What's Next?

I have been provided with so many options and opportunities and experiences this past year.

Last January I was able to go to Honduras. And then I got to go back again. I was accepted into two nursing programs. In May, I went on a trip down south with my best friend. Somewhere in the middle of all this traveling, I was able to watch my little brother and biggest encourager receive his high school diploma.

In October, I moved down south to Alabama, and began working with a non-profit Christian ministry which originally began with Billy Graham reaching out to lost kids. I lived with an incredible family who took me in as one of their own and who continue to pour into my life.

I also got to be there the day my childhood best friend gave birth to her daughter. This January, I traveled to Denver and Chicago and was able to visit with old friends in both places. I went to PASSION 2014 and experienced worshipping alongside 20,000 people who shared the same heart as me.

I now have the experience of living in my own apartment. The excitement and the struggle and simply the independence. And I have the opportunity to work with little kids every day as a dental assistant in a pediatric office. It may not be as a nurse like I had always imagined, but pediatrics is something I have always seen myself working in. I'm blessed to be in a long distance relationship with the guy that has been there for me since the day I met him, I was just a little too blind to see it and then a little too stubborn to give in to it.

I have been blessed in ways I never would have imagined. 

And now most people are looking at me and asking, now what?

“So when are you going to come home?”

“When do you start school?”

“What is your plan?”

I appreciate these questions. They are coming from people who love and care about me and I am so thankful that no one is allowing me to simply drop off the face of the earth. However, after hearing these questions in the past 6 months or so, I have a question myself.

Why is it that we’re always wondering what comes next?

The next adventure, next job, next move, the next step.

Granted, I say this with awareness that life has next steps, next moves, and next adventures. I did not get from Westfield, MA to Auburn, AL without a few steps and moves and adventures in between. And I am looking forward to all of the things that I am hoping will eventually come next.

But I’m not living for them.

The point of my life is not to spend four or more years and spend thousands and thousands of dollars for a piece of paper that says I am now qualified to be an adult. To get an adult job and be paid an adult salary. It’s not to live in a certain place or accomplish a certain amount of things. The point of my life isn’t even to get married or have children.

Will those things happen? Hopefully. At least some of them. But they are not the end goal.

The point of my life is to love and be loved by the God who created me. And to spread that love to everyone I come in contact with. Whether I do that at a 9-5 job or working at a fast food chain or being a stay at home mom. Whether I have a high school diploma, or a bachelor’s degree, or a doctorate. Whether I am single, or dating, or married. Whether it happens in Auburn, or Westfield, or Guaimaca, Honduras.

So for now, I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Alabama. I work 8-5 as a dental assistant and part time as a Campus Life Director for YFC. In my free time I hang out with my favorite southern belle and her husband and kids, and I plan weekend trips to visit friends and family and yes, that special guy I talked about earlier. I don’t know when, or if, I’m going back to school. I don’t know where I will live once my lease is up. I don’t know how long I will live in this magical world where the coldest winter gets is 40 degrees on average (And yes, my body now thinks that is cold).

But I do know that God will guide my steps. That nothing can snatch me out of His hand and that He is worth living for. He is worth surrendering my all for. So I start there. I wake up in the morning and I lay my day down at His feet. And from there, the adventure is His.

Love Them

Auburn City Schools had a snow day today. It rained all day yesterday and it was supposed to get cold last night and they were expecting messy, icy roads this morning.

By 9 am it was 40 degrees and sunny.... the weatherman got it wrong.

Ok now all my northerners, take a minute to giggle a little, maybe let out a sarcastic comment or scoff. I know I did. Now collect yourselves, take a deep breath, and ask yourself:

How often do I get it wrong?

The total sum at the bottom of our bank deposit form, the amount of time it will take us to get from point a to point b, and how many people was it that showed up today... 30 or 50? I was supposed to be asleep by 10:30 but here it is at 12 am and I am wide awake, millions of thoughts swirling through my brain. Why did I make that decision? Why couldn't I have realized that sooner? I should have planned better for this. I got it wrong last month, I got it wrong again last week, and yesterday my words could have been a whole lot kinder in that conversation. I got it wrong.

I am human. Therefore, I will get it wrong again. And again, and again.

But then I hear my Heavenly Father whisper this: "even before you got it wrong, my daughter, I had a plan to make it right."

"by this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" (1 John 3:16).

So let's give the weatherman a break. Or that guy that just cut us off going down 85. Smile at the cashier that's being rude, and pray for the person who's been saying ugly things about you when you're not around. Love them all.  Even when it's difficult. Even when you don't feel like it. We love, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Because there is not other response to such unconditional, unfathomable love, than to share it. Even with the people you can't stand to be around. Especially them.

Happy Valentine's Day y'all