Several quick comments before I really get started. First of all, look at how good we're doing! Every time I get on there's a new post. So fun. Second, yay for a comment from Laura Clayton! I wish you would post with us. Third, this quote was on offirstimportance.org this morning and I thought I'd share:
"By becoming a Christian, I belong to God and I belong to my brothers and sisters. It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ. This is my identity. This is our identity....If the church is the body of Christ, then we should not live as disembodied Christians."
-Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church
So, I just want to say that I'm really thankful for this blog and the chance to hear what God is teaching all of you.
So, senior project is definitely a stressful semester. I'm feeling more pressure than ever before to create good work, and its been a while since I've really felt like I excelled in these classes. For whatever reason, I don't really work very well in this classroom setting. Its like I put so much pressure on myself to please the professors and to compare with my classmates, that I paint much worse than I would otherwise. I'm very much ready to be out of the classroom setting so that I can really enjoy painting again. I've talked about all of this before. In my mind, I kind of compare this semester to the semester that I was New Member Coordinator. I felt so much pressure that semester and stayed completely stressed out. I didn't handle it very well. I pray that this semester will lead me to rely on God. He's been very faithful to continue to remind me that He is greater than this project, and that He is meeting me here. Of course I have freak out moments. In fact, I freaked out pretty badly today when I still hadn't made it to the studio and my car died. However, I just feel like God continues to remind me through this entire process that He is bigger than this. That everything I go through, including senior project, is in His purpose. I turned today to the faithful Jeremiah 29:11. However, I read the verses around it as well.
"For thus says the Lord, 'when seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord,'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declare the Lord,'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the Lord,' and I will bring you back to the place form where I sent you into exile.'" Jeremiah 29:10-14.
God hasn't sent me into exile, and He hasn't been gone for 70 years and is now returning to me. However, I am reminded from these verses that ultimately God wants us to call out to Him, and I am certainly at a place where I have to constantly call out to Him to carry me through this whole process. Also, I am reminded that He has a plan for this as He does everything in my life. He has a purpose, that although I may not always be able to see it, I can trust it. Its so incredible for me to see the many times that God puts Israel in exile, and then fulfills His promise by redeeming them, puts them in exile, fulfills His promise, etc. etc. until Jesus Christ arrived. To know that the same God who put all of those plans together is also arranging and guiding my life, is very humbling and exciting!
Well, I need to get to bed. Hope everyone has a wonderful week! Good night.
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