“All I Wanna Do…”

A blog post by Leanna Praetzel, Fall 2011

Greetings fellow blog readers!  I’m very excited to be posting this (my very first blog) from GAMING, AUSTRIA!!!  It’s only week two of the semester and we’ve already done so many fun things: climbing castle ruins, swing dancing in the rain, petting a neighborhood cat, jumping in the creek across the street, and chasing bats around campus. 

Where we live, the “Kartause”, is actually an old monastery that now serves as a hotel/FUS dorm/tourist attraction.  And I must say—with all its spiral staircases, twisting hallways, and secret rooms, the Kartause makes me feel like Nancy Drew!  So much has happened since I arrived here in Austria, but the story I am about to share actually took place before I even left the states.

The first and last time I rode an airplane (before August 27, 2011), I had a whopping one year under my belt.  Now after nineteen years with my feet planted firmly on the ground, I was suddenly going to up and fly over the ocean into the foreign lands of “Austria”?  Silly as it may sound, I was scared… scared that I would miss my flight… that the plane would go up and never come back down… that I wouldn’t get complimentary peanuts… things like that.  It’s okay, I thought, people ride planes all the time.  Everything will be fine!

Well.  When my ticket wasn’t working and the behind-the-counter-lady said, “This never happens!”… when I got yanked from my family with hardly a goodbye and pushed through security… when my plane was leaving in ten minutes and I still had to find Gate C19… things weren’t really fine.  In fact they were horrible. 

I was a wreck!  Does this happen to everybody?  How was I supposed to do this on my own?  I had convinced myself that things were hopeless when the most amazing thing happened.  The moment I stepped out of security and into the hallway, I heard the voice of Sheryl Crow: “All I wanna do… is have some fun!”  It was with this catchy tune that I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that God was with me, in me, and all around me.

What?  What did she say?  Sheryl Crow having fun helped this blog writer to find God?  Allow me to explain.  The song “All I Wanna Do” played over and over again on the radio wayyy back in the 90’s, and my little kid self would wander around the house singing along… or belting out random words, anyway.  Between my family and me, it has ever since been “my song.”

Hearing that particular song in that exact moment of desperation showed me just how God knows my heart inside and out, and that He’s the best friend I could ever have.  Not to mention, He knew that it was just what I needed to calm down, take Dramamine, find C19, and fly myself to Austria.  I am convinced that absolutely nothing else would have helped me in such a way.

So.  After 20 years I can finally say that I have started actually becoming friends with God.  Are you friends with God?  Did you know that He is an expert on the subject of you?  Psalm 139:23 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart.  Try me, and know my thoughts.”  Even though he already knows you, He still needs to be let in.

Well, I guess that’s all for now, folks.  Tomorrow is a class trip to Vienna, and I can't wait!  Thanks for reading... Auf Weidersehen!