formal suit and tie

“Today, i the grocery store parking lot, I watched a man run as fast as he could with a packed shopping cart and then just on the back for a ride. He smiled and chuckled aloud as he rode the cart all the way to his car. He was in his mid-40′s and wearing a formal suit and tie.”

I found this post while reading through makesmethink.com (an alternative to the popular FML site) and this one was my particular favorite.

I feel like this is a real picture of freedom. What does that freedom look like? As we’ve tipped over the midpoint of the semester and now have the end in sight, all the tasks we have to complete begin to pile up in our minds. The temptation? Serious stress! My goal for this time period is to focus on something other than this stress. I want to focus on the perfect grace and sovereignty of God. I can’t let myself stress to the max knowing that I have a God who takes care of everything in his timing.

Unfortunately for my controlling little self, this applies to my internship search as well. But as I told my Bible study girls last night, I think God is calling me into a time of serious trust in Him, a time of not knowing what the plan is exactly, but more deeply knowing Him. I’m beginning to sense the freedom that comes with that trust as He pulls me into a deeper loving relationship. Ah! He’s so good!

My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

Psalm 131

your love is strong.

So why do I worry?
Why do I freak out?
God knows what I need
You know what I need

Jon Foreman, out on his own and still doing great things for the world. To be honest, when I first heard this song I thought our worship leader at Cru made it up and I really wasn’t all that impressed. I think it took God bringing me to a different place in my life to really be able to appreciate it.

You see, I’m kind of a runner. I certainly don’t mean in the physical sense. When I say I’m running to Ingles, I mean I’m hopping in my CRV and driving there. I leave the workouts to Jillian, which she takes care of quite well. I’m a runner in the spiritual and the emotional sense. God’s love is the thing I’ve realized I’ve been running from lately. But I think I’ve come to the point where his strong love isn’t going to let me do that any longer.

A lot of this realization began in Argentina when I was really feeling the hurt of the home that was so far away. I noticed just how dependent I was on the people and things around me at home and how hard life was without them. But with that missing piece in my life I was able to see God. The God that desperately loves me and has been pursuing me my whole life in exactly the way I had wanted to be pursued. My vision had gotten so clouded with all the things of life that He saw it fit to strip me of all my comforts and send me to a foreign land 5,000 miles away where I would see in a much more real way than ever before.

Now that I’m back, He is certainly still unpacking the hurt and brokenness that I have run with for so long, and showing me just how much he loves me. As I go into this week, I face one of the most stressful days of every semester for a graphics major… Intern Employer Day. dun dun dunnnn. I’ve been telling myself not to freak out, not to worry. This one will be better than the last. And as rough as the last one was, I ended up with an internship in time and actually even enjoyed it. God knows where I need to be. He’s going to put me there. If it’s far away, and even if it’s close to home. Why? Because His love is strong everywhere.

I look out the window
The birds are composing
Not a note is out of tune
Or out of place

“Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.” Rev. 5:5