Freedom

Halfway through school at the top of the mountains in Ramsau

It's halfway through school and I've loved every minute of it.  The first two weeks were rather quite like a vacation because I was away from home, tried new sports, went on hikes and just enjoyed a new culture.  The third week was more of an adjustment because I began to really live in Austria and all the adjustments that come with it.  Like when to go to the store, because they are closed much of the time or how to live in community 24x7.  During the fourth week, as I began to study God's word, talk to the professors, and have conversations with fellow students, I began to do more than just learn.  It really began to transform me.  One of the simple truths that I learned was more about God's character and His unconditional love for us.  We can't earn God's favor.  He simply loves us.  That's it.  And I began to experience a freedom in living with this truth. Life becomes less filled with control and it becomes more about wanting to follow the one who loves us unconditionally. 
 

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus."

NIV Bible: Romans 8:38-39