Day after day of browsing the most recent Facebook photos of my friends in college on my news feed and of seeing my best friends communicate with their potential roommates for next year has left me with the feeling that I will be missing out on something. As I listen to the hype surrounding the anticipation of the arrival of August, when most of my friends will be moving into a new dorm with new friends and, essentially, a new start, I can only imagine how much fun that will be. At this point, the same thought creeps into my mind as a constant reminder that when I come home, we will not understand eachother's experiences for what will have been the past nine months. From where I am right now, I am dreading the time when I have to return and recognize that life as I knew it will not be the same. It's a sad but awesome thought, and then I remember why I am so excited to go on this trip and share the greatness of God. If I didn't know that I had eternal life in Christ, the things I experience on a daily basis in high school would leave me deeply unsatisfied. A friend's senior quote by C.S. Lewis describes this perfectly, “If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”.
I dread the hardships I will experience in these nine months, and my imaginination seems to get the best of me when coming up with all possible worst case scenarios; however, this verse reminds me that the joy found in pursuing a life following Jesus far surpasses anything and everything.
"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever."
— 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Grace,
Laura Butler
