Glorious spring!
I'm sitting at my desk, and through my open window, coupled with the sound of a passing train (I love that sound...remind me someday to tell you why) comes the twitters of birds who are obviously very glad to be alive...you can just tell! And occasionally a deliciously cool breeze blows in, laden with the scents of early spring...mmmmmm (*deep breath*). And the grass is incredibly green, the flowering trees are blooming (this is my first spring that has had blooming trees in it!), some of the other trees have their green misty garment of the budding leaves...glorious, glorious!
Okay, I'm done... But I just got back last night from spring break (the Chorale toured Colorado and Kansas...more about that later) and it's amazing! When I left everything was still brown and muddy and when I came back everything was green, green, green! And it's wonderful (as you might have already guessed from all the exclamation marks peppering this post)...this is my first real spring in awhile since last spring I was in Florida where they don't really have spring...and springs in the Midwest are of a much different kind then Rocky Mountain springs. The glory of spring being here is something beyond words anyway so I'll quit rambling about it...but I'm so glad that God made spring!
Today is the last day of spring break, and like I said earlier, I spent break touring CO and KS (mostly CO) with the Chorale. We had eleven concerts in ten days, at various churches and one Christian school. Despite (or perhaps because of!) the amount of time spent on the bus with 35 other people, it was a lot of fun...a very enjoyable time. And...I got to see my family! One of our concerts was in Grand Junction, CO and since that is MUCH closer to home than college is, they all drove down to see me. They were able to go to one of our concerts, I got to spend the night with them, and then the next day we all (my family and everyone on tour) spent some time together at the Colorado National Monument. It was a very short visit, but still wonderful...I was very thankful to be able to spend time with my lovely family.
And the Lord really used Chorale tour to teach me a lot about depending on Him. I don't think that I mentioned it on here, but about a month and a half ago, near the end of our first Chorale concert (we had a few in the area before we left on tour), I fainted from low blood sugar. It wasn't too big deal since it has happened to me several times before, but now I just knew that I had to make sure to eat enough before our concerts. At the next few concerts I made sure to keep my blood sugar up, but at the end of our first tour concert, I almost fainted again. And that was very frustrating to me since I didn't know why it happened (low blood sugar was out since we had eaten supper before the concert...and before any of you ask, no, I wasn't locking my knees!) and therefore I didn't know what to do to prevent it. Therefore, during the next couple concerts on tour, my goal was basically just getting through the concert without fainting. On our first Sunday of tour, we had three concerts in one day, two in the morning and one in the evening. I got through the morning concerts, but just barely and our evening concert was going to be before supper so I was somewhat concerned about how it would go. But then, as we were praying before the concert, one of the guys prayed that we would be able to focus on worshipping the Lord with our songs instead of on how tired we all were. That really convicted me...I'm one of those people who can sing a song completely right and be thinking about something entirely different, and so with my mind I had been focusing on not fainting while my mouth was singing praise to God. So before we went one, I prayed and asked God to help me focus on the praise we were singing to Him and leave the whole not-fainting thing up to Him. And He did...I was able to focus on praising Him...and I had more energy during a concert than I had ever had before! It was wonderful to see how the Lord worked it all out...and He wasn't even done yet. The next day I was reading in Second Corinthians and "happened" to come across 12:9..."And He [the Lord] said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." I am so weak of myself (and very aware of that at times), but His grace is sufficient and through that I am made strong.
And there were several other instances that I don't have time to go into right now, but it was so encouraging to see all the little things the Lord worked out. Others may call them coincidences, but I happen to know that the Lord is in control of all things. It's such a wonderful assurance.
Well, I need to draw this thing to a close so that I fold and put away all my clean laundry, but one more piece of news...I read The Chronicles of Narnia! Yes, it took me almost twenty-one years to finally read them...and I loved them! A couple months ago, I bought all the volumes in one book and I was saving them to read over break and even though I definitely did NOT have time to read them before then, it was still very hard to wait! But wait I did, and so I read them all during break...despite the fact that buses full of people are not the most conducive to lots of good reading time. I'll definitely read them over again (and again and again and again...), but right now I think I'd have to say that Voyage of the Dawn Treader is probably my favorite...that and the last chapter of The Last Battle. The end of part of that chapter made me almost start crying...and I probably would've cried completely if I hadn't been on a bus full of people! I'd love to type out the wonderful last paragraph of that chapter...but I really don't have time now...hopefully soon! But I'll leave you with one quote though...an appropriate one to end a post of this title with...
"It is always safe to dream of spring. For it is sure to come; and if it be not just as we have pictured it, it will be infinitely sweeter."
~L.M. Montgomery in The Story Girl
[Okay, yes, I know that I was going to end this post, but I found it funny...I didn't know this before I copied it to this post, but I posted that same quote exactly one year and two days ago! Hmmm...it must be something in the air at the end of March...)
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ..." ~Phil. 3:20