Trust and Faithfulness: Senior Year

As I am about to embark on my senior year of college, I am a healthy mixture of scared and excited.  Most people in my shoes are scared because they will be entering the working world where a job to match your college degree isn't a guarantee.  I have a little of that future job anxiety, but I am also facing some other big question marks.  What comes next?  Where am I going?  What does life look like beyond college?

These kind of questions spin you in circles.  If I would dwell on them all day, everyday, I'd already have gone mad.  But God calls us to take a leap sometimes in our lives - a leap without a visible landing.  He is patiently willing to walk with us through the short-sighted questions we ask, because He has the long-sight in view.

So here are my convictions, words, spaces for growth - whatever you want to call them - for this year and the road ahead.  Trust and Faithfulness.

Reflecting on our summer, and the journey between my Dad's previous job and his new job, my mom said this: that in our search for a job and God's new direction for our family she wanted to "be found faithful because God is faithful."  God certainly is faithful to His people.

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3.  

We don't have to do anything for God to be faithful to us. He wants to be faithful. He is constant and steadfast and He keeps his promises. And when we give our hearts to our relationship with Him, it gives that relationship life - it urges us to want to give like the God is giving to us. I want to be faithful to God because He is faithful to me. Trusting in Him - in His plan for my life - is a huge part of being faithful.

When you see me on the other side of the journey of this year, I won't be trusting perfectly, I will not perfectly faithful. I will still be learning. But I know there will be people praying for me during this time. And I will be praying for anyone else who is about to leap - that you may walk with God, and always be learning to trust in Him, always be learning to be faithful to Him.

~SP

College Life: For I Know the Plans that I Have for You

In a week I will be moving back into my Bloomington apartment and preparing for my senior year of college.  I am a healthy amount of terrified and excited about my last year of college and I am working on wholly placing my trust in the God that has journeyed with me through these past three years.  In these past years of college I have experience God's faithfulness.  I want to share a scripture that I have leaned on during these years that may be helpful if you are about to start college, if you are in the midst of college or, if like me, your college years are coming to a close.

"For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the Lord "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

This verse gets tossed around a lot.  It is often used as a superficial bandage - someone says it with a smile on their face, as if that will instantly make things better.  My sophomore year of college I took a class on the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament.  My professor gave me some background context to this verse that I had never known before.  Jeremiah is prophesying to a people that have been exiled from their home.  They are hopelessly lost in so many ways - so much so that they are unsure if they can even worship God, they are struggling to figure out what their relationship with Him looks like.  

There will be some beyond crummy moments during the college years.  Friends will do unfriendly things.  You will struggle in classes.  Professors will be unfair.  The four year plan may start to look like the five or six year plan.  

God made a promise to a people who had been forced out of their home.  He makes that same promise to you.  He knows the plans that He has for your life.  And He could have left it at that.  Just that He has some plans, and He's got them under control.  But through Jeremiah, He continues to tell us that the plans that He has are for our prosperity and our joy, not for our downfall.  There will be some dark moments, and there will be twists and turns that we don't foresee, but God has a plan to prosper us if we surrender your life to Him.

If you change your major...5 times...that is ok.  God knows where you are meant to be.  If you get a less than glorious, or even a much less than glorious grade in a class, it will not ultimately be the end of the road.  If you are at the end of the college years and are in fear of the internship that comes next (like me) know that God has not led you through 4 or so years to abandon you at the end of them.  He has a plan for you beyond graduation day.  You can be a little terrified.  I am!  God knew that the His people were scared.  He made them a promise.

If you keep reading the passage in Jeremiah, you find this: "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:12-13.  Call on God.  Pray to Him.  Seek Him with all of your heart.  He has made you a promise and He will listen when you are scared or worried about the future - whether it is a test next week or a job interview next month.

God has great advice in His Bible for college students and college grads.  Even though you're not an old barren mother, a guy who built an ark, a young woman who stands before a king to defend her people, or any of those other interesting characters, God's word applies to you.

Here is my advice: pray for your friends in college and ask people to pray for you.  Lift your life up to the ultimate plan-maker; choose His plans.  He will be with you.

~SP

Mom and I, the beginning of my junior year at IU's Sample Gates

    

       

The Holy Spirit: Christ's Love Lives On

I have started talking about the Holy Spirit - and when you start, you'll find it is not easy to stop.  There is an aspect of the Holy Spirit that I have been focusing in on - something incredible that God has given us through the Holy Spirit.  A way to live on.

