Good Friday to you

Hey friends!

It's been a while since I've posted. Last week I was busy running for Student Body Vice President with one of my best friends Bill Ballard. The two of us came up 22 votes short! (445 total votes) Oh well...what can ya do? We both had a great time running and brought forth ideas that we can follow up on as senators next year. Looking forward to an exciting year.

Taking the MCAT in just over 1 week. Yikes! Super nervous about it, but I put it into God's hands. I pray that if medicine is where He wants me to be, it will all work out.

Today, I reflect upon the cross. Good Friday...it is so easy to "skip" over this day. We know the end of the story, we understand that Jesus died for our sins. May I not forget the price that was paid for my sins. The suffering my best friend and Lord endured on my behalf is almost too much for me to take at times. Imagining the aloneness he felt as his disciples left him, the agony he felt as he was whipped and beaten, the humiliation he felt as he was made a mockery of...how much he must love me! It puts into perspective so much for me, Christ endured it all so that I could be with him. Reflecting upon what happened on this day makes me realize the wondrous love He has for me. So undeserved it is, but how grateful I am for it. Praise Christ, the suffering servant of God.

Life has been hard for many people lately. I look at a family in my resident director's church. They just lost 4 babies (quadruplets that didn't survive more than a week)...imagine the devestation that would bring a young family. I think of an old friend of mine who was killed this week in a shooting in Brookings. He made a bad decision and it cost him his life...23 years old. I know the family quite well, and it is something that will cause much hurt for them. It makes me sad to sit and reflect about the suffering that some people are enduring right now. This is what makes Good Friday so important. Our Savior, while he could have simply spoke our forgiveness into being...instead took the most excruciating, humiliating way to overcome evil. We can go to him in times of suffering because we know he's been there. God had to make the ultimate sacrifice, the Son he loved so dearly. I look to God in times such as these, there are no answers that can bring comfort to people who lose their children, but God can bring them comfort because He lost his Son. I pray that those people will find the peace that rests in knowing God is in charge and that he is hurting right alongside them.

I pray that you have a blessed Good Friday. Take time to reflect upon the cross. The suffering that was endured there, the triumph it represents for all of us, and the man who hung there and his great love for you!