Sneakin' up on me

The bright side to dark matters is that they push me more towards reading the Bible and dwelling in God.

Also, Shane and Shane songs tend to sneak up on me. That's how I first started really liking them...when the melody and lyrics from "Yearn" were stuck in my head, but I had forgotten what song it was and who sang it. Just now, I had this in my head: Less of me is more of Jesus...if I lose my life, I gain everything...

Again, I didn't know what song it was or who sang it, but I Googled those two lines and came up with "I Want it All" by--you guessed it--Shane and Shane. A couple stanzas:

To starve is to feast
And less of me is more of Jesus
Lord, I want it all
Lord, I want it all

If I lose my life, I gain everything
At the cross away with all death's sting
Lord, I want it all
Lord, I want it all

And then I found out that I actually have the song on the one Shane and Shane album I bought! =] And since I couldn't find it on Youtube, here's a cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLy8tLaUqNU


Classes have started up again. My new schedule has me at school from 7:30am - 12:30pm or 1pm every day, except Tuesdays (when I arrive at 9am) and Fridays (which I have free). I actually like this schedule much more than last session's, even though I have to wake up early every day. I also have the same teacher for both of my classes--Contemporary Latin American Literature and Phonetics and Phonology--and I think she is a really great maestra! So I am overall very glad about the academic side of life right now =].

Something encouraging--I feel like I understand the Spanish language a lot more. In comparison to when I first arrived, I can now comprehend what people are saying at a much faster pace. Of course, I still need things slowed down or explained a lot of times, but in general it is better. And I don't know if it's because I'm now very familiar with this place, or whether my Spanish has improved a lot (maybe both), but I have more confidence in interacting with Ticos, whether it's my family, the taxi driver, or a store clerk. My Spanish still isn't anywhere near as fluent as I would like it to be, but I realized that I can explain a lot more with it than with Chinese, which was my first language and the nuances of which I understand naturally. During a Skype call with my dad and grandparents in China, my mind kept throwing Spanish at me, and once or twice I slipped a "¿Cómo se dice...?" before I realized that my dad doesn't speak Spanish and I had to ask in English how to say something in Chinese. In any case, when I told my dad that I could explain my thoughts in Spanish but not in Chinese, he said, "At least that's how it should be." I think both he and I are glad that this trip isn't turning out to be a waste of money.

I am still concerned with what I am going to do in the future. Although my current dream job is to work for IJM with a legal and international component attached, that would require years more of schooling and work experience before I could actually work for them in the capacity that I want (no really, I've read over their job requirements and dang, they hire only top-notch professionals). Although I wouldn't mind going through law school and working before I applied to work for IJM (praise God that I can even say that kind of thing), I can't help but feel that that's time I could also be spending doing more tangible work for God. After all, I don't know how long I have to live, and I don't want to go home that day and say, "I was planning on furthering Your kingdom, but really all I did was study, and not much more." Still, even though I don't know, He knows what plans He has for me. So I will be praying about this, as there's not any other viable recourse in figuring out which direction to go. I would greatly appreciate it if you could pray for me as well.

Last thing--a praise and a thought that have been unformed in me because of its uncertainty and miraculousness, but I think my dad is actually warming up to the idea of me working against human trafficking in Latin America. He's sent me random links (he is always watching news stories online) to stories on both during my past year at Rice. Well, news stories on human trafficking and travel stories on the beautiful places in Latin America (he said he really wished he could visit, which is cool because he had never even expressed interest in Latin America before). Considering the fact that I was nearly disowned and left unfunded for the rest of college under a year and a half ago precisely for wanting to do what I still want to do, I'd say God has been moving powerfully in my dad, and therefore in my life as well. Of course, many things still remain to be seen, but praise praise praise to God now for what He has already done.