Living Unconventionally

"OH the joys of being young! "

          Just the other day I heard a middle aged man say he thought he was invincible when he was a young man in college, and that he was sure he knew everything. At 19 I hear a lot of older adults reminisce and yearn for the days of yesteryear, "To be a teenager again! What I wouldn't give..." All these proclamations worried me, all of sudden I was aware that my days are numbered...in general first and fore most, but as a young person as well! I will only be 19 once, I will only be 19 on August the 9th once! it is all fleeting, it really is. Having come to this conclusion, I decided to start doing things for the sake of not letting life pass me by! I smoked a cigar with Jori because it was the LAST night she was ever going to be 18! I "stole" a traffic sign for all of 20 mins because it was the LAST day I was going to be 18!  If this is it, golly wholly I've got to add some fireworks into this monotony!

           Well, all this worrying spiraled into my thoughts throughout my summer activities. I was questioning why I was so unsatisfied and unfulfilled at ETSU during my freshman year. I think I hated the fact that I wasn't challenged in relationships, especially to be closer to God. Also, I found no leadership opportunities to push my growth either. Every summer I always placed myself in situations where my job stretched me relationally, emotionally, and spiritually. There was none of that at college I found... and frankly I was unimpressed. Slightly disgusted with myself even. I had slipped into the mold the culture had designed for me all along. (The mold to go with the masses to a four year school, make good grades, find my other half, get a job and live in the Holly Housewife suburbs the rest of my days. AH!!)  So! After having many discussions with my father, sister, and friends tossing around the  possibilities for my future, I concluded: Life is too short to live conventionally. As Sarah said "Kathryn, you and I are alike in the fact that we do things unconventionally." I took that up as a challenge to actually do so.

          With that seed planted in my heart God told me - ETSU no more! Evaluate your love for Art Kathryn, and decide what to do with it. Of course, I said back - Umm God, what do you want me to do with it? Just tell me! Lay out what my next adventurous step will be! Please and Thank You!  Negative Shipmate, God rarely rarely rarely answers that type of plea! Duh, so I cling to a verse Eliza wrote to me in a letter : Jeremiah 29: 11-14
^"11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil,to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴I will be found by you, declares the LORD,"


          And so! I am seeking Him with my whole heart. I am coming to Him and praying. My journey starts with a book list for the fall, and the first book: "The Soul of Prayer" By P.T. Forsyth. More to come on that little, DEEP piece of literature! But at least now I can say: let my unconventional living begin!