Life

So I've been in Singapore for over a month now. Things are becoming familiar and falling into place. But not completely.

Here's the thing about life: I don't think we were meant to be comfortable in life. Maybe that was the original plan but we messed that up in the Garden.

I'm not saying that life should be a string of uncomfortable and frustrating events. Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full." But if we're really laying down our cross, our pride, and our hearts to follow Christ, should we be comfortable? I don't think there's anything easy about giving parts of yourself up.

But here's the beautiful thing: we don't do it alone. We've got Christ...and Christ in us is invincible (thank you Travis for such an awesome reminder).

We also have friends. Thank You God for friends! Abby Moore, Kasi Svoboda, Travis Cochrum, Amy Cochrum, Tandiwhe Kongela, Joyce Roth, Dana Gallup, Amy Wery, Jere Witherspoon, Anna Nieboer, Andrea Lawrence, and Megan Borjesson...you guys make my life so much fun! I love you all so much. I thank our God that He is a God of community. No matter where you are and what you're doing, know that I am praying for you.

So...there's a song that says, "Life is beautiful, but it's complicated." Yeah, I think that's true. But...I think life should be simpler. Live like you believe what you say you believe. Love like Jesus has loved.

And enjoy it. Embrace the ups, downs, and everything in between.

Goodbye

Goodbye-oh how I hate you!
Your cruel intentions
Do not care
That my heart is on the ground.

Goodbye-oh how I hate you!
You do not seem
To see this-
We all suffer from grief.

Goodbye how I despise you!

Hoping you do not come around again soon...

What a false hope

Women in the Middle East

I have been reading this beautiful book called Reading Lolita in Tehran. It was written by a women who was a professor at an Iranian college before, during, and after the revolution. She tells the story of herself through the eyes of classic authors using her secret class of girls to paint a beautifully haunting picture of life in Iran.

Sometime my senior year of high school, God put the women of the Middle East on my heart. I wrote about the oppression of women in Afghanistan for my senior thesis and absolutely loved it. I put myself into that paper because I wanted to try and understand-if only in a small way-the way these women suffer.

And now...as I think about my future, I wonder if the Middle East is calling my name. Israel, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are currently on the top of my travel list. I would so love to spend my days loving on women who have spent their whole lives hurting.

Could this be what God wants me to do as well?

Singapore: ICS Graduation and Hanging Out

Sunset

Andrea Lawrence and Jana Tan: Friends for life

ICS Alumni: Class of 2008

Sofia and I. Known each other for...at least 10 years. Love you!

Tim *aka my little brother* and I at graduation

**A few images of the happenings over the past few days**

Oswald Chambers

What man is he that feareth the Lord? Psalm 25:12

What are you haunted by? You will say-By nothing, but we are all haunted by something, generally by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our experience. The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God. The abiding consciousness of the life is to be God, not thinking about Him. The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God. A child's consciousness is so mother-haunted that although the child is not consciously thinking of its mother, yet when calamity arises, the relationship that abides is that of the mother. So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God, because the abiding consciousness of God pushes itself to the front all the time.

If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in, no cares, no tribulation, no anxieties. We see now why Our Lord so emphasized the sin of worry. How can we dare be so utterly unbelieving when God is round about us? To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy.

"His soul shall dwell at ease." In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of marvelous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. "God is our Refuge"-nothing can come through that shelter.
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I love and hate Oswald Chambers. Love him because he's so good and so straight with important issues of our faith. Hate him because he is so matter of fact with his statements he makes me feel like a bad Christian sometimes.

The thing that I get from this is peace. Our God is I AM. My worries about...homework, love, packing, or anything should not trouble me. It's not bad that we have these thoughts...what is bad is to let them consume you.

I pray that I will understand this more. I pray that My refuge will continue to pour His grace into my broken heart.