one for the books

“I will still be confident in this, I will see the goodness of the Lord.

Be strong, take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Psalm 27:13-14

 An interesting thing I’ve noticed about God is this: Sometimes it’s hard to notice His faithfulness in the moment but when you look back, the evidence of it is ALWAYS there so plainly.

 That’s why when things come to end, such as my sophomore year in college, I think it’s important to reflect on all that the Lord has done.

 This second year of college has been incredible. I treasure the meaningful relationships I’ve been given with people who invest in me as I invest in them. The Lord has blessed me with a community of people that have taught me how to love well. He has given me lessons on joy and contentment and living intentionally.

 And the coolest part is that He has ended my year with the same lesson that it began with- a simple one, but one that can radically change your perspective when you learn to walk in it’s truth.

 God is good. He is ALWAYS good.

 Whether we see it in our immediate circumstances or not, He is still good.

 This year, I’ve seen the goodness of God and I’m blown away by His faithfulness.

 And when hard times come, because they surely will, I can look back and know that the Lord will be faithful once more.

 This year has been quite a journey. I’ve been uplifted, overjoyed, broken, loved, encouraged, disheartened, overwhelmed, and invested in. I’ve laughed till I can’t breathe, I’ve cried with my friends when our lives have gotten hard, and I’ve screamed Taylor Swift songs in the car on the way home from Sonic happy hour. I’ve held hands with people who love me and prayed for good test grades, hard decisions, broken relationships, and healing.

  And I’ll be driving home with a heart overflowing with joy.

 Never could I have imagined such a wonderful year as I drove to school in August,

 But that’s the best thing about God’s goodness and faithfulness- it’s always so much better than I could ever hope for.

 “Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.” Psalm 116:7

The Battle

“I seek you with all my heart,

do not let me stray from your commands”

Psalm 119:10

Something I have noticed about being attacked spiritually is that it usually happens when God is up to really big things.

It seems it always happens that when I am diligently pursuing the Lord and seeking His will, I begin to be attacked by the enemy.

Things suddenly get harder. I begin to feel discouraged. And it seems like everything is going wrong.

And so I start to question-

Is God really here in the midst of this?

Am I doing something wrong?

Can I trust that this is what the Lord wants?

My heart cries “God where are you?”

And I lose focus of what He is calling me to do and where He is asking me to be.

Logically, in the midst of resistance, I begin to second-guess the Lord and myself.

Essentially, I start doubting.

And that is exactly what the enemy wants.

If God is working in me and using me to glorify Him, should I expect the enemy stand by and let it happen?

Of course not!

And something I’ve come to realize is that some of the most exciting things that the Lord has done in my life are also the same things that were attacked the most.

When you dream big- when you dream the dreams of your Father and allow Him to use you for His glory, it won’t be easy.

In fact, the bigger the dream, the stronger the attack. Because the bigger the dream, the more that the enemy will want to stop it!

But you can rejoice in the struggle! Why?

1.     If you are being attacked, then that’s encouragement to you that the Lord is working in your life! Therefore, we can rejoice in suffering! (1 Peter 4:13)

2.     In spiritual warfare, the Lord has already won the battle! We can claim the victory in His name.

So if God is up to some big things in your life- expect the attack and be prepared for battle.

But don’t ever back down.

 In the name of Christ, press on toward the goal and win the prize: Jesus.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

He Gives and Takes Away

“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Job 1:21

For many people, myself included, when you talk about the Lord giving and taking away the focus is usually on the taking away part. For most of us, we struggle to bless the name of the Lord when times are hard and when He takes away.

But I also struggle with blessing the name of the Lord when He gives. Because sometimes I take His gifts and I cherish them more than I cherish Him.

When things are hard, I have to rely on the Lord and not on my own strength. I am daily forced on my knees and into His Word.

But when times are good, when the Lord gives, it’s easier for me to rely on my own self-sufficiency. I delude myself into thinking that I have it all figured out and that I am doing things right.

When the Lord gives me good things, I am tempted to find my joy in His gifts rather than allowing the joy of the Lord to be my strength!

So how do I choose to bless the name of the Lord when He gives?

I don’t know exactly.

But I know this: It is far better for me to rely on the strength of Lord than my own self-sufficiency.

So right about when you start thinking you’ve got your life together, you better think twice!

Jesus loves you way too much to let you pursue worldly things that He knows won't satisfy you in the end.

So be careful in times of blessing.

Do not forget the One who has blessed you.

And in all circumstances, when the Lord GIVES and when the Lord takes away, let your heart CHOOSE to say,

 “Lord, blessed be Your name.”

Especially Me

When I worked at camp this summer the Lord taught me a lot of really cool things and ironically enough it was usually through the conversations I had with my campers.

One such instance of this was when I was talking to an 8^th grade girl about what beautiful really is. We talked about the way that the world defines it and the way that God defines it and the way that we define it for ourselves.

As we sat there with our bibles opened to Proverbs 31, she asked me what I thought made a girl beautiful. Tough question right? And if you have ever been any kind of counselor before you know that there are these precious yet terrifying moments when you have absolutely no idea what to say but somehow when you are obedient to just open your mouth and speak the Lord is faithful to give you the right answer. And this was one of those times.

