"Pieces of the world"

Wow! It feels so great to be able to blog. I haven't had much time lately since our new semester at school has begun, but it is such a relief.

Well, since I'm already on the subject of a new school semester, I should probably mention that it involves much more stressful classes than my last semester did, but it's okay. My Teaching class hasn't changed, but we got a new teacher, and I have no clue whether or not she knows what she is doing, but hopefully things will get better. Next, I have AP English, and it is probably the most interesting English class that I have taken in my entire life. The teacher is wonderful, and I am finally in a class with people who are on the same maturity level as I am. The last class I have this semester that has changed is Advanced Functions, and if you know me at all, you just happen to know that math is NOT my friend. Yes, I can do math, but as long as I'm having to do it, I can not promise to be a happy camper!!

On a better note, this past weekend, my church had "180 weekend". If you don't know what 180 weekend is, there is no better way to explain it than by saying that it is the best weekend of your life. There was powerful worship, miraculous lessons/sermons, and my host home just happened to be wonderful. There were only five girls in my host home, including me and our leader from North Greenville University. Other than our leader, I knew everyone in the group, but the best thing about 180 is that you really get to know people that you know absolutely nothing about, and you get to know even more about the ones you have known for a long time. I left with stronger friendships, new friendships, a better relationship with Christ, and a weekend full of memories that I will never forget. When we returned to our church the following Sunday, one of our youth leaders asked me if I would be willing to get up on stage, in front of the entire church and speak about the weekend. I honestly had no clue about what I should say, but I knew that it would be a wonderful experience that I would never forget. I decided that I wanted to tell everyone a story that we were told by our speaker for the weekend that absolutely blew me away. The story was about a little boy and his father. This little boy's father was at work, but the boy was so anxious and excited for his daddy to get home so he could play with him. The little boy would run up to his mommy every half hour or so, asking "When's daddy coming home, when's daddy gonna be here". Each time, the mother would answer, "5 O'clock", but the little boy didn't exactly understand time yet, so he would keep coming back to ask again. Finally, the little boy's daddy got home from work, and the little boy ran to the door to hug his father. The little boy was still so very excited; he asked his daddy to play with him, but his daddy was so tired and worn out from work, he asked for five minutes to sit and read the paper. Five minutes went by a lot more quickly than the father was expecting, so when the little boy ran back asking to play again, his daddy asked for just five more minutes. The little boy waited anxiously for about four and a half more minutes, and then ran back to his daddy. His father still couldn't believe that five minutes could pass so quickly, so as he was reading the paper, he saw a picture of the world, tore the picture into about five or six pieces, and handed them to his son. The father told the son, "Now, when you can come back to me with this picture put back together, we will play". The father, knowing that his son didn't know where to put places like Africa and Europe on a map, thought that it would surely take his son quite a while to figure the puzzle out. You can see how the father was so confused when the son came back just a few minutes later with the puzzle correctly taped together. When the father asked the son how he completed it so quickly, his son replied, "well, you see, there was a picture of a man on the back, so I realized that once I could get the man together, the pieces of the world would just fall into place".

Wow! Such inspirational words from such a young boy. I believe that so many times, we, as humans, try so hard to put the pieces of the world together, fixing everyone else before we even take the time to fix ourselves. There was one song that we listened to quite a few times during 180; it is called "Open Hands" by Matt Papa. The words of this song were so life-changing, and they made me think about the story with the little boy and his father. A few of the lyrics are, "I lift my hands, open wide. Let the whole world see, how You love, how You died, how You set me free. Free at last, I surrender all I am, with open hands. With open hands." Now, I know that in my own life, that's exactly what I want. I want to be able to put myself together, lift my hands, open wide, and let God shine through me, knowing that the pieces of the world will just start to fall into place. Because of this weekend, I know that I can no longer be complacent. I can no longer just live my life day-to-day, and I have to spend my life trying to put the "man" together, so that the world's pieces will eventually fall back into place.