week 4 of living in a tourist town

hey y'all!! so apparently this was our 4th week at link year?? I'm not sure how thats possible, it has gone so quickly and i feel like i've known these people for years! anyways, this was our second full week and we got to kick it off with bible study/small group reveals(!!!!!!!!), and accountability groups, then electives later. then tuesday-thursday we talked about the 7 pillars in class, which is the basis of what we learn at Link Year. The 7 Pillars are: Authentic Accountability, Biblical Worldview, Growing in Gratefulness, Heart Transformation, Maximize Moments, Privilege Responsibility, and Students of Scripture. Now its kind of overwhelming to look at that list and think about how on earth you should apply all of them to your life at once, but what was really cool to me was that this all stems from being a Student of Scripture and letting the Spirit transform your heart. I could go into all of these in detail because they are so exciting and i want everyone to learn about them, but i'm just going to focus on one thing for a second. Throughout every different pillar we learned about we focused on how none of this transformation or acts that we do are of our own doing or achieved through our will. For so long, I have been trying to get "closer" to God (how could I forgot about "Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you." joshua 1:5) and i assumed that this would be through me reading my bible more, or really focusing more on what i could do to help myself get there, and not what God was doing. This week has been a wake up call to me that any single time i try to rely on myself or my own will to grow i will do nothing but fail. This week i have been reminded that although I am at Link Year, in this awesome environment surrounded by awesome community, Link Year is not going to change me. Memorizing a bunch of scripture and knowing really cool biblical history isn't gong to change my heart and bring me to God. ONLY God is going to bring me closer to him, and i have to submit to that. This is a lot of words for me to say that this week the Lord has humbled me and shown me that I have nothing, I am nothing, and I can achieve nothing of worth without him. However, let us not get what i say confused and think that we can write off studying the Bible and memorizing scripture, because that is crucial. my main point here is that in my case, i have a heart issue, not a knowledge issue. i could go on for forever about this but i'll stop here. I can not wait to see how God is going to move in my life and in the lives of my friends here at Link. Also, this topic can be a little confusing i feel sometimes so if anyone reads this and has questions let me know! Thanks y'all.