tired.

I'm tired, but it's amazing what a powernap can do for you :) Right before the BTeam meeting I could barely stay awake, so I snuck into the Alumni Board Meeting room and took a nap for a 1/2 hour on the floor. Glorious Bliss. I woke up surprisingly refreshed enough to last a two hour meeting with some of my favorite people :)

But boy, what a schedule I've got for this week! Teacher aiding every morning (which is more fun than work!) five class periods to go to, a monthly CLC meeting for the dorm, a few on-campus events/lectures I'd really like to hit up, coffee with a new friend of mine from Kuyper College, Dorm worship, and volunteering at a place I found downtown called WMCAT (West michigan Center for the Arts and Technology) which is just fantastic. I'll be tutoring down there 2 hours on my Friday afternoons, since I'm already downtown for aiding anyway and don't have other classes.

Speaking of the city, I just loved LOFT yesterday! Everything about it spoke to me. Actually, it didn't really speak to me. It just embodied what I already love and believe about the Christian community. I missed Glasgow and my volunteer placement there quite a lot, but it definitely reflects a part of my heart that I have for the under-resourced. I think it's a fantastic thing to be in community in that way. (Makes me want to do Project Neighborhood even more next year!)

And even though I love it, it's one of the hardest elements for me to be in. I think some people naturally step into that enviroment and flourish, but it's a challenge for me. I tend to grow and reflect more, though, which I think I do like and appreciate about that. I deeply miss the people I worked with in Drumchapel, Scotland, because they were so real. Being a part of their community was a deeply moving thing. Even taking the bus for a half hour a couple times a week to be in their midst was a journey into another world that transformed my views about community and service and what it means to be integrated in it.

I'm sort of addicted to volunteering, and I hope it's in a good way. I love what it means for me. I remember once that Heidi and I were talking about disciplines, and usually I only beat myself up for the disciplines that I'm mostly a failure at, but it had occurred to me for the first time then that I might actually be good at a few disciplines! I think that Joy is one of them, but also service through volunteering. I've been able to make it a consistent part of my life in almost every semester since I was in high school! --In some capacity. I'm disappointed in the times that I have some "service" that I'm doing but it's required for a class, etc., and I don't take the initative to volunteer in the voluntary sense, but still. I'm glad to be doing it. Being in Scotland really helped me commit to that, too. Basically it's my life goal to be always volunteering my time and efforts and gifts in some capacity outside of what is required of me, simply because I can't tithe money, but I can tithe my time (which in some ways is far more valuable than a lump sum). And I don't volunteer just because it's "fun," or because I can do something nice every now and then. I volunteer because it's something I do for my community and for myself. More often than not, at some point in my commitment to serve, I end up dreading going because I have a test or some other interesting thing going on--and even when I go it's not always "worth it"-- at least not immediately. The consistent giving of my time has just become so intrinsic to being a part of faith, that staying loyal to service is tied to being loyal to God. I trust Him to give me the time management skills to get everything done and still have time to give to Him in this way.

It's a beautiful thing :)

Bets