Ramen noodles.

College life causes you to do some crazy things at times, and one of the most discussed areas of the day to day life that is affected during the college years is also one of the most loved by many people. Food.

With a tiny budget, sometimes ramen noodles and pb&j sound great to eat (sometimes more than one night of the week). You find yourself more easily satisfied with food of lesser quality when better food is a little harder to get.

Earlier tonight as I had dinner with a wonderful friend of mine, she made the comment that it's amazing how the most incredible relationship we have available to us, the one with the most unconditional love and grace and mercy for our wrongdoings, our relationship with Christ, is the one that so many times gets pushed back behind other things. It becomes less of a priority, when all reason would point to it being the very first priority. I mean, just look at the nature of that relationship, compared to others! God is trustworthy always, always looking out for your best interest, always loving you, always waiting to lead you in the right direction. He is the very best relationship we can have, and the very best friend to count on and understand us. And yet, we settle for ramen noodles. We let activities, romantic relationships, family drama, friend drama, and simply life get in the way of investing in the relationship from which all other relationships are tied to. Isn't that, as my friend said, baffling??

The truth of it is, the beauty of the nature of our relationship with God is that it's a choice. It's a choice that we are free to make. He is always waiting for us with mercy and love, but we have to make the step towards Him, and let Him take over. We have to make the choice to hand over control. We have to give up the ramen noodles in our hands and trade it for what that He has for us (which in my mind, would be some sort of glorious pasta with shrimp and other heavenly things :) ). His way is better. His thoughts are higher. If only we knew what we are causing ourselves to miss out on by clinging to what we know rather than trusting Him to give us life more abundant.

I am so guilty of all of this. This is why I know about it. It is a struggle, incredibly, to make God our priority. We want to depend on ourselves, and what we think is best, rather than trust Him. But, when we do trust Him, and we do allow ourselves to fall in love with the One who already loves us so much, we just can't imagine the possibilities of what He can do with our lives when we hand over the pen and let Him write it instead.

There is a quote that says "We will make time for the things that are important to us." Keep track of your time this week. What relationships/activities/other things are you putting your time and energy into? Are those things leading you closer or further away from God? Are they causing you to hold onto control, or to surrender it each day to Him? The way that you're spending your time shows what things are truly important to you. Only you know the true answer to this question, and if there's something that needs to change, don't waste another day doing it your way. We must be so careful, friends. Because I don't know about you, but when I cling to my little feeling of control, I always mess it up. When are we going to learn? When are we going to surrender? It's time to stop being satisfied with far less than we have in our reach, if we let Him be the one leading the way. Put down the ramen noodles. He has far better things in store.