Road Trip: Part Dos

Lots of pictures of scenery and then a wonderful lesson from God.

The next morning after praying with the Mattox family we left for Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We started the day out in snow. (Kind of wishing I had taken a picture for the contrast. Oh hindsight.)
Ended the day in desert,

I can not explain how happy I was when we finally got out of the dreary cold. California is spoiling me pretty hard core.

The sky was so pretty and constantly changing, the entire day. 

Megan got to have a nice conversation with her sister who lives in France and I got to learn a bunch of Taylor Swift songs. I must admit that I absolutely love her music. I know that they are always playing her break up songs and joking about her relationships but the girl has some really inspirational music. And a real gift for writing. Check out my new favorite Long Live. 

The drive was beautiful. I really wish I could have taken pictures of the stars in New Mexico. Brilliant.

This was one of my favorite cloud morphings because it reminded me of a claddaugh ring. 

While the night before had been filled with anguished thoughts, this day was filled with the most present peace I have ever felt. God was definitely at work in that car. He just spent the entire day telling me He was going to take care of it. 

I have had worrisome moments since then but the effects of that day stuck to my heart fairly well. 

After all we are not supposed to worry. 

Worry is so contradictory to the relationship God wants with us. 

I will probably point to these verses a lot in the weeks to come but quite frankly they are important. 

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 

Matthew 6:25-26

(Jesus)

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Phillipians 4:6-7

(Paul)

It seems like it should be easy, right? I mean you would think we would want to be rid of worry. You would think we would enjoy the freedom that comes with knowing we are taken care of. 

And yet we feed into how the world says our lives should look. 

If we don't have two full months of cash for bills stored away then we are failing. If we don't have all of the things we could ever want we are failing. The country is going bankrupt, the world is going hungry, poverty, depression, terrorism, global warming, gas prices. We need to worry. We need to be afraid. 

They (the media and other paranoid folk) are constantly shoving these things in our faces. You know what they aren't reporting? Every prayer God has ever answered. 

We like to be afraid. 

²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?

Matthew 6:27

(Jesus)

I split the two verses because they hit me separately. Can you add that hour to your life? In my experience the more I try to hold on to time and make it my own, the quicker it slips through my fingers like a lathered up bar of soap. 

Today I challenge you to ask God to give you His view of time. His view of what we should have in life. 

Just ask. He will take care of absolutely everything else. 

EMG

Next: The last leg of your trip!

Road Trip: Part 1

Sorry it took so long to get this to you all! I will definitely be posting more regularly in the future.

Megan and I set out on the night of Monday March 4th.

After some debate over my car mishap I left my house to pick her up around 10:00 p.m. and after we fixed our snacks for the drive, we left for Kansas City. 

We drove through the night, stopping to sleep at a rest stop for a few hours. I was so exhausted from the weekend that even thoughts of becoming a Human Centipede couldn't keep me awake. 

We arrived in Kansas City close to 10:30 a.m. stopped for some of their famous BBQ, then headed to IHOP (International House of Prayer). 

IHOP is a hub of 24 hour prayer. They have a room where there is constant worship and constant praying. All day every day. The perfect place for a christian girl who is facing a very daunting journey to pause and get her bearings.

This was the first song in the prayer room:

I had a lot of chains to break. I still kind of do. Jesus and I are definitely working through some stuff.

Our host home for the night was Megan's childhood best friend, Sommer. The second we walked in the door Sommer's daughter Amelia gave me a very big hug and said, "I just love you so much." Children are stinking awesome.

Thank you again for opening your home to us Sommer and family! I am so grateful.

We played Candy Land with the kids so Sommer could focus on dinner.

That night I realized that I have never been so emotionally drained in my life. I had just left my whole family behind for a second time. My car had broken down. I was spending a lot of my savings on gas money to get to my LA home. I had no idea where my life was headed. It can be so scary.
As I crawled into bed that night I just gave myself over to exhaustion, hoping that God would hold me through my sleep. Hoping that He would deliver me from all of my fears.

"...but we^[b] also glory in our sufferings,because we know that suffering produces perseverance;⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hopedoes not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

Romans 3-5

So there I lay with all of my hopes. Desperately placing them in the hands of my savior because quite frankly I had not the strength to go on without Him. 

