post number 200

I can't believe I have reached post 200; and with nothing too important to say at that. As I type this, Brent is in his new favorite spot on the couch, it is in the lower 70s outside (a beautiful day), and I have a cheesecake in the oven for our good friend Justin who has been helping us out a lot lately.

Milestones, even though reaching post number 200 may be a fairly insignificant one, always make me reminisce. Lately I have been thinking a lot about my college days, and although they aren't so far behind me, they seem far enough gone that there is but a hint of the taste of them on my tongue. I remember when I first started writing my blog during the fall of my senior year. My roommates made fun of me, but I felt like I needed an outlet for all of the writing I was doing.

Just this week my college roommate, Renae, said that she was very college-sick as well. She said people going back to school made her wish for those first few weeks where all we had to worry about was how we wanted to arrange our dorm room. She is in a similar situation, married for a year now, moved away from home, and she too feels she didn't soak it up as much as she should have.

I know hindsight is always 20-20, but as a young college student it's hard to believe that late night Perkins runs and conversations around a cafeteria table will ever amount to much in your memory bank. Funny though, how it turns out that those moments are more significant than the degree you obtain. I look back and cherish, and still almost hate, the walks across campus in sub-zero weather, or sharing hot chocolate at a bible study on my wing. It's funny how sharing a bathroom with 30 other women is so frustrating at the time, and how I would go back in a heartbeat to write a note of encouragement to a wingmate on the paper hung up in a bathroom stall.

There are definitely things that I have now that I wouldn't give up to go back, namely Brent, but if somehow miraculously I could have it all, I wonder if I would cherish it more now?

Brent and I went to our first try of a Sunday school this morning. We went with some friends, Eric and Rachel, but as we got our coffee and bagels and found a seat, everyone still seemed pretty distant. We talked about this on the way home, and Brent said he thinks we just don't have the motivation we need to really jump in there as we still just don't quite feel like this is supposed to be permanent. It's a hard balance, because we want to live and love where we're at, but the risk is high when you know it might all change again so soon.

All this to say, it's pretty incredible how much life has been lived between 200 blog posts. It's pretty incredible how much I've had to grow and change and accept so many responsibilities. It's pretty incredible, that all the while God has been right here with me, writing my story long before I ever touch a finger to the keyboard.

My mom sent me some lyrics to an old hymn they sang at church today, and the last verse is a sweet assurance that no matter where life leads, no matter what the next 200 blog posts may read, I have a Savior to follow; a Savior who is leading me:

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
'Tis an ocean vast of blessing, 'tis a haven sweet of rest.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, 'tis a heav'n of heav'ns to me;

And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee.

(And as a preview for a soon to be written post, Brent took me to the driving range yesterday... and we both want to blog our version of that experience. Stay tuned...it just got interesting!)