Thankful

My goodness, it's been about a week already! Time flies these days. I can't help but be thankful for a whole bunch of things. I realize my attitude hasn't been the most thankful recently, so I'm going to try and focus more on the positives because I think that's just a much better way to live. Anyway, a few things I'm thankful for in no particular order:
 1) The weather's been really awesome- lots of sun, lots of fresh air, light breezes, not too cold, not too warm. Yes, there is a too-warm for winter. I'd like to delay the onset of allergy season as long as possible. ;)
2) The fact that I don't live by myself. So yeah. I could complain about the fact that I live really far away from work, or I could look at the upside- one thing I was really dreading senior year of college was potentially having to live by myself. Well, it might be obvious, but that's kind of taken care of right now. :D
3) The fact that I have such an awesome work environment. Seriously, we work hard, but we also play hard.  It's kind of like I have a friend group at work that's pretty much close to my entire team. How often does that happen?

Thank you God! You always take such good care of me even when I don't realize it (or sometimes even agree with the approach.)

Thoughts

One thing nice about being out of school is that I have time to think. Not so much because I actually have a lot of spare time- I think I had more in college... but because I spend a ton of time commuting. I think I spend about 2.5-3 hours on the road each day, which means lots of time to talk to my dad, think, and listen to music. All the good things! (as one of my college friends would say). I get to see the sun rise every morning- which is my absolute favorite time of day. It's just those few minutes when the sun is just starting to peek over the edge of the horizon that make everything so special. The clouds are still light and puffy, and adding a whole spectrum of colors just makes them look so pretty. I really wish I could take good pictures of those sunrises from the car, but since that's not possible, I just try to remember as many as I can. I'm glad that God made sunrises beautiful and that He also gave us the capacity to enjoy beauty.

One thing I was thinking about on my way home today was what the world would be like if God was not good. We humans haven't come up with any good on our own. Could you imagine a world where everyone and everything was completely and thoroughly evil? I can't imagine it. And yet, all the good that I take for granted in this world would never have been and would never be if God, who is over all things, and who has created all things, was not good. That our God is a good and just God is something that I am definitely thankful for. And upon more thought, something that I should probably acknowledge more often as well.

Valentine's and Lent

...Both in the same week. Let's just say this week was a complete blur. I was dealing with frustration at work. It was a "hands up in the air I'm so frustrated" week pretty much since Tuesday. I've been exhausted, traffic's been bad - meaning I've been getting home late. Like 8 PM late. I think my allergies might be kind of starting to act up (uhoh), and somehow my brain doesn't want to shut off until around 11 PM. But one thing that I've been coming back to again and again this week, and which honestly is part of the reason that I have somehow managed to drag myself out of bed early in the morning, is that God is faithful, that He gives strength to the weary, and that He will never let us go.

How interesting that in a week that was as hard as this week, Lent would start halfway through the week, and Valentine's would be the day after Ash Wednesday. Personally, I don't give up anything for Lent, and honestly I don't really treat it that differently from the rest of the year. My hope is that every day of the year should be as special as the days leading up to Easter. To be living each day with a thankful heart that the God of the universe would stoop down to live on this earth amongst us and then to give His life to save us. To be drawing nearer and nearer to the heart of God. To desire more fully a deeper personal relationship with Him. And yet, I think it's a really important thing to have a time of the year set apart like Lent. It reminds us of the importance of Easter, and it's a time set apart to think especially of what Christ's sacrifice on the cross means.

Anyway, I got to thinking yesterday about Easter, about life, about what "love" means. Valentine's Day is great - I think - in the way that it's an opportunity to pause and acknowledge important people in our lives. Cough  *significant others* cough. But what does that mean for those of us who well, don't really have any romantic attachments? Some people call it Single's Awareness day. I still call it Valentine's Day. The reason is that I do have a Valentine. And for me this year, with Lent starting so close to Valentine's Day, it was a good reminder. I am loved by the God of the universe who came to earth and willingly gave His life in order that I might enter into a relationship with Him and spend eternity in His presence. His is the love that surpasses all others and it will never ever decrease even one bit. If it was a human being that we were talking about, everyone would be so jealous. So why is it that because He is God, I can take His love for granted? Why do the things of this earth get in the way so much that I don't deliberately take time to slow down and just talk to Him? If this were a person who was special to me, of course I would take time and drop whatever I was doing. So, after thinking about it a little bit, the conclusion I reached is that yes, this year, I will acknowledge that I have a Valentine. He may not walk up to me with flowers, but He has opened His arms wide to me for eternity. This year, I'm letting God's love melt my heart for Valentine's Day. Because He is the only one who can truly melt my heart and change it forever.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

We've been going through 1 Thessalonians at church recently and we just finished it up yesterday. Among all the things that really stood out to me was this one verse:

"Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass." 

- 1 Thess. 5:24

This is such a beautiful verse, and looking at it within the context of the surrounding verses just makes the meaning so much richer. Verse 23 says, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Verse 25 then says, "Brethren, pray for us." We are not called to walk this journey of life alone. Not only has He promised to be with us each and every step of the way, but He has also provided for us a community of other believers in order that we might strengthen and encourage one another. In our lives, may this reality shine ever true as we seek to become imitators of Christ not on our own strength, but through the grace and mercy of Him who is not only faithful, but also able to bring these things to pass. 

