So let's just say that this semester has been CRAZY! By far my hardest semester in college ever. I'm taking three literature classes and two child development classes, all upper-level, which it turns out is just insane. I literally had five eight-page papers due in the past two weeks, and at this point I honestly never want to write an academic essay again in my life! Too bad I don't get everything I want.
Anyway, that is all just to say that I have had to give up a lot of stuff that I like to do in order to have time for all the stuff I have had to do for school. And this blog was pretty much the first thing to go because it really hasn't even gotten started yet. Plus I promise you it would have been insanely boring and repetitive and pretty much only about how insane my schedule is. You wouldn't have wanted to read through four months of that, believe me. I can't believe I made it through four months of that! Praise Jesus! Because I certainly could not make it on my own strength, that is for sure.
So here is what has been on my mind lately: John 13:35 and 1 John 4:7-8. These are two passages of Scripture that I memorized when I was little because they were songs on the bible verse tapes I would listen to. My church talks a lot about the unity of the body of Christ, and I think these verses are the key (or one of them, anyway) to God's vision for the church as one body. We have to love. LOVE. There is another verse that says "God is love." If the church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is Love, then the Church has to be Love! It is the only way we will ever be unified. As I think about this, I realize that it is found all over the bible. We are called to be imitators of Christ and live a life of LOVE.
One of my pastors, the super-cool Cody Chaloner, tweeted something last weekend about praying with him at 1:22 every day. Honestly, I don't even know what it is for, but I am always in for prayer, so I decided to join him in this. I'm not even sure what we are supposed to be praying for, but I took it as something about unity, so that has been what I am praying for every day at 1:22 pm (Yup, even in the middle of my Dante class. I have my alarm vibrate. Usually it's about a one or two-line prayer, but I think it still counts). So what I have been praying for every day this past week at 1:22 is that the church will be unified through their love. That was my One Prayer last year, and it has been on my heart ever since then. I feel like this is a huge moment historically, because of the communicative abilities provided by our modern technology, for the church to become united in a way never possible until now. I am so excited to see how God can use his Body in the 21st century, but it is not gonna happen until we start loving!
Back to work... hopefully the copier downstairs is available.
Katie
