Updates of sorts

Since I moved into my townhouse in June, I have become more of a homebody. I haven't wanted to get dressed, put on makeup, drive, park, fight traffic, spend money somewhere, and then drive back home. I just want to stay in comfy clothes, drink my coffee at home, read a book, watch TV, play a video game, journal, etc. Along with that, a bible study I've gone to for 13 years (but not for 2 years in the middle there) ended, and although it had been a slow transition out with lots of people moving or leaving, there were still a handful of people I had seen every week for all of that time, or for different brackets of years at a time. And now we plan on hanging out a few times throughout the year but it's not the same. 

I'm thankful to still have great coworkers that I consider friends, though most of us don't hang out outside of work. But I see them more than I see any of my friends right now, and so I feel like it's a weird time for me. I am also thankful to have my church that I've been at for a year and a half now and to have friends there too, but I also switched bible studies there from the one I've been at for a year and a half to a new one. The new one is young adult women, ages 18-30, and one of the leaders is 32 and one is 23. I'm going to pour in to anybody in the group and assist but not lead. It's a small group and we're meeting at Starbucks once a week. I don't know any of them personally, I've just seen some of them in passing. 

I've been reading books and studying hard questions - What does it really mean to fear the Lord? Why did God have the Israelites kill large amounts of people as they went through to take over the Promised Land? What did the original readers of the creation story understand from early Genesis without having any knowledge of Jesus or science? I've also been doing a thing that John Mark Comer created, a series of videos, podcasts, books, questions, and applications on spiritual disciplines that they just call spiritual practices, called "Practicing the Way." HIGHLY recommend it. Each practice is four weeks long. It's meant for small groups, but I'm doing it on my own. The first one I did was on the Sabbath. It was so good. The next one was on fasting, and I have one left to do. I think the next one is silence and solitude.