Blink. Blink. Blink.
It stares me down.
My fingers freeze over the letters lit from below and the words disappear once again.
I’ve learned that when life picks up the words slow down. It’s taken me little to no time to come to the conclusion but it’s taken me a while to be at peace with it.
Sometimes, I’m still not.
I want to write, for the words to flow out as usual, poured out like a drink offering.
But in mid-October I began to step away, not because I felt Him calling me from this place but because life demanded my full attention, my undivided time.
I never chose to quiet down in this place but I did make the conscious decision to always be fully present to those who needed me in real life, to nurture relationships, sit with friends as they cry, laugh too hard, watch too many Netflix marathons with my best friends, and take in every single moment before any of them slip away.
I don’t have this balancing thing figured out but it’s hard to regret spending time with cherished friends and loved ones, building a future and loving the present.
If you keep up with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you know life has been pretty darn full. I survived the hardest semester I’ve ever had (praise the Lord and glory hallelujah!) and even made great grades. When I look at the things on my plate the past few months, it’s no wonder my writing time became breathing time.
A glimpse since October?
I took 5 classes, 18 hours
Editor of Sojourn, a magazine
I was part of a team that created Exodus XII, a 66 page magazine, from the ground up
Social Media Director and writer for Exodus
Part of Phi Mu
On 3 committees for Phi Mu
Wrote for More To Be
Continued running social media for (in)courage
And then there are social events or simple things like eating and sleeping. No joke, from the last week of October until November 16th, my best friends had to remind me to eat meals or sleep for a few hours. I’ve never been so busy in my life, and all things I couldn’t back away from.
And then in the middle of it? God absolutely blew my mind and brought into my life a relationship that demanded my full attention, one that I wanted to give my attention to.
I have no regrets.
But I have missed this place. Rarely did a day go by without me thinking of this little corner and all I wanted to share. The words came to mind but they never translated to the screen. As I get back into the swing of things, can I simply say thank you for sticking with me?
Thank you for grace, for patience, and for understanding that life calls and it will always come first for me. While I’m on break for school, I’m doing my best to do this thing people call “rest.”
I still haven’t figured out exactly what that is or how to do it; the word is foreign to me. People say reading books and sleeping work well? Yeah. I’m gonna try that for a bit.
As my soul finds rest and the words return, I’ll be back here. I have a few posts on my heart, but one in particular that’s been burning a hole in me for weeks. God came knocking in October and I can’t get over it, the miracle of His faithfulness.
I’ll leave you with this: God does not leave broken people broken. He redeems, He restores, and He is the creator of new beginnings.
I’ll be back tomorrow with some of my favorite posts of 2013. Come back and read along with me the pages of this chapter?
