My Best Friend

THIS WEEK I'm working on an important project for my Design One class that is just driving me nuts. To be honest I've been really stressed over trying to finish it as well as balancing my work with my other classes. To top it off, I've been in college for two months and I'm very homesick. As weeks go, it has been a tough one.

But I haven't quit.

I just want to use this post to talk about my best friend, the only reason I don't give up and go home. He keeps telling me every day, no matter how happy or frustrated I get, that this is what I need to do right now, and that sometimes the best thing is the hardest to go through. He shows me the light at the end of the tunnel and shows me the difference between what I want and what I need. God is my best friend, and He has walked through this crazy week right along with me.

I love God because He answers prayer. For months before I started college I was praying for a good relationship with my room mate, for friends, a church, a Christ-loving Christian group, a Life Group, and other Christians in Architecture. Two months into college, I have all of those things and more. So although I am away from my family, which is probably the hardest thing to deal with, I am surrounded by people who lift me up and make me grow. I have the perfect room mate, who is the kind to write a note for me on the white board when I'm having a rough time and she knows she won't be home.

I love God for His faithfulness. When I left the studio at 2:00 AM (a new record) on Tuesday night, I stood outside and waited for my ride to come take me back to my residence hall. It had been a very hard night of work. But I could feel God all around me as I looked up and saw the stars and planets. I felt Him so closely that it doesn't even matter that I can't see Him. And as He said, he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. So although there are still plenty of things about Him I don't understand, I trust He is faithful and just in those things too.

I love the way He speaks. In a quiet room if my room mate isn't around, I can talk to Him so that I don't have to eat my lunch alone, and He fills the room. When I open up His word late at night and pray to hear Him, He meets me. The other night, I was writing down some references that I thought Sarah could use. There was one I was thinking about, but I couldn't remember where it was. Oh well. But when I prayed and opened my Bible for something ot read, I saw it. Romans 12:18, "If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men." I heard it in my heart that it was what she really needed, and I'm thankful that He showed it to me so that I could show it to her.

I love God for everything He does. He gives us peace even during stressful times to show us that we are still in His will. He keeps the gravity working and the sunshine coming down. He confirms the validity of our faith by showing His presence in countless ways, from the answering of outrageous prayer to the pointing of a dizzy heart in the right direction.

But what really get me is that this God is both Creator and Savior. He is our King as well as our friend. It's astounding to me that He not only pays mind to us, but He paid His own life for us. That our God loves us more than life, enough to give life to the dying, is more than I can understand.

A few days ago I heard a Taylor Swift song called "Cold As You" which is about a girl dealing with a relationship with a rude and indifferent guy who she really cares about. There was one part of the song I never noticed before that made me replay it a few times:

"You never did give a [darn] thing honey but I cried, cried for you. And I know you wouldn't have told nobody if I died, died for you."

If we love God so much, and if we are in the least bit thankful for His sacrifice and everything He does each day, we won't be like the jerk in that song. Isn't it something? God Himself is so in love with us that He died to give us life. We don't deserve anything from Him. Isaiah 64:6 says "But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Even the merit and goodness we think we have is like nothing before the holiness of God. That's the mess God loves anyway. We should be thankful to Him for every blessing from salvation to salsa. So I'm praying for the heart of an evangelist and a mouth that just won't shut up about my best friend, my love and my God: my Jesus.