You might have noticed I changed the name of this blog to something unpronouncable for some!
It is
la vita esaminata; which means 'the examined life' in Italian. Italy is my favorite country to learn about. I've soaked up so much information about Italian culture, history, and language over the years; it is also the one country I want to live in at some point. There I want to become more than a tourist; I want to have a home and routine there. Someday...
"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates
Socrates was onto something, but he never quite got there. He never had what I have.
I remember my first year attending Worldview Leadership Academy. The camp's slogan, if you will, was 'Taking every thought captive for Christ," taken from a verse in Second Corinthians. I was a freshman in high school, going to a new camp, thrown into a cabin with fourteen other girls I'd never met before. That week I was challenged in so many ways: firstly, getting out of my comfort zone, witnessing at the University of Texas campus in Austin. So many worthwhile questions in one week: why do I believe what I do? How is that any different from anyone else's faith? Does the difference really matter? And if it does, how do I live accordingly?
That quote came to mind and conversation several times that week. You have to see what you are already doing before you can improve it. You have to constantly examine your own thoughts and motives for every action. If our job is to truly be Christ's hands and feet, we must first have His mind. Which means our own minds must be perpetually renewed by His Word.
By the end of camp, I had learned so much about myself, my faith, my friends, and the people around me. However, I also went away with questions and the desire to find the answers for myself. Worldview had flipped some sort of figurative switch inside my heart and mind. Suddenly, I had know why this Jesus man Whom I loved so much was hated so fiercely and widely. What had He done, really? I found that the answer is His Word cut them to the heart, and that cut me to the heart. I realized that I owed it to everyone I had met, known, and will ever know, an explanation and reasonable defense for my stand of faith. I left with an impression of the importance of examining yourself and a revived passion for my Savior.
In a nutshell, the new name reflects several loves in my life; the greater being living for Christ and the lessers being philosophy and Italy.
