My dear friends,
There's something important that I think you need to know: you are beloved. Greatly loved. Dear to the heart. I know it may not feel like it, but I'm telling you, you are loved. I wouldn't lie about a thing like this.
Far too often we rely on family, friends, and significant others to make us feel greatly loved. And while they certainly do love us a lot, no matter how hard they try, they seem to fall short of the kind of love we're looking for. So we keep looking...
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The Price of Obedience
I never thought I would move home after college. It's not that I don't love my family or that I didn't want to live in the town that I grew up in. Rather, by the time I graduated from high school, I was so dissatisfied with the church community in my town that I promised myself I would never have to deal with it again. I was done. I moved to Rochester, NY for college and there, I could visit a different church every Sunday if I wanted to. And they were all great. I was convinced that Rochester was...
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Foundations of Praise
It is so easy to complain. At this time of my life, a time of transition, change, and uncertainty, I find myself saying things like: Lord, why do you have me here?, Lord, I don't know what my future holds and I'm scared, and Lord, this isn't how I imagined life would be. In the past two months, I have graduated from college, moved back home, and started a new job. I've experienced a lot of change lately and I think God totally understands where I'm coming from.
I've been convicted, though, about...
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
S T R E N G T H
Friends, the end of college is near for me! Less than 5 weeks from now, I'm going to be a college graduate. An official grown-up.
This semester, I've gone from being so excited to graduate to so sad that I'm graduating to completely at peace about it to somewhere in between.
Lately, I've been somewhere in between. I can't wait to not have homework to do, papers to write, and tests to study for. But I'll miss spending time with people doing that homework, writing those papers, and studying...
Monday, October 28, 2013
My Worst Year
The other day I was feeling nostalgic and couldn't fall asleep, so I began looking through old pictures of myself on Facebook. Starting in 2008, I took a little trip down memory lane. To be honest, I haven't changed much. I look almost exactly the same now as I did when I was a junior in high school. However, when I came across pictures of 18-year-old-freshman-in-college me, I had trouble recognizing myself. My eyes were dark, my smile was fake, and my face seemed thin. In these pictures, I was...
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Scary Future vs. Faithful God
"Let's do something spontaneous," one of my friends said a few Fridays ago.
My reply: "Ok, let's plan something for Sunday after church!"
Clearly, I am a crazy, type-A planner, which is awesome when it comes to things like homework and jobs. It's a little less awesome when it comes to real life where things very rarely go exactly the way I plan.
I'm at a weird place in life right now called the end of college. Lots of people keep asking me the question: "So what are you doing when...
Sunday, September 29, 2013
The Necklace
"Me gusta este, I like this," I said pointing to the heart shaped pendant hanging around a girl's neck on our first day in Santa Cruz, Guatemala. I didn't know what to say, but I wanted to say something. It was important to me to try my best to speak Spanish, even if I had no idea what to say or how to say it. These three simple words opened the door to much more conversation with a girl who I would...