My dear blog-followers, I am sorry that it has taken me so long to write another post. I could list excuses like school or work or this or that but that doesn't change anything. It has been months of you waiting to see what I'll say next; and, well, I guess it has been months of me waiting to see what I will say next. There are plenty of other things I could be doing, but I want to write a post as a good way to start off 2017. This post, I'm not quite sure what it will turn out as, but I'm thinking it as a brief review of the months I have missed, talking about new years resolutions, and the Passion Conference. To start off, my past few months have been hectic - as will the next few months. But this past semester was tough. If you have read all of my posts, you know that last Fall (2015), when I started this blog, my life was somewhat in shambles but my education was wonderful. I enjoyed my classes but hated what was going on in my life. Unfortunately, this past semester has been the quite opposite. I have enjoyed what was going on in my life but my education life was quite difficult. I wasn't even sure if I was going to pass all of my classes. If I didn't, I was not going to be able to student teach this upcoming semester. But after a lot of people praying for me, long nights that turned into mornings, extreme sleep deprivation, God-willing I passed *insert cheer here*. I know that new years resolutions are overrated and most people don't keep them, but I think it them more as goals for the year that I want to be able to check off. I have some new years resolutions, but I'll just name a few. Read a Jane Austen novel and Shakespeare play that I haven't before, keep a jar full of good things that happened & record at least once a week, graduate from Stetson University, find a job and place to live, and blog at least once a month! Hopefully I hold true to these and the others I have, but we shall see. I'll attempt to keep you updated as the year goes on. Lastly, I wanted to talk about Passion 2017. For those of you who do not know about it, it is a huge conference in Atlanta, GA (sometimes in Houston, TX) for 18-25 year olds. This year, it was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and over 50 thousand college-aged students came. It was pure beautiful mass chaos. I went two years ago for Passion 2015 and this year was different because it was the 20th anniversary of when Passion began. In this, we had multiple amazing surprises that were astronomically cool. You'll see later why I chose those words. =]
One of the cool things that happened at Passion was that they gave away Bibles called The Jesus Bible. It's a Bible that is the NIV version but has commentary and notes from big name communicators like Louie Giglio (who hosts Passion), Ravi Zacharias, and Max Lucado. it's pretty darn cool! They also had surprise guests like Tadashii who came and sang with Crowder and Carrie Underwood who crashed Crowder's set also. She then went on to sing her song, "Something in the Water" - a song about her own baptism. The following day, we skyped with an astronaut who was in the international space station. Like, live. It was specactular. All of these things were wonderful. But the speakers and musicians were top notch. Monday night, Christine Caine spoke. For those of you who do not know her, Christine Caine is a woman who is from Austrailia and founded The A21 Campaign that is geared towards helping stop and saving people from human trafficking. She is a passionate communicator who spoke on edurance. She referred to Hebrews 12:1-3 where she told us that "if we're going to do what God's calling us to do, we don't need just faith . . . we need faith + ___________ (patience, endurance, etc.)." Through this passage, Caine brought to light three things that would benefit us: Drop it now, Start here now, and Look up now. For drop it now, we're supposed to lay down our weights. She said, "you won't learn to live and love life that you enjoy by having everything instantaneous - you need endurance." And followed it up with saying, "There's nothing God will ask you to lay down that is bad for you." While these are a load of bricks being dropped, they're also a great reminder. Sometimes we forget that God is ultimately in control and we have to trust Him - however, that doesn't mean that we don't do our part. For Start here now, Caine said, "is the race set before us enough for us? or will we complain? If you aren't fruitful here, you won't be fruitful there." This struck me. I've never heard it put like this before but it's so true. Why do I think that I'll be happy there if I'm not happy here? Why do I think that I'll be happy with a significant other if I'm not happy with myself? Why do I think I'll be happy in real life adulthood if I'm not happy in college? These are all questions only I can answer for myself and to be honest, struggle with the truth. There's so much more I could talk about from Caine's message, but I'll end with her last point: Look up now - HE ENDURED --> therefore then let us also endure. I've come to realize that this post is getting long, and I have much more to tell y'all. Thus, another post will follow hopefully sooner than later to tell you more about Passion 2017. For This Time, Cambria
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AuthorI'm a die-hard Sixers and Eagles phan, a writer, a teacher, and a dreamer. Archives
December 2017
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