Wow one year....

Wow one year ago I left my home and started my four day drive to the east coast. It blows my mind that a year has passed and so much has changed, and that I am still in the state of Massachusetts. I can't get over the fact that a year ago I was starting a small chapter in my life, that I thought would last only a few months till the end of June. In fact I told my mom and dad, "Oh I'll be home at the end of June and it won't be forever." Well sorry mom and dad I guess God has other plans for me. Funny too that few months ago and when I first moved here I said I'd only stay for a good job, ironic I'm still in the hunt for that "good" job. Interesting too that my senior year of college I told people that I never wanted to live far enough away from home that I couldn't get there in a good days drive, especially if I have a family. Now I live on the other side of the country and maybe a good days fly would get me home. Also the fact too that I said I wanted to go somewhere and be away from people that new me so I could challenge my faith. Since New England I have been challenged, and learned to fully trust God or at least realizing I can't do this life on my own. I have always wanted to be challenged spiritually so that I would know who God is and know that I could believe when it wasn't easy. If you took the girl that left that day September 6, 2008 and told her I would stay in the Boston area for a church, she may have said yeah right. As much as I could lie to myself I have selfish desires that come before God.

Now one year later, here I am in Woburn, MA starting a journey with Genesis, with out that elusive "good" job, doing AmeriCorps for another year, working at Victoria's Secret, and realizing that what I want is not always what God has planned. So as I look back, I see that New England is not a short 9 month chapter of my life, it has become a year, and who knows how long. It has been my growing up year, and seeing that life is not easy, that God will provide for me in rent, food, friends, and more ways than I could ever imagine. He has shown me that I love my family and friends from the west coast, but sometimes he asks us to give up our wants. He is teaching me how to truly love the unlovely, and how to die to myself daily. He is teaching me to ask the question what do you want from me, Lord, because I can give him an idea of where I'd rather be, but is that in your plan. He continues to show me that I am a sinner saved by grace, and that he loves me. Ultimately he is in the process of refining me and becoming a woman who in everything she does, glorify s and worships God.

One year changes a lot, and I can't wait to see where he takes me next whether he calls me to the Boston area, or the west coast, but for now I will soak up every minute of every day, and praise him because no matter what he is my sustain-er and provider. One year ago I got on I-90 and traveled east not knowing what would lie ahead...