no worries

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:25-34

I just read this passage this morning, and it was such a timely reminder. As final exams are soon to come, papers are due, tests are next week, and everything outside of class continues, it is so easy to worry. Easier to worry than to pray and trust. In Philippians, Paul writes not to worry about anything, but to pray about everything. Instead of worrying we should pray, putting our trust in God rather than ourselves. This passage was kind of a slap in the face this morning, like God was saying, "Hello...don't you know that I will take care of you? You don't have to stress. You don't have to be in control, because I am in control. I feed the birds. I clothe the flowers. I made you in my own image. Don't you know that I will take care of you even more?" So to all of you out there who are stressed and worried with life (probably most of you), trust God. Hand it all over to him. Cast your burdens on him, as it says in 1 Peter. The last part of this Matthew passage telling us to seek first his kingdom and righteousness ties it together perfectly. When we are more focused on him and less focused on us, he will take care of all those little things we waste our time thinking about. Think about it, and put your trust in him rather than yourself.

time flies when you’re in college

I thought high school went by fast. Nope. I am almost finished with my first semester of college. It’s kind of one of those, “Who am I, where am I, and what am I doing here?” moments. I feel like it’s been such a short time since Union was only a dream–something I wanted to happen but something that seemed out of reach. Well, I’m here. God worked it all out, and I’m here. I’m so thankful for this place and the fact that I’m in it. God graciously continues to show me why he has led me here. There are so many events and people and thoughts I could write about…I just don’t even know where to start. I think I’ll go backwards from this week.

Wednesday morning we had the most wonderful discussion in Honors. I left feeling giddy. Go ahead and laugh. I’m a nerd. Maybe it was just the coffee…ha. We just started reading through the book of Proverbs–what book would be better in a class called Wisdom??? It’s amazing how much of what I’m reading in Proverbs relates back to the secular sources we have read throughout the semester. I definitely noticed things I had not noticed before. Well, we read Chapters 1-9 for Wednesday morning. Basically, Solomon personifies wisdom and folly as two women. While Solomon personifies folly as an adulterous who seems desirable but is actually deceitful, he personifies wisdom as a woman who is good and right and true and most desirable above all. I think I will blog more about this on another post because I could go pretty deep, but I have more to say here. Be looking for a post on this soon

 Last week, the Honors Community freshmen from Union went to a conference about wisdom in education at Baylor University in Texas. I learned a lot, was confused a lot, spent time with my wonderful honors friends a lot, and returned home with an even greater passion for seeking wisdom than the passion I had before. Look for a later post for more on what I learned about wisdom. However, I will talk here about the fun times we had! First, we drove. In fifteen passenger vans. On the way we split up the trip, but on the way back to Union, we drove about twelve hours from Waco to Jackson. So we rode in close proximity to each other for about twenty-four hours, and it was great fun. Really. We listened to music, sang, danced, had deep discussions (you know we can’t live without those!), and slept. When we finally got to Waco, we spent most of our time at the conference, which I will discuss later, but we also got to just hang out and talk a good bit, which was such a great break from the stress of schoolwork and class. I love the community that God is building among the honors students here!