YOLO

I have an hour between classes, so I thought I'd chronicle a little bit of what's been going on with me today.
I'm doing things differently these days, or at least, I'm trying to. Since I last posted, I've moved four times, and I'm only one school year away from graduating and one calendar year away from student teaching. It's all very scary and going by quickly and tediously slow at the same time.  As I've settled in to my latest house, I'm trying to get my life and my room in some kind of order. It's nice sometimes to realize that God has everything taken care of, and I can rest in that knowledge when things get really stressful.
Lately, growing in the Word has been left by the wayside. I figured my Sunday service attendance was enough for the time being.  Even when I do read, I usually just do the whole close my eyes and open my Bible, hoping for some Divine intervention and a glowing revelation of a poignant verse to appear before me. Usually, I feel like I'm not doing it right, but I think just doing it in and of itself is right, so I'll keep going.
One thing I want to preface about me is that I've been called many names, including weird, teacher's pet, goody two shoes, strange, quirky, different, hipster, gypsy(hence, gypsy Christian), poser, naive, and funny. And not funny in a humorous way, but that kind of funny where people crinkle their nose and mean it more as an insult then a compliment of your comedic prowess.  Nowadays, I don't mind so very much, but it wasn't always that way. Also, I hated middle school. As any graduate of public middle school will tell you, being different is not highly coveted during that time period or looked upon fondly.
As I began my usual reading ritual of flipping through my tattered Bible that I've had since I was a preteen, I flipped towards the back and landed in 1 Peter.  Luckily, this Bible has little blurbs that explain certain verses, and I often look to them when I need some layman's term explanations of verses that seem so outdated and alien.  This particular blurb mentioned 1 Peter 2:9-12. It states that we are to be different.
"Hmmm, maybe that meant something else back then. Let's cross check with the handy-dandy study Bible on my desk."
Nope, same definition. Different. Awesome. Well, this is going to be fun at a largely liberal college. "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."-1 Peter 2:12
I don't know how well this is going to go over with my friends. But are they really my friends if I can't be true to myself around them?  Looking back one verse, Peter writes, "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul". How could I want a life full of acts that wage war against my soul? As I think more about my peers, I realize that many of them are unhappy with their lives, yet claim freedom and independence on the weekends when they do as they please. They have to try so hard to convince themselves that they're living the life they want and having fun while doing so, yet end up crying come Monday and often regret their decisions, all the while saying they have "no regrets". The phrase YOLO comes to mind.  I've also come across the saying, "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough". I can only have faith in the knowledge that God is looking out for those who love Him, and try my best to count myself among them.
As the phrase goes, "I don't have it all figured out", and I don't. I hardly have this next week figured out. God has it all figured out though, so I guess I can't see the harm in trusting Him with all that I have and getting to check "Figure life out" off my list of things to do.