Nothing can separate...

What a beautiful day to be alive! For real. I'm loving this indoctrination of spring into my life. Praise the Lord, oh my soul, the snow is gone :) This is a good thing.

I am officially back at Luther after a glorious 9 day break at home. Jesus totally blew my expectations for the week out of the water!!! He was at the center of every day, bringing light and joy and fulfilled promises and beautiful surprises to every activity.

However, as the week came to a close, I felt the all too familiar rush of anxiety fill me with dread at the prospect of heading back to school. A renewed influx of stress and separation was upon me, and I was NOT ready to experience that again. College has been hard for me this year, as I have pushed myself harder than I ever should. I won't even begin to explain my schedule because it's manageable and there's no reason for me to complain, seeing as it's all my doing, so I'll just leave you with the idea that I definitely bit off more than I can chew. Lesson learned.

The hardest part about college, however, has been location. My first year of college flew by; I loved being on my own and meeting new people. Life was all fun and games, with a pinch of stress and heartache. This year has been an entirely different ball game. I upped my game, taking on more rigorous course work, and adding numerous activities to my schedule. And without the rush of freshman year to propel me forward without a backward glance toward home, I have realized how much of a homebody I'm turning out to be. My familiy and friends are the most important parts of my life, and having them three hours away from me hasn't been easy. Understatement. It's been ridiculously difficult for me to be away, not only from civilization, but from the people I love and want to be with the most.

This being said, I have found hope. Over the past few months, difficult as they may have been, I have learned a wonderful thing about location: God is not defined by it.

When I went to Peru this January, I had a sinking feeling that my relationship with God would change as soon as I stepped off that airplane and drew the Peruvian air into my lungs. Hmm. Silly notion. God cannot be limited by time or space -- He created them! Instead of the absence of God that I so feared I would experience, God brought me into a deeper place with Him, cleaning up misconceptions I had about myself, romance, and Him. He was so ever present in my life in Peru, and I continue to look back on the month not as a time to learn Spanish, as it was originally intended, but as a month that cleaned my heart of a lot of the scar tissue that had formulated as a result of my past misconceptions of God. Mmm. He's taught me so much about His goodness and consistency. LOVE IT.

This past break has also revitalized my conception of location pertaining to my relationship with God. I knew that my spring break would be amazingly full of God's glory, as I had penciled every Jesus activity possible into my schedule. And God DELIVERED. There really isn't anything for me to say but WABAM. :) What God taught me about worship this week is that location doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether I'm in a packed sanctuary, or in my dorm room alone, or in a friend's living room with a small group of friends. God will come, God will move. Jesus said "For where two or three come together in my name, there I will be also" (Matthew 18:20, NIV). He says nothing about location, because His primary location is in our hearts. So no matter where we are, there He is also, and as this verse states, He is especially present when we gather with other believers. YAY party with Jesus. Oh yes. I love this idea!

While God was pouring down His wonderfulness all week long, I continued to struggle with my feelings of a lack of purpose at Luther. Why in the world had I decided to go to a college that was so isolated and far away from the people that I love? The purpose still is not completely clear to me, but I know that God will reveal it to me in time. But even if a specific purpose never comes into my view, I know that my ultimate purpose, no matter where I am, is to worship my Lover (more on bride/wedding imagery next time! OH MAN. Exciting). Ultimately, it doesn't matter that I am distant from the ones I love, because the One who created me and loves me more than anyone else ever could is ALWAYS WITH ME. Nations' borders, physical ailments, doubts, stress, busyness -- NOTHING can separate me from this Love. This unfailing, beautiful, redeeming, glorious, shining, brilliant Love of my Father, Creator, Savior, Lover, and Friend:

After all, There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13, NLT) This love is OURS. Ours for the taking! Ours for free, given to us by the grace of God. Won for us by Jesus' death on the cross, and sealed in His resurrection as the Living God. Whoaaaa.

And this love, the greatest love of all, is unfailing:

"For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then My faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken," says the Lord, who has mercy on you. (Isaiah 54:10, NLT). Whoa whoa whoa. So even if the things I can't control (the earth itself) change, and everything around me as I know it shifts, God is always with me, and His love remains for me. This is big.

And even if I try to run away, if I myself try to separate myself from God's love, He will always find me, because He is always with me:

"I can never escape from Your Spirit! I can never get away from Your presence! If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I go down to the grave, You are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there Your hand will guide me, and Your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night -- but even in darkness I cannot hide from You. To You the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to You." (Psalm 139:7-12, NLT). This is big. Like, phenomenally big. And it just keeps getting better. So, if the world around me shakes and changes, even there God is with me. If I intentionally try to change my location, God is still by my side.

And ultimately, the verse that inspired this entry sums up the location of God's limitless love in this way:

"I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow -- not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below -- indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39, NLT). Yeah. The greatest love of all, given to us by Jesus in His death, never leaves us. No matter what may change within us -- our physical, mental, or emotional location in this world. NOTHING CAN SEPARATE. Not addictions, not busyness, not stress, not distraction, not ONE THING. Nothing. Nothing can separate.

Holy Spirit, break down walls
Lord Jesus, let them fall
We want to know all of You, Jesus
So break down the walls that are standing between us

Amen! Glory to God alone.