A little reflection.

Wow. This summer sure has passed by SO fast. But it's definitely been the best summer yet.

I think it's quite interesting to see how I change between the school year and summer. Particularly this year.

The school year has been filled with prayers of "God, please let me make it through the next 3 hours. Help me to stay awake! Please help me remember everything I studied last night!". The summer is filled with prayers of "Wow, God, you are SO awesome."

During school, I'm somewhat forced to filter my mouth on certain topics. At some point during the summer, my darenotoffendnonbelievers filter was stripped off and replaced with a tongue that is fully aware of the Great Commission.

When I'm at school, I'm in a constant battle that comes when you're surrounded by a population that's mostly nonbelievers. This summer though, I've been surrounded by a community of followers of Christ that allow me to not worry about myself - there's plenty of people around me tending to my needs and me tending to theirs. If you know me, you know I've said several times that I think I'm going to end up living by myself when I'm older - I just don't function well sharing space. But in Detroit, I realized that it's easier living with 50 Christians than it is 2 atheists.

While I'm enrolled in 7 college-level classes, my mindset somehow seems to turn God into class number 8. I now realize that when you look at the bible as more of a textbook, going to church as going to class, and working through a devo or daily prayer as homework, you depersonify the Teacher who would rather sit down and talk WITH you rather than count up how many pages of notes you can take during his lecture. This summer though, I've found great joy in celebrating God and all of his creations, distraction-free. No obligations.

Now, the point of this is not to say that school is bad (painful though, it is), or that I'm ashamed of my faith (ask any of my teachers or peers), or that I don't love God and thank Him during the school year. While I can't take school out as being A top priority, God has SO much more to offer us when we put him as THE absolute top priority. Or maybe it's not that God has more to offer, maybe it's just more we're willing to take the time and effort to accept. When we cut out the distractions of our lives, it's amazing how much God can fill them.

While I'll still have to do all my homework come August 24th, and while I'll still be fighting to shovel everything into a 24 hour window (sleep need not apply), there's a sovereign God out there who will take care of me if I take the care to be with Him. There's been plenty of days where I've decided "I'm not doing anymore homework tonight. I'm going to go read my bible." There's also been the exact same number of following days where I've found myself being okay with not having my homework completed - due date pushed back, extra time in another class, whatever.

My life can seem chaotic at times. In some aspects, I kinda like it that way - I like having a TDL and seeing tasks accomplished or having things to do. Other times, I just want to crawl under the covers and hide. Those are the times when I have to stop and wonder, "Am I letting this world take me over? Will it take me breaking down from stress to remember that there is no reason for this, because somebody else is already taking care of it?" It's easier living with a God that you can trust than it is living with 50 Christians than it is living with 2 atheists.