Day 78 : Last Day of Being 20

Being twenty is probably my transition phase. It's the year I experienced my internship, rising through the challenge of Thesis 2 and getting 4.0, baccalaureate and graduation, pre-employment hassle, getting into the "real" world, finally spending our anniversary together on the exact day, great depression days because of my career & shift, my faith being shaken, and everything else falling apart in front of my eyes.

Looking back, there has been so many ups and downs - the best and worst - all for this year. In a few minutes, it's a whole new chapter again for me. I don't know the challenges I'll be facing in my journey as a twenty-one year old, but I am certain that God has won these battles for me already. I'm uncertain of how things will be atleast until I turn twenty-two, but I am certain of the only One who holds my future, and my future is secure with Him.

As I end this chapter as a twenty year old, I'll still and will always be taking along with me three things that will always endure - faith, hope and love.

God has made me this way, and even as I look back at the seventeen year old me, these three things have been instilled in my heart. Only this time, it has grown to maturity through every experience of joy and pain - in my family, and throughout college: academics, friendships, and one relationship.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. I place my faith in Him, because He is the finisher of my faith. He knows what He is doing, and it is His promise to give me the best version of my dreams.

Hope is an earnest expectation, an adventure. When everything seems to be falling apart, when everything seems to be so dark, hope holds me together, hope brings forth light. When circumstances tell me that it is impossible, and that there is no way out - hoping in the Lord assures me that everything is possible with Him, and even if there seems to be no way, He will always make a way.

Love is life. Little did I know about it until I have experienced it fully through God. My breakthrough last 2010, turned everything around. That's why knowing love itself, who is God, has made me love myself more, my family more, and him, more. Losing focus on God, also makes you lose focus on love. To lose sight of God, is to lose everything else. This is one mistake that I will never, ever do again.

...the seventeen year old me, has always dreamed about a love, true love, that will come in God's perfect timing. It has, though today proving it to be true needs testing, I just want to say that through that kind of love, I have experienced and learned that...

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it does not keep record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

I have also come to believe, and still will always believe, that...

Love endures. love never fails. love creates miracles. love makes all things possible...because,
Love IS God. God IS Love. 

Maybe this is just how I am. Maybe no one will ever understand why, or how I am able to speak of such things. . . All I know is that, I've come too far and have had so many grace-filled moments to think that I am being a fool to believe such things. One day I will look back at this post, and smile in tears, knowing that everything I have believed in, everything He has placed in my heart, has created a stream of miracles, dreams that have come true at last. One, being a living testimony that true love exists. Because God isn't only love...He is also the truth. 

Here's a piece my friend Rian, drew for me way back in 2011. Still holds true.