bells.

"Ring them bells Sweet Martha, For the poor man's son,

Ring them bells so the world will know That God is one.

Oh the shepherd is asleep

Where the willows weep And the mountains are filled

With lost sheep.

Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf,

Ring them bells for all of us who are left,

Ring them bells for the chosen few

Who will judge the many when the game is through.

Ring them bells, for the time that flies,

For the child that cries When innocence dies."

-Bob Dylan "Ring Them Bells"

Ring them bells! Today is a celebration day!

I have officially concluded my junior year of college, and as much as I hate to say that, it is most certainly true. If you wonder why I hate to say it, allow me to refer to the imminently looming "real world" that is creeping ever nearer as the pages on the calendar wistfully float to the floor and the hands on the clock slip, steadily and purposefully round-and-round. Oh, how I am not ready for the "real world" (don't worry, I [probably] will be eventually!).

But back to the celebration! I like that part.

As of today, I have about four days before I'm back in a classroom, something I have never experienced before. How do you take an intensive Bible class in three weeks? We shall see.

After my Maymester experience it is time to start camp-hopping. That is... eleven week of church camp. That will be wonderful and draining. Prayers are more than welcome for my strength of spirit as I embark on that journey.

All told, I'm excited to see what this summer brings. There are sure to be amazing new opportunities and experiences that teach me how to live.

As for this blog, my class that it started for is now over, but I hope to keep updating every so often I think it's been good to get thoughts on "paper" as it were. I think God programmed me to understand myself through hearing myself talk or writing out my thoughts... So forgive me as I babble.

Let's go back to the quote at the beginning of my current babble. This is a lyric, written by Bob Dylan, covered in a song by Sufjan Stevens in honor of the movie "I'm Not There" a movie about Dylan. Despite never having heard Dylan's version, which I'm sure is a shame, he is a genius, the emotion in Stevens' version captures very purely the feeling of celebrating the simple moments in life when we know God is near.

The world needs to hear the bells: the bells that proclaim that God is here, that God is alive and well.

I think those bells sound a little something like Jesus, and they probably look a little like him too, as they walk, and talk, and carry on as people who love with grace and mercy the others around them.

May we ring like bells arcross hills and valleys, through the streets and through the meadows. Let the world hear your song, Father, ringing loudly and beautifully as we proclaim the Joy you have brought us by loving us so purely, so graciously.

Let us be your song.

Let our lives sing it loud.

Ring them bells.

Amen.