One Day.

So my Bible Study group is going through this amazing book called Chase the Goose. Summed up, it's basically reclaiming the spiritual adventure, and breaking out of cages that we sometimes get trapped in. These include cages of responsibility, routine, assumptions, guilt, failure, and fear. The study has been incredible, convicting, and full of wisdom so far.



This week's topic is the cage of routine. As I was reading through the first couple pages this morning, and thinking about all the routine I get caught up in sometimes, this one paragraph just smacked me in the face with a reality check. It is referring to taking things one day at a time in a relationship with Christ.



"One Day."

"These words epitomize what a relationship with Christ is all about. When you are in a relationship with Jesus, all bets are off. You never know what you're going to do, where you're going to go, or who you're going to meet. You never know when or where or how God is going to invade the reality of your life and turn it upside down in a single moment. He can show up any place, any time, and turn your life into a Wild Goose chase. That fills me with holy anticipation. It changes the way I live my life because I can't wait to see what God is going to do next."



What an amazing reality that all the useless time we spend worrying about what is going to happen a year, 5 years, 10 years down the road...it doesn't have to even enter our minds. The world constantly screams to us that we need to have it all figured out. That we need to know exactly what we're going to do, where we're going to go after college, who we're going to fall in love with, etc etc etc.



I will be the first to admit that I am the worst about worrying about the future. It's a horrible habit that I certainly need to be prayerful about breaking. Focusing on one day at a time is hard. I find it almost impossible to not think about how the decisions I am making now, the steps of blind faith that I am taking right now, are going to effect my life years down the road. I'm always scared that if I take one step of blind faith in the wrong direction, I'm going to ruin everything about my future. But in reality, that's not the case.

A couple weeks ago, someone told me something that had a really huge impact on the way I think about things.

"It's not always about having a clear answer or a definite sign. Sometimes you just have to take a step of faith knowing that if it's not the step God intended for you to take, He will pick you back up, turn you around, and still have His amazing plan waiting for you."



Even though this is such a simple truth, I guess I had never really thought about it that way before. As long as we are earnestly seeking God in the steps we take, it's not always about knowing exactly which direction we're supposed to go in. It's about taking a step of faith somewhere at least, and knowing that even in our uncertainty, His plan for us is still so GOOD.

I feel like there is so much freedom in knowing that. It comforts me to know that even when I am so uncertain of the next step to take in my life, God is always looking out for me, and will be glorified in my life as long as I am seeking His will.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do this. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him."
Psalm 37: 4-5;7

We've got lots of catching up to do!

Whoever decided to spell February with an "R" after the "B" must have been slightly confused.

Now that that's out in the open----
:)

Spring semester is FLYING by. I can't believe we've already been back in classes for almost a whole month! My classes are going great (well...aside from Chemistry, but it's Chemistry. What do you expect from a girl who doesn't even slightly understand osmosis?)

Here are some completely random highlights of the semester so far. No particular order, no particular significance. Just an update =)

1. My time management is slowly getting better. I still haven't mastered the art of staying off Facebook for extended periods of time when there is homework to be done, but I am beginning to prioritize a little better!

