Life Ain't Always Beautiful

Life ain't always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride. That is a line from country singer Gary Allen from his song Life Ain't Always Beautiful. That sums up how this last month and a half has gone and explains why I haven't written in so long. I may have said this before and will say it again...better late than never. 

Let me give you a brief rundown of what has happened since I last wrote. Mountain Top came and went and for me, it seems to be a different experience each year. I always try to compare it when I was in Jr. High and High school, when our peak was 1000 people, but averaged around 500, when I was a participant and didn't have a serving role, when I was just enjoying the ride. But now that I'm nearing the end of my college years, watched as many grew up and faded away, or have life's responsibilities to attend to, and I sometimes wonder myself why I stick around. The answer is simple: because others did it for me and continue to this day to do so. Mountain Top is no longer about me, but rather about these kids. Some come from the streets, broken homes, divorced parents, good or bad relationships, lives with or without God, basically all paths of life. And they all need Jesus. The foot has to be put in the door and the road has to be paved. But that can't happen without the leading of those who have gone before. This all was reflected at MT with 12 young people being baptized. You may think that's a small number compared to 300, but the bible says "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."~Luke 15:7. The Lord was did amazing things at MT.

Now after MT came Gospel Odyssey where we saw the Word of the Lord go out, lives were changed, and people were saved. It was amazing to see around 100 people give a week to seek and save the lost. Also during this time I was in the stage where "Life ain't always beautiful." My plan was to get an internship this fall (as part of my engineering program) so I did pretty much everything I needed to to be ready to go by the time school started. Long story short, a lot of things on the other end didn't go smoothly and I at times was a wreck and couldn't figure out why the hits kept coming. One week went by, then two, and pretty soon, school would start in 3 days and I still had nothing. So after much prayer and consideration, I told myself that I still had a week to sign up for classes (even if it meant missing the first week) and that I would stop worrying because I didn't want to be burdened with this during the young people's meeting and Lord's Day morning. 

Monday rolled around, classes had begun and I was doing the last of five interviews. Later in the day my adviser calls me and tells me I have offers on the table, one of them being from the company I just interviewed with an hour ago. I start Tuesday Sept. 3rd. That was a process I hated to go through, and even though I knew the Lord would provide, it didn't make it hurt any less, and it just shows that when you let go of whatever is holding you down and cling hold to faith, great things do happen. 

I still am a little nervous because this will technically be my first real job not school related. But I know that He will carry me through. 

On a side note, my American readers probably don't know this but I am shocked by the views my blog gets from overseas. For some reason a decent number of views come from Germany as well as many other Eastern countries. So this is a shout-out and thank you.

I am so looking forward to the Labor Day conference and hope to see many of your smiling faces and be refreshed by the spirit of the Lord.