The human body is a marvel - I'm in awe of how intricately God has created us and the amazing things He has made our bodies capable of.  But these bodies are finite.  They are not meant to last forever, they expire.  That can be a terrifying thing that we have to leave one another in our physical form.  That we have to part from our friends and family in the bodies that we recognize them in.  There are some frustrating parts of this life, but when I think of having to be separated from those that I love it crushes me.

Sometimes we are called to leave physical places while we are on this earth.  It may be the house we live in or it may be a place that we work.  There are times when we are glad to part and there are times when it breaks our hearts.  There are times when we feel scared and empty because we don't know what we're walking toward.

I think there is a fear out there that may often get buried, but that when we dig down deep, it is one that many of us are burdened with.  The fear of being forgotten.  The fear of leaving a place, maybe even leaving this world, and being forgotten.  It is a fear that leaves you feeling desperate - what can you do to leave something behind, a trace of yourself.

Looking back to the Old Testament we have Enoch whose life falls somewhere between Adam and Noah.  Enoch is one of the most perplexing characters in the Old Testament - he simply was, and then he wasn't.  Genesis 5:24 says "Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more because God took him away."  The scripture makes it sound like Enoch just disappeared one day.  He was gone.  He didn't die, he just went away.

Besides Enoch, there are a lot of characters in the Old Testament that do die. And there isn't a lot of talk about what happens beyond the end of their physical life.  Then in the New Testament we have Jesus who comes and starts throwing around the phrase eternal life.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16.  Jesus comes to tell of the life beyond the flesh.  He describes the place where we will go and how we have to leave the world and the earthly life we've lived.  He knows He's going to have to do the same.

We have a compassionate savior.  On His journey to the cross I believe He felt the pain of leaving His family and friends tugging at His heart.  Life eternal with God is beautiful.  It is also alright to be afraid to leave the people we have loved during our life on earth.

God gave us the Holy Spirit.  It is His love living on among us.  He can no longer be with us in physical form, but His love dwells among us to guide us and fill us with His presence.

Enoch pops back up again in scripture - He is referenced in Hebrews.  It seemed like Enoch was gone without a trace, but here he is, a long way down the road being used as an example of faithfulness and devotion to God.  Enoch lives on through his love and his faith.

When we leave a place, when we leave people, we leave behind a spirit of love just as God left His Holy Spirit with us.  Love can dwell in a place.

~SP

   

The Holy Spirit: The Greatest of Gifts

The Holy Spirit is a big deal.  I mean that wholeheartedly.  If you asked my friend Jenny, she'd tell you "It's the coolest."  Which is Jenny's way of saying that something is really a big deal.  The Holy Spirit is a BIG DEAL.  We should be excited about the Holy Spirit.

As I have grown up in my faith I have focused a lot on building a relationship with Jesus Christ, and through that relationship coming to know and build a relationship with God, the Father.  I have sat through countless Sunday School classes, I can tell you what the Holy Trinity is and why it is an important part of my faith and an important part of who God is.  However, something I've been learning more recently is what an important role God's Holy Spirit plays in my life.

The Holy Spirit is a gift.  Jesus tells His disciples before He ascends, "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit" Acts 1:4-5.  God is the ultimate gift giver.  Think of a time when you wanted to be really intentional and really creative in giving someone you love a gift.  You wanted them to know upon receipt of the gift how much of your heart had gone into it - not in a self-glorifying way, but a way that let them know how much you really love them.  That is how God gave us the Holy Spirit - it is a personal gift to each and every one of His children.

What exactly was packaged in that gift?  The Holy Spirit is God's Holy Spirit - it is the part of Him that He gave to dwell within and among us.  That is breathtaking.  God allowed part of Himself to be with us, to take a home in our hearts - He wants to be there.  He can't be with us to teach us, to be a physical presence among us - but He gives us the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  That is how He works in us.  That is how He works in others.

What is the Holy Spirit - It's Christ in you.  When others see Christ in you, when you see Christ in others, you are seeing the work of the Holy Spirit.  We can speak words, but it is the Holy Spirit that shapes them and transforms them as they enter the ears and the hearts of others.

