A year ago...

It's funny to think about where I was a year ago. No job offer yet, still checking school websites for the latest openings 24/7, completely open to going anywhere that the job would come from. I really thought I had it narrowed down to a few specific cities...all three of which were fairly close to home. Interviews were lining up, things were beginning to come into focus, and in the back of my mind I completely thought everything would work out exactly the way I was hoping it would...it was just a matter of time.

Spring came and went and summertime soon set in, leaving me still just as wide open and available for any job to come a-knockin' than ever. A few doors had closed (some had never opened), but I was okay with it. Other opportunities continued to come my way, still in the same general areas that I had originally planned out as being "perfect." I prayed for God's will to be done, but deep down, knew that I would really just love for my desires to be fulfilled, hoping that God's matched.
That summer challenged my thinking in HUGE ways. God showed me, even aside from the job situation, that He could do "immeasurably MORE" than all I could ask or imagine. I began to develop new friendships with people who truly loved the Lord, and that community I had so longed for from my college FCA days was beginning to be supplied again. "Immeasurably more..."
Then the call came...the offer I had been waiting for since walking across the stage at Littlejohn as an official college graduate. But it didn't come from anyone in my hometown or surrounding cities like I thought. Nope...it came from 4 hours away, down by the coast, completely out of the blue. I didn't really understand it, but because of the way it fell completely together, I jumped in, ready for that "adventure" I had been holding out for.

Standing on (almost) the other side, this year hasn't been easy. I've been homesick more than a few times, overwhelmed, confused...

...but not abandoned. Never alone. Not one time.

It hasn't been the easiest year, but God has taken that homesickness and has allowed me to find a community of believers in my new "community" He's placed me in...people who are following hard after Jesus and desire to seek Him, know Him, be found by Him. COMPLETE answers to prayer...
He's taken that overwhelming feeling and has placed His peace within me to calm every storm to a whisper. Every time I feel like things are beginning to become too much to handle, He's stilled my heart every time with the reassuring knowledge of who I am in HIM, resting in the Victor of this present age and age to come.
He's taken the confusion that so easily comes alongside anything brand new, and demolished it with clarity through His Word, alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. Though I don't understand everything that's come my way this year, He's allowed me to see the difference between being "confused" and being caught up in "childlike faith," waiting on HIM with a dependence so deep, so fervent, that ultimately my "not knowing" brings Him greater glory than if I had been given every answer to begin with.

So, what's next? What "plan" do I have on the radar?
God doesn't require my lists, my "perfect" plans, or my ideas of what's best. (Praise HIM!)
I think Micah 6:8 says it best:
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Plans, shmans. He has SHOWED me what is good. 

If you had told me I would be where I am right now a year ago, I would have laughed (politely, of course). :) But isn't that kind of the point? God uses the "foolish things to shame the wise," and I'm blown away by what He's taught me here and what He's chosen to allow me to step into and be a part of. Regardless of where He places me next year, I can be confident of this: He will continue to show me time and time again that His ways are NOT my ways...they are SO much better!