I
have a friend who explains everything good that happens as a blessing.
for example, “I had such a good conversation with _______ today. it was
such a blessing!”. This was a little confusing to me at first, but now
I’m starting to enjoy it. I think all of us (particularly me) don’t see
every good thing that happens as a blessing from God. Instead we just
see it as life. Something good happened, and that’s it. So upon reflect
on this first 6 months in the US, I can’t help but say that I have so
many blessings. Ridiculous amounts. In fact, I’d say I’m over blessed,
which is a blessing in itself. So I want to attempt to share some of
what’s been happening in my life from the eyes of someone who sees life
as a blessing.Firstly- so blessed to be at Belmont and blessed with an accent that helped me meet people quickly.
A few weeks into being at College, I realized that I was going to have to start making a whole new group of solid friends. A new support group, and new accountability group. The beginning was a struggle because I didn’t have much community. There was a really hard week or two during this time, where I had probably the first mini-meltdown in my life. Yup, I was homesick to the max- There’s a whole blog about it. To add to this, things often reminded me of Mike, who had died a month or two prior while I was away in the States. I was dealing with all of this alone, and my friends thousands of miles away. it was a struggle to say the least.
enter Pembroke Hall…
Pembroke
is a dorm (res) at Belmont. They’re known for their community. Pembroke
has a tradition where the whole hall dresses up ridiculously and goes
to support the women’s volleyball team (which isn’t a hugely watched
sport). I started going to these games and slipping in. I made a few
friends from the group and decided that I wanted to move there at some
point. Enter Sam, Jesse, Asher and Brook: Four oddly different guys with
odd names. The first time hung out with these guys, we played
racquetball (the american version of Squash). In typical Jordan fashion,
I over-competitively went for an impossible shot and ended up diving
into the wall head first and being semi-concussed. first impressions
right?Starting friendships with pembro’s was easy. They convinced me to go camping with them over a break. I went along somewhat reluctantly. Little did I know that building friendships would be so easy with these new friends who were as obsessed with Lord of the Rings as I was. 9 of us were on a man-weekend of epic proportions and each took a name of one of the Fellowship from Lord of the Rings. I was given Gandalf (naturally) and we were the fellowship. I realized that this was the community and brotherhood that I needed.
Since then, I have taught them as much South African slang as their minds can take, and everyone now says my name how I say it (with an accent) so that it’s different to other Jordans on campus. Riley says 'kiff, bru' more than I do and every day I am reminded how blessed I am to have these friends. It was God’s plan and God made it happen. He turned that difficult week into something great.
To
add to all this, I've been so blessed to have my boet Josh and his wife
Heidi so close to me. So close that I was able to be at the hospital
the night that their son Jonah entered the world. I’ve selfishly wanted a
nephew since the day they got married, and I was there the night that
he arrived. crazy! Spending time with the 3 of them has been a massive
blessing and even better than I thought.Thanksgiving came around and my entire family came to Nashville! It was the reunion of all reunions- our first thanksgiving altogether since 1999. Having family to give advice and to love on me for a week was the exactly what I needed.
Right now (as I write this) I am in the air heading home for the first time in 6 months. what a blessing! The anticipation has been building for weeks. I started counting down the days 2 months ago, and its finally here.
So there’s that… My year of blessing. count them, because there may be more blessings than you realize.
