Trust in the Lord and do good;
  Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.  
Delight yourself in the Lord;
  And He will give you the desires of your heart.
 Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

-Psalm 34:3-5

Yesterday marked the first day of my Spring semester working in campus ministry. As we slung our bags over our shoulders, my campus director gave the ardent charge: "Let's go get tired!" He was half-joking, but it has been so fitting in light of the beginning of this year, the great shifting of what "normal" will look like for me as God has directed me to look and consider what it means to give my life to Him. He's directed my wandering eyes from the harvest fields illuminated in the distance to the heads of grain peeling before me. I think He's calling me to dwell in this land, to stop my wistful fence-climbing and break up the soil I've been standing on all along. 

In the beginning, God planted a garden in the land of Eden, and He told Adam to work it. There was no sweat of the brow, no thorned weeds to tear up his calluses. But God gave him life and a job, and like Adam, He gives us life and a job. I've been thinking about this, the way He has given us breaths and bodies and selves full of life to steward for the job He's called us to, especially as it applies to evangelism. It can be a thing of beauty, surrender and joy in seeking first the Kingdom of God, or it can be a place of struggle where we either hoard and bury our "talents" or spend them like the prodigal son on small and passing pleasures. 

But oh, there is a beauty in the lavish spending of our selves for the glory of God! May we spend our lives for the King, may we run this race collecting  scabs on our knees and dirt under our fingernails. May our cheeks be creased by the joy of Jesus and our feet be blistered from the spreading of Good News. May we exercise the muscles He reformed when He told us to pick up our mat and walk, and with our numbered breaths may we declare that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.