Coming out of a ten month discipleship training program and launching back into life is such an odd season to be. It's almost like the past 10 months were a bonus round to the game and once you complete it, it puts you right back where you entered. Only difference is now you have more coins/lives/etc, You have more to carry with you to help you out. I'm so tired of analogies, but it helps me process. I have mixed emotions about all of this. For one thing, I've noticed how much easier life was when I was in the program. I always had access to car, if I didn't have food in my cabinet somebody was usually taking me to lunch, didn't have to worry about where I was going to have to stay the next month or how any of my bills were going to get paid. Yes, there were time of stress, anxiety, worry and doubt; but I was never left stranded, hungry, or alone. The past couple weeks have been a huge test of everything that was poured into me. Everything that I tried to absorb from the different leaders I had and classes I was apart of seems to be squeezed out of me all at once. In the past two weeks I've felt almost every negative emotion come across and crash into me like tsunami waves. Isolation, anger, jealousy, shame, defeat, forgotten, avoided; the list really could go on. I hate sitting here and entertaining thoughts of Gods blessing and favor leaving me when I graduated and left the program. It makes me question my obedience in every moment. Did I screw up? Was I supposed to leave Rockford? Would life be easier if I had? Do I want life to be easy? Should I have gone to work for this person? Should I have taken that opportunity? Should I have said no to this one? Please, don't get me wrong. I've had some amazing moments as well, but it's always the negative ones that weigh more. Especially when the positive moments are far and few between and you have to fight just to get a glimpse of them. But, that's exactly what I'm going to continue to do. Fight. In the midst of feeling isolated and by myself, I have to remember that there is God that Loves me, Fights for me, cares for me, and has a plan for my life; and that's the God that I serve. Feelings are the F word. I won't let my life submit to them anymore. I may never get this perfect, but that doesn't mean I won't quit reaching for it. Failure is apart of the process.