2. Okay, so this huge snowstorm last weekend.

• I woke up last Saturday morning to a beautiful blanket of white snow outside my window. My first thoughts? "SLEDDING!" My best friends from about a mile down the road at Hunters Ridge called and asked me to come play in the snow. Awesome day ahead for sure. I proceed to ask if someone can come pick me up, seeing as how my car is buried in a foot of snow, and the closest thing I have to being able to knock it all off is a swiffer mop. Nope. No one can come pick me up because the roads are so bad. Okay so on to plan B. I will WALK there. It's not that far right? It takes me about 20 minutes to get all of the layers of clothes on so I won't freeze to death. I pack my backpack with some water, my Zune, and my wallet. I'm so ready to go. I step outside my front door, only to realize that not one single road has been scraped yet, and there is still slightly above a foot of snow on every piece of the ground in sight. My next thoughts? "Psh. Child's play. I'm treking through it." I start down the road in a foot of snow, wind in my face, and snow still falling. That was my first mistake. I get nearly a half mile down the road after about 20 minutes, look at all the distance I still have to go, and turn around. That was my second mistake. I called my friends to tell them that I would not be able to come the rest of the way because I felt like someone was sucking air out of my lungs with a giant vaccuum cleaner. And we all know that's no pleasant feeling at all. They proceed to take every action possible to get me there. As it turns out, lovely Rachel Haas and her boyfriend were already in town driving and could come to pick me up. They finally get to where I am and pull over to pick me up. They take me to Hunter's Ridge where all of my friends are waiting. I walk in, collapse on the floor, and begin to tell the story of my trecherous journey. (well..half journey) After eruptions of laughter, and witty comments from John, Stephen looks at me and says, "I could have picked you up! No one asked me!"

I love my friends so much =) hahaha

• This snow/ice also presented obstacles for those included in the clumsy population. Yes, this would include me. As I walked out of a building on campus on Tuesday morning, I decided I needed to hurry to get to my car, as I couldn't wait to get home and eat my daily Pepperoni Pizza lunchable. The next thing I knew, my feet slipped out from under me and every book I was holding flew into the snow. I proceeded to get up, grin really big, look at the girl next to me who was trying to hold in laughter, and say "It happens."

3. I spilled acid on my hand in Chemistry lab last week. Usually when this happens, I feel like most professors just make sure you're okay and let it be. Nope! My lovely Chemistry professor was convinced it was necessary for me to stand in front of my whole class and tell everyone why it was absolutely necessary to practice lab safety.

4. I have literally been craving pumpkin pancakes from Ihop for about 3 weeks now. I must get them soon. =)

5. You're never going to believe it. I've been waking up on time every single morning! If you know me, you know this is extremely rare.

6. I have been challenged a lot lately with far less than ideal circumstances here and there in my life. But as I sat and talked to the Lord this morning, I thanked Him for those circumstances. I can see myself growing more and more each day, and relentlessly running after Christ. It is definitely my human nature to get mad when my plans don't work out. But this quote has held me together lately:

"Sometimes our plans have to fail in order for God's plans to succeed. Divine detours and delays are often the paths God uses to get us to where He wants us to be."

How true =)

7. I have been seeking God's will for my summer plans with all my heart lately. I know it may seem a little early to start thinking about it, but I can't get it off my mind! =) Last summer was life changing at DFocus, and I hope that this summer holds amazing things in store as well. I am scared of just staying in Radford all summer. I'm scared of not having a huge Christian community around me. I'm scared of not having a plan, you know? If God is calling me to stay here for the summer, it is going to be a challenge. One that I will welcome if it be His will, but nevertheless, a challenge.

8. I have had this random weird reoccuring dream about dinosaurs chasing me through the jungle lately. If anyone has any insight as to what that's all about, I would certainly love to hear your take on it, because I've got nothin'. =)

9. Chegg.com. If you haven't heard of it, or tried it out before, it is so worth it. I know it seems silly to get excited about a website for textbooks. BUT. I saved almost 250 dollars by renting my books from Chegg! I also sold some of my books from last year to them, and got twice as much money as I would have by selling them back to the university bookstore. It's worth checking out!

10. I was watching a Nooma video from Rob Bell last night, and wrote down this quote from it. It opened up my eyes a little to the horrible habit I have of going to other people to talk about my difficult situations before going to God. Just an interesting little thought :)

"Maybe the healing and guidance we need desperately isn't going to come from one more meeting or therapy session or sermon or self help book, but from simply listening for the voice of God. Have you spent the same amount of time worrying and talking about your difficult, confusing situations as you have spent in silence, listening to what God might have to say?"

Hopefully this update was sufficient. =)

Until next time---

Lauren

Oh hey, spring semester!

