Fall is in the air. And on the trees, which perhaps is even better. I do believe I've moved to the right place. If I've ever told you in the past that spring or summer was my favorite season (I believe I rotate between those and fall), disregard that. Fall is it. It's hard to consider it a season in Minnesota because it lasts approximately a week. It's absolutely gorgeous, but over before you know it. Really, if we didn't get up to the Superior Hiking Trail that first weekend in October, it would all be over by the next time we tried. However Philly, beautiful Philly, it's been fall here for like a month already, and there're still plenty of leaves on the trees! I told a friend recently that weather was a boring thing to talk about, and a sign of age (sorry Will, if you ever read this). So we'll say all that was instead about nature... which continually causes me to stand in absolute awe of God's glory in the beauty of His creation.
This last month has also brought its share of other blessings. My classmates and I continue to form deeper friendships as we struggle together with issues of poverty, development, religion, culture, capitalism, corruption, top-down vs. grassroots economics, demonstration vs. proclamation, and much more. One joyous day I had the priviledge of playing some great ultimate. I've found some running partners! I've enjoyed several churches, and eventually determined to go to the one right across the street. I've found some friends to watch Grey's Anatomy with (don't judge me, it's fun alright?). I played eucre with people from all over the country (from Maine to Oregon. Who said that was a Michigan/Wisconsin game?).
I think there is nothing I would rather study than what we are studying at Eastern right now. I'm also realizing it's so true that the more you know, the more you understand how much you have yet to learn. I'm discovering more questions than answers. And yet I think it's all a part of the growth process. I may have mentioned that we began the semester with some really hard books. Hard in the sense that they challenge idealism, and show how good intentions can cause harm (one of my professors begs that we not be "headless hearts"). But I've found encouragement in several things. First is in recognizing and even forgetting my unworthiness, and trusting in His plan:
“God is asking me, the unworthy, to forget my unworthiness and that of my brothers, and dare to advance in the love which has redeeemed and renewed us all in God’s likeness. And to laugh, after all, at the preposterous idea of “worthiness.” -Thomas Merton
Then there's the fact that we MUST pursue our passions:
"So every individual has a responsibility to be concerned about himself enough to discover what he is made for. After he discovers his calling he should set out to do it with all of the strength and power in his being. He should do it as if God Almighty called him at this particular moment in history to do it. He should seek to do his job so well that the living, the dead, or the unborn could not do it better." Martin Luther King Jr.
And even when we're discouraged...
“See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” 2 Corinthians 7:11
I have been sorrowful over the brokenness in the world, and the injustices done by aid organizations especially. Yet these things have raised in me indignation, alarm, concern, longing for change, and eagerness to see organizations that function under principles of justice. And I know that in all things God will provide hope:
"Christ is like a river. A river is continually flowing, there are fresh supplies of water coming from the fountain-head continually so that man may live by it, and be supplied w/ water all his life. So Christ is an ever-flowing fountain; he is continually supplying His people, and the fountain is not spent. They who live upon Christ, may have fresh supplies from Him to all eternity; they may have an increase of blessedness that is new, and new still, and which will never come to an end.” –Jonathan Edwards
