A Collection of Ideas

I've been meaning to blog all weekend, but sometimes our best intentions are just that: intentions. Kingdom Players, the traveling drama group I'm a part of at Lee, has been in the Carolinas this weekend, so it's been crazy the past few days.

There are several ideas that have been evolving in my mind, and I don't think it's fair to just pick one thing to talk about, so I decided to sum them up and make one collective post. I want to tell you guys the things I've learned this week, the things that have settled within my spirit, and things that I think you might just need to hear.

1) Adults aren't always mature.

Okay, this is obvious. However, it's something I have been realizing more and more lately. And no, I don't just mean in the occasional Facebook drama, although it has been there heavily in the past couple of days... I mean that sometimes adults don't know how to handle life. Sometimes the adults you look up to will let you down, hurt your feelings, or simply mess up. This is no revelation, I know. But I have to remind myself a lot. It definitely keeps me sane.

2) Things that seem good for you aren't always good for you.

Second helpings, for example. You think they are going to make you happy, but they leave you with so much regret. I don't think I need to expound, because this is an analogy that can be applied to more situations in our lives than we'd like to admit.

3) Validation comes from above.

This is one of the more prominent things that's been searing itself into my brain. We have small group sessions every Thursday night with the girls on my hall. The cool thing is, small group is a campus-wide ordeal; while our hall is worshiping and talking about things, so is every other hall on campus. The unity of that amazes me. During our last small group session, a lot of the girls talked about finding validation in places other than God, and that really resonated with me. How many times have a found myself in a situation where I've allowed one insult to completely break me down? How many times have I allowed a compliment from some guy send me into a word-driven high? There's something wrong in that, and I'm glad that I'm finding that out now. My validation, your validation...it has to come from God. And it's already there; we just have to start looking.

Lastly...
4) "There will be storms, but Jesus asked you to get in the boat."

In chapel Thursday, the guy preaching said this, and I swear it's been all I can think about since then. He preached from Mark 4:35-41, the scene where Jesus and his disciples are in the middle of the storm and Jesus calms the waves. He talked about how the goal of Jesus and the disciples was to reach the land of the Gerasenes, where they would ultimately cast Legion out of a man and into pigs. The disciples were so frightened during the storm, but it made what was to come seem less frightening. Then, the preacher said the line that I'll never forget, "There will be storms, but Jesus asked you to get in the boat." Jesus brought the disciples into the storm, and he was right there in the midst of their fear. He brought them through that storm to prepare them for what was waiting for them on the other side of the lake, and he does that with us sometimes. Still, how wonderful is it to know that Jesus asked us to get into the boat?