Idle and Blessed

I wonder what the world would be like if everyone studied, acted, served, and lived inside their gifting. I'm almost a week into my fourth semester at Belmont, and I've been thinking a lot about passions and gifting this week. Because I'm noticing a profound shift in how I view school, a shift that I think has a lot to do with what I'm studying now. This is my first semester with NO gen. ed. classes - just classes that I chose, classes that have to do with my major and minor. Really, it's my dream semester. Who wouldn't love taking Advanced Greek, Greek Readings, Russia and the Soviet Union Since 1900, Intermediate Russian II, and World Religions?? It turns out, a lot of people. A whole lot of people. Like, basically everyone I talk to looks at me like I'm insane for loving these classes. Maybe I am, but it's so great to get up in the morning and look forward to a day of classes, homework, and conversation about God, Russia, Russian, Greek, the Bible, an...

My two greatest strengths are fear and planning. Ok, yes, I know fear is not a good thing, but I'm super strong at it. So I'm still counting it... Anyway, It follows that I absolutely adore New Years...all the resolutions, plans, and universal fear of those resolutions remaining unkept. Michael asked us at church this weekend to think about three things that have sucked about 2010, and three ways the Lord has blessed us. As much as I love planning for the new year and looking ahead, looking back and reflecting is such a wonderful thing. I like to see growth in my life, the kind of growth that happens over whole years, so slowly it's not perceivable until you look way back on it. One of the most hopeless feelings to me is the feeling that nothing is ever going to change for the better, that I am never going to change for the better, or never going to be in the place I want to be. It's hard to still those thoughts without some kind of life experience indicating the opposi...