First Love.

Every fall, I think about the new beginnings this time of year and I get nostalgic. The middle of August rolls around and I hear kids talk about going back to school and I see backpacks and pencils and rulers in stores and I smile. A new year at school brings such potential.

I didn't really love my school years, until college. The best fall I ever had was freshman year at USD. Hands down, no contest. My excitement about moving on to a new stage of life was nothing compared to my excitement about discovering a God that could be known, and that wanted me to know Him.

Each fall, I think about coming to Christ for the first time. It took a level of faith I'd never exercised before, faith in something I didn't totally understand, but wanted to know so badly I put it above everything else.

That passion is hard to rival, but I feel it coming back within my grasp. I've certainly been growing in my faith in the last six years (6! wow!), but nothing like that first taste of walking with the Lord.

I'm at a huge transition in life. Going right from college to joining staff was a big jump, but I was still surrounded by good friends in a very familiar city. Now I'm making that first big move to a new location and developing more post-college relationships. I can be so introverted, but I've spent so much time alone in MPD over the last year-plus, I love getting out and meeting new people. It's so unbelievable that God works in each of our lives in unique and important ways to each of us...all at the same time. Even when we don't think He's working in our lives, He is. Unbelievable.

So far, moving has actually had a huge positive impact on my spiritual life. I can't do this half-hearted. I have to be all in, totally committed.

One thing that's been aiding in my spiritual growth has been a new small group. It's been several months since I've been in a consistent, challenging, small group, and probably six months since attending one that actually studies the Bible. Both last Thursday and tonight I attended a small group at a local church. It's kind of the typical 20 something group- coed, some married, some single, some in college, some late 20s. But finding a random group of people in a small suburb who have all experienced God in unique and amazing ways is so encouraging.

I cannot imagine being more content with my life than I am right now, in this moment. There are certainly things that I'd like to change, but those will change in time. I'm so excited to be back to a place I haven't been in awhile - seeing the world through new eyes. Redemption is a great thing- and a blessing, knowing we can experience it more than once in our lives.

Judging a Church By It's Website.

I'm attempting to pick a church to visit tomorrow.

Sigh.

I shall not call the process church "shopping" because I'm not doing it to see where I can get the best deal. What's a better word...hunting? I'm church hunting, I suppose.

On to the options. The first choice is only a 1/2 mile down the road- big plus, but their only service is labeled "traditional" at 930am. And it's E-Free, so I don't really know what traditional means.

The second option is labeled a "Worship Center" and at first I thought it was a Jewish Temple. They seem very passionate and Spirit-filled, which are two good things, I gotta say.

The third option has a Pastor that has written several books on the Emergent Church. I also see guitars in the background of some of the preaching photos, and I saw the word "hermeneutics" on one of the slides. Both good signs.

Maybe I'll just do eenie-meenie-miney-moe.

the lonely "if only"

The long-anticipated day has arrived: moving day! I am all settled in my new apartment in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. I've been waiting for this day for two years, and it finally arrived!

Over the last few months I've thought a lot about my first apartment in the big city. In the grand scheme of life, it's one move to one apartment with one roommate out of many, many living experiences. It's a big deal to me now for many reasons.

As the summer wore on, I found myself day-dreaming about how 'perfect' life would be if I could just leave Vermillion...leave the farm...put down roots. Move on to the next stage of life.

It was fun to dream about it, but every time I found myself going down the lonely "if only" road, I reined in my thoughts like Pa Ingalls trying to keep his team of horses from speeding downhill out of control. There's a sentence I've never typed before...

I so wanted to believe the "life would be perfect if only ---" thoughts that were circling in my head. If only I moved to my apartment, if only my support was raised, if only I had more money in the bank, if only I had a husband/boyfriend/merely a potential date sometime.

Silly, really. Life won't be magical and happy and candy and flowers and rainbows when I achieve the next milestone in life. The milestones are important, but they are dots on a line. It's what happens in life in between the dots that matters the most.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the line after the 'first apartment on staff/in the Cities' dot. The thousands of little choices may not seem like a big deal, but there are several within that thousand that will create and build momentum for many things to come in my future.

Good-bye, lonely "if only's." I don't need you anymore.

Peace through Education

I just finished "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I saw the sequel to this book in the USD Alumni Magazine (Mortenson earned Chemistry and Nursing degrees from USD) and thought I'd check out the first installment from my local library. (Random facts: he was born in Minnesota, and grew up the son of Lutheran Missionaries in Tanzania).


WOW was it good. Couldn't-put-it-down, wished-there-was-more-than-385-pages good. I'm not one to be interested in foreign films or nonfiction books about other countries, especially the Middle East. But this book had an interesting up-and-down story line laced with factual and historical information.

The most surprising part of the book was Mortenson's knowledge of the relations between America and the Middle East, specifically Afghanistan and Pakistan. When 9/11 occurred, I was only 15. I honestly don't remember much about it, but I do remember that I didn't know much about foreign relations. I've never cared that much, which is fairly typical for an American teenager, I guess.

And now, after my 24 years of life experience, I still don't know much. But I look at the world more objectively, especially after taking a few journalism classes and realizing the power Media has in supplying information in mass form (I'm sure most people find out the media is biased without having to take college classes, but I wasn't one of them). Mortenson cites example after example of Muslims who want peace in their countries, and how providing a place for all Pakistani and Afghan children to receive an education really can promote peace.

Most of what I know about Muslisms comes from the news. And after an awful, horrific event like 9/11, it's hard to resist the belief that any Muslim is a terrorist. We rarely hear about the effects of terrorism on people who are unfortunate enough to live in a country where the terrorists actually live. Three Cups of Tea opened my eyes to the battles that Pakistani and Afghan Muslims fight every day.

It's sad when governments can't (or won't) provide education for their children. But what do you do about it when a terrorist group like the Taliban controls everything with money and violence. Without traveling to the area myself, or performing extensive research about the Middle East, it seems obvious that Mortenson's problem-solving techniques are actually helping quite a bit.

I had several favorite stories and quotes from the book, the explanation behind the book's title, for one, but I'll let you find that out for yourself. So, read the book. Or don't. But if you've read it, I'd love to know your thoughts.

"If you just fight terrorism, it's based in fear. If you promote peace, it's based in hope." - Greg Mortenson, quoted in the Fairfield Citizen News, 2008