The new year has just begun, and already I'm wondering if I know what the heck I'm doing.....I've signed up for Spanish 111. Again.

I went over to the school a couple of days ago, hoping to get one more math class under my belt while filling out school applications over the next few months. But, much to my dismay, this class isn't being offered as a remote or as a night class in Lee or Chatham counties this semester! It was offered last semester, but my schedule (and my personal life at the time) couldn't have taken even one more burden, so I didn't take it when it was offered. Looks like I'm going to have to make time for it at my next school, which might be an unpleasant proposition. Oh, well, huh?

So, knowing that I couldn't take College Algebra, I should have sighed with relief and left the counselor's office, right? No, not me, it's never that easy. I said "I was hoping to take something this semester, just to keep my hand in at studying. What do you have that I haven't already taken too much of?" And she offered me Spanish 111, on a Tuesday night, at the campus just five minutes away from my house. Okay, so I tried it once before as a remote, and had to drop it. Okay, so a lot of schools want to see foreign language credits on your list of classes. Okay, so I WANT to know Spanish! But did I really need to take this class?

Need it or not, I've got it. And class starts Tuesday night.

Here's the point, I guess. When I first went back to school, some five years ago, I was scared to death. I hadn't written a paper in years and years, I felt weird about being older than anyone else in my class (including, sometimes, my instructors), I didn't know how I was going to scrape together the time to study. But, God nudged me to get on with it and go. Alright, it was more like He heaved me into the deep end of the pool. But He knew I could do it, He had given me the intelligence and drive to learn, and it was time I went on ahead and did what I was made to do. And once I got started, I learned that I really could do it!

Many of us never seem to know why we're here, what we were made for. We go through, day to day, just doing our little routines. We get up, go to work, go home. We do our little chores, take care of our children, eat our dinner, and go to bed, just to start all over again in the morning. Sometimes, we do things for fun, like getting new toys or going on vacation, but the fun doesn't seem to last for long. We get mired down in the day to day, and miss altogether the reason we're here. Sometimes, we don't even see that there really is a reason at all, know what I mean?

But there is. There is a reason that each of us was created. We were made, individually crafted, by the hand of God, with every single gift and ability we need to fulfill our purpose in life. We weren't made to just stay in our little daily rut, to kill time until we run out of it and die. We were made for a reason.

Let me give you one little example here. Ever seen a Thoroughbred horse run? Race horses are bred for one specific thing, and that is to go out on a race track and run faster than the other horses around them. The best of them are filled with the drive to lead the way, the need to win out over any other horse that dares to challenge them. This is something that some breeders and horse people call "heart", the overwhelming need to do what they were created to do. And when you see a race horse with heart, you know that he is giving everything inside of him to WIN. He would never settle for just standing around in a field, grazing, getting old and fat and bored. He was born to run, born to fulfill the purpose he was created for.

Can we say that? Are we taking the time to ask God what it is we were created for? Or are we just killing time till retirement? Are we just walking along in our little ruts, doing our little routines, till we run out of time? Or are we actively looking down the road, running the race we were made for?

I want to be what I was created to be. I want to do what I was made to do. Even if it requires stepping out of my comfort zone and into Spanish 111.

Baby, we were born to run!

Darcy