from Harry Potter to picnics in Piedmont

The last couple of days have not been incredibly productive on the school front, but I think that's okay. This whole semester has necessitated pretty frequent productivity, and sometimes you just need a break. Or, at least, I do. So, Thursday night was a road trip to Duluth, back to campus, BACK to Duluth, and finally back to campus. This was all after a great Bible Study and an amazing talk from a Kenyan dignitary at CCF. Friday meant Chipotle! (I know there's not really an exclamation point after Chipotle, but I love it so much that I feel like it needs to be there every time I say that I got to eat there), as well as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. What a great movie. Today, I got the chance to catch up with my best friend, which was (as expected) wonderful. After that, I got a little bit of work done and then headed out to Piedmont Park (Atlanta's version of Central Park) for a picnic with Roommate (my freshman-year roommate, not someone I currently live with), as well as Mona. I love those girls. One of my biggest regrets from last year is that I wasn't able to see how great my roommate was while I still lived with her.

God's blessings are truly amazing to me. Three weeks ago, if asked how the past three weeks would be, I would have expected the worst. Maybe not awful, but at least a stressful, lonely, down three weeks. But it hasn't been that at all, and that's what I find amazing. Instead, I've had a blast. School's there, but it's not an issue like it has been. It's hard, and I study my tail off, and I get frustrated at times. But then I let it go. How? Man, I have no idea. I've been trying to be able to do that for two years. But something finally clicked these past couple of weeks. Along with that, I've had more fun, been more open, and connected more at CCF than I can remember. Crazy.

And then there was the realization today that stuff can be that good here without losing something I care deeply about. That I can become open and develop relationships, and that I can REALLY start to feel God around me, and that feeling Him more DOESN'T mean losing anything else. It seems contrary to logic... human thought tells us that we have to choose - we can spend time on this or that, with those friends or that friend, and so on. But God doesn't work that way. When we spend time with Him - really hunger for that time with Him - He doesn't take away the other good stuff. He opens up our heart, refines us, and blesses us with so much more. That may not be expressed in terms of hours in the day, but in terms of our heart: He fills our hearts with love, but that doesn't keep us from sharing that with anyone else. I guess I take back what I said - Loving God DOES mean losing things. It means letting Him refine us, change us, and mold us. And it might be hard at first, but the stuff He takes away leaves us with some pretty wonderful things.

It blows my mind, how much God has blessed me. I'm so excited to see the work He's doing, and I'm so grateful for a community of support here and an amazing friend willing to listen to me rant about "how cool" God is for a pretty long time on a Saturday morning. =) I don't deserve any of it, and that makes it even more incredible. I guess this is the right time of year to reflect on just how freakin' awesome God's love is, and I feel like I've been shown that in a pretty amazing way lately. Sorry if my constant barrage of "this is what God did today" is sickeningly upbeat and redundant... I think it's maybe a little more interesting than "this is the latest person to tell me that I'm funny, which is great because I thought they hated me!" stories, but I'd have to get Claire to back me up on that.