On Re-Reading Old Musings

Part of the reason I'm writing on this blog is that, well, I think it's just kind of nice to have a place where things are consolidated so that I can come back and read it easily. I have a couple of journals where I have thoughts written down- from different stages of life. It's always an interesting exercise to go back and read what I wrote several years ago. I was recently hunting for a quote for the yearbook, so I went back to a little black hardbound journal that I picked up at the art store the summer after freshman year. It's titled, "Thoughts Quotes Poems" and rightly so. It's got my thoughts, some poetry that I wrote, and quotes that I really thought were good to remember. It's back from the days when I liked to write in size 8 font or something similar to that. So, there aren't all that many pages with writing on them even though the edges are frayed from days spent jostled around in my backpack with all the other wonderful things a mechE thinks it's necessary to have around. But back to the quote search. I finally found a quote that I wanted to put in my yearbook- something I actually had a hard time finding on multiple pages on Wikiquote. Yep, I like to use Wikipedia for finding quotes as well as everything else useful... Anyhow, here was what I picked. ""A hundred years from now, who will care how successful we were or how comfortable our lives were? What will matter then is what we invested our lives in." It's from End of the Spear by Steve Saint (he was quoting a friend who isn't named). It's definitely something to think about. And figure out priorities by. Hence the post yesterday...

Random Things

As y'all might have noticed, the content here has been changing a bit since I started. I'm including more everyday things- deliberately. I want to share life and all that I'm learning through the little everyday things, not just the serious. Something that I've realized is that it's the everyday things that end up being important in the end. I'm starting to understand that more important than just having a theoretical understanding of abstract concepts is how you live and share your life with others. This isn't to say that I'm discounting the importance of thinking about and working through the hypothetical, the theological, and the philosophical. Those things are all great! It's just that when it comes down to what I think I'll find important at the end of my life, it'll be about the time that I shared with friends, the encouragements, the smiles, the laughter, and the fellowship with others. I realize that I'm busy right now. Like busier than I ever wanted to be after graduating from college. Well, okay, maybe that's not entirely true. (I enjoy being busy.) However, the way I'm looking at things is that I should never get to the point where I am too busy to have time for my friends for an extended period of time. I can see myself being busy for days at a time when I'm in crunch mode. It's neither healthy nor worth it to live a life of just work and no relationships. Isn't that what life is really all about? What does it really mean to love your neighbor? If the love is theoretically there but not there in the everyday it really isn't worth anything, is it? So, yes. Do expect to see more of the non-theoretical, serious things I'm thinking about on this blog. Those things will probably pop up on their own over time, but I think a lot of it is going to get recorded in a different place. Because recording those thoughts and re-reading them later on is usually so much fun- and usually such an encouragement.

Recently

It's been a long time since I posted! It's not for lack of trying to start... I have 3  2 drafts started and one finished posted. Anyway, I thought this one should get finished sometime soon. Here's how I was starting it back in December when I was completely swamped:

I'm really tired. It's been a long semester and there's been a lot of work to do. That's part of the reason I'm writing this post at all. As a warm-up to my 3+ essays that need to get written today. Yikes!

Needless to say, I got stressed out and distracted enough to get started on writing the actual essays instead. So, it all worked out.

Anyhow. Wow. That feels like absolutely an entire lifetime ago, but it's only been a little over a month! Life's just a tad bit different now. ;) I get up at around 5:30 and am typically in bed by 10 or 10:30. Yep, the whole early bedtime and early rise time thing again. Some habits just die hard. In my defense, I'm not getting up that early entirely by choice either... But, needless to say, I definitely was looking forward to the weekend yesterday. Yay for 10 hours of sleep!

Along with change comes a whole slew of likes and dislikes. Here's my current list:

Likes: 

• Seeing my family every day
• Giving my brother TONS of hugs
• The people at my work
• Talking to friends in the evenings or on the weekends

Dislikes: 

• How tired I feel after work
• The fact that I don't think I've opened my Bible more than twice this past week <-- This has absolutely got to change.
• The fact that it's a lot harder to keep in touch with friends
• Stress! I had a nightmare for the first time the other night that I hadn't completed my homework for a class that I hadn't been able to join until halfway through. Weird how I never had those dreams while actually being in school... 

Things will continue to change, I suppose, and this list will also morph- hopefully for the better! Learning how to become a "real" person...

Saying Goodbye

(I wrote this in mid-January when I was back in Boston and didn't post it... so here it is now.)

Those of you who know me probably know that there are few things that I hate more than real goodbyes. I put off goodbyes, always trying to look forward to the next time. However, I've reached a point where I can't quite get away with that. Realistically speaking, the goodbyes that I am saying are going to last for at least a few months at the very least. And, it's always the hardest when you have to say goodbye to close friends who have meant so much to you for a while. (And who will hopefully continue to be really dear friends.) But going away means that it's that much harder to maintain those relationships. The most important ingredient of good friendships aside from really caring is, I think, time. So to all my friends, thanks for just being yourselves, for taking the time to laugh, and think, and talk. I'll try to text, call, or email whenever I can. Please do the same! Lots of love. :)