the moments of spontaneity

Recently, I have felt a lot like a kid trying to play adult. Managing school, work and life and doing "adult" things like cooking my own dinner and cleaning my house and what not vividly reminds me that I'm not going to be 20 years old forever.

It's those insane moments of spontaneity that remind me that right now, I am 20 years old, and I'm loving it. Last Wednesday night, my friend and roommate Maggie (who knows that I love two things a whole lot, 1. country music and 2. live concerts) asks me, "so how do you like Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley?" When I said, obviously, that I love them both, she goes, "well would you want to go see them in concert tomorrow night?" To which it took me all of 30 seconds to decide, what the heck, why not?

And without even thinking much about any logistics or coming up with a game plan, we decided to buy some tickets a friend was selling at the last minute and less than 24 hours later, us and two friends were on our way to Atlanta on a Thursday night to go enjoy ourselves a country concert!

If any moment reminds me I'm 20 still allowed to be spontaneous and impulsive, sometimes against my better judgment, it's this: walking out of class at 5pm with my backpack and cowboy boots in hand and hopping in my car in Athens only to arrive in Atlanta to see Dierks Bentley and the biggest badass in country music, Miranda Lambert a few hours later.

The Glorification of Busy.

Stop it. The glorification of busy. And business. And being busy. And being a busy body.

As much as I hate to admit it, sometimes I believe I am one to think "the grass is much greener." Do I even need to finish the cliche phrase or do you find yourself thinking the same exact thing as often as I do?

What I mean by this is that when I am bored or lack things to do, I feel useless, purposeless and unfulfilled. I crave that full-force business that leaves me feeling drained and accomplished at the end of the day. Then there's the reverse--when I am so busy that I hardly feel like I have my stuff together, I feel useless, purposeless and--you guessed it--unfulfilled.

It's like no matter what end of the spectrum I find myself at, I feel anxiety over the other end. Ironic, right? So that is what I am trying to stop. I am trying to stop the glorification of busy in my life because at the end of the day, I do not want to feel purposeful by how much I accomplished in my waking hours. I want to feel purposeful and fulfilled by the grace of Jesus and nothing else. It's a huge feat to work on this and I don't think it is something that will ever quite be "fixed." Because I know I absolutely need to look for the stillness of Jesus in my everyday life.

What am I doing about it? This looking for stillness? Trying to take note of and be joyful and at peace in little moments throughout the day. Normally, that's really easy for me to say and not actually do but this time, it's different. This year at school, I am on my own cooking for myself entirely for the first time in my life. And I know a lot of kids my age who just throw some lean cuisines in the microwave or pick up takeout and call it a night. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but for the past month, I have reminded myself what a joy it is to set aside half an hour to cook something for myself (and then I send a picture of whatever I cooked to my mom hoping she is as proud of me as I am...). Same goes for when I prepare my coffee in the morning. When I catch myself thinking how much more convenient and time-efficient it would be to stick a ready-made and packaged Keurig cup in the machine and "voila, a cup of lukewarm coffiee!" because I am just soooo busy, I choose to enjoy the process of preparing my coffee grinds and making my own personal cup of joe just for myself.

When I get out of class and I have to walk half an hour in the heat to my car or my house, I embrace the time I have to be outside that I truly can't spend doing anything else because I actually do have to walk there to get home.

I'm not the first one to think of or to say "watch out for the little moments in life," but I have been looking for them and making myself aware of little moments of joy in mine. When I recognize these moments and seek Jesus through them, I am full of joy and at peace. So hey, it works.

Southern, Godly Hospitality

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"

-Matthew 25: 34-40

Whenever I read this passage or scripture like this, I wonder what exactly hospitality looks like in our world today. I think to myself all the time that it is hard to feed the hungry and welcome the strangers in the same way that Jesus did and that Jesus wants for us to. I think of all the differences between that day and age and now and am convinced that there is no way to show that kind of hospitality these days.

Well, now I can bite my tongue. Because this weekend I realized how wrong that is-how wrong I have been to think that showing Jesus's love and hospitality in our normal lives is unattainable. Not because I learned what it meant to clothe and feed and house the needy--but because I was on the receiving end of such hospitality.

Coming from California all the way to Georgia in a school where 91% of the more than 35,000 students come from the state of Georgia. People are born and bred Bulldawg fans and wait their whole life to come to UGA. And then when they get here, oftentimes they go home for the weekends. On long weekends like this for Labor Day, it seems that not a soul hung around the Classic City. On the contrary, everyone gets out of town fast enough that they can eat home cooked meals, have their laundry done for them, shower and sleep in their own home and spend time with the family. Now I love my school and the beautiful state of Georgia and would never change a thing about my college experience, but weekends like these make it hard to be an out of stater. When weekends like these roll around, I itch to go home and be fed and  loved on by family just as much as the next person. I just never have the option.

I do have family down in south Georgia I visit a couple of times a semester and being close to them has truly been a blessing the past few years. But this year for Labor Day, everyone had big plans to go home or visit family or go somewhere and do something. It seemed every single UGA student did-except for me. By the end of the week though, I too was leaving Athens. I too was headed to a home and a family and a bed and a home-cooked meal like everyone else. One of my best friends invited me and a group of girls home for the weekend-an opportunity I literally jumped at. Her family fed me, gave me somewhere to sleep and watch Georgia football, hang out at the lake and enjoy time spent at home and away from school.

All weekend, I just couldn't get it out of my head. Jesus answered my prayer for somewhere to belong for the weekend and showed me that despite my convinced stubbornness that His hospitality is not revealed on a daily basis, His love is, in fact, everywhere. This is not the first time I have been invited and welcomed into the home of strangers for the night or for a weekend and fed and loved and I know it will not be the last, but my eyes were finally opened to the reason and the man behind it all. And for that, I am truly blessed, humbled and thankful.

just bein a townie

I'm reminded time and time again of what a cool town I live in. A town I get the chance to call home for at least four years of my life in Athens, Georgia. I've been back in Athens for three weeks now-adjusting to the crazy transition of college life and the weird out of body experience of what it feels like to be an...upperclassman.

These past few weeks, I've gotten to see Athens from all different angles.  I've experienced the age-old tradition of Bid Day, the culminating of sorority rush in a huge SEC school where Greek life and Milledge Avenue are a tradition and a part of life-or at least a part of my life. I saw a movie on a Monday night called The Spectacular Now that was filmed partly in Athens at our local, indie theatre called Ciné-one of many cool Athens venues and places I have been itching to scratch off my bucket list for years. 

I saw famous country star Rodney Atkins and a favorite local of mine, Emily Hearn, play a concert at the Georgia Theatre to benefit Children's Miracle Network, a branch of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Friday, I started my internship in the Public Information Office at City Hall in downtown Athens.

I drove to Clemson to tailgate and experience the start of Georgia football this season--my first away game since being in college. Walking around Clemson's campus with orange and purple crowds everywhere, while I enjoyed it, reminded me of how much more I love walking around Georgia's beautiful campus. We endured ESPN's College Game Day and tailgating for 8 hours in the heat and humidity, the pouring down rain, and the hopes and disappointments in our first game of the season.

At the end of the day when the Dawgs lost in a good fight, I was proud to be wearing red and black and happy to be heading back to the best college town on earth. Athens, I love you.