Sunday, March 20, 2011

Too Good to be True (Not!)



At my church,
At some point in the service,
It is not uncommon to hear the question -
“Have you been blessed this week?”

I feel as though in the past I have always answered yes to that question.
But I answered yes
Because I didn’t want to disappoint God
Or make Him think I was ungrateful.
People at church would always talk about how they felt God’s love
And I always was jealous of them
Because I wanted to experience that unexplainable love that oozed out of them and the blessings they spoke of.

In these past two weeks,
 I have felt so blessed.
I now know what those people in my church were talking about.
Words can’t even come close to describing the feeling of being blessed.
In fact, it’s overwhelming.


Why?

It’s everything!
God didn’t provide me with a check large enough to pay for my school this year
But over and over He has faithfully shown me His love through every little thing in my day,
Which means more to me than any sum of money.

Examples:

Life.
He wakes me up every morning
And leads me through every single stressful minute of my day.
And When I’m at the peak of my stress and feel helpless, not quite sure how I will possibly finish my to-do list,
He makes everything fall into place.

School.
I go to an amazing school
Where every morning I am privileged to walk on the promenade
Amidst the white blooming trees
And the flowers that God sends us every spring
Accompanied by the rising sun.
And it’s here that I have the privilege of gaining a profound education from respectable professors
In a Christian setting.
I love that classes start out with prayers
And everything returns to and is focused on God.
It returns our focus to where it should be in the first place.

Friends.
In addition to being at am amazing school, I have made super cool friends here.
No for real, they are the coolest.
They make me laugh so hard that no sound comes out and I can’t breath
And they don’t judge me
No matter how cheesy I may be, how weird my laugh may come out,
Or what stupid thing may blurt out of my mouth.
(Or at least they judge me lovingly.)
They must be heaven sent because there is no other explanation.

Hockey.
The hockey intramural season just ended
And though we lost every single game,
It was the most fun I have ever had playing a sport
Not to mention with the coolest girls on campus!

Soccer.
The soccer intramural season is starting this week.
I am so excited to run around like a maniac
While chasing an inflated leather sphere
On a vast field in the beautiful outdoors that God created.
(Yes, I am aware, I love running a little too much.)

Running.
The fact that God has given me the ability to walk nonetheless run
Whether it be
Through the flooded greenway,
Pouncing in puddles,
Or even on the plain, dry pavement
Brings me such joy.

Stargazing.
I spent Friday night stargazing with friends
While talking about God.
Simply amazing.

Conversations.
My entire weekend was spent talking about God.
I cannot explain how uplifting that was.
If only you could have experienced how fired up these conversations were.
I saw my friends on fire for God.
And it was inspiring.

Sophomore year.
Next year, I’m studying abroad in France!
What, what?!
Yea, I still can’t believe it.

Distractions.
I have breakfast with friends on days of A&P quizzes
To get some final minute studying done
But without fail, we always get sidetracked by amazing conversations about God.
And if you knew me,
You would know that I would normally freak out if I don’t get my studying done
But I am perfectly content with our distractions
Because it’s the best distraction -
God.

So, as you can imagine,
The list goes on and on
As do God’s blessings.

And His blessings fill me up with His overflowing love.

I was sitting in church today
And I found myself smiling.
Not because the speaker said something funny
Or I saw a friend
But because I could feel God’s love.
 It makes me so happy that it seems too good to be true
But get this
(this is the best part)
It's not too good to be true.

I wish I could explain it better
But words are not sufficient enough to explain any aspect of God
Nonetheless His love.
However, this Bible verse will suffice.

You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
-Psalms 4:7-8

It constantly baffles me that God would choose to bless me, a sinner.
But then I remember that that is Satan trying to get me distracted
However, that fails because God’s love is unrestricted, undeniable, and unending.
Experiencing it these past two weeks
And seeing how real He is has made me realize that
I never want to leave His umbrella of love and protection.

You can stand under His umbrella-ella-ella (ay, ay, ay) too!
And the best part is that there is always more room.