Holy COW! I'm done with my Junior year of college, and my little brother is graduating in 3 days!! My, how time flies!
So, here are my plans for the next 3 months:
Tomorrow: FLY HOME!
Next Friday: fly back to NY
May 24: two of my best friends graduate from Keuka
May 25-June 2: Stay with my aunt/uncle/cousins in Penn Yan, NY
June 3: Drive to Albany to help my best friend Beth finish up stuff for her wedding
June 12: WEDDING!
June 13: Reception
June 14: church with the bride and groom, then back to Penn Yan to pick up my mom and stuff in order to drive home
June 16: HOME!
June 17: Hop back in the car with my dad, brother, and bro's gf to drive to Nashville to visit Belmont, where Wes will be in the fall.
June 19: HOME!
July 15: drive to Mantiou Springs, CO, to work at SUMMIT!
August 16: drive home
August 27: Drive back to school for SENIOR YEAR!
So...I'm not excited about any of the above. Really. It's all rather dull. ;-)
May 14, 2009
May 5, 2009
Cinco de Mayo
!Feliz cinco de mayo!
Cinco de mayo, a Mexican holiday, is not the celebration of Mexico's independence as many believe. Actually, May 5 is the celebration of Mexico's victory in one singular battle against the long-undefeated armies of France. In 1862, Mexican's small, underprepared soldiers ran the French out of the village of Puebla in a resounding victory.
Mexico had declared their independence from Spain in 1810. They were still fighting oppressors some 50+ years later! This reminded me today of our battle for righteousness. The moment we accept Jesus and his saving grace, we declare our freedom from oppression and allow Him to establish a new government in our hearts. However, as time wears on, many enemies come against us to try to regain territory of our hearts and minds.
Jesus never promised that a life of righteousness would be easy. In fact, he stated quite the opposite. However, we are called to never let our guard down--to keep fighting the good fight! Let us rejoice not only in the freedom we've won through Christ but also in the daily victories He gives!
Cinco de mayo, a Mexican holiday, is not the celebration of Mexico's independence as many believe. Actually, May 5 is the celebration of Mexico's victory in one singular battle against the long-undefeated armies of France. In 1862, Mexican's small, underprepared soldiers ran the French out of the village of Puebla in a resounding victory.
Mexico had declared their independence from Spain in 1810. They were still fighting oppressors some 50+ years later! This reminded me today of our battle for righteousness. The moment we accept Jesus and his saving grace, we declare our freedom from oppression and allow Him to establish a new government in our hearts. However, as time wears on, many enemies come against us to try to regain territory of our hearts and minds.
Jesus never promised that a life of righteousness would be easy. In fact, he stated quite the opposite. However, we are called to never let our guard down--to keep fighting the good fight! Let us rejoice not only in the freedom we've won through Christ but also in the daily victories He gives!
1 Chronicles 4:10 (New International Version)
Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.
March 28, 2009
Friendship
I just spent the weekend with two of my girlfriends from high school. We've not seen each other much since graduation--mostly once every Christmas and once ever summer or so. It's been incredible to just pick up right where we left off (I must admit, we have facebook to thank for the fact that we are still in touch).
I'm just reminded by spending time with these ladies what it means that Jesus is my friend. No matter how long I go without really sitting down and talking with him, he still desires to know me, spend time with me, have fun with me, and speak truth into me. I've been learning these past few months to really walk in prayer. Not just bless my food or ask for help on a test--to really walk the sidewalks and halls of school in communion with God. The Spirit has made himself more evident as I allow my eyes to be opened.
I've sung this song countless times, but what a sweet reminder!
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
I'm just reminded by spending time with these ladies what it means that Jesus is my friend. No matter how long I go without really sitting down and talking with him, he still desires to know me, spend time with me, have fun with me, and speak truth into me. I've been learning these past few months to really walk in prayer. Not just bless my food or ask for help on a test--to really walk the sidewalks and halls of school in communion with God. The Spirit has made himself more evident as I allow my eyes to be opened.
I've sung this song countless times, but what a sweet reminder!
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
March 18, 2009
Life moves on
So I'm starting to feel as if life is moving on and I'm being left behind. My brother is graduating high school and leaving for college in the fall. About a bajillion of my friends are engaged, including one of my closest sisters who will be married and moved to California by July. Another of my sisters is graduating college and off to grad school in PA. Many of my role models in the generation or two above me from church are pregnant and building families. My parents are discussing moving to the country once brother is out of the house.
And where am I? Stuck in a dorm room doing homework and documenting quiet hours. Work, class, work, class, work, work, class, class. I am increasingly unmotivated in my major because I've discovered it's not what I want to do with the rest of my life. My plan for my Senior Internship fell through today, and I have no idea where to go from here. I don't know if these issues are simply spring fever or if God's got a serious life change just around the corner...I feel restless.
Daddy, show me your purpose for me here. Reveal your plan that has me stuck in the middle of nowhere NY. Give me confidence in my passion, not a feeling that has me worried daily I won't be cut out for what I feel you calling me to do. Give me courage to face these changes that are happening in the lives of those I love. Establish me in your strength and hope!
