New in the Morning

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23 

Unexpected Blessings and Surprising Grace

I am so blessed. 


Really though, it's unbelievable  how much grace has been poured over my life recently. Pretty much nothing this year has turned out like I expected it to, but it has been far greater than I could have imagined.


Coming into my junior year of college, I had a lot of expectations. I was going to clear out my busy schedule (say bye-bye iCal) and make lots of room because I was going to be the student director of orientation committee. I'd gotten a promotion at work so I was going to "upgrade" from the 6 am shift to the afternoon a couple days a week, 3 ideally. I was going to dominate my classes and basically run the school because I was an upperclassmen but I didn't have to worry about the scary "real world" looming as graduation neared. Most importantly, I was NOT, under any circumstances, going to think about men. Period.


Hear God laughing? Yeah, me too.


OC Student Director: Rejected
Work: 3-6 Monday-Friday... bye-bye afternoons :(
Classes: dominated me... ouch
Scary Real World: one word... internships


One by one, those things I planned on fell through. But you know what? I'm SO glad they did because God had a far better plan for my year.


I look forward to going to work... every single afternoon. Why? Because it is life-giving. I have been blessed with one of the world's most incredible bosses. At the beginning of my shift it takes me about 20 minutes to walk the 15 feet from the time clock to the front desk where I work because my boss stops me half way there to ask how my day is going and to encourage me through the array of curve-balls life has thrown me lately. And that's just the beginning. After I talk to my boss, I get to spend the next 3 hours talking with with my coworkers about what God is doing in their lives, encouraging them and being encouraged. I cannot imagine a better college job.


Getting rejected for OC student director was hard, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. I wanted it, oh man did I want it, and I reformatted my entire year to work around it. It's like I had a life liquidation and my motto was "Everything MUST Go!" THEN, I got the rejection letter. Talk about something to take the wind out of your sails! Now I had all this free time and nothing to do with it. Or so I thought...


Less than a month later I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (see previous post) and had to start reevaluating life again. But you know what? I had all this free time to schedule doctor's appointments and take blood tests and I didn't have all the added stress of running to meetings and planning interviews and all manner of other time commitments that I would have had if I didn't clear out my schedule. God knew what he was doing though and he used my plan for OC to facilitate his plan instead. Man he's good at logistics! 


I still had all this free time though... and found myself surprisingly lonely. But never fear, God had a plan for that too, and his name was Jake :) To those of you who don't know him, this is a  man you need to meet! He's an incredible man of God and one of the biggest unexpected blessings of my year. If you've read my recent posts, you know that I would have NEVER seen this one coming, especially since I swore off men this year ;) but like I said, God's got a sense of humor... and impeccable timing.


So basically, God knows what we want but he gives us what we need. And that is a VERY good thing.