What's a Holle?

A name says a lot about a person. The definition of who they are can be summed up in their name. For some people there is simply no other way to explain them; when people ask me who my friends are it often takes awhile to construct an explanation longer than "it's just (__insert name here__)".

Well, let me introduce myself:
I'm 20 years old. I'm a sophomore English Education Major, Christian Education/Youth Ministry Minor student at Northwestern College in Orange City Iowa. I left my heart in Guatemala four years ago and am blessed to be able to say that I am going back this summer! I love being outside. Contrary to popular belief I do enjoy reading, as long as the book I'm reading is not a textbook. I love talking to strangers. I love being with my friends. I love to laugh and often do so uncontrollably. And my name is Erin Holle.

To the untrained eye of people who have never met my family, much like the telemarketers that called my house when I was growing up, people may see the word "hole" when they see "Holle". Nope. It's Holle, like Holly.
A hole is what Alice fell down to get into Wonderland.

Holly is an evergreen shrub or small tree with dark-green tough glossy leaves. Though this is how my name is pronounced, believe it or not, I am not a small tree.

Holle. I recently typed this into OED.com, a.k.a the website for the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the definition I was given for my last name:
...Hollow, concave; having a void space within; empty....
 Let's be honest, people, that's a pretty horrible definition if your name defines who you are. I thought so too until I gave it a second thought. The true definition of who I am, the most important thing about me, has nothing to do with the paragraph of facts listed above. My true definition: a child of God. Apart from my Heavenly Father, the dictionary got it right, I am hollow and empty, dead in my sinfulness.

 "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world"
                      ~Ephesians 2:1~

 But if you keep scrolling through definitions on OED.com you would eventually come to:
... recovered from injury or a wound; healed...
I have recovered from, come out of, the state of being empty because of Christ; because of the love displayed when Jesus was crucified. He saved me from continuously having "a void space within" and has filled me with the joy and the love that can come only from Him.
 And because of Christ's love being in me I am full, I have been revived; "been made alive" (Ephesians 2). Though I have been a Christian for 10 years, the thought of the amount of love that my Heavenly Father has for me blows my mind! He took me out of darkness, out of the lowest of lows, came into my life and made me "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

So that's me; Erin Holle. A 20-something. A student. A friend. A child of the King.

I'm confident that none of you need a lesson on how to pronounce "Erin", it means 'peace' but that's for another post.

Welcome to my blog !