Kurzes Vorwort

If you look up “study abroad” in the dictionary you’ll come across this definition: “The extended experience of either pleasant surprise or necessary life-lesson from knowing neither what one will be doing next nor how it will turn out.” I think that sums it up just about right, even if I did come up with it myself. Since February of this year I’ve been experiencing just that every moment of every day in and around Freiburg, Germany. Through ups, downs, gems and duds of all sorts, this always-adventure-filled life has been all in all fantastic for me, and I very much look forward to whatever may come in my remaining two and a half months.
Though I can rightly define my semester so far as knowing neither what I’ll be doing next nor how it will turn out, I should include in that definition the foundational faith that the Lord who has my highest good in mind has been directing all my foggy footsteps from the start. There's a proverb I've had memorized since the wee stages of my life that has truly come to define my personal philosophy since I arrived in Germany: "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge the Lord, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5). Perhaps I am mistaken, and perhaps over the course of my life I’ll learn to significantly alter how I understand this verse, but I find in it a key freedom for everyday living that I've accepted more so this semester than ever before. If I leave my heart and mind in the right hands, which I pray to do everyday, I have the freedom to walk with unbridled joy heel to toe, toe to heel or however else my feet may fall, wheresoever my heart and mind may lead. I make choices and I trust them—because I know they are engineered by a higher power.
When I combine that faith with the peace from the promise of Galatians 5:16--that if I live according to the Lord’s desires I’ll be rescued from the deceitful desires of my own sinful nature--I find an incredible license: to grab the vim and vigor out of everyday and every circumstance, whether I'm in Germany or back at school, whether in the middle of nowhere on my bike or the middle of a rich conversation after class. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, if I’m following the right instructions I’ll reach the right destination.
Now that I think of it, there’s a better way to define the study abroad experience, and this written by an author far wiser than myself: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:3). As far as I can tell, that’s no bad way to make the most of a semester abroad, even a life altogether.
If I can hold myself to it, this blog will be about the little things I come across living by that glorious definition.