do life big

So I kind of hate summer. I like having free time with family and (relatively) no stress, but I miss schedules and agendas. So I tend to fill up my summers (that is not to say I don’t enjoy the things I fill it with) with whatever service opportunities I can find. This past summer was no different and I loved every sweaty minute of it.

I went to INDIA for a week and a half! It was magical and far exceeded my expectations. As hard as I try, I just can’t find the words to describe my time there (something that is a rare occurrence for me). I soaked in the cultural experiences and asked so many questions! I walked through areas where I could feel the evil around me. I saw absolute poverty and girls who were unwanted. if I could live in India and adopt all of the children, I would (I may yet!). I might die from the heat index, though.

I slept for a week before going to youth camp with my church (whatever possessed me to volunteer to go to youth camp a mere week after flying home from India, I’ve no idea). I was exhausted and skipped a few late night activities to get some extra sleep, but I loved spending time with some of my favorite teenagers. The rest of my summer was spent doing stuff like a Nerf war, volunteering at an inner city mission, and spending time with friends. I don’t know if any of those things (or anything else I did this summer) necessarily changed a life; but I was able to help other leaders and continue building my community while serving.

As summer draws to a close, I’m super excited to be back at my apartment and getting involved with life there, but I’m so thankful for this summer! Someone said, “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” and I am in love with this quote. There’s a certain kind of joy that comes only from helping others. It’s easy to look at life at wonder, “what can I get out of this?” But when you give, you tend to receive even bigger blessings.

There’s a song by Jamie Grace called “Do Life Big” I remember the first time I listened to that song and thought, “that’s what I want, to do life big.”

But what does that even mean?

I think I was in college when I first heard the song and my idea of doing anything big meant spending hours in the library and keeping up with classes (yes, I’m a nerd). If you listen to the rest of the lyrics, you’ll understand she isn’t necessarily talking about skydiving, but rather enjoying life…and enjoying life serving others.

“I wanna love, serve, and give every chance I get…I wanna do life big.”

Community

         I honestly thought this was going to be a terrible weekend. My plans for the weekend didn’t work out, and I was honestly confused whether it would be better to go ahead and take some stuff to my apartment, have Bible study in Columbia, and hang out with my roommates; or stay home, go to Bible study there, and rest. I finally texted a friend from Columbia to see if she was going to Bible study (I hate going anywhere by myself); she and my roommate were going and said I could go with them, so that kind of settled it.

         I took a lot of stuff back to my apartment, so it took about three trips to unload my car. Of course, on the last trip my apartment lock decided to jam (my keys AND my phone were inside). I’d been carrying stuff back and forth from my car in the South Carolina heat and the last thing I wanted to do was go back downstairs and walk to the office to get the spare key. I resigned myself to what is surely the humiliation of being locked out, and got the key. On the way back to my room, I ran into a classmate. We shared hellos and had a short talk about life and what our schedules were before going our separate ways. As I was getting ready for Bible study, someone texted me. “Your classmate said you were going to Bible study, I’m planning on going, too, and would love to go with you!” I was just about to reply that I had told my friend I would go with her and my roommate when my friend texted me that they only had room for two people in the car. I knew I would see them anyway, and was super excited I was able to go with the person who had texted me (isn’t it cool how God works details out?). Bible study was great, and I even got to talk to some people afterward. I’m not a fan of groups or being around people I don’t know, but because I was with friends, I was encouraged to step out of my comfort zone a little more without freaking out.

         I spent the next day visiting more friends and talking over pizza. Saturday I was able to go to the Soda City Market with my friend, explore, and talk over Starbucks; I was also able to go to church with her Sunday and help run a few errands. It’s so easy for me to forget that I am not alone here. I am not an outgoing person—I love people and I love hanging out with friends, but I’m rarely the first to initiate. I am so thankful for this weekend. It served as a beautiful reminder of the friends I have here and it was a huge blessing to spend time with some of the people I love.