...to continue a theme...

So yesterday, shortly before leaving to spend the rest of the day in Chapel Hill to take care of some pre-internship activities, I read Jodi’s blog and found her reflections on beginnings and ends, Alpha and Omega insightful and helpful. My nerves were a little up in the air as it came time to go meet with my supervisors and one future intern of next year, and help give feedback to this year’s intern’s end-of year presentations.Because I like to jump the gun and imagine possibilities, it was helpful to instead say to myself, "You stand before beginnings; You stand before God".

In looking back at the day together it is also interesting to see the ways that beginnings and ends meshed together made for a valuable interaction. Me and the other newbie, Matt, somewhat clueless and uncertain about the nature of an intern’s year, caused the veterans to have to relate and relive details and experiences that reveal their maturity and unity as a group. And our enthusiasm, and beginner’s "innocence", was possibly a brief boost to all the energy they had expended throughout the year.

It makes me think that the God of beginnings and ends allows this sort of exchange to happen more often than I realize.

It also caused me to wonder about, if I may expand the theme, the span between the two, where it seems God has really surprised me the most lately, the times we could term the "in-betweens". Not only has this been the case as I’ve found myself in-between jobs, in-between places of residence, and often count the hours as in-between meals :), but also because the most ordinary "non-events" to the world have been so moving to me, and I see how so many miracles in-between our busyness or between our plans are what make our stays here meaningful.

This is also what has helped me decide on going home for two months this summer (besides it having become an important time to save on rent!). It has been a long time since I’ve been able to spend the regular in-betweens of life with my family -rather than the end of high-school, the beginning of Christmas break, the end of a semester…- and it may be along time until me and my sisters will be around to do it some more.

It is somethin else to stop and look at the big new beginnings that IDR is infused with right now. It’s also something to think of an Alpha that allows for these nerves-and-possibilities-full beginnings and all the smaller ones that happen each day.

And because I’ve been filled with hope after being out of school a year to see the ways He expands himself to the times "in-between", stretching our roots and watering them, I want to join in passing hope around to all who are finding themselves on a beginning; I am excited for the ways the Omega who holds all the endings will surprise you along the way .

---and thanks to Jodi (and the rest) for sharing with us your reflections along your adventure, and for bearing with me as I ran with them and applied them to my situation!


-Karen P.