I will tell you all about the next day in part 2! 

Thanks for reading,

EMG

Road Trip: The Prequel/ Premiere Photos!

Kicking off my road trip blog series is my first film premiere!

It was amazing!

I am not bragging on my acting skills. Although I have to say I did not hate seeing myself on screen.

'Descent of a Superstar' was very well put together. The special effects and camera work were just wonderful!

You should definitely check out the trailer in my last post if you have not already seen it.

And now I will shower you with pictures!

The guys who made it happen! Writers, directors, and producers. Thank you for the opportunity to grow and work with some awesome people!

The girl who played the younger version of my character! Check out her page here. She is a really great little actress.

Drove me to and from the premiere. I do not believe that I will ever find a more supportive man. Thank you so much, David!

Most of the cast from the movie. (Minus Keilah Jude. You can take a look at her page, here!)

Also, minus Clark Ingram but he does not have an acting page so you can see him right here:

You can check out some of Clark's acting/model work here! It's pretty funny.

This is Alex (DP on the film) 

Alex has a super sweet Cinematography reel that you should watch.

And if you are looking for a cinematographer you should call him because he does great work!

And this is his girlfriend Kristen that saved my butt on set one day! She is so cool and I am very happy to have met her.

This is me eating a cup cake.

This is what the cupcake did to my entire mouth for like an hour.

And this is what happens when Clark gets a hold of your camera.

YAY PREMIERE!!! 

Hope you have enjoyed the pictures I managed to remember to take. 

A big thank you to my wonderful family for supporting me, once again, through a film. I love you all so much!

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures.

Next up: Part one of our road trip journey!

EMG

Another beginning

Hello everyone!
I don't know where to begin this post. So just bare with me because there is a lot to cover.

I flew in for the premiere on Thursday night. And forgot my laptop at LAX like big dope I am. Before I had a chance to realize it was missing my first flight had landed in Denver and I had a voice message telling me that I had left it. So I have to get home before Friday March 8 at 3 and pick that up. Borg.
So I am currently blogging from my phone which is really annoying.

Friday I worked at Frisch's. Let me tell ya: there is nothing better to motivate you to where you want to be than going back to where you came from. I am so ready to be a starving actress doing background work for a living if it only means that I don't have to waitress for a living.

Friday night was slightly rough. Being home was not the joyous occasion it should have been. I simply wanted to be back in LA where all of my auditions and possibilities are waiting.
Which is so silly. I mean yes, I was bummed to be missing a couple of auditions but I should not have let that steal my joy.

Then on Saturday I got to see the premiere of Descent of a Superstar! It was a really great film.
There will be more on that when I get my lap top back and can post pictures properly!

Sunday I got to have brunch with a few of my favorite ladies! That was pretty exciting.

Then Sunday came a brought a funny noise out of my car. Awesome.
My dad had it towed so that it would be at the garage first thing in the morning. I thanked God for letting us catch it before l actually had to leave. I was road tripping starting the following night with my friend, Megan.

So David took us to graeters in his car! I had a gift card that I just couldn't let go to waste.

Monday morning woke me up with a call from my mother to tell me that the car would not be ready until Friday.
I must admit that I did not handle that news with any measure of grace.
Imagine, if you can, being woken up by the worst news possible (short of a death). I certainly owe an apology to my mother but I'm kind of even ashamed to say the word 'sorry'. It doesn't seem adequate.

My sister, who had already been working out a plan, comes up the stairs to tell me that they are arranging it so I can take her car.

Wow.

I considered declining. We would have to make the switch at some point and I would just be too much money in the long run. But I really wanted to get home to my acting life. I had started writing so much stuff on the plane and I just wanted to start filming it.

Plus Megan had planned out our entire road trip AND was using her vacation week to accompany me on this roadtrip.

I get the feeling someone really does not want me in LA. And it isn't God.

That might be another post entirely.

I am now on the road in my sisters car, which turned out to be better for fitting all of my stuff, and we are headed to the International House of Prayer!!! Hopefully It will be a good place for loosening the walls I put up around my heart to guard against further crisis.

I will be sure to post throughout the trip and hopefully figure out how to get pictures up.

Love you all!

EMG