Hello reader’s of Brittany’s blog!
My name is Kaylee Dykema, and I am blessed to call Brittany my best friend/sister/cousin all in one! (for those confused she is technically my cousin but like we are so much closer than that so its more like sisters.) She asked me to write a blog post for her, and after prayer, I strongly believe that God has laid something on my heart to share with those who read this blog. So, I know, I know. I am no Brittany Dykstra, and I am so sorry about that. But I hope that as I type this blog, the holy spirit will intercede and move my typing fingers for me and that each one of you hears what you are needing to hear.
Two words have drastically changed my life the past year in a half. The words are pursued and in-sync.
Pursued. When you look that word up in the dictionary the definition is “to follow someone to catch them” This was a constant feeling during 2017 for me. To make an extremely long, hard year short in summary, my school community walked through the darkest valley of the shadow of death. We had a student drown in the summer, a teacher die in a car accident, two young girls pass away of cancer, another staff member at our highschool pass away, and a little boy pass away in the beginning of summer. To say the literal least, by the end of the year I felt tired, hopeless, and confused. But most of all, I was running away from God. I still believed in him and loved him a lot, but I was cocooning myself from his love. I didn’t understand how a God so powerful could allow so much hurt. Because of that anger, I didn’t dive into the word like I should have. And even though I wrestled with so many questions, I can now confidently tell you guys that God is still so good. You see, Jesus continued to pursue after me even when I was running the other way. Finally I grew too tired to keep running. I stopped fighting and I let him catch me. By allowing Jesus to catch me after a year full of grief and sadness was the best decision I have made in my life. It was in those arms that I finally found peace with the answers I was wrestling, and was healed from trying to pour into my friends when I was on empty.
It was at a bible study with some girls from my school were I was convicted. At the end of each bible study we pray over each other and let the holy spirit speak to us what needs to be prayed over specific people. It is such a beautiful thing to do because you realize you need prayer for areas in your life you either intentionally or unintentionally blocked out. It was in one of these praying times were my best friend had a vision of me. I was in my car, out of gas, and looking everywhere for a gas station. The funny part was that a gas station was two feet from me, yet I was oblivious to that fact.
That vision portrayed my faith with Jesus. I was continually running on empty, when he was right there just waiting for me to realize that he is the source that can solve those issues. I decided that I needed to have a better relationship with Jesus and didn’t want it to just be him pouring into me. I wanted to be in-sync with Jesus Christ.
After being pursued for a year and pushing God away, I had the deepest desire to not leave someone’s side who never left mine even when I was the worst. You see, being pursued with such a deep, unexplainable, reckless love is very contagious. I want to do a better job of chasing after God. I want to be consistently as in-sync with him as I am able to be.
The main reason I am sharing this is because the last few weeks I have had this recurring vision during any worship time that portrays both pursued, and in sync. It started during the song “Good, Good Father” and every time I close my eyes and sing, this constant vision is ingrained in my head. It is the image of a little girl with curly blonde hair, on the shores of Lake Michigan with a man. He is chasing after her while she giggles and runs away, then occasionally she will run at him. He will have his arms wide open just waiting for her to get to him. Once she does, He tosses her in the air and catches her gently. They continue this playful routine.
Yes, you guessed it. I believe that this vision is a representation of my faith. Sometimes I run hard at God, and sometimes I am running away from him.
God’s timing is pretty insanely awesome because when Britt reached out to me to write this, this week the vision changed a little bit. Being a high school girl can suck sometimes. You lose yourself, find yourself back, lose friends, gain friends, ect. After the rollercoaster of emotions I can sometimes lose that sense of self worth. I had a couple split seconds where I had that this week, and in my vision the Man and the little girls were holding hands and walking on the beach. Then He bent down and looked that little girl in the eye and whispered “YOU’RE ENOUGH”. Hearing this broke the flood gates to my eyes, and I was redefined. Another time later this week, I was on one of those lows in my rollercoaster. And then during worship night, again I had the vision. This time the Man came up to the little girl who was sitting in the sand, and playing with the sand aimlessly with a stick. She was sad, and the Man came up to her and lifted her chin to show her His face. In that moment the little girl instantly felt better.
As humans, the feeling of being pursued out of love is one of the greatest feelings. I pray that everyone who is reading this knows how much Jesus is pursuing you. He wants to catch you. Let him, because resting in his arms is beautiful. I have been challenged to rest in his presents by inreturn having a desire to walk alongside him in-sync with his steps. Know that you are MORE than enough, and let him lift your chin up from your troubles.
Thank you for all of your prayers for Brittany. When I grow up, I want to be like her. How she serves the LORD, and how she loves, points me to Who she belongs to. Keep the prayers coming because I know Britt can feel them. And Brittany when you read this, I hope you know how much I am proud of you, how much I miss your laughter, and how much I miss your presence. You’re doing great things! See you super soon.
In Jesus
-Kaylee
