sunshine in friggin' january

Hello world! You know, life is full of paradoxes (and pseudo-cliches, apparently). A few days ago, I felt awful. My world was crashing down all around me, ruining my relationships, my sanity, my family, and my motivation. Which way is up? How do I solve this? What does it mean to trust God?

It is good to ask these questions if for no other reason than that it gives me a chance to remember what I learned last semester. Which was is up? God. How do I solve this? Obedience. What does it mean to trust God? Stop trusting myself--hello, the Creator of the universe has to know more than me. I could go on, delving into the realm of philosophical ponderings...but I really ought to be writing my interaction paper for my Jewish Backgrounds to the New Testament class.

Bottom line--I still have issues. In fact, I have more issues today than I did before (namely my recent discovery that my esophagus is fighting with my stomach), but the difference lies in how I've dealt with them. It is so easy to get discouraged and to be bogged down in the complications of life, but I need to remember that God really does have the whole world in his hands.

God shows up for me in the little things in life--a ladybug on a blade of grass, a quiet moment in a field during a thunderstorm, a smile between good friends passing one another in the hallway, and quotes on the quote wall(s). This morning my girlfriends and I (well, mostly Alethea) whipped up a fantastic breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes with peanut butter and shared this high-calorie joy over hot tea and cider. After a few failed attempts at getting Becky's attention, we yelled for her, "Hey, Becky! Are you going to eat?!" to which she responded in true Becky fashion, "OOOOOh! Look! My slippers match my shirt!" My friends are beautiful. Following this blessed repast, Alethea and I rushed to work to find absolutely no potential tutees and thus decided to fill our time with the crafting of three-dimensional snowflakes, pictured here:

Essentially, Alethea and I are awesome. I made one large snowflake and one medium snowflake, and Alethea made two large and one medium! Carol was so happy. She came up while we were making them a took a bunch of pictures so that we would have photo-directions to use to teach people how to make them when they come to our Writing Center conference (for peer tutors and Writing Center directors, not like peer conferences). It was great. Our hands were beautiful. In fact, I would put a picture of Alethea's face up, but it occurred to me that she may not appreciate being so displayed on the internet, so I will forego that particular embarassment. But she's very beautiful, inside and out, and I will hopefully have her permission soon to put up georgous pictures of her. =)

That was a very long sidetrack--the point is, when I find myself buried in the cares of the world, I am always reminded of God's sovereignty and of the beauty he created in everything. My friends, nature, work, play, suffering, life, death, sorrow, pain, joy, new birth...all of these are part of our lives, and God sanctifies and blesses each and every one.

"For we know that God works all things together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose...If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:28, 31