A month or so ago, I wrote a blog entitled "Pain. Hope. Love." I posted it on my Facebook blog, so if you want to read it, you can do so here. (www.facebook.com/ckann) But tonight I'm continuing that story a bit.
It doesn't seem like a week and a half ago that Pam called, offering me an RA position in Balyo this year. It was a whirlwind, trying to wrap up loose ends from the summer while still trying to pack to move back down south, two weeks earlier than I had expected. On Wednesday, I was thrown in my RA training program that had been going on for nearly a week already, trying to pull together a hall theme in two days when the other girls had been working on theirs since last spring. Jaclyn, the girl I was replacing, was dearly loved by the rest of the RA team, and I worried that it would be hard for the others to accept me being her replacement. Besides the RA shock, I was trying to quickly wrap up some of the summer's events, and deal with some of my relationships with people that simply needed to be brought out in the open. I had to say goodbye to my best friend, knowing that I wouldn't see her again for at least two months. Talk about an emotionally draining few weeks! There were tears, there was stress, there were awkward moments, there were goodbyes.
But tonight, I dance. The Lord is good, and He delights in making all things beautiful. I have had perfect peace about accepting the RA position. I know that the Lord has had this in His plan for me since the beginning. God has been preparing me for this in huge ways in the last year, and I just wasn't aware of what the assignment would be. I was able to take the lessons God taught me this summer and express them artistically on the walls of my hall, pulling it together in a very short amount of time. Since arriving back at school, I have been nearly stress-free, even in the face of massive events and deadlines. The rest of the RA team has loved me from the start. I arrived to a giant vase of sunflowers on my desk, and five sweet letters from the other girls, telling me how glad they were that I was here, and encouraging me that God knew from the start that I would be the one to live life with the girls of Balyo 1st Floor North this year. I have built some awesome friendships with some incredible, godly men and women who have hearts to serve the students of this school. Facing some of the relationships in my life that needed to be dealt with has been such an amazing picture of the Lord bringing beauty from ashes. It is so true that He never asks me to surrender something without giving me something truly better. Though it has been hard, and my heart has not yet fully healed, I rejoice in the beautiful, strong, deep friendship the Lord has brought from a heartbreaking situation. I miss my best friend, but I am so very confident in the fact that she is on the path God has clearly laid out for her, and I am also confident that she is going to succeed in whatever this next year brings. She is beautiful, strong, and sensitive to His will. What a recipe for Godly success!
So tonight, I am dancing with tears of joy. Being an RA is going to be a lot of work. It's going to require some serious changes in my time management habits, but even before all this happened, God had been speaking to me about that anyways. It's going to be a goal. :) I have learned for myself that the Lord brings beauty from ashes (Isaiah 61:1-3) and I have experienced the blessings of hard surrender. I spent an incredible summer with my best friend and I eagerly anticipate what God is going to do in her life in the coming months. God is so good! I am so blessed. He is Enough. He is my Everything.
Mood: Dancing/Crying
Music: None
