Time

I haven't had much time to blog recently on account that my life has been filled with school and extra-cirricular activites. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the somewhat hecticness of everything I get to do in the average day....I even sometimes like going to school for learning's sake, but it's really nice to just sit and relax, or lay on my bed and stare at the ceiling and think about things, or play guitar with no real purpose except just to play the guitar.

Junior year, I had a problem with having too many things to do, and not enough time to do them. I had a couple of hard classes in school which devoted a good chunk of my home time to homework; I had a job every day of the week except for weekends; I started to become more involved in my church with youth group leadership team and worship team; on top of all that, I had to feed myself and get sleep. I never had any time to sit and recollect about what had happened during the day or play guitar for the sake of playing guitar or think about how I could further my walk with God. It was kind of depressing and really tiring. Though I enjoyed all the things I did, I left out a couple of important things: God time and me time.

The first being the most important. The summer after my junior year, I went off to Japan. My relationship with God was soo unkept that I only read the Bible twice in a two and one half week period and usually only prayed before meals. It was disgusting. Within one week of getting back from Japan, I was going on a missions trip to Chicago. I was so unprepared. That was one of the most spiritually challenging weeks of my life. I learned a lesson though, and I learned it by taking a run in the morning by Lake Michigan with my friend Lauren.

So as most of you who know me probably know...I don't run very far worth a squat. I really like running with people, but those people usually outrun me easily and quickly. One morning on the mission's trip, I was invited to go on a run with three other girls from the youth group. We started all together, but I very soon fell behind because I hardly ever run. Lauren kindly took the initiative to be my partner and "run" with me while the other two sprinted ahead and became small dots along the horizon. Lauren and I got to talk about a lot of things. After running/walking for however many miles (it seemed), we went back to the college campus we were staying at, and showered. My body hurt all over for the next two days.

"Where's the lesson in that?" you may ask. I knew there was a reason I went on the run in the morning and hurt all over for the next two days, and I sought to find it. God showed me in the free time we were given each day on the missions trip to recollect what we had been learning in the lessons. Technically, the same thing that happened before, on, and after the run was happening in my spiritual life. I didn't take time to follow after God, so when I walked into a tough situation, I broke down and felt sorry for myself rather than glorifying God and serving Him. I had spent soo much time doing things for myself in Japan and so little time with God, that when I went on a mission's trip, all I could think about was myself. Pitiful.

For the next three weeks after missions trip, God was able to feed my soul and reteach me things that I had put away in the past. I worked at East Iowa Bible Camp for three weeks and learned a good many things.

1. How to make a really big batch of monster cookies.
2. Wash your hands a lot.

3. Never walk in the camp kitchen area without shoes.

4. How to clean a urinal.

5. How to make the impossible shot

6. Never to go down a zip line fully clothed at night.

....and so on and so forth. While I was at camp, I learned a lot of things about walking with God, too. One is how to truly worship Him while you're leading music worship in front of a lot of people. Another is that I don't know everything there is to know about the Bible; in fact, the more I read it, the more there is to understand.

So yeah. Over the summer I learned a lot about prioritizing my life. God taught me a lot through my busyness and my idleness as well.

This year, I've decided to limit myself to only a couple of things at a time so I won't lose track of what really matters. Though I'm still quite busy, I'm not nearly as busy as last year. I have time to do devotions and pray, and today I had time to play guitar for the sake of playing guitar.

"One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind."

~Ecclesiastes 4:6

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