Student Blog - Little Things

Got a little story for ya, Ags!

 A couple of weeks ago, I had an interview for a summer internship in Houston.  I was really nervous, and honestly I wasn't very excited about it (I'm sure you've had that feeling- who likes interviews, right?).  I wasn't really paying attention while I was driving so I ended up taking the wrong exit off the highway.   To make matters worse there was a man soliciting for money at the red light where I was trying to make a U-turn.

Great.

Of course I was at the front of the line, so he came up to my car and I rolled down my window.  It turned out the man was collecting money for a church who ran a drug recovery program and was trying to keep it open, so I decided to go ahead and give him a few dollars.  He was SO thankful.  He gave me a bottle of water (which was great- I was pretty thirsty) and started chatting with me about my day and where I was going, so of course I told him that I was going to an interview.  He congratulated me and started to walk away, but then he came back and said the last words that I ever expected to come out of his mouth.

"Can I pray with you?"

So I ended up at an intersection holding a complete stranger's hand while he prayed for me.  While he has probably long forgotten me, that man's gesture touched me more deeply than he could ever know.  In fact, I went back to that intersection after my interview to let him know how it went, but he was gone.

My challenge for you this week is to go out of your way to do something nice/unexpected for someone, whether it be a friend or a stranger.  John 13:34-35 says:

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." 

Random acts of kindness are a great way to show this love, especially as we approach the end of the school year and stresses are running a little higher than usual.  I hope that you all have a great week.  We're almost done!

Bonnie

Student Blog - I’m Thinking of Lilies and Birds

When the course schedule for the following semester is posted, there is always a sudden cease of productivity. We get caught up in planning the next load instead of trying to conquer the one right in front of us. This is especially true for me, since I have a tendency to get caught up in planning my entire life. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned, is that life is too arbitrary to plan every minute detail.

Last summer, I decided it would be a good idea to look over my degree plan just to see what I needed to take in order to graduate. When I saw that I had less than I’d originally thought, I freaked. It was looking like I was going to graduate early. And I did NOT want any part of that. So I thought and thought and thought about what I could do in order to prevent this from happening. The solution seemed obvious. I needed to add a new minor.

So here I am, almost a year later, trying to complete a minor that gives me more trouble than it’s worth, and I’m not so sure that I’ll even use it. Now it’s time to face the truth: I’m graduating in two semesters whether I like it or not. I’ve never prepared myself beyond that point, and that’s why I think I’ve been so afraid. I can’t see everything that lies ahead of me, and I’m never totally able to trust that everything is going to be completely fine.

But that’s not how it’s supposed to work. Nothing in life is guaranteed. God doesn’t promise riches. He doesn’t promise academic success. And He certainly doesn’t give us the answers we want the moment we want them. Even though these things aren’t certain, we are promised to be loved, and we are promised to be cared for.

“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Luke 12:27

When we consider how much greater God created us compared to the rest of Creation, we know that we will be taken care of no matter what comes our way. Giving your life to God may seem risky, but at the end of it all, everything will turn out better than anything we could have planned on our own.

Shelby Olive