A little over a month ago my family lost my Grandpa to pancreatic cancer. He had been battling with it for almost two years. I can’t even begin to tell you how strong he was throughout the process. His strength on his deathbed came from singing hymns and having Bible studies with his family. That is just a small glimpse of how big his faith was. Losing my Grandpa is one of the hardest things I have gone through. He wasn’t just a “Grandpa” to his Grandkids, he was my brother’s best friend, my cousin’s number one fan and he was my biggest influence. It was hard to look at his life and not be encouraged or inspired. My Grandpa would be the first to say he wasn’t perfect, the first to take the attention off himself, but he would also be the first to step up and be a servant leader and actually live out the words of Ephesians 4:1 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” I think their Pastor said it best at his memorial service when he said: “He went to a better place, but because of Howell Cobb, the place he left is better.” And it’s true, that small town in Georgia gathered together to celebrate and reflect on the life of an amazing man. The church was filled wall to wall, there were tears and laughter, Grandchildren gave speeches and in the end we saw that God was indeed glorified through the life and death of Howell Cobb.
As you can imagine, mourning the loss of someone that selfless was hard. We all had our days, and we still do, but if there is one thing that I took away from that week in Georgia it was encouragement. Encouragement to live my life worthy of the calling I have received. Encouragement to know that when I am tired, weak and weary God is still planting seeds because He is not tired, weak or weary. The seeds God planted throughout the life of my Grandpa were represented in that church, through the hundreds of greeting cards my Grandma received, and through the love and generousity that was poured out to us all week through their friends. My Georgia grandparents have always been a couple that I have looked up to, their marriage, though not perfect, is something that I think all their grandchildren will always strive towards having.
This update is small. Won’t take up too much space. But it is quite the big life changing event. I AM MOVING!! Yup, as of this Friday I will be a single girl in the city. Well, I’ve always lived in “the city”, North Austin to be exact but as of this week I will be about four minutes away from Downtown. I am experiencing every sort of emotion you could come to expect from a twenty-something single lady. I am nervous because I have never lived alone, but I am also excited to make this place my own and decorate it the way I want it. I am excited to frequent all the local Austin eateries and hope to put my GoLocal card to good use. Seriously, I think there are five cool little Austin joints within walking distance from my new place. Even though all these things are fun and awesome, most of all I can’t wait to use this apartment as a place of community and fellowship. When looking for an apartment I prayed that God would put me in a location that I would be used for His glory. Needless to say I am very excited to see what He has in store for me this coming year.
After much thought I have decided to make this last update a separate post. I feel like it has been such an important topic in my life the past two years that I don’t want to minimize the details just make it fit into a couple paragraphs. This is something I have struggled with, something I have ignored and something I have dreaded. But in the past couple of weeks I have seen exactly what bringing sin into the light feels like, and I have experienced undeserving Grace and it is just too good not to share. So the next post will focus on confession.
In the mean time, to be continued…
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