back in Tally

in Brew and Bean coffee shop (tallahassee, fl)

so after about 5 months I am back in Tallahassee. Its kinda bittersweet to be back. I really did like this town. I especially like the people I met here. I miss them more than anything. It has been great catching up and hangin out with some amazing people.

I certainly would have loved to be here longer at FSU. I feel like the rug was puled right out but I gotta go forward! In Romans 8:28 it says 'God works ALL things for good to those who love Him...'. That verse has been really saturating my heart over the past week or so. I think a large part has to do with me going through John Piper's book Future Grace. IT has dived in the that promise that God makes to work in us no matter what ish goes down in our lives. I think it is a tremendously hope-filled promise that we all should go do daily.

So this weekend though I took a road trip with my friend Scott to Athens, GA this past weekend...highlights included:
-crashed my first wedding...(Scott was playing mandolin)
-heard Andy Stanley preach at North Point...a great sermon on God and our country.
-finding and hearing more affirmation through prayer about going to South Africa in the fall.
-The Original Pancake House in Atlanta
-experiencing encouragement in the body of Christ by just meeting solid believers


so all in all it was a great weekend listening to worship and bluegrass and experiencing the great spring weather of the south. Now I'm off to meet with the coaches Bible Study I was a part of last semester at FSU....should be a great reunion!

pursuit

He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life...John 12:25

what does that mean to you? God is really pressing in to me and helping me understand what it means. Life can be so trivial and made out to be something so important when in all reality all that matters is not your own life or own ambition but really throwing that all away to follow Jesus Christ.
Scripture is so clear that if we do this we will gain eternal life and I dont know many who dont want that.

This is one of those statements by Jesus that has really shaken me to my core over the past few weeks. And the verse before this one in John 12 that talks about a grain of wheat having to die in order to produce fruit is another point of really dying to your own desires in life. How do I die now in life....well I know that I have things I would love to accomplish in my life...desires that I even wish to see come true before I leave for South Africa but honestly I need to die to these desires. I need to pursue what He has given me here and really abandon myself to this call to reach the nations.

Desires may be realized in this time before I leave or in my lifetime but only when the focus isnt on myself or on the desires themselves. The pursuit needs to be on the true pursuer...Jesus.