When I graduated last year, my friends and I decorated our caps. I put part of 1 Peter 1:6 on my cap which says “Be truly glad, there is wonderful joy ahead.”
At the time, I did not know how true that verse would come to be in my life, especially as you continue reading.
1 Peter 1:6-9 says “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.“
Now, I have such incredible joy in my squad mates and the path the God is leading me on. I am so excited for this wonderful opportunity, and I know the times ahead are not going to be all fine and dandy. But true joy reaches deeper than outward happiness. Though definitions of words change as people use the word, the joy I am talking about here is Christian joy, which can be defined as “a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world.” Sure, the next year is gonna be very hard. But I know that even though we will hit rough patches and I will get mad at my teammates or homesick or mad at anyone that even looks at me, I have the peace in knowing there is something deeper than our fickle human emotions, but a feeling granted by God to his people – true joy.
When I graduated last year, I was so looking forward (and terrified) of my whole future being before me. I am a very visual person, and in the last semester of my senior year, I felt like I had been in a hallway my whole life, passing from one room to another with different phases of my life. In that last semester, I felt like I had finally made it outside. There were buildings for miles and so many opportunities and different roads, doors, and hallways with many more rooms to walk down.
The only question was which one to choose.
This is something that almost every high school graduate is forced to face, and honestly can be one of the most terrifying decisions.
“If I go to college A over college B, I might not meet person 1 and only meet person 2 and then how different would my life be?”
“What if I go here and I really should go there?”
These were legitimate questions and fears I had. I knew the answer: pray. Figure out where God is leading you. But how was I supposed to know what God wanted with my life? How could I tell the difference between what He wants me to do and what I want to do? How do I listen for Him? How will I know?
But then I found the World Race, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is where God wants me. Many people ask why and how I know this was where God wants me to go.
I honestly cannot give a specific answer.
All I know is that I have faith in my God and that no matter what choices I make, whether it’s what He desires for me or not, all things work together for good.
The rest of the section also resonates with me very deeply now as I know where I am going in 3 months. I know I will have many wonderful experiences on this mission trip, but I also know that I will go through a lot of hard stuff too. It’s gonna be hard being away from home and missing so much. It’s gonna be hard to see the things I know I am unprepared to see. It’s gonna be hard, but God promises us over and over again that trials are there to grow our faith.
Verse 8-9 says “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.”
I have never seen God, but I love Him, I trust Him, and I rejoice in Him, and I want to share that with other people.
I know this is where God is leading me, and in that I have found amazing joy.
