Thanksgiving List as a 20 year old

1. Who God is - a good God, full of love and compassion and mercy and sovereignty and grace
2. My family
3. My apartment
4. The basketball team
5. Reformed University Fellowship
6. The city of Charlottesville
7. The interaction between the siblings now that Davis is 13 and Ryan is 22 - we are all moving towards being friends as well as siblings
8. Adults and older people who have poured into my life (Coach Priester, teachers, AC and Derrick, other MPC volunteers, Saranell, Molly, Libbie, etc.)
9. Friends, new and old, UVA and nova
10. Good health for those I love
11. My bed
12. The luxury of having a car at school
13. The opportunity to be invested and welcomed into the Lewis family this summer
14. Good things to be enjoyed - movies, tv shows, good food, novels, etc. 
15. The opportunity to attend the University of Virginia
16. The freedom to choose what I study
17. Greg Thompson, Shawn Slate, James Forsyth
18. God's evident power and creativity in nature
19. Technology allowing me to keep up with people
20. The ability to exercise

Have you ever read something and felt like the author was speaking to you? That they had somehow crawled into your brain and read your thoughts and come up with a response? Is that what the Holy Spirit is doing? Guiding me to these places where I feel my heart thirst is satisfied?

Here is what I read in my devotions this morning from Sarah Young's Jesus Lives:

"I understand you perfectly and love you eternally. It is your soul I love, rather than your appearance or performance. Sometimes you are so dissatisfied with both of these that they become your focus. To break free from this self-preoccupation, relax in My loving Presence and let the Light of My Love soak into your entire being. Rest deeply while I massage your thoughts and feelings, helping you change your focus from yourself to Me. Remember that I created you to know Me: to enjoy Me and center your life in Me. Cease striving and know that I am God.

The world abounds with idols - things you turn to when you want to feel better about yourself: eating, entertainment, exercise, mastery of something or someone. However, none of these things can slake the thirst of your soul, which yearns for Me alone. Idolatrous substitutes may suppress your appetite for Me, mainly by distracting you, but they provide no satisfaction. When you get that gnawing sensation around the edges of your soul, return to Me. Your soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods."

Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." - Psalm 46:10

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. - Psalm 63: 3-5

Encouragement from St. Augustine

Alas for me! Through your own merciful dealings with me, O Lord my God,  tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation.  Say it so that I can hear it. My heart is listening, Lord;  open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, I am your salvation.  Let me run towards this voice and seize hold of you.  Do not hide your face from me: let me die so that I may see it,  for not to see it would be death to me indeed.

This, friends, is perspective. 

⁸ Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
⁹ Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.

- Psalm 34: 7-8

Those who fear the Lord lack nothing...NOTHING. All we need is found in Him. And in order to see the Lord's goodness, we need to TASTE and see that He is good. Tasting is personal. It is something that only you can experience yourself. You must experience and take the dare to taste the Lord to fully experience His goodness. How good is our God!

Today, I am thankful for: 

1. My family - I have gotten to see someone in my family for the past three weekends while still being involved and engaged at school. I don't know why I thought that I had to choose between being an integral part of things at home and being fully engaged at school. It is totally possible and doable to be present in both. For this I am thankful.
2. My apartment - these girls have made me feel so loved and cared for this semester. We have fun together and have good conversation. They are so easy to live with and they encourage me daily. When I come to the apartment, it truly feels like a home away from home. I think this feeling of belonging has really shaped my semester thus far. As these friendships continue to grow and strengthen, I am overwhelmed by how the Lord has blessed me with these three lovely young ladies. 
3. My friends at UVA
4. RUF
5. My friends from home
6. The beautiful fall weather
7. My basketball team

You are my home. 

“But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in you." - Psalm 39:7

I fall on my knees before you, O Lord. Acknowledging that I feel homeless, I long to be in the place which you are preparing for me. I feel homeless here. The Christian story is the story of homeless. Adam and Eve wandering. Moses and the Israelites wandering. Prophets wandering. John the Baptist wandering. Jesus wandering. Jesus dying. Jesus rising again. Jesus ascending to His home to be with You, God. You are showing me that you are my home. My hope is in you. So why do I continue to run in the other directions, chasing all things that will never satisfy. "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you." More homelessness in the lyrics, "Just when I thought that I'd remain in the wasteland of my shame, that was the moment Jesus came." He sees my homelessness and He enters into this homelessness. 

"I dwell with you as a foreigner,
    a stranger, as all my ancestors were." - Psalm 39:12b 

I want to journey with you today and always, God. 

For You are my home. 

Vamos a la Playa

The beach in my place of solitude. I am leaving tomorrow for my favorite week of the year. It is isolated despite the constant ambiance of tourism. There are two important aspects of this week that I love the most:

1. It is a week of self-forgetfulness. One of my favorite quotes of all-times comes from John Piper when he states, "The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness." At the beach, there is so much beauty, so much grandeur, so much vastness that it is seemless task to become overwhelmed at my insignificance. This is worship. God is great and the maker of all the things that I find lovely. The beach is teeming with those things that I find beautiful in this life: the laughter of my little brother symphonizing with the seagulls cries, the feeling of the blazing sun evaporating the droplets of salt water from my back, the array of colors across the sky against the water as the sun begins to set, the view from the top of Jockey's Ridge with the bay to one side and the endless ocean to the other, exhaustion after a day of sun and smiles, being present with my family, noticing the little things that make them all so important to me, looking into the bleakness of the ocean at night and failing to differentiate where the sky meets the sea. There is so much beauty, driving me to worship the Giver of them all.

2. It is a week of fellowship. I feel so close to my family here because we only have each other. It forces things to go back to the way that there once were, free of the complications of suburban networks and commitments and obligations. I can revel in the good relationships that God has given me.