God had provided for me. I complained so much to Irwin and my mom. I'm so grateful that God placed these people in my life to put up with me and to listen to me when I say foolish things. I never felt judgment or disappoint from them, only understanding and love. Their Christ-like love and compassion towards me protected and nurtured my heart to a state of softness and humility, and I am able to declare that God is so good, so loving, so good to me. There is infinite purpose with God.

God has been so good in giving my heart the desire to meet with Him every morning.
I can't do quiet times when I get myself all giddied-up. I always thought I was so disciplined and self-motivated until I became a Christian and tried to master the task of meeting with God alone every day. But ever since about 3 weeks ago, after returning from a visit to home, God has been wakening me every morning at 7:15-20am. I read a few chapters from the Old Testament and a few from the New. Sometimes I pray if the Spirit leads me after reading the Word. Then I go to reading Amy Carmichael's devotional book entitled "You are my hiding place." I highly recommend it for people who need a beginner's push on establishing times with God. Then I pray. Lately I've been consistently praying for my brother, my mom, my grandma, Irwin, and the Japan team. Then I always pray that I would be able to glorify God at work. God giving my heart the strength and desire to meet with Him every morning has changed so much in my life - I see the results every single day. A friend once said, "If we don't spend time with God, what is the point of our day?" And rhetorically I took away this: There is no meaning, nothing valuable from a day if we do not seek God during it.

Time at home. I went home after a month of working to visit my mom. I don't want to go into details, but things were hard for her then and I was called to home and be with her. I spent about 3 weeks at home. I missed my mom so much by then - I hadn't spent quality time with her since winter break and it was just too much time away. Most of the time at home was doing things around the home. We reorganized the entire kitchen and threw some furniture out and bought new ones from IKEA to make an office area for my mom. I cleaned up the upstairs rooms and organized our library. We did a lot of little family errands together and I was so happy to be able to take care of those things with my mom. My mom went back into nursing a few months ago, and she had work 3 days out of the week during the night shift. During those nights I stayed at home and read the Bible. It was one of the first times I have been able to sit for a long period of time and read the Word ever since my dad passed away. In the past it was difficult because every time I think of the Bible opened in my home, I think of my dad coming home from work every day and spending an hour or two right after taking a shower and eating dinner reading the Word. Also, he used to make our family gather around the kitchen counter and do a family bible study together. This was back when I was not a Christian and I remember the way I acted towards my father and the things I felt in my heart, and it makes me feel so ashamed and guilty that I can't bear to feel that way and I sometimes don't want to remind myself of these things by reading the Word at home. But all these negative feelings that I have of my father reading the Word are self-centered and rooted in sin. And I spent much time at home praying against them, and God gave me peace to be able to spend time with Him through the Word at home.

So much to write about, but time is running out for tonight.

My last thought and some wonderful pictures of people I love
Faithful One, so unchanging.