Oh the Places You'll Go...

I know I've said this several times, but I cannot emphasize enough what a strange year 2010 has been for me.

2 = how many times I've moved to Portland, Oregon
5 = how many places I've lived (and how many times I've moved)
20,000+ = how many miles I've driven in my little Toyota Corolla
1 = how many bones I've fractured
75+ = how many jobs I applied for
2 = how many jobs I was offered (and accepted)
2,600+ = how many miles I live from my best friend
16 = how many states I've been to...many of them more than once

• Texas (lived there)
• New Mexico (2x)
• Arizona (3x)
• California (2x)
• Nevada (3x)
• Oregon (live here)
• Washington (worked there)
• Idaho
• Wyoming
• Utah
• Colorado
• Oklahoma
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Georgia

I am tired. 2010 has been a year of refinement and discipline for me. I am ready for something different. I know that in His great mercy the Lord has been molding me into a better follower of His and that He has been saving me from myself, but it has not been easy. I am extremely grateful for where I am today (both physically and spiritually), but I kind of hope 2011 is more gentle. Regardless, I trust Him, not because of what I see and experience, but because of who I know He is: loving, good, powerful, and in control.

So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.

God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. (Hebrews 12:5-11, The Message)