Life Back In Athens

So I'm back in Athens...only it's not the Athens that I remembered. The students look different, well much younger, stop signs are now present where they weren't before, students actually study...it's just different.

It's taken me a while, but I think I have finally adjusted. I'm used to the long hours of work and school. I've gotten really good at killing huge spiders (though I still scream like a little girl as I'm smushing them with the heaviest object that I can find). I'm finally used to the idea that I can get away with wearing jeans and flip-flops all week long. I'm accepting the fact that people here are true Southerners and gentlemen (no offense to you non-Atheners - they are just not at all like some of the Atlantans that try to run me over occasionally). I'm finally surrendering and remembering that I'm not in control.


For the past year, I've been lost, trying to figure out what God wanted me to do. He had made it so clear that I needed to work with youth, and then He shut every door that had been opened. He called me back to my home church, doing communications, my second love. He took me completely out of my comfort zone, took away friends that I depended on too much, distanced me from the youth group that had grown to be my family, stretched me until all I could do was run to Him.

Bit by bit, I've been learning by the grace of God, learning more about Him in me and how long the sanctification process really is. Now that I've taken this giant leap of faith, I still wonder sometimes if I'm doing what He wants. He's been confirming my decision to come back to UGA in lots of little ways; I'm just missing the big picture right now.

However, in the midst of confusion, He has sent me lots of angels, mostly in the form of my awesome family and friends, and 7 awesome 9th graders that keep me going each week. I am so grateful that during the week, 3 of my closest friends still live within a couple miles, always willing to come fix something when I don't know what we've done (not the greatest with computers...), always making me take breaks from work to have some fun, and encouraging me in their own ways. On the weekends, I have an awesome group of friends that encourage me and make me laugh constantly. My 9th grade girls....wow...they are too fun, and they literally bounce out of the room each week, leaving me with this giant smile and feeling like I too could conquer the world. (For those of you who have seen me at the Gathering recently, this might explain some of my excitement - it's not just the sugar!) I finally appreciate my family, and I feel like I'm getting to know them better, after trying to get away from them for so many years. They are too fun :)














So what have I learned in my first two months...we have to pursue Him, unhindered. Nothing stopping us. Completely and utterly focused on Him. We have to do something so crazy that it be doomed to failure unless God be in it. We have to trust Him in everything, and remember that "what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach" (Deut. 30:11). All He asks is that we look to Him.