Sunrise with Jesus

I took a much needed walk with Jesus this morning.  It's been the most draining month of my entire life.  Academically--I've never endured so much dreaded work.  Spiritually--I've never had such a dry, distant season.  Emotionally--I've never had so many ups and downs in this short of a time span.  Physically--I've never felt so exhausted after getting so much sleep.  Socially--I've never experienced a craving of friends AND alone time at the same time so much.  To sum that up--it's just been a ridiculous month!

So back to my starting point, I went on a walk with Jesus this morning.  As I arrived on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, I had a very faint idea of where I was attempting to go.  Despite living 10 minutes away from Notre Dame for the past 5 years, I had never stepped foot on the campus prior to 6:50am today.  I parked in what I presumed was the south visitor parking lot (though I later found out it was not) and started walking towards the back of the campus to get to the campus lakes.  I finally caught sight of the lakes and looked up to the sky.  My goal was to get down to the lakes just as the sun was coming up.  Whether it was my awesome timing or God just allowing it to work out, I was in the perfect place when the sun began to shoot colors across the sky. 

As I continued around the first lake, I thought to myself, "He did this for ME."  I am a firm believer that God does answer prayers and I was praying for a beautiful morning--it was that and so much more.  It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen...which is saying something!  For not being a morning person, I love, love, LOVE the opportunity to see the sunrise.  I used to wake up at obnoxious hours in high school with a friend to go see the sunrise.  We haven't done it in a long time, and I was well overdue for another encounter with the first rays of dawn.

After the brilliant colors of the sunrise disappeared, I finished walking around the first lake and headed towards the second lake.  By the end of my walk, I had one thought going through my head that has not left me all day.  "Amidst the busyness of life, God is still here!"  After an insanely crazy month, I needed this reminder.  Through all my struggles, God is still here!  In the darkest of nights, God is still here!  In the moments that life gets me down, God is still here!  There is a promise in Hebrews 3:15 that I need to cling to every waking moment of my life.  “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you."  Even when I do get bogged down with the busyness of life, Jesus is still the Lord of my life.  I find comfort in that.  Comfort, knowing I am not, nor will I ever be alone. :)

It was a good morning, but you better believe that I went home and took a nap afterwards! :)  The last two pictures are pictures from this morning that I wanted to share just because I can.

Marching through 2011

Okay--forgive my cheesy title.
It's March already and I don't know where the time is going. January proved to be a relatively easy month of school. It was time consuming but not mentally draining, which was a big blessing. Health wise things got interesting. I ended up in the ER after dealing with some severe pelvic pain. By the time I saw the doctor almost 6 hours after arriving, the pain had stopped. They told me the pain was from cysts on my ovaries rupturing and there was nothing they could do. My body just reabsorbs the fluid, so I walked out with a prescription for Vicodin. All 6 hours of waiting just for a little piece of paper. Fabulous, huh? Well I've carried the pain meds around with me for the last month JUST in case, but luckily nothing has happened again. While I've never given birth---that was the most extreme pain ever!

February passed with a great deal of stress due to a very intense class at school that involved memorizing lots of bones and muscles in a short 4 week period.  I came out of the class with a decent grade (better than expect!) so I have no complaints now.  I don't even know what else took place in February because school demanded so much of my time.

And now it's March!  The month has started off kinda rough.  School has once again been very difficult so far.  I'm half way done with my class and am MORE than ready to accept it as part of my HISTORY! :)  Soon enough it will be, so I should stop wishing away my time. 

Outside of school, I honestly don't have much of a life.  Work is time consuming, though not very exciting.  I'm in the process of training some of my students to become "Student Managers."  It's pretty fun!  Ya know...I like this manager position.  I enjoy being in charge and I love teaching my "mad skills" to them! :)  Okay...skip the mad skills part--I just enjoy the training process.  It gives me something to be proud of, I guess.  I'm proud to have the skills and qualifications to do it, and it makes me proud to see my workers stepping up in leadership.

Well I think it's time to wrap this post up.  I've enjoyed being able to blog again...I need to do it more often!!!  It's a good stress relief! Later days, people!