back in action.

Back in Wilmore, Kentucky. Back in classes, anxiously looking at the clock for the time to depart to arrive. Back in the daily grind of soccer practice. Back in the caf, with all of its glorious options and tasty treats. Back to my roommate, Kate Wenger, and her precious optimism and sincere care for me. Back to Southland and The Vineyard. Back to sipping coffee at Hiccup and waking early to go to work. Back to studying on weekends, and going crazy all the time. Back to cliff-jumping, rope-swinging, and hiking.

Pretty much, back in action.

I am writing this from Common Grounds in Lexington, KY, probably one of my favorite coffee shops eva. It is an old house on UK's campus that has been turned into this artsy old coffee shop, and all the bedrooms just have big comfy chairs, couches, and old beaten up tables in them. On Friday and Saturday nights they have live music. This is a favorite place of mine to come to on Sunday afternoons to get some work/no work done.

I mean come on, who doesn't love a Henna piano in a coffee shop?

Didn't happen while I was here, this was some crazy fun Friday/Saturday night.

Seat by an open window on a beautiful Sunday with Oatmeal Squares, some Jon Thurlow, and my Bible? Um, yes please.

I am so excited to be back here, I feel like I am in MY place, MY comfort zone, just...ME. However, I am anything but comfortable, because I feel like everything is completely different. I am hanging out with different people, living in a different room, participating in different activities, and in different classes. The more different things are, the more I realize things are never supposed to stay the same. If things never grew, never developed, then God's seed would not be growing in me, and I would be stagnant.

I want to be anything and everything but complacent.

This year is a year of the NEW and the NOW. I want to live out the Gospel like I never have before. I want to be humbled like I have never experienced. I want to learn so much more not only about the world, but about myself. I want my stubborn heart to be transformed into something new and breath-taking and unrecognizable. I want to be an instrument of peace in a world of darkness. I want to learn names of people. I want to break down walls and barriers in my own heart and in the hearts of others.

I want to be a warrior.

I mean, isn't that what we're called to be anyway? Here we are, placed on this earth to fight the battle of good and evil. But want to know something wonderful? The battle has already been won, my Beloved has already won, your Father has already staked His claim over you and your soul, and we get to rest in that.

Now, resting does not mean complacency. No, it means so much more than that. Resting means security in the knowledge that our identity does not live on this earth, and it will not fade like the flowers of the field or die like the birds of the sky. Our identity lives in the blood that was spilled for us by Christ Jesus! How much more blessed could we be?

I don't want to waste this time I have been given on this Earth to glorify my King. I will mess up daily, constantly never living up to the grace I am given, but that is not important. What is important is that I AM LIVING. I don't want to live for me, and what a better time to start than now?

This year is going to be crazy, busy, full of heartache, laughter, anger, frustration, school work, adventures, good food, bad food, the Holy Spirit, prayer, devotion, and sacrifice. And I can not wait.

The beginning of this year has already presented itself with its own special kind of troubles, and I have felt the full wrath of the devil on my heart. But he has no claim on me, and he can not break the hold of my God.

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, He rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The righteous person may face many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time. For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous; not one of them is broken!"

Psalm 34:18-20