Not Alone

Okay, so I've been wanting to start a Bible study. This year has been kinda crazy so far though, due to all my travelling. As such, I've not been able to devote a whole lot of time talking to God and other people about it, or working towards that goal. But recently, I tried talking to my parents about it. I mostly just came away feeling frustrated. I was afraid they might try to take over and I wanted it to be my Bible study and I didn't want any help, etc. (Which, for the record, is all completely ridiculous.)

Over the course of events and through talking to a close friend, I suddenly realized what should have been blatantly obvious to me already - whenever I thought about the Bible study, whenever I tried to talk to someone about it, somehow the focus had shifted from God to me. I wasn't trying to start this study group for God. I was trying to start it to prove to myself, to my family, to my friends, that I could do this great thing without anyone's help. Which of course, entirely defeats the whole purpose of a Bible study. 

Today, as I was reading my Bible, God made another point. I'm doing an Exodus/life of Moses study with this blog called She Reads Truth. Today's study was titled, "Moses and Jethro". I read the scripture and started reading the blog post, and  was almost immediately turned off. "Not another young mom post," I groaned inwardly. But as I continued reading, it wasn't just about the experience of a young mom. It was about the simple fact that we can't do this life thing alone. 

I may want to believe that that I can do something great in my own strength, but the fact is, I'm going to need my own Jethro. Someone who can help me as I try to do something new, who will keep me on track and point out when something I'm doing is about to crash and burn. My Jethro may be my mom, maybe a friend, or maybe even someone I don't know yet. I'm confident God will point out the who in time. He's just preparing me to accept the Jethro He gives me.

I just had to smile wryly when I read that post this morning. God told me gently, once more, "You can't do it alone." But that's okay, because I was never intended to do it alone.

Dude, I sure love God a lot.

Travelling And Other Stuff

I sort of have an excuse for being gone so long this time.

I did a lot of travelling this year, way more than I've ever done. I visited six states, four of which I hadn't been to before. It was all a pretty awesome experience. I met one of my closest friends in person for the first time, so that was more than kind of epic. All in all, I had way too much fun and I found that along with loving the idea of travel, I also love to actually do it.

I learned a lot. It's extremely easy to get lost in an airport. (Or at least it is easy for me.) Texas has a lot more palm trees than I expected. Michiganders are not as immune to the cold as they've tried to lead the world to believe.

But mostly, God just proved over and over again that He is awesome, and He is enough. Life hasn't been particularly easy. I kind of wanted to just forget about my life here and have new experiences and meet new people and pretend I didn't have a swarm of problems that were waiting to pounce on me as soon as I laid down at night. But the fact is, my life didn't want to leave me alone, and my problems followed me. But so did God. He didn't leave me to deal with things by myself. He didn't stay behind when I left home. He came with me, and He put awesome people in my path to help me and encourage me when all I wanted to do was melt into a puddle of tears. Did He have to do that? No. But He did, because He's good and He loves me.

No matter what you're going through right now, God knows about it. And He's not going to leave you to deal with it alone. Keep seeking Him. He can bring amazing blessings along when you least expect it and when you most need it. Don't give up on Him, because He'll never give up on you.