God Moves in Mysterious Ways

This was my friend Shank's hymn for last week and it really spoke to where I am right now. Thought I'd share it with you all so that it could be a blessing!

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

Reduce! Reuse! Reflect! At last!

In case you were worried, I arrived safely and soundly in Raleigh last Monday evening at 7:30 (on time! Thank you God / Continental!) I have since been on a whirlwind soak-up-every-last-second-of-freedom tour of the Carolinas, moving to Greenville, NC on Tuesday and going down to Hilton Head Island, SC from Wednesday to Saturday. Today, I have been reading, readying and steadying myself for a big day tomorrow of meeting people and getting oriented to a new school-- a new life! This process of orientation has already begun in my own life, and my only wish is that I had a road map to all the emotions I'll be going through in the coming months-- something of a nice, linear Kubler-Ross "five stages of grief" kinda thing. The closest comparison I have in my own life is my entrance into college, though I'm less neophytic now than I was four years ago. Then as now, I was frightened yet intrepid, melancholy yet infinitely expectant, weary yet bursting with vigor, thinking clearly yet consumed by paradox. I'm really little different at heart than I was then, I've merely learned some useful (or not) things such as how to solve differential equations (not useful and since forgotten), the motifs in "Merchant of Venice," the hormones secreted by the pituitary gland, how to love campers, how to be vulnerable with my close friends, and how to not care what the rest of the people think. I believe I'm a little more sensitive, though I have a long way to go in that category. I know the demon that lurks within me a little bit more personally than I did. And I have a fairly clear sense of where God is pulling me, which I completely lacked four years ago. Yet all those lessons, those experiences, all that life tries to delete itself off of my memory when I start something new and unfamiliar. The enemy (or my own sin) is always seeking for a thing as simple as a conversation or as momentous as a new life stage to set me back on the path of self-seeking worldliness... and though on occasion the Spirit triumphs, I sometimes give in without a fight. Oh God that I would take this opportunity to lose myself in God-honoring service!