The Best Thing That Ever Happened

Best [best]
–adjective, superl. of good with better as compar.

1.	of the highest quality, excellence, or standing: the best work; the best students.

2.

most advantageous, suitable, or desirable: the best way.

3.	largest; most: the best part of a day.

I heard the question asked the other day, "What is the best thing that ever happened to you?"

At first, it seemed like an easy answer. And then I realized that I couldn't come up with one single BEST thing that had ever happened. I had a mental list but no way of narrowing it down.

The best thing that ever happened was that I was born. I'm pretty glad to be alive. Thanks Mom and Dad! Thanks God!

The best thing that ever happened was that I got to go to Ukraine and China and grow a lot through that. Thanks again, God!

The best thing that ever happened was that I got to go to Moody. Thanks AGAIN, God!

The best thing that ever happened was that I got to meet, like, love, and become engaged to Carson. Again, thank You!

And then I realized that there is not one BEST moment out there. Not for me anyway. I have lots of great memories, lots of wonderful milestones as I think about my life, but there's no way to single out a day, era (can 20 year olds have eras?), moment of life as the very best.

I realize that right now I am in the middle of God's plan for my life. And it is wonderful. I love my life. It's been peppered with moments that make me feel a realm of emotions. I see the process throughout, which I've mentioned a thousand times and don't mind being a broken record about. The things that are going on in my life right now didn't just happen. There was a process of getting there.

And I LOVE that about God. It's one of the things about His faithfulness that I'm just in awe about. He didn't stick us with lives and futures that randomly fell into place but carefully organized our lives. He let there be cause and effect. He let bad things happen so that good things can happen, both to shape and refine us.

The best thing that ever happened to me wasn't a single moment that once was and will one day end. It's right now. It's my relationship with God. It's Him, guiding me and loving me and showing me things and being more faithful than I'll ever understand or deserve. He's the best thing.

How wonderful is that, that God would be so faithful that the best thing that ever happened to us, wouldn't ever end?

Earl the Snowman and Other Matters.

It's 2010!
(No, I'm not saying that late... It may be the middle of January, but it's still 2010 :) )
This year, like its predecessors, is destined to be full of new things. New experiences, new stages of life, new life choices, new last names, new places to live...

I know that it's the middle of the month already but STILL, it's the first part of the year. Talking about newness counts just as much now as it did on January first, right? Right.

Anyway, the first thing we did to ring in the new year was... build a snowman. I can definitely say that I have never before built a snowman on January 1. And definitely never before with my fiance :) Carson named our creation Earl. It's a good thing we built him that night... by noon on January 1, Earl was nothing but a snowball with a stick piercing his unfortunate melted self. Snow hasn't stuck around here much this winter.
Building Earl was not the only thing that happened this year so far... and yet, there haven't been all that many things worth mentioning. There are things like "movie night" or "call such-and-such friend" or "work 5-10" in my calendar. So I watched movies and called people and went to work. And went to Starbucks a lot. And almost finished a scarf. And started packing my stuff.

I'm looking forward to all the NEW that lies in store this year. It seems like everyone around me is experiencing a lot of "new" also: new marriage, new engagement, new places to live, new jobs, new semesters, new babies... just a lot of new. It's exciting to see what God's bringing us through and to imagine how everything will happen over the course of 2010. I learned so much about His faithfulness in 2009 and haven't even scratched the surface of understanding it... I hope to learn and grow in that as well as this year unfolds.