It’s the end of my summer. The ending of things always sends me into a place of contemplation and reflection, and on this day, the 15th of August, it’s not any different.
For the last time (at least as an intern), I’m sitting here in the RELEVANT office typing up my thoughts, surrounded by fantastic works of art, literature and music. It’s quite easy to be thoughtful in a place like this. It’s been quite easy to be thoughtful all summer long, partly because of the creativity I’ve been surrounded by and partly because of the amazing things God has revealed to me.
I was sitting on the beach on Wednesday with Meredith (it was our last roadie hurrah), and I was reading over my journal from the summer. I journal all the time – writing down my prayers, thoughts and life experiences. I was floored by the constant state of revelation God put me in this summer. He totally blessed my time down here in the realm of learning new things about Him and myself.
I tried to narrow down the intense load of disclosures into the most potent things I’ve learned, but it was honestly hard. I wanted to memorize every word of my journal from the last two months, but that’s probably humanly impossible (I go on and on and on). As I’m sitting here now, though, I think I could at least try it for you guys out there in blog-land.
It all narrows down to trust and risk for me. First, there’s the trust. I read the story of Abraham and Isaac this summer and realized something for the first time. Abraham wasn’t excited about this test, but he really wasn’t worried. He trusted in God’s ability to fulfill His promises. God had promised Abraham a son, and He would provide that son, no matter what Abraham did. So, Abraham was willing to kill his only son because he knew that even death couldn’t void God’s promise. God could easily bring Isaac back from the dead. Ha! What a twist! What if we lived like that in our day-to-day life, trusting God that much? What would it be like?
Another story that floored me even more was about Jesus (as many of them are). Jesus is an almost-thirty-year-old carpenter. That wasn’t an anomaly in the Jewish culture, but Jesus knows He’s the Son of God. He knew He had the power to rise up and take control over all of the kingdoms of the world, and He wasn’t getting any younger. Satan tried to hand Jesus the world on a silver platter, but, instead of taking His life into His own hands, Jesus trusts God enough to be a poor carpenter for thirty YEARS. God then blessed His preparation time by having Him do ministry for two years – two years that would change history forever.
I’m graduating in December. I’m not going to be a college student anymore. And, I’m not going to lie; I want to change the world. I want to heal the brokenhearted and hold the suffering in my arms. I don’t know what’s coming after school, but I’m not scared anymore. Jesus trusted in God and lived a quiet life for thirty years. He waited thirty years to hear God say, “This is My Son.” I’ve learned over the summer that I can wait, too, if that’s what God wants. I don’t have to jump on a plane the second I graduate (although I totally would). All I have to do is live in His love. It’s easy. It will be fine. Actually, it will be world-changing, no matter what the activity I’m doing is.
So, I learned that God is worthy to trust. If He’s worthy to trust, then He’s also worthy to take risks for, right? How risky have I been this summer? Not as much as I would have liked to have been, but coming to a brand new city much bigger than anywhere I’ve ever lived, moving in with a family I’ve never met before and knowing absolutely no one until my first day at RELEVANT is pretty risky in my book. But, guess what.
This summer has been wonderful. It’s been hard at times, but it’s been wonderful. In the times when I didn’t know anyone super well yet, God was my absolute best friend. In the times when I was taking road trips with great friends to watch Disney fireworks and singing 90s Buzz Ballads with the interns on the way to the beach, God was who I thanked for these wonderful blessings.
Risk is hard, but we we’re not truly living without it. Belief can be tough, but unbelief cheats us. It cheats us of the Will of God – His beautiful, perfect, scary- as-all-get-out Will. Between living in a plastic bubble of safety and complacency and jumping off of a cliff into the realm of God’s Will, after this summer, I’ll take the cliff every time. He is worth it.
I never want to be cheated by unbelief again. I want to be risky. What about you?
Adapted from Website ... Intern Blog!
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