Uzzah, love, and puzzles

So, I'm definitely back at college and loving it.  [Ahem, let me clarify, I do not like pointless reading and syllabus jibberish (ooo, that's a fun word), but I do love the people, professors that teach by sharing their own life experiences, and learning about the field in which I am interested.]  I love walking everywhere and seeing people I know and stopping to talk to them and getting past the "How are you?" "FINE" formalities.  When I come home on breaks, I have to stop myself from sitting with lonely people in restaurants and speaking to people at the public library [What? I can't help that I have a hard time controlling my friendly!]  So someday I am going to live in a village where everyone knows everyone, and hopefully it will be a tropical one so I can eat colorful fruits and stay tan. [There you go, I just gave you more info than you ever needed to know, but hey you are the one creeping by reading my blog in the first place.]

A couple of things that I have learned since being here.  Ministry is hard. You can get burned out really easily.  But then you have to remember one simple thing, it should be Jesus pouring out of you.  He's the one who fills us up so that we can overflow with His grace and mercies.  I have a tendency to believe in myself too much.  [The Arthur theme song just popped in my head..."believe in yourself, believe in yourself."]  There is nothing I can do to reach people; I can't even change their minds.  It's God that works in and through us, and it's by His grace that we even live.  So put aside the arrogance of thinking you've got it all under control because guess what? We don't.  You will have a hard time being at peace until you acknowledge your weakness and His strength.  I absolutely love the song "Give Me Faith" by Elevation Worship; one particular part says "I may be weak your Spirit's strong in me / My flesh may fail My God you never will."  That is such a powerful truth.  It reminds me of something in 2 Samuel 6: "And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.  And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God."  Uzzah thought he could help God and on the surface it seems like oh, Uzzah was just one of those nice guys that is gona help God out...NO.  Uzzah was being ignorant and arrogant because he thought that he could do the Almighty, omnipotent Yahweh a favor.  God doesn't need our help.  How many times have I thought, well I am being obedient, God must be really proud of me...I must be helping out his "nice list."  That is so incredibly humanistic and sinful.  So that has been a hard lesson to learn and one that I am still learning.  Don't be a Uzzah.  [Btw, Uzzah means to be strong...he was trusting in his own strength instead of God.]
Another thing that has been on my mind is God's unconditional love.  I had to a devotion for my Child Development class the other day, and I was brainstorming on what I should talk about.  I knew that almost everyone that was in that class was studying to be a teacher so I knew I could draw on that.  The unconditional love of the Father towards His children should be imitated by teachers loving their students.  My favorite passage concerning this is in Romans 8.  Verse 15 begins, "For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him."  Picturing that love amazes me.  A father is someone who loves, cares, and provides for you.  We live in a fallen world so maybe your father doesn't live up to that, but God is the perfect Father and loves you as His child, and He is always there for you.  God adopts us into His family, and we can find peace and comfort in that.  And not only does he adopt us, but he gives us an inheritance..eternal life, spending time with Him and His family.  This is unconditional love.
And one more thing I have been reminded of, being here.  It's an analogy and perhaps over used, but life is like a puzzle.  [Insert geek shout out to all those fellow puzzle-ers ;)]  You get random parts at times and sometimes they fit together, but most of the time you get a piece that looks like a blob.  It doesn't fit anywhere, and it's not even a corner or edge piece so you are even more confused.  But God knows the whole story, he created the picture that the piece is going to fit in.  He created you and wants to show you how those pieces fit.  And finishing a puzzle is satisfying [And I'm talking like well over 3000 pieces in the puzzle here, don't be thinking life is a 24 piece Disney princess jumbo puzzle]  Anyway, this is all I have time for...I'm a college student with laundry to do and dinner to eat.  Oh and I got a 1 John blog coming up uber soon. :)