Sometimes in the grind of full-time classes, part-time work, bills, friendships, family (all far away), let alone all the loops life throws at you, I find myself stuck in the position of needing a pick-me-up and a reminder. Of? A reminder of why I'm here. Funny thing is, I had no idea that it was exactly what I needed. Praise God that I can claim him as Jehovah Jireh!

See, I miss my old 'new' home. At least I missed it. But I had the opportunity to head back this past weekend; it's been a long time.

And so I headed to the site of the lovely '07 blizzard in Indiana. Imagine this if you will. Friday, Feb. 16th, it's 87 degrees (F) in Pasadena, and I step onto a plane at LAX at 12:35 am on Sat with the temperatures hovering around 60 degrees. Totally delightful. So what happens, I land at 9:45 am in Indianapolis to 17 degrees (F - yes, not C). I mean, I grew up in the snow belt in PA, so this should NOT be shocking to my system. Well, it was. But 15 in of snow, and seeing no pavement or cement was a bit, ok, a LOT confusing.

I was quickly able to move past the weather, as I was blessed to surprise a large number of my 'former' students in Indianapolis at a retreat this weekend. The weekend was a blessing for a number of reasons:
- It was good to be 'home'
- I love bear hugs, and a lot of my boys gave great hugs when i saw them - i like surprises!
- I love bear hugs, and a lot of my girls gave amazing hugs when i saw them - yup, i still like surprises!
- people's facial expressions are amazing, especially when they don't expect to see your face!
- God poured out his love on me during this weekend
- I was reminded of my call in a profound way

I moved to Pasadena from Indianapolis to earn (as you can see) my Master of Divinity in Youth, Family and Culture. Two years of working in youth ministry in Indy (yay, Super Bowl Champs!) was amazing - in every sense of the word. It was amazing because God showed me my call, and at times with such specificity I could do nothing but stand in awe.

I spent the weekend laughing, smiling, giggling, grinning, and in awe of God's amazing gifts, power, and wonder. He reminded me so clearly that these people are those who sent me to Fuller, who sent me to be equipped, and why I am in this part of my journey.

My students opened up immediately with me, shared stories, cried with me, laughed (a LOT) with me, and communed in fellowship with me and their new sisters and brothers. I have arrived back in LA (4 hours ago, ha!) refreshed, renewed and reinvigorated. I went to the land of Hoosiers to surprise and serve; God amazingly did that and more right back to me. God's pretty cool, pretty stinking cool!

So the question now: What brought you here? What brings you here? How do you plan on keeping that fire alive? What do you need to keep that fire alive? God's subtle reminders are good, very good indeed.

Posted by Libby at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have a friend at an undergraduate Christian university in the Midwest who writes for her school's admissions blog (I guess I befriend people just like me?). She was telling me the other day that her dad reads her blogs (she had no idea), and when she recently wrote about her staying up until the wee hours of the night doing homework for a class, and not really caring about the end result (ahh, senioritis), her dad read the note. Whoops! Don't worry, Dad, that's not me. I care about the work, I'm just really busy!

I hate falling asleep doing work. Clearly my body does too! Really, it's the notion that I need to reevaluate my priorities and my focus. But it's one thing to know this, and another thing to do it. I've just noticed how tired I've been lately on weekends, and how I really need rest.

Which has me thinking a lot - more than I'd like, actually. How am I am supposed to find rest and quiet time when I'm supposed to be in full-time classes, working part-time (25 hrs.), and maybe allowing for some fun in my life? I guess that's where I differ from others - I refuse to not have fun (lovely double negative there). I know I need fun to remain sane. Which is why I went on a retreat Thursday through Saturday, through the All Seminary Council (lovingly known as the ASC).

Now I knew this was going to be a bunch of sessions, talking about leadership, and there would be friends to hang out with, friends to me, etc. But it sounded restful enough. It was funny, our lunch table one day started discussing the ironic nature of the word retreat. How many times have you been on a retreat and actually rested? I always return from a retreat, no matter how amazing, exhausted and needing another retreat just to catch up from it. Which is unfortunate when you have 5 papers due the following week.

This will be a crazy week, but I hope to start to evaluate a bit more what rest looks like for me, for a student, a graduate student, a friend, a daughter, a child of God, and a sinner.

Posted by Libby at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)