A Look at 2007

2007 was an interesting year. My years have been full of growth, relationships, fun, pain, stress, and just about every emotion imaginable since I started college. I would be lying if I said I have liked every minute of it, but I have loved college overall.

This year has been difficult. I started serving on the vision team of InterVarsity (IV) at Virginia Tech. That has been difficult and rewarding. I have grown so much through this. Learning how to care for people more and more. Learning to trust my instincts about plans. Learning to trust God to lead me and to care for his people. That he has put me in a position to work with him, but that he is going to do his work and it is not up to me. He will do his work and not all of it is for me to do, not all that I wish to do is for me to do. And he will do his work even if I feel I am to weak. He also will strengthen me and equip me to do the work he has set before me. I expected this year to be hard being on vision team, as odd as it seems I also expected this year to be harder and also to have more awesome times than I could expect. That I would come to the end and be amazed. But I had no idea. After classes and leader selection I thought I had had the hard stuff. Then the 16th happened.

That day and the weeks after were the oddest combination of joy and pain ever. Such sadness and confusion about what happened. Yet the time I got to spend with friends was amazing. So much time with people who have meant so much to me. People who I want to get to know better, and people who already have been let into the deepest parts of my heart. It was awesome. Everyday waking up with only the desire to be with people, be with God, and enjoy the presence of both. It is confusing to look back and wonder if I should look back with joy or sadness. But I would not trade any moment I got to spend with anyone those weeks for anything in the world.

Then came Rockbridge. Again it was an awesome time. A time to get away from Blacksburg, be in the woods, but still have good food and comfortable beds. I was more somber than usual. I also spent a good deal of time thinking and praying through what I had been experiencing. Then I saw people in the chapter having problems. Problems that I did not know the cause of or the way to fix them. I did not know how I was to help. How I was to care for them. But as I sat there thinking and praying, worrying, I saw God use other people to care for them when I could not see how.

Then came the weeks before GUPY. They were nice, I got to rest and sleep. I also got to get away for a while. But they were also unbearable. I started to feel the effects of having no purpose for so long. Let me explain. I had no school work, no work, we minimized the requirements for my involvement in IV, we spent our time with each other. At home I had no chores or jobs, no reason to wake up except being tired of being in bed, no reason to sleep besides being bored with being awake. Never before had I realized so clearly something central to myself and many if not all men. The need for a purpose. I held on only with the thoughts of GUPY coming.

Then GUPY. That is a whole different animal. I got to know 9 other students (only 2 of whom I knew before) well. In 6 weeks we went from learning names to being in some of the deepest relationships I have had, definently the deepest in the short time. We had great times in Cracker Barrel, the park in down-town Greensboro, and on the corner of Silver and Haywood. We also had hard times in Atlanta, across the street from Greensboro Urban Ministries, and La Presa, Mexico. I personally had a very hard time in Mexico. As I told some of the people at GUPY, I experienced the range of emotions I usually experience in a whole year just in that few weeks. There were times I questioned why they still talked to me, suffered through having me around. That is an emotion I thought I had dealt with a year ago in Blacksburg. That time helped me to grow in so many ways, it also helped solidify and reemphasize what I had learned in the past.

Then after dealing with the loss of those relationships (we keep in touch, in fact most of the readers of this that I know of are people from GUPY), but they are not the same as they were. We are back to our lives from before, only changed from our experiences. Then coming back to Blacksburg, trying to rebuild relationships that I had not gotten to talk with much or see in three months. I talked about this time in an earlier post and this is starting to get long so I am moving on.

This semester had times of awesomeness. I had some amazing times and moments with very close friends. Times where life made more sense than ever before, followed by times where I had no idea what was going on. Not everything went my way, in fact many things did not. Classes went my way. Other than that the best I can say is that things went God's way as often as possible, which ends up going my way once I am enough removed to see his plans. And I was able to help things go my friends way. So it was a good semester.

One thing that happened a few weeks ago, right before exams, is my uncle died. Matthew C. Westerdale died from the progression of Muscular Dystrophy. I got to see him over Thanksgiving break, about a week before he died. He was awesome, he was encouraging to people, he was sharing Jesus with everyone that came by. He was tired, but when awake he was on fire for God. My family told me when he died he looked at peace, and though he there were a few times he thought he was going to die that night and didn't. He again predicted he would go, and slowly and peacefully passed on. I am glad he is now at rest and free from his aliment, but it is still hard to see someone go.

This was sooo much longer than I intended. But looking at all this that has happened I cannot begin to imagine what this year holds. But I also cannot wait to see. I expect it to hold alot of challenge, opportunities, pain, and stress. But I am confident that God's Will will be done and I will grow through whatever happens.

That is what he does, takes to good and the bad and uses it for his purposes. And his purpose is to love us and reveal himself to us so we can do his work and so those who do not know him have the opportunity(s) to come to know their heavenly father. How awesome is it that we get to be part of His work?!

Bring it on 2008!