Easter

easter weekend is a time for christians to focus on and celebrate a risen savior, for without the resurrection of christ, our faith would be futile.

paul writes in 1 corinthians 15: 13-14, 17-19, "but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised. and if christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain...and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. then those also who have fallen asleep in christ have perished. if in christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." 

praise the lord for a risen savior! christ has risen from the dead and we have cause for celebration. our risen savior should not only be celebrated on easter weekend, but every day of our lives! because of christ's death and resurrection we are able to live with him in eternity. my prayer for the coming year is that christ's atoning sacrifice would be at the forefront of my mind not just on easter weekend but in my daily life. i want his sacrifice to shape my life as i continue to strive to bring glory to a risen savior. 

christ the lord has risen today! hallelujah!

Spring is here and I've been MIA

i took a little break from blogging partly because life happened and partly because I was having trouble finding the positives of living in texas. i missed family, i missed the seasons and the landscape, and i missed the culture (i still do), but a christmas visit and time with family refreshed my spirit and gave me fresh eyes to see some of the good in corpus, or at least in knowing the lord has us here for a reason.

one of my biggest struggles with this move was in finding friends. i am a social person by nature and need people in my life. transitioning from a desk job to work-from-home job at the same time as this move, caused me to feel very isolated. i needed to find friends quickly, but there seemed to be no avenue in which to do so. no one tells you that finding friends outside of college takes work.

we took for granted our support system in lynchburg, and making new friends took more intentional work than ben or i had anticipated. we no longer lived in community with people or were forced to go to class or work with the same people every day. we moved away from everything that was familiar to us and then had to work hard to find friends.

looking back now, i can see that the lord was faithful, but those first six months were filled with a lot of doubt, fear, and loneliness.

i still wonder what the lord's purpose was in sending ben and i to corpus christi. it's hard and uncomfortable to be in a place when you feel like there is no purpose. it's easy to get stuck in a web of questioning and doubt. i know, because that's where i've been. i've been stuck doubting the lord's purpose in this move. questioning his reasons (i laugh just writing that. who am i to question his reasons?).

so here i am. this post is pretty scatter brained, but i feel like i'm coming out of the fog. i've allowed myself to wallow for too long. today is a new day, and i'm going to make it a point to find the positives in corpus.

it's a season of new beginnings. all around, nature is testifying to new life. this weekend we celebrate easter, and the rising of our savior from the dead.

thank goodness for new beginnings.

First RUF Large Group!

We had our first RUF Large Group of the semester last night and it was so much fun! People + coffee + Jesus = AWESOME.

Really excited for this semester, to see the students learn how much Jesus loves them, to watch them grow in grace....ahh this is the life.

The changing seasons...or not

I have come to realize that EVERYTHING is different in Texas. The tea is sweeter, the grass is prickly, and the weather is...the same.

For most of my life, the first of September meant cuddling in warm blankets, crispness in the air, apple picking, pumpkin flavored everything, and curling up around a warm fire. It's hard for me to believe that it's actually the fall when I'm still wearing shorts 99% of the time.

This weekend, I decided that the Texas weather is not going to stop me from enjoying my favorite fall pastimes. On Sunday, I dragged Ben out of the house to purchase our first pumpkin spice latte of the season. While it seemed strange drinking the hot latte in 90 degree weather, I enjoyed every sip and am already looking forward to my next fall activity. Chili anyone?

Corpus Christi Hooks

Before all of the hustle and bustle of the semester started, Ben and I decided to head out on the town here in Corpus Christi and we experienced our first Hooks game! Let me say, this will definitely not be our last visit to the Whataburger stadium here in Corpus; it was so much fun!

The crowd was into the game, the environment was fun, and the game was a nail biter! What more could you ask for?!

We sat right behind home plate and cheered along with the rest of the crowd as the Hooks defeated the San Antonio Missions. I'm so glad we went and we will be back soon!

I guess Texas really isn't that bad...

With views like this, I really can't complain too much about Texas.

Whataburger

Ben and I had our first true Texas experience at Whataburger this last week. It's a big deal down here in the Lone Star State.

Whataburger actually started right here in Corpus Christi, Texas, by an entrepreneur named Harmon Dobson. The idea was "to serve a burger so big that it took two hands to hold, and so good that after a single bite customers couldn't help but exclaim, 'What a burger!'" Served on nothing other than Texas toast, I will say that the burger was definitely big, but then of course everything is big in Texas!

While it didn't leave me proclaiming "What a burger!" , it was a fun to experience a little bit of Corpus Christi's culture.