I'm Back...

     So, I don't know if you all noticed, but I have been MIA for a while. Honestly, there is no excuse. But let me fill you in on what has been happening for the last year and a half. I moved to Romania, as I stated in my previous post, with high hopes of getting into school here. Good news: I made it!! In October of 2011, I began medical school at Carol Davila University of Pharmacy and Medicine, in Bucharest, Romania. And let me tell you, it is awesome. Yes, the are times when I miss home and my family and friends, but I would not trade my time and the experiences I have had here in Romania for anything. Throughout my time here at school there have been ups and downs. But I have made some amazing friends and I have grown as a person through it all. However, being a medical student, living in a foreign country, and trying to maintain a social life is a little overwhelming sometimes... thus I have been AWOL. My parents finally reminded me that I have been neglecting my posts and have given me a certain incentive to write again.
     I'm sure that in the future I will sprinkle bits and pieces of my life here in with my thoughts, so you will have to wait until then (bummer, right?), but for now I just wanted to write a bit about something that has been on my mind for a while now.

The handle

     My life has been hectic, for sure, but not too hectic for me to think. The subway, bus, and copious amounts of walking I do provide me plenty of time to get tangled up in my thoughts. I, like many people, am very visual. I see something and it brings to mind another thing, and then that makes an idea pop into my head, and then that idea blossoms. I can go from seeing a bird swoop in front of me to a full fledged story going on in my head. Or I can see a building and that brings to mind something else. Or in anatomy, I see a skeleton and I begin to wonder who that person may have been (probably a little morbid, I know). Some may call this ADD, but I like to think of myself as creative and easily amused.
     In this instance, I saw a door handle. I see this handle all the time. It is on a gate leading to a house right next to my school. It is an old gate and an old handle, but I love it. The handle is a cross.
     Whenever I see this cross-handle, I think about how Christ made a way for us to access God. Through his sacrifice on the cross, we are able to enter the gates of Heaven. I doubt all of this went on in the mind of the person who made the handle, but it goes on in my head.
     Anyway, over the months of seeing this handle it has brought to mind something else. In Matthew 7:7-8 it says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks the door will be opened." Do we do that? Christ basically gave us access to the gates of Heaven, the door that stands between us and the presence of God. But do we actually accept it. Do we ask for our eyes to be opened? Do we seek out the "handle" that has been provided? Do we knock on the door?
God isn't going to do everything. It is our choice to follow him and to be with him. We have to choose him. We have to ask for him, seek him, and approach him. He's waiting for us. He won't drag us in kicking and screaming.

Not the gate that the handle is on,
this is at Peles Castle.

     When ask for him, he is there. When we seek him, we find him. And when we knock on his door, his glory is revealed. I know I don't knock nearly often enough. I don't visit him and spend nearly enough time with him. And I use many of the same excuses I give you all when I have been away for a period of time. "Oh, I was busy." "But look at everything else I have done." "I just didn't feel like doing it today." God is not a task master. And he should not be on our check list. He wants us to want to come to him. So, will we approach the gate more often, and will we take advantage of the way that Christ has made for us?