a moment of peace...

     The daily life of a college student is nothing short of incredible. We eat, sleep, study, go to class, go socialize, go to church, go to merge, and go coning at 2:30 in the morning on occasion… Go, go, go. It wouldn’t be surprising that a college student would welcome the summer. And so have I this year. But even in the ‘calm’ of summer Josh and I have found ourselves caught up in a whole different hussle and bussle of life. This crazy thing adults call "work". That’s right, good ole' fashion, 40 hour a week, put food on the table, work. Josh and I are managers at a new Chick-fil-a out in Lebanon, TN and for the past three months we’ve felt like we have been there more than we have been at home, at least at times. On top of that we have accepted the position of worship leaders for our church’s youth ministries, CYM. We anxiously accepted the opportunity to exercise our Worship Arts training from TNU, a degree that we’re still pursuing… I feel like we’re always in a battle with the calendar, a losing one I’m afraid. See, I don’t think its just school that makes us so busy, it’s a generational thing. We live in a land that is full of opportunity with countless means of networking to help us reach those opportunities. Everything we put into our schedules are usually great things. We want to make our parents proud and achieve more than they did with the new advantages we now have in this age. But when will it become too much? When will we just close our color-coded daily planners and just say, ‘I’m done’? But we can’t do that, we can’t survive that way, so how do we prioritize? Or how do we find more energy? It’s my generation’s struggle, I’m not sure how it will end.

     In all this craziness we call living, I do however, manage to find enough grace for a peaceful, restful moment from time to time. Yesterday morning was just perfect. I woke up to the beautiful sound of rain and a cool breeze blowing through our bedroom. Josh was still asleep and we didn’t have to be at work for a few more hours so I let him snooze. In awe of the beautiful morning I sat down with my Bible and some green tea and began to read. I found myself captivated in the book of James. And although there’s a multitude of revelations in that small book, one stuck with me yesterday; the man that masters his tongue and does not let it cause him to stumble, shows great maturity and spiritual growth. How often do we judge and slander our fellow bearers of God's image and yet think we can praise the Lord with those same lips. I've read this passage, and heard sermons on it before, and its true. I need to live like I believe it.