Dangling through Easter

This blog post actually starts with a story that happened about a year and a half ago. My freshman year of college I would constantly get asked by my mom if I had gotten up on Sunday morning and made my way to the local church. Each and every Sunday the answer to that question was a no. I didn't feel comfortable at the on campus church and the idea of walking into a church by myself freaked me out.

The fall of my sophomore year I moved into the sorority house and I quickly realized that there were a lot of other DGs who I could go to church with. I would make plans to go with these girls and then on Sunday morning they would bail. Well instead of getting out of my nice clothes, I decided to brave the hallow halls on my own. I realized that making the decision to go to church in Athens was probably one of my first adult decisions. I was making the decision to follow in my parents guidance even though it wasn't required. In the spring semester of my sophomore year, everything kind of fell apart and I didn't make it to church between Christmas and Easter.

Fast forward one year later and I only missed one service during the season of Lent. It feels absolutely wonderful to know that going to church and having a relationship with God is something that I want for myself. As I child, I felt like church was something that was required and more times than not I didn't know what I was getting out of it. Now, I arrange my Sunday schedule around getting up and going to church. I long for the Sunday sermon because I can't wait for the next lesson I am going to learn about the week's readings. My church in Athens isn't even as nice as my church at home. I am used to getting everything printed in the pamphlet, but in Athens they expect you to follow along and read the readings ahead of coming to service...probably has been beneficial to me.

It has been a completely different experience for me but it has also taught me so much about myself. My two goals for Lent were to limit my Facebook time to once a day and to work out more often. I can say that I did the best I could with both objectives. I have realized that our society places too much emphasis on the information that we get online rather than the information we actually learn from other people. This Lent season also made me realize how important it is to spend a small time on yourself. Milledge Avenue became the best gym in town and I started to look forward to taking 30 minutes just to run down to Five Points and back.

Each week when I would take my seat in the pew and listen to the sermon, I felt like God knew exactly what I needed to hear. I became so much closer to God over the past 40 days because I allowed myself to trust in his plan and realized more fully that there is a reason my life is progressing the way that it is.

Today, that idea was fully cemented in my head when Father Tripp started talking about resurrection. It became clear to me that I cannot live without faith in my life. God loves each of us. He strengthens us and forgives us for our sins. I want to have him guiding me in my life because I know there are times when I don't know who to turn to.

I can say that this Easter season has been one of great learning for me. I have learned about myself in a lot of different ways and I have grown closer to God. In my 21 years of life, I trust God more now than any other time I can remember. It also doesn't hurt that this weekend was probably one of the best in recent memory. I got to hang out with my dad on Friday, study/catch up all day Saturday and then see my extended family today for a Cascarone filled celebration.

God is great, God is good, let me thank him for this life!