First of all...33 days! Is this real life?
The semester has gone by SO FAST. Ozark Christian College is almost to finals week...2 weeks of classes (and more than a few pages that I really need to just write)...and we're done!
Now that was SUPER exciting for me. until last week.
Then that little thought came creeping into my head. After this semester, everything is going to be different.
(and might I just add that that thought came at an extremely inconvenient time as I was just getting pumped to finish out my last few papers. come on! ha)
The thing is, I LOVE change. Change is a good thing. Change can mean doors open. Relationships deepen. Opportunities pop up. You figure out who you are. You see God in a different light. You experience grace in a new way.
Change is sad though. Change can mean doors close. Relationships fizzle out. You have to walk away from something you love. God feels far away. You see yourself the way you actually are. Even the small kind of change (like going to college) can bring all of these things!
For me, moving to Joplin was awesome (okay not for the first 3 weeks, but then it really was awesome :)). The super cool sweet bubbly girl I had met the year before and texted a couple times a month is now the roommate that I love dearly, the girl with whom I've laughed, cried, prayed, and talked until the early morning hours. [She's the reason this blog post exists actually.] I've met incredible people. I have an opportunity to serve in a ministry in the Ivory Coast. I've realized over and over again that my identity is bound up in the fact that I have been redeemed and made holy by the blood of Christ. I've seen answered prayers, grace, and new life.
In the same 8 months, I've lost touch with friends I loved so much. Dreams that could have turned into awesome opportunities were left unfulfilled. I left a town that I knew, a church I was comfortable in, and a house that I loved. I got a glimpse of the ugliness of my sin and the wretchedness of my heart.
Some of those things made for fun, beautiful, sweet moments. But some of those were anything but beautiful. But I think some of those times, God was working through my weaknesses to make me look more like Him. It's pretty cool how God can use change (the good kind and the not so good kind) to bring our attention back to Him. And it's comforting to know He won't leave us no matter what highs and lows life throws at us. We serve a really, really good God.
xoxo
kelsey
