A quick explanation of the title (as if it really needed one...) but basically I am in Massachusetts only for the month of May. Which means that there's only a month for me to enjoy all the Kimballs ice cream I can get my hands on, take the T into Boston as many times as I load my Charlie card, and spend as much time with the people I love as their schedules would allow. The downside of being in Massachusetts for a whole month is that there is a LOT more free time than I hoped for/would ever want. I've probably logged more hours on facebook and pinterest in these past 2 weeks than I have during the academic year.... and I have definitely been spending way too much time and money on Groupon. (But, I have found some pretty sweet deals!) All this empty time and pointless web browsing has got me wishing I was back in West Lafayette working at Greyhouse or something. At least then I would have the convenience of living closer to friends and having more activities to do within walking distance. But gradually I am coming to terms with the fact that God has me in Massachusetts for a reason.
Perhaps that reason is so that I can sit for hours on end in the Java Room reading and reflecting. A book I read last week was Heaven is Real by Todd Burpo cover to cover. I honestly can't remember the last time I had the time to read a book cover to cover and so being able to do it this time was awesome. It was such a good book too! Basically it was about a little boy who goes to heaven during a near-death experience and comes back with an incredible account of heaven. And the craziest part was that his experience lined up with the Bible. I won't ruin the book for you, but the rest of the book is about how his experience in heaven impacted his family. It was a really great reminder to his family (and now to his readers) that heaven really is real and that we have a real hope and a real place that we are going for eternity.
Another book that I've been reading through is Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, a book that Sally gave me but was recommended to me first by Adam. I'm only in chapter 3, but it's been so good so far! One of my favorite parts of chapter 3 was
We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us.I just loved this so much! First, because it really helped me to put our devotion to God and Jesus's love for us in perspective. Two, it's so so so humbling to think about because we are so awfully weak and we exaggerate about the pettiest things (okay, maybe I can't speak for everyone.... I exaggerate about the stupidest pettiest things). This just reminds me of how limited our minds and bodies are. That we could even think of the littlest thing as a really big deal. And so it's mindblowing to even try to begin to grasp the fact that we could never ever ever exaggerate God's love for us. No matter how bad we screw up or how bad we think we screw up, there's nothing that Jesus's blood doesn't wash clean. And then to think that we could never exaggerate our devotion to Him! We owe God our blood, sweat, tears, and our very lives and that is just so humbling because that is not an exaggeration. It's crazy to think that the gruesome deaths the saints had to endure in the Bible is not an extreme. Along with those that choose to give everything up to cross the world and risk their lives to preach the gospel is not an extreme because that is the unadulterated devotion that God requires of us. Our lives, our love, and our devotion to God can never be an exaggeration.
Anyway, there are a lot more thoughts I have on this book, but it's all in the moleskin and if I continue to type it all up, it'll be a ridiculously long summary of the book and I honestly don't know if I would do Tozer any justice. So you should all just read the book :D
Okay this is the end of this post because it's time for dinner. Fun fact: I used the 'shift' key when typing this up. Annnnd...that fact will only be significant to those who know my shameful keyboarding secret.... >.<
Later!
