melodic mercies

Howdy, welcome back. (:

In all honesty, I don’t really have a super clear direction for where this blog will go. I felt led to write here again months ago, but I felt this pressure to “define my why” and have a roadmap of where to go with it. Not saying planning is bad at all–it has its place for sure. But if the last year has taught me anything, it’s that plans must be held veeerrrrrrryyyyyyy loosely. To catch you up, I graduated college in the middle of a global pandemic, with intent to move to a new city with a new job. I sit here now, almost a year and a half later, at a little coffee shop in my college town (that I now work at, which is super fun 🙂 ), with plans and dreams that are far different than what I had in mind in the beginning of 2020. I’m learning life really doesn’t have to be as serious as we sometimes make it. Some may say I’m wasting my degree after leaving a job in my field to make coffee for people, but I say nope, not really. I always thought it would be fun to work at a coffee shop, so I figured now is as good a time as any! I don’t know, maybe in ten years I’ll look back and think it was a dumb decision, but I have a feeling I won’t. I’m a firm believer that there’s something to be learned in every job, every stage, every season. There are people to love, places to serve, moments to enjoy. That’s one of the biggest lesson’s the Lord has been teaching me in the last year–that planning is valuable, but not to be idolized. I have found that contentment in life has come from embracing the curveballs, because honestly, the curveballs are often where I see God move in the biggest ways.

All that to say, I’m just here. The Lord’s been putting a lot on my heart to share, and so I’m just gonna let Him do His thing through my words. I pray that this will be a space of encouragement that inspires reflection and honesty. A space to document the many ways I see the Lord at work in my life and the world around me–whether grand gestures or simple moments. My hope is that you, dear reader, would be encouraged to look at the world around you a little differently when you leave this website. With a little more hope, a little more compassion, a little more courage.

I almost feel like a different person than the eighteen year old girl who started this blog five years ago. As I’ve grown, this space is growing with me. This little corner of the internet has been such a sweet endeavor. What began as a pre-dietetics major health/lifestyle blog naturally morphed into lessons the Lord has been teaching me as I venture through this thing called life.

After a nearly two year break, the Lord’s led me back to this space.

One day, I was deep in thought about the world while I was in the shower (how existential of me, I know). In the middle of my thoughts, I felt a sense that has been growing ever more familiar with each passing year. Like an intersection of my thoughts and a deep, divine peace.

“You will sing.”

It’s difficult to put into words the voice of the Lord, as it’s not an audible voice (at least not in my experience). But as I continue to walk with Him through this life, I’m becoming more familiar with the ways He communicates with me. Different topic for a different day, but my point here is that I felt this deep sense that the Lord was calling me into something.

And I’ve decided that’s what this space will now be. An auditorium for my songs of praise to the God whose love has forever changed me.

I will remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13

This is my intention. Not to be a rose-colored glasses outlook on life that ignores the pain and problems of the world. I know they are many. But in my own life, it’s been in some of my darkest hours that the Lord’s met me in the most beautiful ways. And it’s those I want to share.

My old posts will stay, though they now feel outdated to my twenty-three year-old self. Reading them feels like rereading an old journal entry–sometimes a little immature and cringey, but sometimes I look back and think, “wow, look how far God’s taken me.” And so they’ll stay, as they’re still a part of the story God’s writing in my life.

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

2 CORINTHIANS 4:1

I’ve been sobered many a time in the last year by the fact that I am completely undeserving of God’s grace on my own accord. There have been times Satan’s used that as ammo against me in preparing to relaunch this blog; he really frickin loves to see us stuck. But then I stumbled upon this verse, and it was the boxing gloves I needed in my mental match with the enemy. Because the truth is, in my humanity, I can be a real piece of work. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t make me morally superior to anyone else. But that’s the beauty of it–while I was a sinner, Christ died for me. It’s wholly by His sacrifice on my behalf that I’m even extended the invitation to this ministry. I know this Love because of Jesus’s choice to bear the weight of my sin when He went to the cross. It’s a completely undeserved blessing, a mercy far greater than sometimes I can even comprehend. By grace, I’ve been given new purpose. A new heartbeat.

Melodies of mercy, I’ll call these stories.

May mercy meet you here, too.