::edit::  I just happened to read Kate_the_Grate's latest post, which was a good kick-in-the-pants for me.  So, thank you to Kate for the good reminder! 

As so often happens, I go to post something and my mind either goes blank or I start self-editing.  Then I don't write anything.  Well, here goes....

I feel like a lot is going on with me right now and at the very same time, nothing at all.  I keep busy with the day-to-day stuff (teaching, grading papers, playing the piano, talking with family and friends), but sometimes it feels like a rut that I'm stuck in.  I think it's possible to love what you do and yet want something else at the same time. 

It would be so much easier if I could take a quick peek into the future and see if what I want most right now will ever come to pass.  Sometimes it feels like it won't ever happen.  Makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong or totally missing something.  Wish I knew.

That turned out differently then I was expecting, but I'm not deleting it.  So there.

"Every time you open your mouth, you are either building up or tearing down, ministering or manipulating, sowing for the kingdom or sowing for hell. How fearfully consequential are our most glib utterances." Andr'ee Seu

I just started reading Oswald Chamber's book, 'My Utmost for His Highest', and have been very blessed by it.  The daily devotional sections are short, but they have been exactly what I've needed to read.  That's been happening to me alot with the sermons on Sundays too. 

Last night, the sermon was on the Christian life and suffering.  I am constantly amazed at God's workings in my life--the sermon was exactly what I needed to hear.  As Christians, we experience trials and suffering, but God uses them to strengthen our faith and prove to us (not Himself because He already knows the state of our faith) the genuineness of our faith.  We are often the most vulnerable to temptation when we're hungry, angry, lonely, tired, or bored.  It's hard to rejoice in the middle of suffering and temptation, but that's what we are commanded to do (I Peter 1:6-9).  Faith is the source of joy in our trials because our end goal is not earthy or temporal, but heavenly and eternal.