Rain!

It's pouring down on the roof right now, and I absolutely love it. In spite of the chance of tornadoes associated with this system, the sound of the rain has a calming effect for me. And the lightning is just fun.

So I got a car nearly a week ago. On Monday we went down to Sioux Falls to see a guy with a car that we ended up really liking. It's a '93 Pontiac Grand Prix, and in really good shape for its age. And it's grey, which seems to make it resemble a space ship. But only to me. Other people now think I'm crazy, but I like the idea of driving a space ship. I still have not decided on a name for the car, as names are vitally important and must be carefully chosen. I'm open to suggestions.

It's funny, but we probably would not have gotten me a car this summer had the other one not died. If I had been able to drive myself to work, lack of transportation when I went back to school would have seemed a less urgent problem. That's how it is with most things, really. I never got a quality violin until my old one broke at the end of my Junior year. Even though I really needed a better violin, it just never crossed our minds to do anything about it. And now I'm wondering if that's true in other areas of life as well. We grow complacent with our lives and just coast along, never wondering if there is something better. Until it all falls apart around us, that is. Some people spend their lives drifting through a dead-end job, never wondering if they could be accomplishing something great with just a little more ambition and work. A girl may stay with the same jerk of a guy for years because he's "comfortable" and never dream of more unless he hurts her. A student may coast through school making decent grades with little effort, or even great grades with much effort and never wonder whether there is more to life than school and realize his mistake only when he graduates "generally educated" and has no plan of what to do next. (Wow, I think I started losing my focus here...) But no matter what we've contented ourselves with, there is something better. Nothing we could find in this life comes close to what awaits us in the future. God trumps all earthly desires, and he is very willing to "break" your current love to get your attention. I've experienced it in my own life, and I know how painful it can be. But when we've got our heads burried that deeply in the ground, it's going to take pretty extreme measures to get us facing the sun and enjoying the fresh air again. Sometimes it takes a while to realize that this pain can be beneficial. When God broke my idol of academics (or, rather, allowed my own actions to tear it down), it felt like the end of the world. It took his continuing to speak to me through many different avenues for me to realize that I had placed my academic reputation before God in my life, which is why my walk had been so stagnant for so long. But following God more closely than ever before this summer has been so much more wonderful than any perfect grade. There is a life of passion and adventure waiting for us if we can only look beyond our ordinary lives and join in the work of the creator of the universe.

-Kim