Blessings Blog

Today I give thanks for support from my alma mater. There are still so many resources available to me, encouragement to go to the revamped Career Center, ways to get reconnected into the Christian community here, and so many welcoming arms back at Carleton. It will still be strange to be hanging around as an alum, but so many seem to look to me like I have experience or something. I am still trying to figure things out, but with God's grace, I love being a resource when called upon, and I am so ready to get plugged back in. Even though my own faith goes through dry spells, as everyone's does (seriously), I want to be a gap-stander for others who may be struggling with their faith or are simply growing into it and seeing more ways in which God is working in their lives every day. It is such a cool process, and I first learned the term "gap-stander" in a recent Encouragement of the Day. We cannot help others just have faith. To have a personal relationship with God and know why you believe what you do requires you to do some heavy lifting, but that does not mean you should have to do it alone. Nor does it mean I should let you think you have to figure it all out by yourself. I do not want to be a bystander in others' faith journeys, but rather a gap-stander to be their support when they need it and see how God is working through them. It nourishes me too and helps strengthen and revitalize my own faith!

If you feel you have fallen off track a little bit, I ran across a good resource today, called "When You Miss God." It can be so easy to just rush about life, trying to take everything into our own hands, but being intentional about even five minutes with God every day is an indication that you are reaching out to God and wanting God's love to flow through everything you do. So if you're missing God, here you go:
http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/nicki-koziarz/when-you-miss-god.html

I'm thankful that, while I know numbers will undoubtedly dwindle as the term gets busier, my first Zumba class at Carleton had about thirty people in it today! I'm thankful for hugs from friends that six months ago (and even two years ago from a friend who left Carleton for his Korean military service!) I did not know if I would ever see again. I'm trying not to miss God. I'm trying to find God anywhere and everywhere. And I am still trying to recognize every day how God is working in my life and give thanks for how I have been so richly blessed.