love and learn
Things I loved and learned in 2011:
- New sisters. . . . Who love books just as much as I do are the greatest thing since hugs became more popular than the handshake. WE ARE WYCKOFF'S, EMBRACE OUR NERDOM! My brother sure picked a good one.
- Board games . . . With best friends, particularly the games "Boxer or Briefs" & "Mad Gab," make for many hilarious you-just-had-to-be-there-one-liners that you can yell across campus at one another. The weird looks from others are beyond worth it.
- Honesty . . . Is more powerful than we ever let it be. If honesty was an animal, it would be a seeing-eye dog; Hardly do we ever let it lead our blind eyes. Instead, we sit down in a safe place because we don't trust something we can't see; because standing up for what you believe in when every one else is sitting down is incredibly challenging and unglamorous. This year, I was incredibly unpopular for my honesty, but popularity was never the goal. Honesty, the truth, and isolation are the trinity of realness; thus, more often than not, you can be assured that if you are honest and alone you are doing the right thing. Speak the truth in love, because of love.
- Joseph . . . is one of the best stories in the Bible and was seriously the buoy that kept me afloat during some raging seas during basketball. I truly do believe that God was doing a work in and through me during that dark and challenging time. But the Lord answered my prayers of Ephraim, deliverance, and forgiveness. My heart can joyfully and truly proclaim, like Joseph, "Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves . . . because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you . . . So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God." [Genesis 41: 52; 45: 4-8]
- Faith . . . is believing God is who is says He is. Faith, this year, was Proverbs 3:5 - Trusting in the Lord with all of my heart and leaning not on my own understanding. Faith, this year, meant quitting the sport I had played for 13 years with no guarantees in the near future. What I learned, after the Spirit conquered the fear was that OBEDIENCE BRINGS BLESSING. I had no guarantee that my friends & I would get the house we wanted, nor did I have a guarantee that I would get the permission of my parents to go to India. . .
The house is great, and I leave for India in SIX DAYS.
- My Heart . . . only belongs in the palms of nail pierced hands. Only there is it protected from my sinful self. I owe my heart an apology, I really do.
Best Stages of 2011:
- the embarrassing rambles of the Tabor Talent Show ($75 later, I'll take the embarrassment); the hilarity of "you want to know something that's awkward?" during the Mr. Tabor Talent Show; the audience of the little theatre for J.Murph and I's Open Mic Night; and the every-seat-filled-two-chapel-gathering on November 7th.
The 7th would have been the first home game of my senior season. Instead, I was sharing to the largest chapel group all year. The Lord totally knows best.
Best dance floors of 2011:
- The Mayo Hotel (my brother's wedding), the omniplex in Wichita (Jr./Sr. Banquet), and the Grand Mesa every Thursday night this summer.
Best music find of 2011:
- Mree and Jason Aldean Pandora Station (the world is ending if I like country)
Best spoken word artist find of 2011:
- Andrea Gibson
Moments I will never forget:
"Your 2011 Tabor Homecoming Queen & King is John Frankenfield & Sarah Wyckoff"
Being able to see the seeds I had planted by prayer a year earlier.
D&D's with Colin, Kruze, and Michael.
Jam sessions in the boyfriend room, the sweet voice of my engaged roomie and the patience and love of Kelsey Mann.
My last summer at Pine Cove. The drive in. The late-night laughter of evals. The nook. The "dontcha dare bless yoself wit dat ice cream" we ate on the dock. The time when Sticks got Bob stuck in the ditch at 2 a.m.
Best intentional conversations happened:
- in Wiebe L, the circular table at Mort's martini bar, between the green walls of the boyfriend room in Adams V, in Maria Loewen's kitchen, on the phone walking around Hillsboro, and on the humid porches of Timbers camp on Pine Cove property.
***
Because my God is the same God with the same love, mercy, and endless goodness whether I recognize it or not. Woe am I, Woe are we, if we never recognize it.
Make who you love and make what you learn matter.
My two prayers for 2012:
*Fall more in love with Jesus.
*Asking the Lord to give me eyes to see and ears to hear, so that I may see and hear Him everywhere, and in everything.
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