Time for Eternity

Life seems to be all about time these days.  How much time can be used for study, how much for work, etc.  The biggest question is, " How early can I get myself out of bed to get quiet time?"
Now, I don't want you to have misconceptions.  I am not actually awake when I get out of bed in the morning.  It usually takes a cup of coffee and a brisk walk to the barn to get me to a reasonable state of mind.  A good rule is to not talk to me until 8:00 am. 
     You can imagine how hard it is to sit down and read while my mind starts warming up and remembering all of the things I didn't finish the day before.  Then I feel like I need to rush around and finish those things before I can properly "start my day".  Recently I realized how negative this mentality can be.  I can't sit down for half of an hour to spend time with my creator and savior because I didn't finish cleaning my room yesterday?  That is a ridiculous excuse.  God gives us every second of our days.  It is part of my free will to use it wisely and intentionally. I don't know if I can do that if I don't spend some of this time doing the one thing that will last forever.  You probably know this already, but my room will be a disaster zone by tomorrow.  The dining room floor won't stay swept, my papers will get lost, and the kitchen sink will need to be scrubbed again.  But that is just a side effect of living in a fallen world.  My time is so much better spent doing something with eternal value.  Now that I think about it, maybe getting out of bed earlier is the order of the day.  Somehow, half an hour doesn't seem like enough anymore.

Of College, and dreams, and crazy new jobs

     So this week was absolutely crazy.  I started a new job at my local college, attended Orientation at the college I plan to attend, and am so buried in information that I'm pretty sure I should have drowned by now.  But I haven't!  So that's. . . nice.
     Orientation was two days of college faculty throwing information and pamphlets in your face. Papers and notebooks and useless information abound.  It was cool anyway, because I got to see the Nursing building, and it was absolutely amazing. 
     My new job is keeping me super busy as well.  Nobody told me that I could work up to 28 hours ( I probably won't, though).  Ahhh!  Here I was thinking that I'd be working three, maybe four hours a week.  I'll laugh about this someday. Maybe.

Not Stuck Here

You know those days that make you feel stuck?  When you're pretty sure everyone sees you and thinks of a hamster on a wheel, trying really hard, but not going anywhere.  Every once in a while I feel this way, and if I think about it really hard it can ruin every part of my life.  When my life becomes focused on me, all of its failings come into a sharp, brutal focus.  I cannot be perfect, I cannot do everything right, and I make mistakes. . . often.  That is why it is such a joy to lay my failures at the feet of Jesus. He asks us to turn our focus outward.  To other people who hurt just as much as we do.  There is so much brokenness in this world, how can we justify obsessing over the things we can't do? I'm not stuck where my last mistake dropped me. There are lives out there that Jesus wants to touch through me.  That thought is what makes today beautiful.