These are the lyrics from the song at the end of this post, and right now they are the cry of my heart. I find myself feeling an overwhelming optimism for the future and for what God is doing on Earth right now. Jesus has won me, and I'm living from His victory instead of for my own victory. Nothing seems like too bad of a situation anymore. He made a way for us to have joy, peace, and righteousness in every part of our lives. This past week has been filled with singing, dancing, and rejoicing at His goodness. I've also been writing this paragraph for over 20 minutes because I'm listening to worship music and can't do both at the same time. I really should commit to one or the other.
We hit the ground running at school after break, and now it feels like we have a huge amount of momentum pushing us forward. The metaphor one staff member used to describe the teaching so far is that the first half of the year was spent building a car and the second half is spent putting in the engine. So the topics for our first week back were servitude, sacrifice, and surrender. Like everything else in the Kingdom, these values seem backwards in our culture. Why would we go low to be raised up? Why would we serve to lead? Why would we die to live? (hint: Jesus already won it all)
So here we are nearing the end of January and I haven't really said anything about 2014 as a whole. I made a list of goals for this school year before I came (climb a Redwood tree, CHECK) and a new list for 2014, so want to keep pushing towards those and live with a mission. My wonderful sister, Roo, gave me the word "power" as a one-word prophetic goal for this year. And I also felt like the word "shine" was going to be a big part of my life this year. I'll write more about that another time.
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| SHINE with POWER |
Right now I'm thinking I want to stay here another year and try out for the 2nd Year school worship band. One factor in the decision is whether or not I can find a job. I've been looking for QUITE a while but most places are looking for day-time work, not another student who can work evenings and weekends. Please pray for a job :) I also hear there is less homework in 2nd year, which will be good since I may have gotten locked out again this past time (let's be real here). But even THAT won't get me down because it won't happen again.
So let's make this an amazing year. We'll start with another amazing week, as Randy Clark is coming for a conference and we get to go or help out with most of it. It's gonna be a good time.
From this point on, I won't remember if I'm repeating a song I've posted on an earlier blog, but this is one of my favorite songs from Bethel Music: You Have Won Me
