This afternoon I drove downtown and to this coffee shop I pass every morning. It sits on the corner of the street parallel to the river; the front is lined with little white tables hiding from the sun. It took me an forever to park, but I was determined. When I got inside, something just felt kind of farmiliar... I liked it a lot. I bought a root beer and claimed the corner booth. I needed time to just process.
This week I started my senior year. I'm glad, really, to be back in Cape Girardeau. It's beautiful, the people are so thoughtful, and I love seeing friends who have known me sice I was born everywhere I go. It's not Japan or France or Swaziland, but it's my hometown. I am certainly not through processing what I experienced this past summer. I imagine that will take many more months. Every time I have left the United States I have come back as a different person with a different view of my small world. You would think that traveling would make a small town like Cape seem even smaller... I think it does the opposite.
Experiencing different cultures, being overwhelmed with a tradition that is not your own, seeing customs that confuse you... It makes you appreciate your own. I have eaten with chop-sticks, and that was cool. But man, I appreciate my fork!! I have things to learn from Cape Girardeau, things to love about Cape Girardeau. I'm grateful to be here, to be home.
As I continue to transition I am praying that God would show Himself to me. When I am home I find myself looking in the mirror. People who know me show me things about myself that I didn't know. Some I like, and some I don't. As always, there is forever a song on my lips and this morning it was Gungor's Beautiful Things. I am so thankful that God is making something out of me.
There are days it is just so good to know that even now I am being made into something beautiful by a God who loves me more than I can imagine. When it gets discouraging and lonely and my attitude is shot, I pray for the strength to trust that what God has for me is more than enough.
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