Many people continue to ask me, \u201care we happy in California?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s kind of a hard question to answer.\u00a0 The truth is I don\u2019t care much for Los Angeles.\u00a0 It\u2019s dirty, crowded, unsafe, expensive, polluted, disorganized, worldly, and unfriendly.\u00a0 All of these things are compounded by the fact that we moved from Gilbert, AZ, which is literally (by the stats) one of the cleanest, safest, best organized, nicest places to live in the country.\u00a0 I was fully aware of both of these factors when making the decision to relocate, so I am not surprised or disappointed by our experience here.\u00a0 It\u2019s lived up to our expectations.\u00a0 Yet I do feel a struggle within when people ask me how we like California.\u00a0 Because the people who ask typically have a genuine concern for us, I don\u2019t want to disappoint them with a truthful answer.\u00a0 And giving them the long answer shared below is typically beyond the size of response someone expects to receive when asking a binary question\u2026<\/p>\n
LA does have a lot of cool stuff to do within short drive distances, I\u2019ll give it credit for that, and I look forward to exploring and experiencing those things at a comfortable pace.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard it said that LA is a nice place to vacation, but not to live.\u00a0 That\u2019s probably true, unless you\u2019re in the Aerospace industry.<\/p>\n
LA is a major hub of Aerospace technology companies in the US, and if I want to play on the SpaceX team, this is where I need to be.\u00a0 Yes, I could have applied for SpaceX jobs in Texas or Florida, but for the type of work and the team dynamics that I need to have, California is the best option.\u00a0 Besides, the people who work in Florida have terrible hours, they\u2019re on conference calls all day long till 9 or 10pm in order to interface with California engineers, and the commute to both of these locations isn\u2019t great either.\u00a0 So the grass isn\u2019t necessarily greener you know\u2026<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t think we should be so focused on happiness.\u00a0 I believe God has appointed us to this time and place with a job to do, with good works that he has prepared in advance for us to do.\u00a0 When I keep that perspective, a lot of things become very small.\u00a0 The question of \u201care we happy\u201d almost becomes irrelevant.<\/p>\n
A great piece of wisdom was shared with me by Robert Keil prior to our departure from Arizona.\u00a0 He said, \u201cthe best place to be is wherever God wants you to be\u201d.\u00a0 Amen to that.\u00a0 We feel the blessings of the Lord here.\u00a0 I love my job, we have good place to live, and Becca and the kids are having fun exploring the area and making new friends as part of their homeschooling.\u00a0 And we found a great Pentecostal church that cares for us and has a strong emphasis on worship, youth, and mission.<\/p>\n
I think we put too much emphasis on our comfort.\u00a0 God cares about our comfort but that isn\u2019t his goal.\u00a0 His goal is to use us to bring glory to his name.\u00a0 At least for the time being, I think we are in the right place, and that\u2019s what matters.\u00a0 Now I just need to check my whiny hiny attitude at the door so that I can truly love the people and desire to see God move in this place.\u00a0 Give thanks, rejoice, and watch for God\u2019s blessings!\u00a0 Thanksgiving is a cure for many spiritual ailments.\u00a0 When people ask \u201care we happy\u201d, I want to be able to answer truthfully and without hesitation that we are happy, if even if not for the reasons they might expect. \u00a0I would appreciate your prayers in that regard, to see these people and this place in the way that God sees them.\u00a0 To look beyond the physical to the spiritual, and to trust that God will \u201cgive you every place where you set your foot\u201d.\u00a0 Josh 1:3<\/p>\n
Thanks,<\/p>\n
Nate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many people continue to ask me, \u201care we happy in California?\u201d It\u2019s kind of a hard question to answer.\u00a0 The truth is I don\u2019t care much for Los Angeles.\u00a0 It\u2019s dirty, crowded, unsafe, expensive, polluted, disorganized, worldly, and unfriendly.\u00a0 All of these things are compounded by the fact that we moved from Gilbert, AZ, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,6,212],"tags":[563,2631,4215],"class_list":["post-3706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-family","category-nate-2","tag-california","tag-happiness","tag-where-god-wants-you","wpcat-9-id","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-212-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p504YJ-XM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4502,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/california","url_meta":{"origin":3706,"position":0},"title":"California","author":"Becca","date":"December 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Learning my California geography one piece at a time.","rel":"","context":"In "Becca"","block_context":{"text":"Becca","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/becca-2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3815,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2014\/08\/the-next-step-in-our-california-adventure","url_meta":{"origin":3706,"position":1},"title":"The Next Step in Our California Adventure","author":"Becca","date":"August 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, we became Disney Annual Passholders. 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