About Time. Geez.

It's been a while. I am definitely a 'cyclic' blogger, and it just hasn't occurred to me to blog for the past month-and-a-half or so. My bad.

WELLLL... a lot has happened! I didn't get that job at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, even though the interview went GREAT, but that is ok. It just means that God wants me somewhere else. I'm patient and I'm working hard - holding up my end of the bargain, so to speak - and God has provided thus far. Tutoring has been good, and the agency that I work for has made it clear that if I want to work full time for them in the fall, they would be willing to have me. That wouldn't be too bad at all, but it is still not quite what I want to do. It isn't the 'career' move I am looking for, even if it pays very well.

What DO I want to do? In the long term it is still medicine. I merely don't know how to GET there, which is why I have been looking for a job in the medical sciences for the past 8 or 9 months. But this has been very difficult for me, because at the start I feel that I am at a disadvantage, in that my degree is in something totally unrelated. Every time I write a cover letter or apply anywhere I feel like I need to explain myself extensively: "Well, I got a degree in math, but what I really want to do is work towards medical school." Plus, I am already at a disadvantage because Seattle is outrageously overeducated. To live here and have a degree is like living here and eating bubble gum. It barely matters.

Things have happily been very rich apart from career frustration. I'm continuing to learn a lot about life and God and family and community and everything else. Last week I turned 23 years old, and I can hardly believe it -- that is OLD. (Alright, I know it is still pretty young, but it shows that time is flying.) I don't have much time left to be young, so I want to start making the most of it :) It is interesting that God's Word has a lot to say about being young... look at some of these bad boys:

For You are my hope; O Lord GOD, You are my confidence from my youth...O God, You have taught me from my youth, And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.
--Psalm 71:5,17

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.
--Psalm 119:9

Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants...
--Psalm 144:12

The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel... to give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion...
--Proverbs 1:1,4

The glory of young men is their strength, and the honor of old men is their gray hair.
--Proverbs 20:29

Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.
--Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no delight in them"
--Ecclesiastes 12:1

It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth.
--Lamentations 3:27

Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.
--1 Timothy 4:12

I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one... I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
--1 John 2:13-14

BOOM. There it is. The prime of life is fleeting! NOW is the time to make God the source of all my confidence, to live according to His Word in knowledge and discretion, to remember Him, and to be pure and strong. And I want to learn to rejoice! In Christ we have an amazing source of joy every day and at every moment, because we have Him in the midst of any trial and in the face of any circumstance, whether it be fantastic or miserable at the surface level. He came that we may have life, and have it abundantly -- all in the midst of any heartache, difficulty, frustration, or trial. I have been thinking a lot lately about a verse in Habbakuk that I hope will encourage you, and I'll end with that, but there should be more updates to come.

Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
--Habakkuk 3:17-18