My Summer Class

I'm often one of those people, I think, that really sees how God works in the lives of others and I sit and think 'why cant I see God working in my life?'  'why does He seem to be in the lives of others but not for me?' I pray but he never seems to answer, yet he seems to answer everyone else. Today though... God surprised me.

Today when I was telling someone about how this summer I was supposed to take a Western Civilization class and was dreading it. I thought it was just another class about ancient civilizations and I dont like them. Last time it was complicated and hard to study. Going into this class I expected history but never expected a deeper understanding of my faith. It hadn't occurred to me I had found a deeper faith foundation in this secular western civ class until I was saying this story and in the midst, realized here was God working in my life.

Saint Augustin

I didnt expect western civ would involve so much of the Catholic church. At first through a secular view of it,  I would get frustrated  She would bring up bad things about the church and I would think "hey this is my church and beliefs, you cant say that!"  Then it began to not bother me so much, I  realized that yes, there have been people who didn't follow the faith as they should have but that doesnt mean the church is bad. In hearing these things about the church, both the good and the bad- just it's history,  it caused this yearning to learn more deeply about it and seek out answers about my faith.


I think I really started my journey in faith about two years when I really started to pray and look at what I believe in. I'm one of those people that want to jump right in and already be perfect at it and obviously that doesn't happen. I would be really great about praying and reading and on top of things for a couple of days but then it would wear off. It really took a long time for me to grow,  it took a lot of learning and praying and a lot of stumbles and steps backward before I really found footing in my faith.

Charlemagne and Pope Adrian I

It's hard to put into words how affected I was this summer by this class and what a passion I had in me to learn my faith. It's hard to put into words how my faith has grown from this. It's really just one of those things that looking back, I can truly see God's work in my life and how much deeper my faith is because of it.  I really just feel in awe of God and so blessed and thankful today.