The Season of Transition

My heart is heavy as I write this. All around me, and in my own life, are many people struggling with various degrees of change.
I have spent the past one and a half days with one of my best friends who is completely leaving the Western way of life she has known for the past 34 years to embrace a lifestyle of poverty and simplicity in a third world country. Martyrdom has been prophesied over her. She is denying it all, yes, even her own life, for the sake of the Gospel.
One of my dear roommate's grandmother figure passed away this weekend in the midst of hard circumstances that caught her off guard. They were told that Gran only had 40 hours to live.
One of my admired mentor figures had her step-father pass away this past weekend. He, in his 80s, had caught penumonia a few weeks ago and gradually got worse. My mentor was by his bedside as he took his last breath here and "took his first one in Glory."
I think of other friends who have moved abroad recently. One in Uganda for 6 mos, another in Thailand for a few years, one in Nepal. There are so many heading out to the nations this summer.
I think of recent college students who are transitioning and are seeking and wondering what is next. Job? Place to live? Calling? Family? I know I am certainly in this category.
So many roommates, mine included, are looking for new roommates or different places to live.
Multiple couples on campus are now newly married--hurray!
I dear friend of mine recently obtained a job after waiting 5 months for employment. Her heart has endured many trials of waiting and wondering.
I think of my own parents who are at crossroads of change and seeking the Lord on what step to take next.

There are innumerable other examples that I can think of and many more than surely come up in your own mind and life. New seasons, many changes. Losses and gains. Joy and grief. Unpredictability, unexpected calamity. As I sit here, struggling to put down words that adequately express what I am feeling, I need comfort. Reassurance...Peace. As the weight of personal emotions and others' plights weigh around my heart, like an iron anchor pulling down the beating organ into my abdomen,  I cry out to the Spirit to intercede on my behalf "with groans and utterances I cannot express" (Rom 8:6).
He brings this to mind:
"12 But Thou, O LORD dost abide forever; And Thy name to all generations...25 Of old Thou didst found the earth; And the heavens are the work of Thy hands. 26 Even they will perish, but Thou dost endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing Thou wilt change them, and they will be changed. 27 But Thou art the same, And Thy years will not come to an end. 28 The children of Thy servants will continue, And their descendants will be established before Thee” (Psalm 102:12, 25-28)

The heavens and the earth WILL change. Everything WILL pass away. Even our bodies are temporary for our days are like grass, here one day and gone the next. But...the Lord abides forever. He never changes. His attributes are true, His love is eternal, His promises sure.

There lies my confidence, at 1:52 AM with my bowl of cold noodles beside me (dinner) or today at 10:30 AM when Suzy's plane leaves or whenever the time comes for me to go to my next farewell.
May this season be endured well with the joy of the Lord as our strength!

One Step into the "Real" World...and the World to Come

Yesterday was my last day at  Graduate Admissions Office I've worked in for the past three years. Today, I finished cleaning out my desk.
Today I had my first "real world" job interview. (whoa)
It lasted two hours and I met a total of four people who sat me down and asked pages of questions to see if I would fit to be a pathology lab aide.
I had a celebratory Chik-fil-a lunch with my dear friend Natalie.
Today, I finally started packing up my stuff in the apt I've been blessed to live in in the past year. I'm moving to an unknown place next week.
Tonight, my friend Sarah came over and ate Indonesian noodles for the first time. I was introduced to the  BBC "Sherlock Holmes" series, which i highly recommend.

This morning, I read Psalm 86 and Rev 7 and listened to this song, which I first heard when I attended the conference it was recorded at. I began worshiping the Lord as I contemplated how "all the nations You have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name" (ps 86:9) along with Rev. 7:9-12:

"⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”¹¹ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

I could do nothing but fall on my face and join in the worship. My heart explodes with joy at the thought of peoples from every corner of this earth, past, present, and future, worshiping the only One who is worthy. And the thought of heaven! Oh the thought of heaven tingles me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.
May I continue to fall on my face with the angels and elders, laying my life in submission to His feet so that He may be so glorified in this life and the life to come, be it as a lab aide, a missionary, a student, a daughter, a sister, or whatever role I am given. Rev 5:8 says that the elders around the throne of God "hold golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints". May we lift up our sweet fragrant offerings to Him from our lips and hearts so that those bowls may overflow!

I am now an alumni!

Here are some pictures from the Big Day, a little more than a week ago.

Rejoicing with my family: the adopted gparents and my parents and bros.Notice the little one's face? ha.

With my beloved mentor and professor!

There was a special Biology reception that the Bio grads went to

I really like these people

I REALLY like these people.

It is pretty bizarre to think that my undergrad years are over! It honestly has not hit me yet. I have loved college so much; every second, every class, every relationship established, every book read, meal eaten, thought discussed, tear shed, laugh laughed out loud. Every moment in frustration, in exaltation, in discouragement, in hope, has led to a greater joy and much fruit.

Can I just be a perpetual student forever?! :)