And where am I? Stuck in a dorm room doing homework and documenting quiet hours. Work, class, work, class, work, work, class, class. I am increasingly unmotivated in my major because I've discovered it's not what I want to do with the rest of my life. My plan for my Senior Internship fell through today, and I have no idea where to go from here. I don't know if these issues are simply spring fever or if God's got a serious life change just around the corner...I feel restless.
Daddy, show me your purpose for me here. Reveal your plan that has me stuck in the middle of nowhere NY. Give me confidence in my passion, not a feeling that has me worried daily I won't be cut out for what I feel you calling me to do. Give me courage to face these changes that are happening in the lives of those I love. Establish me in your strength and hope!
March 2, 2009
Shopping for Better
"In the beginning, oh Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment, they will be changed. But you remain the same and your years will never end." Hebrews 1: 10-12
These three verses struck me today. I've been working on memorizing Hebrews, but I've not done a good job of really meditating on what so much of this can mean in our lives. For example, this passage. Obviously, it's speaking of the new heaven and new earth that will come to be at the return of Christ. However, I started to ponder the author's decision to use this clothing imagry. We see this imagry other places in scripture, most notably discussions of becoming a new creation, throwing off the old self (Col. 3:8-10).
I began to think about the society we live in, one that is so fraught with materialism. We don't know, most of the time, what it means to have an item of clothing for so long that it literally wears out. But we do get tired of what we have and try to trade it in for something better. We can't do that with Jesus. There is NOTHING BETTER. He doesn't wear out. He doesn't get soiled. The world we know will wear out, but the One who created it all will never change!
These three verses struck me today. I've been working on memorizing Hebrews, but I've not done a good job of really meditating on what so much of this can mean in our lives. For example, this passage. Obviously, it's speaking of the new heaven and new earth that will come to be at the return of Christ. However, I started to ponder the author's decision to use this clothing imagry. We see this imagry other places in scripture, most notably discussions of becoming a new creation, throwing off the old self (Col. 3:8-10).
I began to think about the society we live in, one that is so fraught with materialism. We don't know, most of the time, what it means to have an item of clothing for so long that it literally wears out. But we do get tired of what we have and try to trade it in for something better. We can't do that with Jesus. There is NOTHING BETTER. He doesn't wear out. He doesn't get soiled. The world we know will wear out, but the One who created it all will never change!
February 13, 2009
NY Plane Crash/Campus Death
2/13/09
Don't know how many people outside of my sisters here at Keuka read this, but our campus needs prayer! More than the normal darkness that covers this place, a girl who was a freshman here last year died in the plane wreck near Buffalo yesterday. Lots of girls are really upset, particularly a few that are either residents of mine or friends of mine. Please pray that the peace of Christ would cover them and that I would have the wisdom and influence to be a light of hope and encouragement. Thanks!
2/15/09
We've had another death on campus--a commuter student who was a Jr. Education major died in his home last night from health complications. This man, Jerad, was good friends with my sister Amy. She's sad, but we're pretty sure he was saved (he'd been a youth pastor, then walked away from God. Had recently been renewing his faith). Please pray that she's able to be a light to others of their mutual friends.
Don't know how many people outside of my sisters here at Keuka read this, but our campus needs prayer! More than the normal darkness that covers this place, a girl who was a freshman here last year died in the plane wreck near Buffalo yesterday. Lots of girls are really upset, particularly a few that are either residents of mine or friends of mine. Please pray that the peace of Christ would cover them and that I would have the wisdom and influence to be a light of hope and encouragement. Thanks!
2/15/09
We've had another death on campus--a commuter student who was a Jr. Education major died in his home last night from health complications. This man, Jerad, was good friends with my sister Amy. She's sad, but we're pretty sure he was saved (he'd been a youth pastor, then walked away from God. Had recently been renewing his faith). Please pray that she's able to be a light to others of their mutual friends.
February 2, 2009
The Necessity of Prayer
I'm reading this book by EM Bounds, and it's amazing how often I must stop and just let the truth God is speaking to me sink in. Here is my most recent nuggat.
"Prayer is too simple, too evident a duty, to need definition. Necessity gives being and shape to prayer. Its importance is so absolute, that the Christian soldier's life, in all the breadth and intensity of it, should be one of prayer. The entire life of a Christian soldier--its being, intention, implication, and action--are all dependent on its being a life of prayer. Without prayer--no matter what else he has--the Christian soldier's life will be feeble, and ineffective, and consitute him an easy prey for his spiritual enemies."
Wow. That'll kick you in the butt.
"Prayer is too simple, too evident a duty, to need definition. Necessity gives being and shape to prayer. Its importance is so absolute, that the Christian soldier's life, in all the breadth and intensity of it, should be one of prayer. The entire life of a Christian soldier--its being, intention, implication, and action--are all dependent on its being a life of prayer. Without prayer--no matter what else he has--the Christian soldier's life will be feeble, and ineffective, and consitute him an easy prey for his spiritual enemies."
Wow. That'll kick you in the butt.
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