Winter

winters rough isn't it?

Its been getting tough for us to meet up on tuesdays because of the weather, its been difficult to get together to hang out in the midst of school, work, ice on the roads, and responsibilities, its been very uncomfortable to sit in that cold room on tuesday nights.

but I'm so grateful.

I'm grateful for community. A community that truly cares about me.

Its been hard for me at this new school. It's one thing when you've been at a school for a while and you begin to get to know people, it's another when you go from one school to another school and have to start all over again.

To be honest, as hard as this is to admit, it's been rather lonely these past two weeks.

Sure I've gotten to meet a few people here and there, but at the end of the day, you look around and you see people who have attended the school for the past two years and have gotten to know each other. It takes time for myself to get acclimated to a situation like that. On top of all of that i'm not the most extroverted person out there, it takes time for me to get comfortable. So as you could imagine, these past two weeks have been a process, a process that personally hasn't been the easiest to handle.

but I still remember, and probably will never forget when I had come home last wednesday night from my 5 hour chemistry class exhausted, kind of bummed out from the long day, not feeling my hundred percent, and opening my computer to see the pictures from my surprise party that previous saturday.

I smiled, a smile that happened to be my first smile of that day.

I smiled because I remembered that the Lord has not forgotten about me, that I have everything to be grateful for, that I have no reason to feel lonely because I am in the midst of people who care so much to me.

I remembered my community.

It's funny because every single time, without fail, when I think about our group and the effort, sacrifice, and time we put into getting together on tuesdays - I smile, because it's simply awesome to be around people with that kind of heart. It's amazing to be close to people who constantly push you to be better. Justus was spot on last week when he had told us that the more you get to know Jesus, the more you love and have compassion for his people.

Give someone a call today, see how they're doing, talk to them, spend some time with them, communicate with them for the mere sake of communicating.

Let not the weather deter us, let's keep striving towards the prize, our prize.

- Ben Thomas