This Place

Last night there was a band playing live music on campus. I went with great excitement. Since I've been student teaching, I haven't been very involved in campus-life (to say the least). This event genuinely sounded like fun. So, I persuaded all of my apartment-mates that it would be worth our time, and we went together.

The band played a lot of covers, which was good, and their sound was pretty good too. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. Unexpectedly, it was an event that led me to adoration.

For the past four years, I have been blessed beyond measure. Though I have said those words before, I doubt that I mean them with enough sincerity even now. Benedictine is place of true community. It is a place of clear identity. It is the home to a vast majority that strives to live not for this life, but for the next.

To the world outside of Benedictine, I look (and sometimes feel) like I am one of the few.  It can be difficult to find people who are genuinely and with great passion striving to live a life within the context of God's will.  Many people seem to live within the context of their own desires.

Though true devotion may be a characteristic of the minority, I know that is the characteristic of more than only a few. Benedictine has taught me that.

Last night, at that concert, I was struck with genuine gratitude. I am honestly and eternally thankful to the God who led me here, to this place. Through it He has taught me many things.  I have learned much about His Church and about who He is. I learned the necessity, beauty, battle, and peaceful joy of discernment.

I have learned that I am not alone. He is with me, not only in His omnipresence, but also in a true and tangible way in the hearts of those who surround me. And those people are a true gift, a reminder of His undying faithfulness and His sacred and good plan.

Through this place, I have been wrapped up in God Himself.  When I'm no longer here, He'll still be wrapped around me.

In this place, I have learned to trust Him. I have learned faith.