For some people, small, beautiful moments are what life is
all about. There are Eden days—or an Eden year in my case. A year where you
pray that the days would linger just a bit longer; wishing that life could be
frozen forever in the present moment, these feelings, the incredible people
that surround your world. I already miss strolling to class early every morning
in a sea of hip looking people with warm coffee in hand.
I smooth out my bed sheets and glance around my “new” and
familiar room for the next three months and everything calms, my favorite small
Voice stilling my restless heart. This is what I am, what WE are: Blessed, Blessed, Blessed.
As I look back on this year, the biggest truth I discovered is
that setting aside your dreams and instead seeking the will of God with all
your heart is always a much better plan. If it’s meant to be, God will make a
way. God’s timing is perfect. God has a plan and His plan becomes our stories
The reality of life is that dreams die, plans change, and seasons end, but God is not
done yet. The beauty is in this whole process, not just the end results. Life is a string of ends and beginnings. Those
two seem to always come together—like the closest of friends.
Something
ends and something begins and I’m missing the sweet memories of junior year and
a bit nervous for what is to come. I’m melancholy for what’s behind and what
could have been and I have never travelled this road that lies ahead of me. Some
days I am even bold enough to say that I am scared — I wonder if bends in the
roads can break things…. Can break people?
Roads can twist, bend and turn and the only thing that calms me
is that small Voice: “Do not be afraid. I
am always with you. Nothing can separate you from My love. I am for you.”
Since
I am a Type A personality list person (there is no better feeling then
crossing something off a To-Do-List), I grabbed my journal that night and began
to dissect and reflect on this past season of my life. Questions, memories, and
lessons learned flooded my mind until I spilled out this list of 20 things. My
pen stopped, this was the list my heart had been longing to see, the reassurance
that God’s fingerprints were covering my entire school year and He would continue to walk right by my side as I enter the next season too: Senior year.
As scary as that sounds—as unprepared and unqualified as I feel I am for what
God has called me to do next fall. I continue walking down this twisty road because
I know that I never walk alone.
So I present
to you my list of the top 20 things I learned at my first year at SPU as a
junior. My heart is that all things will be done in love, for the glory of God’s
name, knowing that He is with me and I am His Beloved.
The 20 Things I Learned at SPU
1.
Ministry is messy. If you want to touch, impact,
and leave your mark on the world, you’re going to have to be okay with getting
your hands dirty. Every chance I have to love imperfect people (AKA everyone,
including myself) is another chance to perfect God’s love in me. We are all
messy, broken, recovering sinners drenched in the grace and love of a God who
makes beautiful things. Breathe in Grace, Breathe out love.
2.
It’s not our job to change people. It’s our job
to love people. Love is what changes us and only God saves. We are advancing
HIS kingdom, not our own
3.
The most dangerous people are the ones who don’t
believe their actions are affecting the world around them
4.
God is always good and I am always loved.
5.
Let people see you bleed. Be honest. Be
vulnerable. Be transparent. If you believe Jesus shines in your weakness, prove
it.
6.
God desires for His daughters and His sons to
join hands in building His Kingdom. The ground is level at the foot of the
cross. I will spend my life fighting shallow theology and restoring God’s
vision of a Blessed Alliance between men and women. Ministry is about spiritual gifts, NOT
gender.
7.
The essence of creativity is risk, believing
enough to leap into the yet unseen. The theological term for this is faith. When
we stop fearing failure, we start being artists. I wrote my first hymn and
survived an entire year of 8am Music Theory and Aural Skills! Music has become a constant
encouragement for me to find meaning, beauty, and goodness in our world rather
than in something beyond it. Escapism is never the answer, nor is it biblical.
Jesus is redeeming, restoring, and renewing the world, not destroying it
8.
Living with a belief in God is very different
from living as God’s Beloved.
9.
Dear SPU Hipsters, If you attempt to correct my
pronunciation of “Bon Iver” one more time I’ll sucker punch your face all the
way to France.
10. I read Genesis 3 and realized one of the
reasons sin came was Eve and the Serpent were having a conversation about God
without God being there. Convicting…. Grateful for the incredible gift of the
Holy Spirit, let’s not neglect to invite Her presence into every healthy
debate, study, and conversations we have about God.
11. Open your eyes—there are still resurrections
everyday and we are witnesses.
12. I am madly in love with Northwest culture:
coffee, hipsters, the causal swagger of Seattle and Portland, constant rain,
the music scene, and the glorious green nature. One
of my dearest friends once told me that; “sharing a cup of coffee with someone
you love is one of the greatest moments ever.” This is a truth being lived out
daily at SPU.
13. As a Communication major I like to think that
I am studying to be Jesus' PR (Public Relations) manager—since I want to be a
pastor and heading to seminary Fall 2013.
Which has led me to recognize that most people think Jesus is either a
madman or the Son of God. Also, Plato and Aristotle really screwed up the
Theology in the early churches and still impacting the church today.
14. Character over accomplishments. What we do is
not as important as WHO WE ARE. As
children of the King of the Universe we are too blessed to be stressed.
15. Living in the dorms taught me more than any
book could on the Trinity. We are made for community because we were made out
of community. We long for fulfilling relationships because we were made in the
image of the most perfect relationship: the Trinity. Having to live with others
in community, also forced me to realize I am not the most important person in
the world
16. I
unexpectedly fell in love with the church, the Bride of Christ. It is vibrant,
diverse, messy, multi-voiced, Kingdom advancing, filled with a variety of
perspectives and experiences, multi-ethnic, Spirit-led, ancient and historical,
beautifully complex groups of people coming together to serve a God who takes
broken things and broken people and transforms them into something beautiful
and whole. Amazing!
17. The
first demon possession, which Jesus drove out, was at a religious event. That
says something to me. After attending a Christian university for a year that
fact doesn’t shock me as much as it use to. Christians get really offended and
horribly mean when other Christians don’t sin the same way they do. (Read Mark
1:21-28)
18. If I learned anything from attending Mid-Day
Prayer all year long was that God has more words then yes, no, or maybe. He has
a fully formed vocabulary and can talk. We pray to God like he is a complete
idiot and only knows three words (I’m still guilty of doing this). Let me tell
you friends, ask God bigger questions and you will be surprised to find bigger
conversation with God a reachable reality.
19. The
wonderful gift that is the bible because I have never read any religious book
or story that is ridiculously vulnerable, completely honest and raw about the
downfalls and failures of its heroes than the bible. The story that heals the brokenhearted, romances the lonely,
comforts the rejected, and pierces straight through to the messy condition of
our hearts. I also know that the bible is not God, a Paper Pope, or part
of the Trinity. The power of the Scriptures comes from the Holy Spirit moving
and working through it and breathing the words to life.
20. Following Jesus is purposeful insanity.
