It’s fall, y’all- and I’m enjoying every single second of it. :)
In past years, fall has always kinda felt like a horrible deceleration ramp from summer to winter. Not this year though. This year I’m pumped. This year I know that God’s teaching me so many things I desperately needed to know, and I needed to be in this season of life to learn them. I’m a month into Fall 2013 at Bethel University and it’s already blessed and grown my heart tremendously.
Things I’m learning:
the importance of outreach- seriously, after spending a couple weeks sitting alone at lunch, you’d start to skip meals too. It’s not fun to be on the outside. And I’ve never actually been that person until this year. I’ve always been in the “in group”, which is great, but it means that for years I’ve been lacking in empathy. Making friends is hard- harder than I remembered. In fact, I haven’t really been in a position of actually needing to make friends since... probably Kindergarten. And at Bethel, making friends is a little more complex than just poking the nearest shoulder and saying, “hey, wanna be my friend?” (although, frankly, I haven’t actually tried that). All of that is to say that the Lord has given me a greater sense of urgency in outreach, and just generally making people feel valuable. Who doesn’t want to feel valuable? You literally can’t lose. Fight the awkward. Start a conversation. It really does matter.
the necessity of confession- and I mean real confession. The kind where you actually tell someone else about it, in all of its disreputable shame and disgusting familiarity. Did you know we were designed for that kind of vulnerability in community? I didn’t. But it’s real. Confessing my sin to someone who knows me and cares for me gives me a more deeply authentic contrition. It’s an encounter of immense beauty and intense discomfort, and the exposure both magnifies the reality of the sin and minimizes the power of the sin, at the same time. It doesn’t make any sense. But actually somehow it does. The catch is that the more you confess sin, the more sin you find you have to confess. I think because confession draws us closer to Christ, and the closer we are, the more like him we become. That's pretty cool.
the value of self-grace. Sometimes I think I’m doing the right thing, and sometimes I’m dead wrong. And on those occasions, I can give myself some slack, and I can backtrack and redo. Mistakes are mistakes, but the Lord uses them always. Mistakes and regrets are only related if I choose not to trust that God is sovereign. BOOM.
the understanding that God works through the process, not the end result. I actually have to remind myself of this daily. Because I’m impatient and whiny. My current favorite song is that one that goes, “So wake me up when it’s all over, when I’m wiser and I’m older...” because that guy GETS it. He knows how crappy it is to sit through the process of becoming wiser and older. I’d seriously rather just be wiser and older. Unfortunately, the only way we’ve found to temporarily black out and wake up after events have taken place is by drinking an excessive amount of alcohol. Which definitely does not promote development of wisdom. Moving on.
the precept of not drinking coffee after 5pm on school nights- for example: right now, I’m awake because I chose to drink a Starbucks frap around 11pm last night. Clearly I’m still in the process of learning this one...
Things I love about this fall:- new friends, bonfires, and s'mores.
- HOT APPLE CIDER.
- hikes through sun dappled forests.
- scarves. every kind.
- road trips across Wisconsin.
- singing with people I love.
- photobooth pictures with semi-strangers.
- homework on coffee shop patios.
- apple orchards.
- late night walks in Minneapolis.
- celebrating engagements!!!
- autumn thunderstorms.
- friends that are family.
- Brene Brown.
Yup- it's good. And now it's time for a quick nap before Spanish class.
:)
