Where my Israelites at?

A well-known fact about college is that, during it, you find yourself. You discover who you are. You become defined by your sorority, your major, your activities, the amount of time you spend at parties or campus crusade. Recently, I've been trying to define myself. And something that I've been learning is that I can't. Not really. I can't mold myself into whatever I want to be.

This sort of began when I started my crazy, dysfunctional, never-ending search for the perfect college. I had always heard "when you step onto the college campus of your college, you'll know. It will just call to you, and you'll feel it. It will fit you. It will be perfect." It took me nearly two years of searching, traveling, screaming, and crying to discover that there is no such thing as the perfect fit. We have to work with what we're given and mold our surroundings into what we need. And what we need isn't always perfection.

To some extent, I can mold myself. I can choose my clothes; I can pick my sorority; I can listen to whatever kind of artsy music fits my fancy; I can read indie books. After I graduate from college, I can go live wherever in the world I want to. But I can't really change who I am. I'm learning not to act like I'm something I'm not.

Because guess what? I am not as "serious" as I think I am. I enjoy listening to Beyonce just as much as I enjoy listening to Bon Iver. I enjoy reading Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants just as much as I enjoy reading Les Miserables. And I enjoy watching A Cinderella Story just as much as I enjoy watching Atonement. Can you say "complex"?? I'm multi-faceted, just like the other 6 billion people on God's green earth.

I'm learning that people can't be put into boxes and colored black or white. It's impossible for people to stay inside the lines. We're molded by the people we know, whether we love or hate them. We're molded by the things we do, good or bad. We are molded by the God we serve, fierce or loving.

And we are always being molded. We're continually changing. We're not statues, standing at attention for all of eternity. We're clay, and we are never completed. Not in this lifetime.

"This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:  'Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.'

 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 

 Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said, 'Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?' declares the LORD. 'Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.'"

Jeremiah 18:1-6

Hey, guess what?

We're Israel.

Senior year art? Best fine arts credit ever received.

Clums.