community

After a long tiresome day full of classes, cafeteria food, walks that took me clear across campus, and laughs with friends, I am finally home. And when I say home, I mean back to my dorm room. My room, the people, and this campus all feel like home. No mistake about it. Honestly, that thought is still a little strange for me.

The thing about Nyack that makes me feel so at home is the sense of community. Community with my peers in classes, my group of friends, the Education department, my hall full of girls, the people who sit at the same table as me at meals, and anyone else I run into. I am amazed God shows us what community means even before he created Eve to be with Adam. Within the Trinity, we see community. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The trinity demonstrates for us what community is to look like: love.

The thing about it is, we are all different. We have different backgrounds, upbringings, interests, friends, majors, and views. Yet with all those differences, we have one thing in common, Jesus. Sometimes all those other things can get in the way but the truth about it is, when we push away all those things along with ourselves, only Jesus remains. He is the only good in any of us. It is because of Him that we are all on the campus and follow after what he has taught us about community. While we are all here for different things, we desire for one thing, that Christ be glorified in and through everything we do. As Christians, we will always be apart of community, but my time as part of the Nyack community is limited to 4 years. That seems like a long time now, but I am sure it will fly by so quickly ( it already is).

Right now, I appreciate the community that I find myself in and desire to gain as much from it as possible and to learn from my peers, professors, and those who surround me. All different, we are more alike than we think.

When I think about community, I Corinthians 12 comes to mind as it talks about the Body of Christ. While that is too long of a passage to post, here are verses 12-13:

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

change.

When thinking on the subject of change, I would like to think that I am unbiased to it. Meaning, that when change does come my way ( and I find it visiting much more often than I remember from my earlier years) I embrace it, whatever IT may be. I don't dread it like I would say my brother does, and I don't go looking for it. It has no trouble finding me.

As church ended today we were left with a charge of change, positive change that brings growth. So I find myself ready to embrace change in order that I may to transformed more to the likeness of Christ. Honestly, I am ready for change now, ready to get out of this place that it seems I am stuck in. To move forward from the place I stand now, and grow.

Growth is the only evidence of life. ~John Henry Newman

And the change I am so desperately longing for is not a change of hairstyle, a change of laundry detergent, or a change of clothes. I desire change that starts from the inmost of my being, change that is initiated and completed only by the works of the Holy Spirit. And my prayer for this season of change is this,

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
-Psalm 51: 10-12

With this new spirit within me, and a new attitude, change will come. And even as I have been typing this, simple ways of change have entered into my mind. One of those being to listen more than I speak. This will require silence, something that does not go along with who I am, or should I say the person I am now, before the change. So here I am, with ears that are ready and willing to listen, to whatever the person across the phone is talking, to what the person on the bench next to me is sharing, and to the words that God is constantly whispering to me.

leaving my boat.

Currently, I am reading through the gospels. Today, I read in chapter 4 of Matthew as Jesus called His first disciples. It seems so simple, He called them, and they followed.

"They (Simon Peter and Andrew) were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, ' and I will send you out to fish for people.' At once they left their nets and followed him." - Matthew 4: 19-20

Simple, right? But putting myself in that same situation, I imagine it much more difficult for me. So there I am, comfortable in my boat as I watch the waves gently move, with a bottle of ice tea in hand, in the midst of my everyday job. Just like any other day, I am working with my brother. Concentrating, I cast my net out so it can be filled with fish. But, while doing this, I hear someone calling me, so I listen. He tells me to follow him. And this is where my story is different. I am working, trying to earn a living, and he wants me to just follow Him? He expects me to leave my boat, all I have ever known, my job and source of income, life as I know it, my family (as James and John do in vs 22), my everything, to become a fisher of people? Thinking He doesn't know what He is asking, I tell him that I am very busy, but instead of completely shutting him out, I use the manners my mother taught me and invite him into MY boat.

Sadly, I often find myself inviting Jesus into my boat. I invite Him in when I decide I can't talk to the girl who I pass everyday, when I blatantly disobey my parents, when I become impatient and lose my temper when talking to my brother, and when I can't find the time to do the simplest of things for others.

I hear Jesus calling me everyday to leave my boat and follow Him. Some days I am better at leaving than others. Daily, even momentarily, I find myself with the choice to invite Him in and be comfortable, or to stand up, leave my boat and everything it means, and to follow His lead. The alternate ending to my story (I prefer this one) is just that. I leave my boat 'at once' and follow the path that Jesus leads me on.

the start of something

So here I sit, at Panera Bread, creating my blog. This blog will be used as I share who I am, what I'm going through, and where I find myself. This is me.