1) The beautiful weather this week. It was sunny and 50 degrees on Wednesday for my trip home, and the traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Last year, heading home the day before Thanksgiving was an ordeal-it took me 4 hours to get home to Akron from Columbus, when it normally takes about an hour and 45 minutes. But compared to last year, the trip went well-no heavy traffic beyond Delaware County, and no bad weather like last year, when I ran into a snowstorm from Mansfield to Akron. Even the bad weather has worked out-the fog this morning drove people away from the stores, making Christmas shopping a lot easier.
2) Getting to go shopping with my brother this morning-our annual tradition. I woke up at 4:30, and we caught the early sales at Best Buy and Wal-Mart, and managed to get to about a half dozen other stores before finishing around 11:00.
3) Spending time with the family, the first significant time in over a month. Last night, we went to the light display at Blossom Music Center, and tonight, to see the windows on Main Street. This was the first Thanksgiving in a few years that the windows were decorated for Christmas, and it was nice to see everything again. Each window has a theme-one is decorated with characters from "The Wizard of Oz," "Peter Pan," and so on. My personal favorite is a display showing the evolution of Santa through the centuries, in different cultures. Where else can you find out about the pioneer Santa in a buckskin coat?
4) Good food-I couldn't take one more night of Pesto or Panera. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, cooked by my brother and sister-in-law, and there were plenty of leftovers for tonight. I always eat better at home than I do in Columbus, and this weekend was a case in point.
These are the little reasons about why I am so refreshed by coming home, and why it gets harder every week to head back to Columbus.
But of all the manifold blessings in my life right now, I am thankful for the most difficult experience of my life-law school. Here's why:
First of all, the tougher things get, the closer the whole experience brings me to God. Every day I am ignored, and mistreated, and derided for the cause in which I fervently believe, serving God through the legal profession, it brings me a little closer to the Truth. The longer I have remained in Columbus, the bleaker the secular landscape appears, and it is seeing these diversions of money, power, and indulgence for what they are that is giving me the great spiritual awakening that I will need for the years ahead.
It is impossible to describe all of the undercurrents taking place to this effect, but I credit the positive influences in my life (my family, Christian and non-Christian friends who are supportive, other Blackstone Fellows), juxtaposed with the experiences I have had and people I have encountered in law school, for leading me closer to Christ than I ever could have gone in a safer environment, such as going to school while living at home. I lived that life during college, and even though I was challenged in some respects, I was never able to experience the spiritual growth I have while on my own. Somehow, I received just enough success, got thrown just enough scraps from the world's table, that I never needed to stretch myself and realize that God cannot be kept in a box-that there is something more to grab on to.
I wish I could say that this is a finished work, a three-step program under which I could claim that the first step is complete, and that I am ready to move on to the second. But God's work on my heart will never be complete until the day I die, or He calls me home.
Second, I am thankful for law school because the closer I get to God, the more I thirst for righteousness. Even as elusive as this is in my life, even with all my shortcomings, I am seeing more and more that this, not grades, money, power or prestige, is what matters. It is as though all my old idols are being left behind, and what is left is something that captivates, challenges, and dares me to rise above my own imagination. Even though I don't always achieve this in my actions, the desire is there, and I am bound to act on it.
One aspect of my desire of Him is that in law school, now that I don't have the old academic and achievement idols to hide behind, I am coming to realize more and more my own sinfulness and depravity. I compare my sinful nature to the God I serve, and it becomes all the more amazing that I am not left to rot in hell where I belong.
This is still a work a progress, however; as I continue to grow spiritually, I must enthrone God so that He can work on my heart and I can develop godliness in my life. And this is one more reason I am thankful for law school: the more I move toward God, the more I enthrone Him in my life and exercise my free will to let Him lead me where I need to go, the more He can accomplish His plan for my life.
So yes, I am thankful for the trials I have faced since last August, and for the Lord who sustains me with the rising sun each day. "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." -Rom. 8:37 (KJV)
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