The Holy Spirit is love - God's love.  I haven't used the transitive property since writing proofs in geometry as a sophomore in high school, but I'm going to give it a shot.  1 John 4:8 makes the bold and true proclamation, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."  God is love.  The Holy Spirit is a part of God - it is His spirit.  The Holy Spirit is Love.  The Bible describes God pouring out His Holy Spirit on us - He poured out His love on us.  The Holy Spirit is another way of God bringing His love near to us.

The Holy Spirit is a BIG DEAL.  And there's more...so much more!

~SP     




     

Experiencing God's Faithfulness

I was not sure when, or if I ever would come to a point where I could write about this, but I want to share a recent experience with God's grace and God's faithfulness in my life and in my family's life.

A few days after my family moved me home from school this summer my dad lost his job.  Seventeen years of commitment to a job and the company decided to restructure without my dad's position in the picture.  My immediate reaction was tears and frustration for my dad and for our family.  Often our identity gets wrapped up in things like where we live and the careers we have.  It felt like a piece of our identity was shattered, robbed from us.  It was that feeling of having that clean, aesthetically pleasing, seemingly trustworthy rug pulled out from under you.  It goes so fast that you are on your back, breathless, before you realize it is gone.  As my parent's daughter, and as a daughter of Christ, I know that individually and collectively, our family's identity is found in Christ.  And my parents have known that and lived as an example of that throughout this summer.

This summer, through the experience with my Dad's job, God has helped me to refocus where I look for my identity.  He has also taught me about His faithfulness and His perfect timing.

God's Faithfulness: Prayer

I come from a family of diligent prayers.  We pray together and we pray for each other.  We each take turns praying throughout the week at our dinner table.  When my mom would pray she would lift up prayers from the day, for joys and hardships for others.  Then she would end the prayer with ..."God, we need a job.  Amen."  She was honest with God, and she spoke from her heart.  That is what we all would pray, together and separately.

Often, I would feel overwhelmed with stress during the day, and sit down to pray.  I found myself one day saying "God, I know you know what my family needs.  What my dad needs.  A job.  Please bring us to a place where we are comfortable again."

I lifted up my prayers, and then if reflection, I thought, why am I asking God to make me comfortable?  At the beginning of the summer, I was preparing a message to give at camp, sharing with others about how God is a God who knows exactly what we need.  And I needed to trust Him.  I needed to trust that God had a plan, and that that plan may not mean comfort like I envisioned it.

Comfort is great, but our walk with God is about stepping outside of the places we are comfortable.  I sat back and realized that there are people living every day outside of my definition of comfort.  It is humbling - when you think you have so little, there is always someone praying for an ounce of what you are taking for granted.

So I looked at the places where I needed to grow, and I looked at the places where I needed to let go.  I needed to let God take control of the everything - of the job search, of my family.  God, you know what my family needs, help me to trust You.

God's Faithfulness: Community

When something tremendous, like job loss occurs, and you are expecting God to respond by planting money trees outside your front door, you will hopefully learn that God is far more creative and far more intentional than that.  What will happen is that you will open your door, and you will find friends, and friends of friends.

It is incredible and humbling how many people stepped forth to help my dad and our family throughout this summer.  God provided peace there in so many ways.  He used the hands and feet of others to change our lives and to bring us hope.  Whether it was reading resumes, making connections or prayer, God provided.

My family and I could never express our gratitude enough to everyone that showed God's love and grace to us this summer.  You all are living proof that God works and God moves.  That God knows what we need, and that He sends a flood of community.

God's Timing

Often when I hear people talk about God's timing, I take it as a euphemism - it's like a gentle way of saying that you'll be waiting a while.  That is what we begin to think: when we truly submit something to God and release it from our timeline, we assume that it will be a long time before God works.  We feel like this because we are impatient, and we are stuck in linear time.

But God has moments ordained - perfectly ordained.  He is an author and He pens in the details perfectly.  I imagined that it could be any amount of time before my dad found a job again.  Knowing how the job market is at present, and how common it is for someone to be out of a job I was preparing myself to be waiting for some time - months, or upwards of a year.

In early July, God blessed my dad with a new job.  It is a new chapter opened in our lives the God has just begun writing.

Don't Worry

This is a verse that I leaned on during this summer:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

God provides.  It is not easy to trust, but He will help us with that too.

~SP