relationship.

it feels so good to talk to friends back home. i honestly haven't done that much since i've been here. not because i don't want to or don't have the desire to, but just because of the time difference and the schedule changes, etc. that all makes it really difficult. but it feels really great to get a taste of home. i really do miss my friends. i really do miss life back in athens. i really, really, really miss driving around, listening to tegan & sara, and shouting at the top of my lungs with the most important people in the world to me. i can't really explain the longing in my heart to go back to that place. to dive back into a culture that i know, a life that i know... a life that i know and a life that is comfortable. you know, it would be so easy to just go home. oh my gosh, it would be so easy. but i know that i can't. i've been called to live a life that serves the lord and if i'm going to do that, then i will wait in england until i know where my next step is. maybe one day i will be back in athens, and as much as i would love that, i don't think athens is in god's will for me as i move forward. so. that's what my life is about right now. moving forward. and i have been/am being beaten down quite often. i am facing things i never wanted to face, things i never expected to face... but there is a purpose in it all. there is a reason we face struggles in relationships, and i believe that is because we have to fight for them. we have to stand with each other through it all. and i think, after the past few days, i have realized that that is something that is so incredibly important to me. i fight for relationships. i fight for my friends. i stand with them and i love them and i invest in them. not in my own strength, but in god's, because he's called me to be that encourager. so, that's my challenge right now... to love beyond the conflict. to love beyond the mess. to love beyond the pain and the frustration and the anger.