Fall has a rhythm

Man. I'm just getting used to the rhythm of this life.

September began like a freight train here on campus and this week has brought the first "breather" time. The whirlwind that is September was also accelerated due to a need to move houses a second time before the end of the month.

I just want to say that God is good. More and more I'm seeing that the name "God" is just way too small for Him. He is wild, unstoppable, and so incredibly gentle. I have been struggling to keep my ducks in a row this month. I started this new job, which I am madly in love with but am totally green in the details of, I had moving drama at my house, I've walked under pressure to maintain healthy relationships through the drama, I have been squeezed in my personal time with God and felt dry and lonely for Him, and through all of my weaknesses He has seriously proven faithful.

I keep getting this image of being embedded in Him, like I am walking around in His tent and my head and hands peek out to engage the world. He's covered everything this month. God so protects His kids. His shadow has covered me, and my team on campus, in such miraculous ways.

This fall certainly has a particular rhythm. I just want to keep in step.

Homesick

Is it possible to be homesick for a place one's never been? I think so. I'm homesick for heaven these days, I am longing to rest in the fullness of God's presence... His quiet penetrates my spirit and His word pierces my heart. In a lot of ways I miss Him deeply because this new season is different from the mountain top experiences these past few months held. This is a time of working in the valleys...
I'm also getting sick, I have been fighting a sore throat for awhile now and I think my body is giving in. Time for a break methinks.
Homesick.

Like September isn't busy enough.

So, I'm moving again at the end of the month. Yikes. I'll have to fandangle something interesting because the weekend I'm supposed to move I'm working at a retreat with the campus ministry. I'm so thankful I have family and friends in the city to help me out here. I think I'll "pre-pack" the moving truck, go to work at the retreat, and then move in the evening I get back on the first of October. It'll be okay right? Abraham moved his whole life, if he could do it then so can I. Maybe I'll get moving down to a highly refined system and purge enough that my life becomes streamlined and unencumbered by posessions. That would be a miracle because I come from a family of hoarders (sorry guys, it's true) and I might be the worst of them because I received that artistic gene. God is going to have to rewire me I think. I'm sure Abraham needed a little rewiring too when God told him to get out of town and obey Him...

God's spirit is so great, I don't even have anxiety about the timing of this... yet. Ha!

In my head all day

So all week I've had this song (tim hughes - everything) running in my head. Walking on campus, driving in my car, living in my house with my roomates... There is a line, "Christ in me, Christ in me, Christ in me the hope of glory. Be my everything." It has been my prayer this week - Jesus in me and shining through me. When I'm threadbare and weary I remember Christ is in me. Then I am no longer weary and I find rest.

Oh to be inflated by the Spirit of God. It really is true that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We can ascend the hill of the Lord with clean hands and pure hearts and walk through this world with our spirits connected to heaven and our hands serving others... just like Jesus reaching out through our bodies.

The craziest week of the year

So campus for christ is in the craziest week of the entire year. We gave out over 1200 real life kits (a laundry bag with a bible, a highlighter, the case for christ... Josh McDowel's 'The DaVinci Code: a quest for answers'... etc.) and we did a ton of spiritual interest surveys and have an enormous amount of follow-up with students who want to meet to talk about christianity and spiritual things. I am so thankful for seeing how God is working, and this is just the first week.

Here is a prayer request though, I am really tired and I know that a lot of our student leadership is too. These few beginning weeks are heavy with activity because they are so spiritually significant, and the window of time to reach first year students is so short. The harvest is, seriously, mammoth and there is so much that could be done. Would you pray for physical energy, and resting in God's Spirit as our team works together on campus? Would you pray that God would move to raise up more student leaders to join as we follow-up all these students who want to meet to talk about Jesus?

And for my fun thing to do this weekend, I am going to head off to the farmers market. Maybe I'll buy a giant zuccini and stuff it for dinner. A friend of mine got one last week and it was the biggest vegetable I've ever seen. I'm having a friend over for supper and want to make something interesting...