WHADDUP 2023!!!
Whew! January slayed. More professionally put, January was a really good month. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t really love the month of January. Not only is it painstakingly frigid, but the new year just kind of freaks me out. The thought of having 12 whole months ahead of me is daunting… What will the year hold??
But this January was different. This month and the material contained within equipped me with tools that I think set me up well for the year ahead. I got a glimpse into how I was intricately wired by my Creator, I gained some great insight on how to live a meaningful life, and I’m beginning to develop my own understanding of how my beliefs fit in with the broader culture in which I am immersed. Allow me to unpack that really long and wordy sentence.
At the world-renowned Vocation and Calling Retreat, we had the opportunity to meet Bruce, who shared his ideas about God’s calling on our lives and the biblical understanding of work. I met with Bruce for a one-on-one session to discuss my results of the three different assessments I had taken (The Highlands Ability Battery, EQI, Trumotivate). I won’t bore you with all the minute details of all the results, but I will say that it was awesome to piece together how God uniquely created me. God made me with special gifts and abilities and these gifts are meant to be used!! I was so encouraged by Bruce during our session. Through my results he affirmed me in my aspirations to become a speech language pathologist. He shared that my motivations and giftings align well with my career goals. It makes me so excited to pursue a career as a speech therapist! Bruce, if you’re reading this, you’re the best. Thanks for hyping me up.
This past weekend we had the privilege of learning from John Richmond at THE John Richmond Retreat (January was a retreat-heavy month 🫠). John shared with us his 10 rules for a meaningful life. He and his wife also shared with us some principles for spousal selection, but I’m going to have to put those in my pocket for another day because I’m not really in my “spousal selection” era.
Of all the rules John shared, my favorite were rules number 8 and 9: Be Generous and Happen to Your Life. Being generous means so much more than putting a 50 dollar bill in the offering plate at church. We can be generous with our time by being available. John told us to wander, to meander, to tarry… to be available. This can look like freeing up my schedule to go grab a coffee with a friend who just needs to be heard. It also means giving those around me my full attention (John refers to this as “giving people my five senses”) so that I can be fully present with them. We can also make generous assumptions about people’s motives. Instead of assuming the worst in my coworker’s abrupt text message, I can be generous by choosing to believe that maybe they received some hard news or are just having a bad day. Being generous is cool!
Rule #9 is Happen to Your Life. I’ve heard this phrase before but more in a cliche type of way. But after hearing from John, I think there’s more to it than that. We happen to our life when we let go of control. We can’t control what happens to us, but we do get to decide how to respond. I’m thinking about this in the context of my plans for next year. I plan to go to graduate school, but will I get into the places I apply? What if I have to move far away from the people I love? What if I don’t get into my top choice school? These are fears of mine because they are out of my control. But I can rest assured that the Lord brought me here to Raleigh to bring glory to His name and He can just as well plop me somewhere else. And He will still be God. And He will still be glorified. AND the good news is that I have control over my attitude towards potentially living somewhere new (or maybe staying in Raleigh…). I’m learning how to happen to my life by being okay with not knowing. It’s a good place to be.
And finally, I’m really enjoying our class called Christ and Culture taught by our senior pastor, Nick Comiskey. So far we have been defining what it means to be “secular” and how our understanding of Christianity fits into the secular world in which we live. The class is essentially framed around these questions: How is that 500 years ago, unbelief in God was almost impossible, while today believing in God is uncommon and contrary? How did this change happen? We’ve talked some about the idea of a “God-shaped hole.” Many times Christians understand non-believers as people who feel like they lack meaning or purpose; they have a God shaped hole in their hearts. And while this may be true for some, we live in a culture where many people don’t feel like they are lacking; they live seemingly purpose-filled lives without knowing Jesus. To be secular today means to believe that Christianity is only one of many options to live a meaningful life. So the question is, how do we live out and share the gospel in our postmodern culture? Where does Jesus fit into all of this? These are questions we are working through in class and ones that I’m figuring out for myself. But it’s super “heady” stuff and it’s challenging for me! I love it!
Well, that’s it for now. Today is my last day of being 22 so in honor of that I will leave you with these lyrics that have absolutely nothing to do with anything I have just said but have everything to do with being 22:
We’re happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time,
It’s miserable and magical,
Tonight’s the night when we forget about the deadlines
It’s time,
I don’t know about you,
But I’m feeling 22.
- Taylor Swift, 22
Bye for now, talk to yall when i’m twenty-three 👋👋👋
Peace and Blessings,
Emily