where the heck!?

i can't believe it's july already; where did june go!? i look back and realize that june was spent coping with reverse culture shock, grieving the closeness of some friends for the summer while celebrating and catching up with others, turning down one amazing job opportunity in return for another, going to a conference with great people and being challenged by them and by godly words on sin, seeing the beauty of God's creation like i have never seen before, and reading three harry potter books, finishing the saga.

while it was a diverse month, (especially when one begins to talk about john piper and harry potter in the same sentence), i learned much from all of the above. the current chatper in my life is the same as it seems to have been for some time: what does it mean to live confident in the grace of our Lord Jesus and the sufficiency of the cross, but be obedient without being legalistic, diminishing the work done on the cross? the pastor at church quoted something famous today and i think it makes sense-"love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and live like you want." at first glance it doesn't make sense and even contradicts romans 6, but i would say that as we grow in love and devotion to this incredible God, we can do nothing but worship and obey him. living "as i like," is actually living to bring glory to the Lord through obedience and joy. theoretically, it's easy. practically, it's dang hard! i pray that God would consume my life, so that i may love Him wholey and serve Him out of more than duty, but love.

thanks for listening to the rambling once again.