the Beginning...

As a result of a late night conversation with my lovely roommate and RA, I have landed on the idea of having a blog. I am in no particular season of life, no kids, no husband, no fiancee, not living in a different country...but I am learning so much about life and who I am...and mostly who I want to be. Thus, the blog.

"Dancing Through Life"...some people may know where this comes from, while others may not. Dancing Through Life is a song in the hit broadway show "Wicked". Wicked is amazing! This particular song was one of my favorites when I saw Wicked in NYC about a year and a half ago. The song is preformed by "Fiyero", who is a laid back - no rules kind of guy. He is convincing all of the others that "dancing through life" instead of stressing and worrying is a better way of life... It is something I need to remind myself daily, as I am an extreme worrier.


I thought I could go ahead and share a little about my most recent adventure. I was able to go to New York City this past weekend to take a class. Our professor lives in the city so we are able to have a very cheap but fulfilling trip to see the different culture that it is. There were about a billion things I took away from the trip, so I will just touch on one of them today.


We went to two churches on the Sunday we spent in the city. Our second church was The River. The River was pretty small. The culture of this group was another experience. There were so many young adult Brits, many asians..it was great. The preacher and starter of the church was from Korea, so that was also another experience. Worship consisted of one man on electric guitar, a woman on keyboard, and another woman singing. No drums, no acoustic, no bass, no nothing! It was great though. The people seemed to be so into it. The whole service and attitude of the place felt so..genuine. It didn't seem just like routine, but something these people thirsted for each week. It was a truly uplifting experience.

Seeing different churches is something I am not good at. I like routine. I like knowing what I am going in to. I was nervous going to these, thinking it would be just a sit and watch experience, but it was not at all. It was a learning experience. It was so good to be out of the routine of College Heights and knowing what is going to happen after the final worship song. It was good to be with people who may not have always had such a great church family always surrounding them. It was really great to be around people who are learning and figuring out how this Christian thing works...especially in the big city.

To see people make the choice to be Christians and be comitted to church when it is not the popular thing or even the normal way of life for New York City residents was inspiring. It is so easy for me here in Joplin. Joplin and the surrounding area is filled with churches, mostly churches led by all of my professors. I take Bible classes every day. I am comitted to serving in the College Heights youth group, I have life group every Thursday at 10, I have chapel every Tuesday at 10, and even when I am home -- it is still easy to make the choice to live the right way. But to see people choosing the right way in a city full of lost people really changed the way I view my life. My life is generally easy as a Christian. I face the challenges of apathy, keeping a good attitude, spending daily time in the word...but I am surrounded by people pushing me to do these things...those people are surrounded by everyone telling them NOT to do those things.
What a great stand they are taking in the city.