The God of grasshoppers...

I haven't been able to write about the second life-changing experience of the past year. I haven't had the time, nor the words--but maybe I never will. Anyway. I'm not done trying, but in the meantime, instead of some textbook reading I should be doing, here's the update.

I can't say much about the past week (or I guess I can considering the length of this blog). Classes have started and my junior year is underway. Duh, Kaylyn--it's all about joy, right? Yea, tell that to my monotone lectures in Tax Law, Cost Accounting and Intermediate Financial Accounting I. . .haha.

But seriously, no sooner do I declare joy, am I challenged to prove it. And mostly I fail. But I'm struggling. And as I humored myself with something I wrote to a friend in an e-mail,

"struggling indicates one still possesses the will to press on. That they still have some fight in them..plus its also an opportunity to show how stubborn I am, or how gracious God is."

I'm actually liking this. And so here it is again. I'm okay with struggling. Usually it yields growth in someway. I guess another way to word the past week is that. . .I'm growing.

And I'm also getting kicked in the butt by Isaiah 40 tonight. . . where do I even start?

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"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hands double for all her sins." -vs. 1-2.

I start with the beginning, because. . .BOOM. Therefore, Tax Law means nothing, reading hundreds of pages and attending numerous lectures=zilch.

My comfort does not come in the form of a GPA, a to do list completely crossed off, or a full calender full of meetings and appointments, but from the FACT that my sin HAS BEEN PAID FOR.

Which, as a side note, reminds me that I am not my own. That I have been bought at a price.

(1 Corinthians 6: 19-20)

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I take pride in the fact that I can remember things. I remember the first time I met most of my friends, I can remember charts fairly well, and am surprised at the random information I retain. But how easily do I forget?

very.

I am weak, I get tired, whiny, and complain. I am exhausted and it's during these times that I forget the JOY.

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"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass whithers and the flowers fall, because breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

(Vs. 6-8)

and I could go on and on about the descriptions of the Lord and how great He is. . .

He comes with power (10)

He's measured the waters and marked off the heavens (12)

weighed the mountains on scales (12)

weighs the islands as though they were dust (15)

Before Him all the nations are as nothing (17)

"To whom, then will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?" -vs 18

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy (22)

He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing (23)

"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? says the Holy One (vs. 25)

He brings the starry host one by one and calls them each by name (26)

I serve a BIG God, who does all of these things, and more. Who created and rules over the heavens and the earth. Who is incomparable.

Who is in control.

And who cares about my silly weeks when I get over-loaded with textbook work.

Who hears my cries.

(even about accounting)

"He tends his flock like a shepard; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young." -vs. 11

BOOM!

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Here's another lovely lovely thing about this passage.

The last week of camp I had the JOY of sharing my apartment with what I now consider the most annoying animal that was ever created--a cricket.

The horrid animal wouldn't stop chirping, no matter what I did to try to make it stop.

And I tried a lot of things.

But it wouldn't quit chirping.

I began to get highly perturbed with this animal because sleep had become so precious to me, and sleep was something that I was having to sacrifice because of its existence.

Really, I wouldn't have cared if the cricket would have died.

At this point I figured it deserved it.

***BOOM***

"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers."- vs. 22

Now. I know what you're thinking. "Kaylyn, this is a bit of a stretch."

But seriously. Woah. I laughed at first when I read this part. Really, God? Of all animals to compare people to??

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I've been chirping a LOT lately.

After all I have been taught, after all I have learned and how I have grown. . .

chirp, chirp, chirp.

I'm so glad God doesn't need sleep.

I'm so glad God has so much patience with me, so much understanding, so much LOVE.

I'm so glad God doesn't give us things we deserve...

GRACE

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And here's what we end with . . .the ending.

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary.

They will walk and not be faint.

Vs-28-31

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and bee tea dubs. . .God loves us grasshoppers :)