A Little Update

Dear blog followers- if there are still any of you out there,

I am so sorry for the lack of blogging as of late, and assure you that I will once again try to do better in the future. Life up here in STL is keeping me very busy, but as most of you know, I like it that way. I keep telling the sweet family that I live with that if I am home for more than 6 hours 2 days in a row to go ahead and be worried about me. Busy usually = good in my book. Unfortunately, however this busyness has not left much time for blogging. I will try for some more fun or more insightful posts soon. But for now, here is a lil update on the happenings up here in STL.

I guess the best way to sum up so much of what is going on in and around me is that things are becoming more real. School is definitely feeling more real as I had my first big paper and first big test last week. Until then, I had conveniently forgotten that going to school actually meant you had to turn things in and be tested over the material you are learning. I wish I had made this realization in my Greek class earlier because I was so captivated by the lectures that I had forgotten to take notes! Whoops..

The fact that I actually live here is becoming much more real. I seem to have found a routine, and God has graciously blessed me with some great friends, a church, and a community group I just joined tonight. I see his gracious provision and sheer grace in so much, and I am so thankful. Life in Dallas, though so so real in my heart, does now seem like a little while ago. That is weird, but I think good in the sense that it means I am beginning to feel somewhat planted here.

I was able to go see my family this weekend in OKC. Lindsay had a big musical and so we all got together. It was so refreshing to reconnect with everyone face to face. It had been 6 weeks, which was like a marathon for me. And it truly filled my cup. I flew back at the crack of dawn Monday morning. Gate A7 was going to St. Louis, Gate A9 to Dallas. It was a very weird experience not getting on that Dallas bound flight, and made it really real that for now, this is my new home. But God has given me such grace in the transition back this week, and I have been thankful to be here.

But above all this what has become more real to me over the last few weeks is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Over these weeks, I have had the truths of the gospel expounded to me in such powerful ways, but I have also had my heart exposed in profound ways. So often, I get to the end of the day and think "really? that is really what is in my heart?" So many times I have been shocked at what I have seen in my heart, in what I am really like. Which, I guess means I don't really know my heart all that well. It is hard, and I pray humbling, and I am thankful that the Lord doesn't show us all of ourselves at once. I am thankful however that the Lord is doing all of this in me in the context of a place where I am constantly reminded of his gospel and his grace. My sin is not the end of the story. My Savior is! Alleluia!

What a privilege it is to be here. It has taken me a while to see that, but my God's grace I am beginning to. A pastor reminded us on Friday that God's call in our lives is beyond us, bigger than us, and yet somehow involves us. And God's call on my life to bring me here right now is no exception. It is my prayer that this will be real to me, and as one hymn says that "out of unrest and arrogant pride I will come." That I will continued to be humbled and find peace in the reality of his call.

To Him who has called us and To Him who is with us, To Him be the Glory...