Full Ride

“Blog, Cassie.”

“Hey Cass- blog.”

“I’ve said it, blog.”

“Blog-now.”

“All those thoughts- blog them.”

“Everything I’ve told you- blog it.”

“Not paper, not your journal- a blog.”

“You’ve written columns- blog.”

“I’ll help you- blog.”

“Blog.”

He’s told me. I’ve checked, re-checked, tripled-checked, and even fact-checked this whisper. And, I admit, this was not entirely because I wanted to be sure of His will for me.

I’ll tell you why…

I don’t know why.

I can’t give a full explanation as to why I let a combination of procrastination, doubt, and fear keep me from exposing

the daily interceding of my deepest passion: Jesus,

by means of the passion He instilled in me: writing.

In fact, I can assure you that there will be times in this partnership between the Lord and my typing hands where I am incapable of giving a full explanation to a lot of things.

Does it connect with the reasoning why it took me 9 of the 12 months I had of column freedom in high school, to muster up the courage to write about Him? Am I still held captive by that foolish bashfulness?

Again I am unsure. But, here you are, reading the happenings of my heart, mind, and soul- the contemplations and contradictions of my insides.

But hey- this is it.

Some see it as an escape for those “nerds,”

a disposal bin for those “thinkers,”

a release for those “tensed,”

a fantasy time-filler for those “writers.”

A journalist’s first step.

An adult’s MySpace.

A technological chalkboard.

Forget it all.

For me, this has to have nothing to do with me. No, not at all.

But, it has everything to do with someOne.

The One.

The One who is, has, and always will be infinitely more than I could ever write about.

Or, hey, even think about!

So, if you’re a Horned Frog, or any other symbol you choose to take pride in, many of us attend a university in which we pay more or less than $40,000 a year to learn x, y and z to do who knows what we want.

We shovel information into our minds as if we had room for it all. We jam pack our brains with knowledge we either know we will dispose of, or strive to keep a tight grip on.

Taught. Taught. Taught.

Shovel. Shovel. Shovel.

However, and I might just be letting you in on a juicy secret

(in which case I strongly suggest you to do your personal best to keep secret as OPEN as possible),

our God invites us into his wisdom- daily.

The God of all.

He will teach you something.

Not by means of a monotone voice, books, numbers and white boards, either.

It’s more like…

revealing to you a piece of His beauty,

unveiling to you a shrivel of His being,

letting you taste a bit of His goodness,

smothering you in His love.

Yes, little do we know, right before our eyes, every single day, is a God who is teaching us something extraordinarily personal, exhaustively profound, incredibly liberating, purely elucidating, uncommonly true, overwhelmingly peaceful- every single day.

Did I mention, this occurs every single day?

Oh yeah,

and it’s free.

One hundred percent zero cost.

No school supplies, not even a lunch box.

And, just maybe, if we keep our ears clean and our eyes wide, there will be much more than just one snapshot of His wisdom and love each day.

If we let ourselves, if we submit our minds and hearts this will be around every corner and under every footstep.

Every single day,

for all our lives,

for free.

Now, that is what I call a full ride.

And that is what I feel called to share with you: my full ride.

The entirely random yet purely divine lessons He is teaching me, whispers He passes through me, and simply the instances that indubitably show me how I am continually blessed by bearing the name of His child.

School may be out, but I’m still learning.

Learning, and delighting in every moment of it.

May you delight fully in whatever amount of Him you allow.

With His Love,

Cassandra Castillo