Reflection #10

Hahahaha. I have to laugh at myself. I'm just not very good at this. :P

This past week has been so infinitely amazing and crazy. Arkansas was hit by its own Snowmageddon last Wednesday, and our school was buried under 6-8 inches of powdery snow. The roads were completely iced for two days (which, by the way, makes for a lot of fun times in a Jeep). It really was one of the best snow weeks I've ever had. Annie came up to the apartment and got snowed in with me, so we watched movies, cooked yummy comfort food, and hung out with the guys -- doing donuts in the Wal-mart parking lot, sledding and skiing behind the Jeep in the parking lot, swing dancing on ice, blasting the stereo with the windows down and snow blowing in our faces (granted, that was cold, but the windows fogged if we left them up), eating soup and chili and popcorn, and playing hilarious board games. I couldn't have asked for a better time to relax, connect, and enjoy my friends. I'm so thankful that we can't do life alone; we need each other.

I've been learning lots from my brothers and sisters, from the Holy Spirit, and from the Perspectives class -- mostly an ever-increasing clarity about the direction my life is meant to take. While I don't have specific details, I do have general ideas and impressions that are helping to guide me in the character development, relationships, and projects I pursue right now: finishing my degree, learning about missions and unreached people groups, growing in spiritual gifting and maturity as a part of the unified body of Christ, dealing with conflict, developing relationships. God is continually providing people at the right place and the right time, and seemingly “coincidental” ideas and themes that pop up over and over in completely different areas of my life. I love it when He really does tell me what to pay attention to. It makes me wonder why I ever doubt that He’ll direct my steps, because HELLO...He’s GOD. Of course He can get my attention. He knows just what to do and what to say.

So, in light of that, I think it’s kind of interesting that my project for Perspectives is doing research on an unreached people group and developing a possible strategy for reaching out to them. Chris has just started talking about feeling led to pray for and possibly plant a church within an unreached people group somewhere in the world, and we’ve all begun to pay attention to and pray more consistently for persecuted Christians, missionaries, and those who haven’t heard the gospel. I don’t really think it’s a coincidence. I feel like God is stirring me, and a lot of people around me, in this awareness. So now, I’m just trying to keep my eyes open to whatever God has for me to do. We shall see. :)