Mm. Life is good.

Lately, life has been amazing; everything seems to be going so well. :) It's great.

I just want to make a list....:

1. The beauty of God's creation:
-the bare trees quietly whistling along with the wind and the birds
-the little white clouds that flit across the blue, blue skies
-radiant orange sunsets that sink behind the gorgeous Simpson campus
-even a chance encounter with a covenant-bearing rainbow after a light rain

2. Friends and family:
-my loving parents who text me just to say they're thinking about me
--my mom who calls to just check in, who listens to my endless ramblings about life and things going on with me and my Simpson world, and who sends me care packages stocked with thin mints and funny cards :)
--my dad who plays picture tag with me (via text messages and internet), and who either sends me beautiful pictures of everything I previously described about creation that I learned to admire from him, OR funny pictures of clever wordplay or ironic inconsistencies that I also learned to admire from him :)
-my sister who makes my life daily with random texts of movie quotes from our childhood that were buried in my schema, deep in the forgotten nooks of my brain, or phone calls that overflow with news of her growth from her experiences in her last year of high school in a town saturated in drama and her trials that seem too big for her that she soars through, making me so proud to call her my sister
-my wonderful boyfriend who constantly affirms me in my beauty and worth, and who listens to my insecurities and sticks around anyway, and who encourages me in my growth with my Jesus
-my amazing friends and extended family who love me for who I am and want to hang out with me despite my shortcomings (and my lame jokes :p)

3. Last, but not least, my Creator who gave me all these things and blessed me with this life.

For awhile, I'd been panicking slightly because things have been going so well, and I was worried that because things were so wonderful, something bad was bound to happen. I began to worry that the ominous thing in my future was just growing in ferocity the longer things went on without any huge trials (although, there were/are little ones, obviously, from day to day, but I mean large, life-changing-in-a-moment trials).

But then I started thinking ("a dangerous pastime" :p) and as I thought, well...actually, let's back up. Nate Edwardson triggered it. At the Stirring one night, he used the phrase "season of favor". Now, being very close friends with Jenna Barney, I had heard all about seasons :), but I had never heard this one, or if I had, it had never struck a chord before. I had always thought that when you are in God's favor, that everything goes right for you: getting As on every test, never tripping up the steps in LR, waking up early and feeling well-rested, being able to make crazy basketball half-court shots like Michael Jordan in space Jam, etc. A shallow view, I know, but it was one of those assumptions I'd had since childhood that had become an ingrained fact of life that had never resurfaced and whose ridiculousity (yes, I made that up) had never been exposed. Anyway, (gosh, I am SO tangent prone :p) I heard that phrase and thought it fit with me. I may not fit the "Midas touch"-God's-favor, but I do believe that I am immensely blessed. I thank God everyday for the things He has given me that I have done nothing to earn or deserve.

Someone (either Travis Osborne in Chapel, or Nate at the Stirring, I believe) was talking about Haiti as he was preaching, and he said something that hit me hard:

"The only difference between you and that person with nothing is where you were born, and you had no control over that."

*low whistle*...Seriously, though, think about that for a second: the ONLY difference is where God placed us. I was so broken by that. I have done nothing to deserve being born in America, to great parents--CHRISTIAN parents, with a wonderful family (parents, sister, extended family), to live in a middle-class home, to have great friends who love me and laugh with me, to go to a great school--a Christian school where I am in constant fellowship and encouraged so often....the list goes on and on.....I am so, so blessed. It almost brings me to tears again just typing it out.

Before, during this season, I had only been thinking of the trials to come; I neglected to bask in the glory of the blessings God has bestowed upon me. If He wants to bless me with all of these outrageously wonderful things, I am so in. Bring it on, Jesus :)