Ah, what a wonderful winter break it has been.
Time with my family has been outstanding, especially time with my brother. Christmas was just delightful. I ate way too much food, got lots of awesome presents, and played in the snow until my body felt like an icicle.
Spending a week in Tennessee over New Years was awesome. Virginia and Tennessee are in tight competition for my heart.
When I got back from my trip, I had to have my wisdom teeth cut out, which was quite an interesting experience. I was more or less scared out of my mind to be put to sleep. (The movie "Awake" has had me terrified of sedation ever since I saw it.) The surgery went well altogether, aside from the surgeon hitting a nerve on the right side of my mouth. I'm still suffering from that, but it gets a little better every day.
The Lord has been teaching me so much over break. I have just been so in awe of His goodness and faithfulness to me. Watching Him heal my broken heart has been amazing, and quite honestly life changing. He's taught me that with His hand in mine, I am a much stronger woman than I give myself credit for. I guess the most substantial thing I have learned is that adversity can be a good thing. This is a time where we can draw so near to the Father, and let him be every bit of our strength. I experienced that in its truest form over the past month, and was so comforted by His presence, even on days when I woke up and felt like there was no way I could get through the day.
I'm going to be kind of sad to leave home again to go back to school, but for the most part I'm pretty excited about the semester beginning. My schedule should be a lot better than last semester's. The bad part is that I have to start waking up at 7:30 every morning, because my day starts at 8:00. This is foreign to me. The last time I woke up before 10:00 was freshman year. Definitely going to take some getting used to..and maybe some changes in my bedtime. (No more hitting the hay at 3 a.m.)

It seems so weird to me that 2010 is already here. I remember the beginning of 2009 like it was yesterday! This year should be a good one. I'm stoked. I have a new work study job, and while it's not a ton of hours, at least I'm no longer unemployed. I have a horrible tendency for quitting jobs, so I'm crossing my fingers that I like this one.
I've never really made New Years Resolutions before, but I tried to think of things that I would like to accomplish this year. This is more or less what I came up with. ha
1. Stop oversleeping. The reason this is #1 is because it is going to be the most difficult to do. The snooze button is my best friend.

2. Eat healthier. Mostly just because being a nutrition major has opened my eyes to how important it is to eat right. If I don't change what I eat soon, I could potentially be cutting a couple years off of my life. No bueno.

3. Stop trying to be a people pleaser. This has always been one of my downfalls. I want to make everyone else happy so much that often I end up pushing aside my own happiness. While I'm glad that the Lord has given me the ability to care about others, I think I miss out on a lot of the things I want to do because I'm afraid I will upset someone else. This year, I'm trying to let go of that.

4. Forming better study habits. I didn't realize how important this was until I got to the end of fall semester and didn't remember anything at all that I learned from my classes. This was most likely because I cram before every single test, and never really take in any of the material. I'm probably not going to be a very good dietitian if I don't start retaining some information.

5. Be more consistent about my quiet times. All in all, I'm good about spending time with the Lord daily, but I want to get on more of a consistent schedule about it. My weakest days last semester were those where I just rushed through a prayer or two on the way to class, and didn't give the Lord much thought through the rest of my busy day.

6. Stop wasting money. I am the WORST about this. If I see that I have a large amount of money in my bank account, I instantly start thinking of things I can spend it on. My mom told me once that if I had to sit down and think of things that I could spend my money on, clearly I didn't need to be spending it. I think she was right.

7. Be more organized. This is probably a universal New Years Resolution, but if any one human being needs to be more organized, it is this one. I lose more homework assignments than anyone I know, and generally lose more of anything than anyone I know. Ha. That HAS to change this year. I am 20 years old. This is no longer an acceptable way of life.

8. Stop second guessing myself. I am the worst about always wondering if I'm making the right decision or not. Right now, I'm battling that mindset regarding my major. I love nutrition, but I'm just wondering if there is something out there that I would like to pursue more. That's typical of me for just about every big decision I make. I'm a horrible what-ifer. I hope to put an end to that this year, and start to trust the Lord with every decision I make.


That's a solid bit of motivation for 2010 I suppose.

Til next time..