Hey dear friends!
Well I have finished Biology. I passed. I just checked my grade. I passed. I have nothing else good to say about it, just that I never have to take it again. Hallelujah.
With all that jazz out of my hair it has been time for fun stuff!!! Whoooooo!! I made a roadtrip to Arkansas this weekend and it was WONDERFUL!! Exactly 3 weeks from tomorrow I will be moving my things back to the Hog Land. Can't tell you how excited I am about it and this weekend just increased that excitement exponetially. I got to hang out with friends and drive around town and just see a lot of really lovely people and places. It was the best.
Since getting back (so ...yesterday) I got to hang out with friends, work a little, and paint. I love painting. I am about to read a bit, and I'm stoked about that too. It has been so great not having class! I get to see Hope a week from today and I am so looking forward to it. I miss her lots. It'll be good to get to catch up face-to-face and not just over the phone. Its amazing all the really fun things you can do when you don't have to do school!
I finished Proverbs last week and so I made the transition into Ecclesiastes. I really can't believe I've never read through it before. Its so good. And really challenging. So far the two things that have stood out the most to me were in chapter 2 and chapter 5. First, in 2:24-25 Solomon, (er, well that is who is almost always thought to be the writter) shows us that the one thing in life that isn't vanity is enjoying the things given to us within God's design for our life. Like he goes through money, wisdom, eating, drinking, riches, toil, ect., and all of it is just complete vanity. Striving after the wind. Not because those things are bad by any means on their own, but they are worthless without a Creator giving them purpose. Apart from him they will never bring us happiness. Verse 25 says, "for who can find enjoyment apart from him?" Our purpose is to delight in the things of God. The work he's given us, the money, the wisdom, all of that, we take pleasure in, but we don't strive for. I guess just being content and thankful for the circumstances we are in and finding joy in our freedom in Christ and where in life God has placed us. Contentment is hard for everyone. It starts small. You just want one thing and then if/when you get it, it never fulfills like we had hoped it will. So then we want more. Or because whatever we wanted did bring us some temporary joy we think that if we just had a little bit more then we'd have it all. Then it builds and before we know it we are living in a constant state of discontentment, trying so hard to find life and joy in lifeless things. So that was the first thing that really struck me, absolutely nothing in this life has any meaning apart from God.
Second was chapter 5, which I read today. Verse 2 really hit home for me, so I'm going to type it all out. It says, "Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few." Do you ever just try to talk for God? Or tell him what's up before listening for him to speak? I sure do. For pretty much every aspect of my life I like to try to figure it all out. Its like I think I'm going to beat God to actually revealing things, so that when he does get around to it I can say, "Ha! I knew it all along!" Instead of looking back at all the incredible ways God has worked in my life and trusting him with ways he has yet to work, I try and understand things that, honestly, just really aren't for me to see. Half of the growing process is trusting that God is going to do it, and most of the time I try to skip that half and get right to the being grown and knowledgeable part. It'd be like a flower disconnected from its stem. I mean stems really aren't all that attractive, but you've got to have them to have the beautiful part. Without the stem attatched to a life source you just have a bunch of brown, ugly, dead petals in your hands. It really is embarrassing to think of how I hasty I am to tell God my opinion on how I think life should go. I am on earth. God is in heaven. You know, he's the one that made EVERYTHING, and planned it all out to bring himself honor. The God that died for me and has proved his love towards me over and over again. The one that breaks me continually, the one that shows himself in the most beautiful ways. Seems like it should be easy enough to trust that kind of love and faithfulness, right? Why are we so foolish to think more highly of ourselves than we ought? So preoccupied with our own little worlds that we have tried to make ourselves the rulers over. I've definitely been getting taught submission and learning to hold my tongue. Sometimes I just say what is on my mind with complete disregard to common sense. And being open has its place, but man I could take a lesson or two in holding back emotions, opinions, and thoughts. This passage was just another reminder of that. I can't think of a single passage where it says, "Be really hasty to tell God how to run the universe." It's just easy to forget that since a lot of times we can't see past our own noses.
So that was just 2 thoughts that came out of Ecclesiastes. This week I am going to try to get back into the cleaning mode. Tomorrow: Living room. And for dinner: Thai Coconut Curry Soup. We shall see how that goes.
Well until next time dear friends!
Isaiah 55:8-9
-Kelly
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