August musings

I'm sorry, dear readers, for rarely writing a blog post these days. I'd like to say it's because nothing really has been going on, but it seems like there's way too much going on. Life has been difficult in a lot of ways: work-wise, relationship-wise, health-wise, grandparent-wise... I'm also surrounded by broken, hurting, poor people on a daily basis, and it's easy to wonder sometimes where God is in all of this. But then I remember to pause, look heavenward, and remember that He is eternally loving, good, faithful, and just.

He has provided interactions with incredible friends, family, and strangers this past week that have offered me amazing encouragement and hope. And like usual, when I focus on others and not myself (much easier in theory!), I find that my problems shrink to tiny proportions. And like usual, when I focus on the cross and not my own shortcomings, I regain perspective.

In short, we worship an awesome God! I have remembered this recently as I reconnected with long-lost friends, befriended an Indian family, went on 13+ mile bike rides, cooked huge dinners with my roommate, went on long walks, and read His Word constantly.

In closing, here's another awesome quote from the Oswald Chamber devotional which struck a chord with me when I was asking God why on earth I'm here:

"Look at God's incredible waste of His saints, according to the world's judgment. God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say, 'God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him.' Yet Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that might be."

So maybe that's Bloomington or maybe it's somewhere else eventually, but I choose to trust that God will work all things for good, and that I just need to keep stepping forward in faith.