Boston: Pros and Cons

Many things have happened in the past two weeks that I've been in Boston, and it's overwheming if not impossible to narrate what's been happening. So I've decided to put together a list of pros and cons of my Bostonian life as of yet.

Pros

1. God wants me here
2. I'll be instructed in a great program by incredible professors
3. Awesome public transportation
4. I have a long-term goal
5. My apartment is cheap and beautiful
6. My housemates are unbelievably nice and very uncreepy
7. Shopping galore!
8. It's something new and different
9. I'm close to my brother
10. I'm close to my friends from college
11. I own furniture for the first time in my life

Cons

1. I'm not with YWAM anymore
2. I miss my friends!
3. So far, I'm unemployed
4. I can count the people I personally know in this city with just one hand
5. My long-term goal is so big that my soul hyperventilates
6. Everything costs me twice as much as I'd planned
7. The 5 housemates I have so far in this 3-floor complex are all male
8. Firetrucks, police cars and ambulances all seem to love wailing their sirens in front of my house
9. Walking everywhere has made me want birkenstocks for the first time in my life

I have hope for my list of cons. Right outside my window, there is a fire escape - ugly in form and unsecure in nature - that I've hated since moving into the apartment. It was definitely one of the top things on my list of cons. But last night, in a flash of genius, the fire escape became my personal little patio and shoved itself onto my list of pros. It would obviously not work during the winter, but I'll get plenty of sun and planetarium time on that fire escape well before the first flake of snow.
So I have hope. Hopefully I will soon be employed, make deep friendships, get a really nice, clean and female housemate, gain some confidence as God proves to me that I can do this and even have a life-long relationship with Birkenstocks.

Lastly, here's a song that I've been listening to when times get tough.

Acres of Hope
Shane & Shane

He will allure her
He will pursue her
And call her out
To wilderness with flowers in His hand
She is responding
Beat up and hurting
Deserving death
But offerings of life are found instead

She will sing
She will sing
Oh, to You
She will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead her away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope

Here in the valley
Walk close beside me
Don’t look back
For love is growing vineyards up ahead
You have called me master
And though you’re in the dark here
Call me friend
And call me lover and marry me for good

She will sing
She will sing
Oh, to You
She will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead her away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope

How the story ends is
Love and tenderness in Him
Not safe, but worth it
So the valley’s up ahead
Or the ones we live
We’ll sing together
We’ll sing together

We will sing
We will sing
Oh, to You
We will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead us away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope

“Lord, sustain me in the valley. Give me ears to hear Your sweet tender voice and lead me in to acres of hope in this dry and weary land.”
"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD,’you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master. (Hosea 2:14-16)
[ Acres Of Hope Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]