Well, the summer is nearing its close once again. I never ever believed that I would truly be spending my last summer in college before life gets real at my sister’s home in South Jersey being a telemarketer and just experiencing such interesting things.

I have learned and grown a lot more than I had every expected. It was necessary. And still there is so much more to learn about and so much more growing to do. Just another nod towards God’s perfect and blessed timing.

I am not even sure that I am ready or wanting to go back to school quite yet. But as each hour ticks away I draw another moment closer to setting up my dorm room for the very last time.

Goodness that thought is double-edged sword. It scares me to no end, yet some how excites me unbelievably.

And these are the moments where we learn to work in the moment and not in the future. May will be here faster than I am prepared for, but i have so many jokes to make, tears to share and hugs to give before I walk across that stage and receive my diploma.

I refuse to take for granted the time I have ahead of me. When large transitions await this picture is always so much clearer, but we need to challenge ourselves to see the beautiful spectacle that is every moment of life and experience daily.

Especially when we find ourselves confined to the oppressive force of the mundane.

I recently watched Awakenings with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams. It was a brilliant film, some of the best acting I have ever seen portrayed on film. (And it is a TRUE story! Crazy)

DeNiro’s character had been in a coma for 30 years and had recently awoken with the assistance of Robin Williams. He woke up no longer as a boy but as a full-grown man.

The more he learned and grew into who he now was the more he realized that he can never take for granted another moment while he breaths.

He wants so desperately to walk outside alone. But he is denied. DeNiro knows that he is slowly, but surely returning to his comatose state and cries out to those able-bodied people around him that they MUST not live as if they are already dead!

They must live and not take for granted the blessing of breath they are given each and every day.

So my word of encouragement is: do not live out your life dead. There is so much more life to live. Do not become a prisoner of the mundane, or of your responsibilities, or of your own limitations.

Christ offers us all a freedom and a new lens to see life. To see life as blossoming rose bud in a dessert.

As you tread on dear friends, view life through the lens of Christ and you will find your shackles tossed aside and you will find yourself Awakening from the dead.
Much Love.

BGTF