It was a simple answer: God made you and He made you beautiful. He doesn’t make mistakes. And we are most beautiful when we are serving Him.

And I’ll never forget the huge grin on her face (I know- cheesy line but so true!). She looked at me and said, “Then how dare anyone say I’m not beautiful, especially me!”

Wow. Insightful 8^th grader right?

The funny part about the story is that I was sitting here with this girl, Indian style on the porch of the dining hall with my hair still drying out from spontaneously jumping in the lake after losing a bet with a camper, absolutely zero make-up on, and an old t-shirt and shorts. Beautiful was the last thing I would have called myself in that moment.

But she was so right.

How dare anyone say you aren’t beautiful? Especially you.

                                                                                                                          

*Another counselor shared this poem with us:

If I was Noah Webster

I would have had the blind write the definition for

Beautiful

Because if the masters of Braille

Were entrusted with the duty

Of labeling beauty

Maybe our world would look a little different

Maybe I

Would look a little different.

So if Beauty resides in the eye

Of the beholder

We all need corrective lenses.

Because we’re all pupils

Of what others say is beautiful

But I’m tired of learning;

And I’m finally done searching

Because I found Beauty

On the corner of Lies & Loneliness

Prostituting her character

But only growing in bitterness

She’s best friends with

Backstabbing Bulimia

And Beauty intimately knows Insecurity

She has permanent ties to

Too skinny

Too wide

Too outgoing

Too shy

Too much

Not enough

Don’t be tender

Just be tough

So

Beauty set sail on the pursuit of perfection

Moved along by the winds of what she wished she looked like

With make-up in her right hand

And a curling iron in the other

But those things made poor paddles

When flawless features eventually failed

And her boat began to sink,

Leaving her

Shipwrecked on shore

Forcing her to face

Who she was before

She gave lies a voice.

Before Expectations

Told her she didn’t have a choice

But things are never clear

When Beauty stands in front of the mirror

But Truth has 20/20 vision

And when asked

“What makes a girl beautiful?”

His reply surpasses the clique answers of confidence

And instead dives deeper than the three layers of skin

Beauty’s made her home in.

He says,

Beautiful is when

You can set her soul next to a sunset

And see that Jesus painted both.

Beautiful is when

She wears her mistakes

But doesn’t live in them

Because she

Intimately know the God of grace

Beautiful is when

She see her scars as stories worth telling

And she uses her healing as a way of helping

And when

Wrinkles cover her face

Because a lifetime of laughter and joy

Has put happiness in its proper place.

And beautiful is when

A woman of the Lord

Carries her cross daily

And knows that the One who gave Himself up for her

Loves her greatly

Because

Charm is deceptive

And beauty is fleeting

But a woman who fears the Lord

Is one worth keeping

- SARAH WYCKOFF

Dream It - Do It.

I just returned from a huge conference in Atlanta called Passion.

It was a conference of 60,000 college students all there to praise Jesus Christ.

Pretty incredible- but the most incredible part was that all of those 60,000 college students left with the PASSION to do something great in the name of Jesus Christ.

I would say that for many who follow Christ, myself included, there are times when you feel the fire, dream the dream, and cast the vision. But so many times somewhere along the way we fall short of the goal. We lose sight of the vision. And we leave the dream to be just a dream and never a reality.

Why?

Because we take our eyes off of eternal things.

We go back to school or work and consume ourselves in our grades, our friends, OUR lives- forgetting that we gave our lives to Jesus and they aren't about us any longer.

A lesson that I’m learning, as elementary as it may sound, is that my purpose in this life is to glorify Jesus Christ.

 My purpose in life is not to pursue happiness but to pursue holiness because my pursuit of holiness glorifies Jesus but my pursuit of happiness only glorifies myself.

You cannot live in your comfort zone if you want to experience Jesus and see Him do incredible things in and through you.

The pursuit of happiness never carries you out of your comfort zone, but pursuing Christ never allows you to remain in it.

When you dream with an eternal perspective, it’s impossible to remain in your comfort zone because when you dream with Jesus He always calls you to a life of faith. 

A quote I heard somewhere that has been written on my heart is this:

“I want to do something with my life that if Jesus doesn’t come through I will completely fail.”

That’s a pretty bold statement. And it’s not comfortable. In fact, it's a little scary. But how else do we glorify God if not by walking in faith?

So when you realize that you are comfortable and that you have lost sight of your dream, it’s okay. In fact, praise God that when you try it without Him you lose your passion because if you could do it on your own then it wouldn’t be worth it.

But don’t give up. Because when the God of the universe is on your side, it’s never to late to keep trying. We are human and we fail. But thank the Lord He picks us back up again and calls us to something greater. 

Only with Jesus can our God sized dreams ever come true.

So fix your eyes on eternal things. And keep the faith. Because if all 60,000 of those college students dream the dreams of their Father then our world is in for some immeasurably more incredible things.

"Look at the nations. Watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told." Habakkuk 1:5 

God has big plans for us. Plans we wouldn't believe even if we were told. Plans we cannot dream and we cannot do without God. 

"I have seen the burden that God has placed on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:10-11

Pray for a dream. Then pursue it.