Connecticut

With Yale University about two miles away from my new home, I already feel a bit smarter. I have been living in New Haven, Connecticut for the last two weeks and I have begun a journey together with some new friends.

We live in a maze-like house with nearly a hundred doors, four floors, a basement, and a big front porch. This house accommodates several Yale students, young adults who are just getting into the work force, a family, a mother and her baby girl, my three roommates and me. I am still not sure of the exact number, but it is pretty neat to share life with all these people from different walks of life.

My time in New Haven will be so different than what I was planning to do in Ireland, but I can see that God has brought me here. I thought I had everything figured out, after learning so much while living on the catamaran in Belize and learning how to truly love and serve people in Mexico, but I was wrong. It is humbling to say that while I was learning so much, I had slowly allowed my relationship with God to drift to the back burner. During these next few months I am doing an internship with an urban monastery, where we will be challenged to dig deeper into our relationship with God while serving and getting to know our surrounding community. In Belize and Mexico I was learning, living, loving, growing, and doing, however sometimes we, as humans, get caught up in the doing, and allow ourselves to lose focus on exactly what the reason is behind all of the doing.

So, I have chosen to make Jesus Christ the center of everything once again. This is not just a one-time choice that will last forever, but it is a choice I have to make every day, and in every situation. I no longer want to just do the right thing or go out of the way to do good just because it is good or right, but I want to do these things because I am in love with Jesus and I want to follow Him.

So I apologize for not feeling this entry with humor, the neat things of Connecticut, or what I am learning, but I have found the desire to be honest and authentic. With all that said, I am still Jordan, I am still dancing down the street, waving to strangers, playing guitar, singing badly, and telling jokes often and in a monotone voice, but I have a longing to be completely real with God and make Him what my life is really all about.