End-Of-The-Year Countdown

ONE Nonsensical Sentence For Your Reading Enjoyment

1. While knitting your chocolaty lips towards the leafy doorknob’s kitten was bulbously superfluous, I was obstinately glazed by the oven’s back foot, allowing for the entry of those fluent toasted weather balloons.

TWO Serious Summaries Of This Year To Follow That Strange Beginning

1. Engineering is difficult.
2. God transcends my petty affairs and has renewed my life in every way that was needed, while providing challenges that were much overdo in my life.

THREE New Year’s Resolutions

1. Break big tasks into small pieces (or else I won’t do them at all!).
2. Remember to compliment people OUT LOUD (and not just admire them in my head).
3. Work on resolving self-destructive criticisms (and in turn become a saner person).

FOUR Things I’m Thankful For

1. A return to reading for enjoyment (this semester alone I have finished classics including Jane Eyre, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, Count of Monte Cristo, and The Color Purple, which may not seem like much, but when coupled with mind-numbing engineering courses, I’m proud of myself)
2. Animals (you know me, I can’t live without them, and coming home to two obstinate stubborn cats every day feels AMAZING)
3. Increasingly good social life at Purdue
4. A change in outlook (I am NOW considering the possibility of going into real estate…that is, I REALLY like the idea of buying old rundown homes, restoring them, and selling or renting them for affordable prices to help people out)

FIVE Ways God Has Worked In My Life This Year

1. Living situation – apartment, roommate, cats…they all add up to an incredible experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world
2. Church community – living with a roommate that works with the church I attend has allowed me to become much more involved with my church DURING the college semester…I can only attribute this to God’s continuing work in my life, since I have always failed miserably at connecting with a church near my college in the past
3. Placement – this is related to my living situation, but I think that I may have been brought to Purdue so that God could introduce me to the community of Lafayette…with the extraordinary examples of Victorian architecture and the bright festive town community, I’ve found somewhere that feels like the right place to be for at least the next couple of years
4. Peace – I certainly break this peace very frequently with panicking and fretting about God’s plans for me, but God has already brought me to my knees and shown me that He is COMPLETELY in control of my life and has plans for me, and I am finally accepting defeat and learning to submit control to Him (key word – learning)
5. Forgiveness – He has given this to me every year, not just this year, but this year I have been much more aware of my faults and failures and how sinful I am…after condemning myself for years about my mistakes, it is unspeakably joyful when my pathetic presentation of my sinful nature to God is covered with Christ’s free grace.

So, if you’re reading this because you received my message on Facebook, I repeat, I have (sort of) updated you on my life…now it’s youuuuuuur turn! If you just are reading this for fun or your own personal edification, more power to you; you probably know more about me than you ever wanted to know. Woohoo!

Nothing new to report

Yesterday I was walking back to my car after class in the rain. Two cats were waiting at home for me to curl up on the couch and snuggle with them, and I anticipated some folksy Sufjan Stevens to enhance the drizzly, sleepy atmosphere. As the water weighed down the bright red and yellow leaves still clinging to trees and little drops thumped against my umbrella I couldn't help but notice how poetic the atmosphere was behaving. In fact, if someone had attempted to capture the moment in a poem or song, the emotions of the setting would almost seem cheesy in their boldness. Just another beautiful unusual day one-of-a-kind day God sprung on me.

When caring for the helpless gives way to musing...

Three weeks ago, I drove my sister home from the Humane Society with two two-day old kittens in tow. The time between then and now has been filled with disrupted sleep, messy cleanups and LOTS of growing and cuddling as these little fluffpuffs have learned to feed, walk, and sense the world around them. What better analogy to the way that God tenderly guides us through our rocky lives can be found?

"... How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (second part of Matthew 23:37). From the day these kittens first blindly stumbled across my lap to now as they lift their little tummies off of the ground to explore their surroundings, my sister has carefully watched their movements and gently corrected their direction when they have tottered near a drop or hovered close to dark gaps between furniture. They still know little about their surroundings, and as my sister observes them she frequently pulls them back to the safety of her lap. So does God long to guide us back to His arms, to safety, when we recklessly stumble through our lives, oblivious to the dangers that our own stubborn actions can lead us towards. There will be a time, though, when we have to let these kittens grow up and make their own decisions despite our desire to keep them safe under our supervision, just as God allows us to discover the consequences to our own actions before we finally relent and ask for help.

Living Fully, Loving Dangerously

I have almost finished reading a book called "Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle" by Kent Annan. Diving into this story of a young missionary couple's life in Haiti has been exhilarating and convicting at the same time. I am finishing (hopefully) my last year of college beginning this fall, and will soon have the opportunity to struggle and grow for God as this family describes in their story (probably not in the same way, but part of the excitement is reading their story and wondering how mine will turn out).

Honestly, I have needed a reminder of this. I have obviously never really been a regular blogger, but this semester has been particularly dry. The move from my beloved Wheaton to Purdue was very rough, especially after circumstances separated me from most of my new-found Purdue relationships, leaving me with one friend to pull me through the dark lonely winter semester. Returning from this dreary semester, I picked up work in my little grey cubicle surrounded by empty cubicles on all sides. I've been coming home in the evenings completely exhausted from the sheer lifelessness of my work. In short, I have desperately needed something to remind me of the future I'm working towards (I realize that might sound very dramatic, but it's very hard to describe in flat words how much I needed motivation to make things worthwhile again).

Anyways, I'm really excited now about the possibilities that God will provide, but I'm also very nervous about knowing which path to take. I guess that's all for now. :)