When it's God time, It's go time!

Today is my last day of classes. Everything is coming to a close as graduation nears. Last Kappa formal, last Kappa meeting, last day of band, last days at work. This chapter is coming to a close. So what have I learned?

I have learned that my time with God is irreplaceable. My whole life I have compartmentalized my faith in order to accomplish other things. As I leave college and go into my year of service, it is evident to me that my mission is to learn how to incorporate God into each act of my life. His is my whole being, so why do I let myself push Him out. It's time to take this step in my relationship with my God.

Speaking at Gateway, our campus worship service. I spoke about my love for faith. Before college, I found my faith to be a part of my life, but through my college experience I have seen by faith become my life. I am in love with God and strive to deepen that love and that faith. As I take this next step I leave a lot behind. I am moving to a place where I know practically no one, so that I may know Christ more deeply.

Through affirmations, I was told by a good friend that I may compartmentalize God, but 'When it's God time, it's go time!' I love this! My prayer for my year is to make all time God time, so that every aspect of my life can center around my deepest desire, to know and love God.

I'm nervous. That's obvious, but the nerves are what make it so exciting! I love the challenge, I love the adventure! Who knows what this year will hold and the surprises that may unfold, but I know that good or bad, every day will be a blessing from God. It is my hope that each day I can be a blessing of God to the city of New Orleans.

"God expects us to serve Him on His terms- not ours... Jesus was requiring an absolute surrender. To be a disciple meas forsaking everything to follow Jesus, unconditionally, putting our lives completely in His hands. When we say that we want to be His disciple, yet attach a list of conditions, Jesus refuses to accept our terms. His terms involve unconditional surrender." -Commentary on Luke 9:57-62 from 'A Hole in Our Gospel' by Richard Sterns, President of World Vision USA

Grace

This week I was once again reminded of the goodness of God.

My dad has been going through a rough time with employment and has had to make some major changes in order to survive. It has really been weighing heavy on my heart, and it seemed that the more I prayed, the worse it became. I just couldn't pray hard enough.

At church on Sunday something told me that I needed to share this burden with my faith community, so during the prayers and concerns, I stood up and asked the congregation to pray for my dad. Later in the service, a woman sitting behind me handed me some money and asked to pray for my dad by name. This overwhelmed me. She had been visiting our church that Sunday and didn't even know my name, but gave out of her heart to help my family.

Later that day, I received a call from one of our church pastors. He had been approached by a member of the congregation that wanted to help my dad out in whatever way they could. Hearing this message, the only thing I could do was to praise God for how lucky I am to have such a supportive community surrounding me. The whole week I have felt wrapped in His love. I shared all of this with my dad so that he would know of the prayers being said on his behalf. To know the love that surrounds us is to truly recognize the grace that God has given us.


Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:4-5