How are you?

Week four ends today... As I think through my emotions, I realize how happy I am here. The more time I spend in this place, the more I fall in love with the people, the surroundings, and my God’s presence. This place is not without it’s hardships and struggles, but if you fall there are 200 people waiting to help you up. I have some amazing friends and companions and roommates and the like that come alongside me and actually care. There are many times in a person’s life when you are asked simple questions out of habit and not truly out of care for the person. A common greeting is “How are you?” How often do you actually desire to know how the other person is doing? Or how often do you answer honestly? I always answer the same way. “Good, how are you?” But I am realizing that I really do want to know how people are doing. Truly and deeply. I desire to hear about their struggles and what is going on in their head and heart. And I answer honestly too, and that has truly helped me work through lots of the issues I’m having on a day to day basis. I certainly do not have it all together, and there are many things that I still do not understand or know how to handle. But it all seems just a little bit easier.
And then there’s God. He is always there when human relationships just do not suffice. Sometimes you just need Him to help you sort through everything. I am so happy to be able to call on Him no matter where I am. Being here and immersed in the Word is incredibly fulfilling. God fills you from tip to toe, if you let Him, and it is so sweet. If I did not have Him to lean on, I do not know where I would be. Probably sitting in a dark corner going slowly insane. I am so blessed. I am so blessed. I am so incredibly blessed.