Catch-up

It's been quite a while since I've written anything - I've been busy with spring break, exams, and other random things. 

First of all, I know I promised to give an update on how my "technological fasting" was going, but I never got around to it. To sum it up, after a while it was easy, but I found myself replacing the time I would have spent on facebook or other sites with things that were just as unproductive like video games. 

Luckily, my spring break trip was amazing. The focus of our trip was incarceration and the injustices that are happening in the prison system, but I ended up learning more about myself and God than I did about the prison system. The trip challenged me and caused me to grow and strengthen in my faith more than any one trip ever has. Every morning we dug into the Bible and talked about what it meant for us, right now, and in the future.

I have never seen God work in so many awesome, crazy, amazing ways - and every single person on that trip became like family to me. The funny thing is that I was not expecting much to come out of this trip - I might go as far as to say that I had signed up just for something to do during spring break. Just goes to show that God works far beyond our selfish intentions.

Last year I tried out for Hope's worship team. I didn't make it, and to say the least, I was devastated. I was angry at God because, as I put it, "how can I be called into worship leading and not make the worship team?" Again, I had selfish intentions.

My spring break trip helped me realize this. I realized that by being angry at God, I was confining God to work only in a situation where I was on the worship team at Hope. After I had realized this, a friend had asked me if I was thinking about trying out for the worship team again. I hadn't even thought about it, but I began praying for guidance. I felt that God was with me when I decided to try out for the team, and I had the feeling that, because it was God's plan and idea, it was okay whether I mad the team or not. Throughout the try out process I continually needed to pray for patience, both with myself and with finding out if I had made it or not. 

I am glad to say that I made it, and that I am beyond excited for how God will work through this experience. 

Now, it's summer. I'm done with my sophomore year, and I'm a junior in college now. Weird. I'm working, and hopefully getting to the beach fairly often. I think the one thing I'm afraid of for this summer is being away from the Hope community and the opportunities that it offers for spiritual growth. More specifically, the prayer room and the atmosphere that it provides. I'm hoping that God will prove that I don't need a specific place to be as close to Him as I have been, but that it's more about my heart and how much I invest in becoming ever closer to Him.