long-distance

I was reunited with a dear friend tonight...she's the kind of friend that i could talk to for hours upon hours...we got 5 minutes tonight and it was such sweet time but bittersweet, nonetheless...oh, how i'm reminded that we were made to stay...sometimes i forget how much of an encouragement this woman of the Lord is to my weary heart but yet again, i am reminded of the faithfulness of the Lord and the power of a life lived forgiven...

it was such a different context to see her outside of PC...i longed to just steal her away and walk around campus and chat about life or drive to the gas station for granola bars and gatorade in the middle of the night or sing songs about hippopotamuses..haha..

tonight, my heart is nostalgic...most days, i'm glad that life is moving on and new things are happening but some days my heart is sad...

hm..

joy is not enough.

Sinclair Ferguson on why it's not enough only to receive the gospel "with joy": Biblical teaching suggests that we truly respond to the message of the gospel only when our hearts experience both joy and sorrow. Even from a psychological point of view it is not possible for sinful men and women to rejoice in the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting without knowing some kind of sorrow for what they are and have been. Similarly in developing Christian experience we cannot separate the rhythm of sorrow and joy which is so often stressed in the New Testament. Christians in this world are 'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing' (2 Cor. 6:10), but never one without the other—at least in this world. (The Christian Life, 176)