What is past, the new things to come, and how good I have it

Tonight summer officially ends for me. I'm glad I had the break but at the same time it wasn't a great summer. One good thing the school year provides for me is a routine. It's weird that our society or at least my society seems to be built around the school year. For example last year: School obviously kept me busy, also helping out in Mid-high began again, and we also had somewhat of a college group meeting on a mostly consistent basis. In busyness I guess I find structure. I can plan things easier when I know that I have a million other things going on. That's the way I am though. When it came to my own devotionals it was almost like I had no reason not to. I could fit half a million things in already, why not fit one more. Sadly, when school ended so did the structure of my life. (Mid-high responsibilities ceased, no more homework, and the college group, sorry to say, failed my expectations) I remained busy all summer but there was no order to my busyness. Nights with friends, going camping and other trips on the weekends but nothing that was consistent. Unfortunately my quiet times took a severe blow. Honestly I've felt pretty horrible about myself this summer but I never tried to change. I could try to blame my friends but I know it was me. The first person I am accountable to is me(or is it God?).

Here I am though, 9 hours from the start of my first class of the year. I managed to start reading my Bible about a week ago and have managed to stay, for the most part, consistent. James and I went to Salt tonight and I could seriously see myself getting plugged in there. It was great. My class schedule at first seemed daunting with 2 fairly complex math classes and econ but I realized that the amount of homework probably won't increase, just the difficulty, which will probably cause me to try harder. I'm excited to on the Salt Fall Retreat in a few weeks and looking forward to getting plugged in to a solid Christian community there. This weekend I will begin the search for my first* personal church. I think I'm starting with the church Salt meets at because I actually haven't heard of any others. Wow! Writing this out caused to me to realize that something I was planning won't work with my schedule. I was going to go to Fuel(Campus Crusade) on Thursday but realized I'll be back in Yakima having a birthday dinner for my Uncle Mike. I only get to see him about once a year but he ALWAYS finds something encouraging to say to me so I'm not gonna miss that.

At Salt the speaker was sharing the story of Mephibosheth(Yes I copied and pasted that) who was sought out by King David to become part of his family, basically, and to dine at his table with all of his advisors and wise men even though he was crippled. I guess I've never really thought so much about this before but today when we think about being a part of God's family we think "God's the dad and we're just his kids" but if you were to read it as if you were someone living in the days of kings and royalty it would be different. We are not merely children of God, we are his ROYAL children! Everyday we have the opportunity to sit down to a meal with the KING of kings and the LORD of lords and eat the choicest of foods! And to top it all off we are the heirs of his infinite blessings!!! What made Mephibosheth's story so amazing was that he was a cripple with nothing going for him, he was a failure, and yet the king reached out and pulled him out of his crummy life to spoil him. It seems so often that I find myself searching through the world's dumpsters looking for anything I can find to satisfy my desires, just like the prodigal son, when my father is calling me back to a life of abundant blessings. More than I could ask for or even imagine. This is the life. I want to live it. Dear God, help me live it. Help me to crave nothing but what you have for me.

*In case you're wondering. I did actually choose Westside Church as my own personal church about two years ago but I didn't have to find it. I was incredibly blessed to be born and raised in the amazing ministry of that church. I may write something about this someday because I think about this a lot.