March 20: Whose Team?

Today was a beautiful day! It is the first day of spring, and for once, the weather actually agreed. I had the chance to go for a bike ride in the beautiful weather. I put on my Georgia Tech kit and was off--flying through the neighborhood and down by the river.

A few minutes into my ride, I realized that I was representing Georgia Tech. People would pass me and know I'm from Tech, and depending on my behavior, they may form a certain opinion about Georgia Tech. Suddenly, the pressure was on to go fast as well as follow every traffic law and not be stupid.

Then I got to thinking--whose team am I on in life? Who am I representing? And how are my actions creating good/bad impressions? Of course, I am (or should be) representing Christ--after all, I call myself a Christian. How then, should I modify my behavior to best represent Him? That's a lot of pressure--the last thing I want is to do something that puts a bad impression on Jesus.

It's not meant to be stressful, but certainly something to take into consideration as I go about my life, my decisions, my actions: am I providing a good impression of Christ and his love? Hmmm...

March 19: Glorify

We are called to glorify God. Glorify does not mean that we make God better; we are not improving his status, but simply making Him known in a positive light. We are not responsible for creating His good characteristics but only for turning our attention and others' to him rather than who we are or what we are doing.

I think this is more challenging than we realize. It is hard to do something or be a certain way in order to harness others' attention for God and not for who we are or what we are doing. Today, I saw what it means to glorify.

I had the absolute pleasure of being in the audience the senior recital of my dear friend, Haley. She was beautiful; her songs were beautiful, and her performance was stunning. She sang with emotion and allowed us to connect with her in the music. She ended her recital with a couple of songs that directed the meaning of her performance to the reason to sing, thanking and worshipping God in the process. It didn't take words or even actions, but rather a purity of intention. It was so clear that she was performing for a reason bigger than herself; my attention drifted from her towards the bigger image of God's will and presence.

I hope we can all find ways of glorifying God with our gifts and interests. If all of us learn to do like Haley, I think we'd find ourselves in communities of people who have their eyes on God.

March 18: We Are Family

I went to the zoo today, and the gorillas put on quite the show for us! They were busy doing very human-like things--playing tag, throwing dirt, wrestling, sitting, teasing each other, etc. They gathered a great audience of people, hooked to the action.

One had been running around, getting chased by another, and then jumped up onto his mother/into her lap to hide from the gorillas that had been chasing him. Everyone watching responded with something along the lines of, "awwww, he went to his mama." Even the little kids spoke up, "look Mommy, the gorilla went to his mommy."

In that moment I saw the ties among people; we all knew what it is like to run to our mothers. There were many people in that crowd; many from different walks of life, different countries, at different ages, but we all shared that. I think it is beautiful to see all God-breathed life and the way he has made us so similar, yet unique individuals too!

March 14-15: Sunshine!

After a long, dark, rainy/sleety/snowy winter of just under 100 hours, the sun appeared today! And it was glorious! I was almost as giddy over seeing and feeling sunlight as I was last night amidst the downpour of snow, the Georgia blizzard of March 2017. I'm being slightly sarcastic, but my point is that the weather these past few days has really connected by to God--no joke.

It has been cold. REALLY cold. After not having much of a winter and enjoying 70+ degree temperatures over the past few weeks, the sudden cold hit hard, and it was gray for days. Last night, to my great surprise and excitement, it snowed! It reminded me of how God can throw in some humor and light, even when a situation feels miserable or hopeless.

Then, this morning, the sun was out! The light was so bright and it was reflecting off of all the buildings. I realized how much I'd missed it, and it occurred to me that really, the sun didn't go away; it was simply obscured by clouds or we were on the wrong side of the planet. It had been there, shining, the whole time.

I think God is the same way. He continues to shine all the time. Sometimes, we are facing the wrong way, and all we see is the darkness of night, maybe a star or possible the moon remind us that there is still light. Other times, clouds crowd the sky and block the sun; distractions get in our way, and God's light seems less present. But He is ALWAYS there. And if you ever find yourself in the night or on a cloudy day, just remember that the sunrise is coming.

March 13: Short and Sweet

A quick God sighting today (one of many):

Two girls saw each other in the dining hall and one ran up and congratulated the other, and they were both so excited and happy that I honestly couldn't tell who it was with the good news/achievement and who it was doing the congratulating. Then and there, I thought, surely this is what selfless community looks like: celebrating with your fellows, their victories are not your losses, but rather your victories as well.

March 1-11: Stop the Train

"Stop the train. In cases of emergency, pull on the chain (pull on the chain 'toot toot!'). Penalty for improper use, 5 pounds!"--GT choir warm up lyrics

Apparently March has been a full, very busy month so far. There have definitely been some God-glorifying moments and some that have not been quite so glorifying on my part. It is really easy for me to get caught up in getting done the stuff I'm responsible for and forget the importance of how I do that--where my heart is, where my priority is.

In this society I live in, both at Georgia Tech and in many middle-class, urban areas, there is particularly high emphasis on career development, "success", being the best, doing impressive things, being smart and wealthy. Where does a relationship with God fall into all of that?

It doesn't.

There's no way to fit the selfish mindset of developing your best and your goals into the selfless heart of love and compassion. Not to mention that your best without God will never compare to your best with God. And as much as "success" provides for a "better" life, it will never exceed the people we meet and memories we create on the way to building that life. Over the past two-ish weeks, I can barely even remember feeling tired, worried, stressed (though these things were definitely present), but I can not forget the moments of peace, joy, and love I have felt.

Like the tranquility of walking through Piedmont Park in my pjs with delicious (and free) Bruster's ice cream and two of my favorite people, fantasizing our futures, people-watching and enjoying the beauty of sunshine.

Like the joy of spontaneity and living in the now when we piggy-backed to get free pancakes at midnight.  

Like being in awe of the masterpiece of our Creator, through the people he's made, the art he has made through them, and the light he shines on and through them. 

Like spending an entire day enjoying these masterpieces and strengthening friendship by climbing more than 600 steps, walking 10 miles, eating cantaloupe skewered on chopsticks, and being sleeted on (yes, it is March).  

And I've also realized that this is my first post since Lent began. Lent lasts 40 days partially as a remembrance of the temptation that Jesus had after spending 40 days fasting in the desert. I now recognize part of my temptation is to over prioritize schoolwork and over-obligate myself; perhaps this Lenten season is an ideal opportunity to, through faith and God's strength, trust the Lord, not my own means, to bring me to my best.

Relating back to the title and song of this post, sometimes we need to stop the train, get off, and get on the right one. It isn't easy. It is an inconvenience, but the sooner it happens, the easier it is to get back on track. I've finally stopped the train; the right train is coming, and I'm not gonna miss it.