Contentment

As I sat in my dorm room early this morning as the bright sun came through the antique blinds, I found myself reflecting on my past year at Indiana Wesleyan University. It is here that I have found myself in the utmost state of joy, yet somehow I've also experienced some of the hardest, most trying times of my life. I sat in wonder at how that could be. How in just eight months could I experience such an array of emotions, experiences, friendships, and moments? IWU has enabled me to really search myself and deal with some of the things I've pushed down throughout my life. This sacred place has given me some of the most pure, true friendships I've ever had in my life. This atmosphere has brought me joy, abundant joy and has shown me what it means to live life in full motion. However, when I reflect what this place has offered me the most, one word seems to come to mind: contentment. Throughout the end of high school, I found myself in a battle with comparison: spiritual comparison, physical comparison, comparison in achievements, etc. I wasn't always sure how to cope with this, but moving away from the place I loved to call home during those years was one of the most beneficial decisions I ever made for myself. I truly believe that Indiana Wesleyan has played an essential part in the transformation of many areas of my life. From the very first moment during my first college visit, IWU offered me a sense of peace and contentment with my life, decisions, and surroundings. As I continued to look out the window and enjoy my coffee this morning, I found myself thinking how different my life has become since not only being a student at IWU, but ever since I became a Christian. Although Christ hasn't made my life perfect by any means, He definitely has revealed to me what it means to live in contentment. Throughout my journey at the end of high school and into the beginning of college, right when I thought something was getting better, I would find myself disappointed, angry or bitter at the events that were happening in my life. Though, when I sit and think how I ended recovering and finding the good that God was working out of those events, I sit in amazement at how through it all I have had this sense of contentment. Although I wasn't always aware of the level of contentment I had, I am assured of where it came from. God has been there all along ensuring that there would be an end to the chaos and to just sit, be still and then continue on in contentment. I am loving this season of learning here at this wonderful place I get to study for the next four years. (yay for Master's!) Thank you God for showing me a state of contentment through it all.

For I have learned in whatever situation, I am to be content. 

Philippians 4:11