For those of you who know me, you are aware that this past semester has been a difficult one for me. For those of you who don't, I'd like to give you a brief glimpse into some of the transformation God has been working in my heart since August 2013.
After spending a summer on mission in Africa, I returned to a very difficult fall semester. Upon returning, the Lord asked me to surrender my heart completely to Him and Him alone. For me, this meant following through with a very difficult request. It meant breaking up with my boyfriend at the time.
(Let me pause to say that this is not a blog post about my breakup. It's about the heartache, yes, but more than that it's about the healing and the opportunity the Lord has given me to see His sovereignty in a thing that, at the time, felt very, very hard. It's about the grace I've learned in the grieving and about looking back into the beginning of a work that even I didn't see at the time. It's about praying prayers that have hard answers and it's about trusting that even when it doesn't feel like it, God is ALWAYS good.)
I say this because I want to share my heart with you. I want to invite you to look back into my journal at the beginning of this journey to see the questions the Holy Spirit was asking me.
Will you trust Me?
Will you surrender?
Are you willing to sacrifice?
As I think about those questions now, I see that the answer was being prepared to be put into practice. The lessons I learned in Africa were distinctly preparing me for the next step in my walk with the Lord. And really, that's what I've begun to recognize.
That day by day, He gives me the strength and the willingness to say, "Yes," again and again to whatever He asks of me. He gives me the joy and the gratitude to say, "Thank you," for each portion as He leads me through it, whether it is the mountaintops of joy or the valley of the shadow of death.
I know I've been "reposting" a lot lately and reminiscing, but take a moment with me to look back into how God was shaping my heart in August and help me to look forward into whatever "next step" He is equipping me to take...
A journal entry from 7/9/13
Tears of joy because I am glad to be home. Tears of sadness because saying goodbye is so difficult. Tears of confusion because of where I am and the shock of being Back in America. Tears of exhaustion. Tears of facing the unknown. Tears, tears, tears that won't stay away from the corners of my eyes and the front of my thoughts.
This next month is going to be a hard one. If I didn't know it before, I have begun to realize it now. Reintegration won't be easy; I have been altered for life.
Africa has changed me.
And I don't think I ever want to be the same as I was.
Our team leaders asked us to start processing through our experiences to best know how to give an answer to the people who will inevitably ask, "So, how was it?" In journaling and praying through my answer, I've narrowed down what I've learned into one keyword: TRUST.
The Lord has asked me and challenged me to trust Him in so many ways this summer and I think that is my biggest take-away. He asked me to trust Him financially. He asked me to trust Him with my relationship with my boyfriend and His future plans for each of us. He asked me to trust Him with ALL of my future. He asked me to trust Him to accomplish a work in Africa that I might never see. He asked me to trust that He wants my heart before He wants my service. He asked me to trust Him to provide security in an insecure location. Trust was at the very center of everything I experienced.
The Lord brought my faith through fire this summer and refined it with the promise that with greater trust comes greater reward and I am so convinced that I am completely sold out for the gospel to the point of tears because I only want to trust Him more.
I wrote this earlier in the trip and I believe it still rings true of my heart now:
"I think it is true to say that in my life, I have yet to suffer for the sake of Christ. I have self-pitied, but I have not sacrificed. It is with trepidation that today I ask (for the hope of eternal reward) to suffer for the sake of Christ. I surrender today my self-pity in exchange for true surrender and ask for suffering that Christ might be made great in my life and my joy only be found in Him. I realize the danger of this prayer, but have counted the reward far greater than the risk. From here forward, I resolve that I will no longer live for myself or in my own strength, but for Christ and in His strength. As so many before me have testified to the joy of suffering for Him, so I say with those before me that I will rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the Name! (Acts 5:41) 6/28/13"
This has become a daily heart cry of mine. I want all of Christ everyday and I want to be so fully sacrificed that there is absolutely nothing left of myself to give at the end of everyday. I have realized that this is a dangerous prayer. I have realized that this is also something I must pray daily. I have realized it is the only way to really live satisfied in Christ. Fully surrendered with no comprehension of sacrifice, only of love and joy and thanksgiving at the honor of 'filling what is lacking in Christ's suffering' as Paul says in Colossians.
Is it bad to ask God to suffer for the sake of His name? I have asked myself that so many times over this summer and I have realized two things. First is that I have no understanding of what suffering really looks or feels like. I have never suffered. Second, that because I consider Christ supremely valuable in my life, I would be insane NOT to ask for suffering because by suffering for His name, my faith is proven and my hope is placed in the treasure box of greater reward in eternity and God is glorified in my life.
I think most people would call me crazy for seeing it this way, but if Christ is who He really says He is and He is as valuable as He really claims to be and I love Him as much as I claim I do, I would be rash to believe that any part of my safety and security in life is anything but a gift from Him and He will use me to exemplify His grace if only I will surrender my stubborn, fearful heart to His protection and provision. That includes the risk of suffering- torture, persecution, slander, martyrdom- all of these things were norms in the lives of the early apostles. Who am I to believe that I should be any different?
What right have I to live safely in my own home with the mystery of the Gospel revealed in my life, but not multiplying it into the lives of others? Christ's final words in Matthew 28 were a commission to His disciples to go into EVERY nation (panta ta ethne). When I look around and realize that 2,000 years after He spoke those words, they are still not completed, there is a passion, a zeal, an unquenchable desire to go where Christ has not been named.
Who will go and whom will God send? I am here, Lord, send me! Let my life be poured out to the very dredges for Him and Him alone.
When I look back on the last 50 days of my life and see how God has unfolded slowly this flower of truth in my heart- I know it is from Him. Trust is the only legitimate response I can have to everything I have learned. When I look back on the last 50 days of my life and all the joys, hardships, adjustments, and changes that I have experienced, I can't imagine a more fulfilling way to spend my life.
I am sold- body, mind, and soul.
I am not sold just for a vague idea of the world and a love for seeing God's Name made great in other's lives, but most importantly in my own relationship with Him. I have realized I cannot love people in my own strength, but only through the overflow of my love for Christ.
It is with this perspective and this mentality that this summer, I have surrendered fully to God every aspect of my life. He may do with me what He so chooses to glorify Himself most. To Him alone be the glory forever and ever. Amen."
(Follow-up thoughts to be continued in a later post.)