“Our journey will lead us back to where
we began, but we return as changed people with new eyes to see what once we
were blind to.”
-erwin mcmanus
Have you ever gone back to the place you grew up? It’s weird,
right? The neighborhood that seemed HUGE shrunk like 5 sizes smaller…the house not so big, the yard a
whole lot smaller… the town
that seemed like it took 30 of the longest minutes to get anywhere is small
enough that you make it to each place in about 15 minutes…weird…
I just got back from the town I grew up in. While I was there it
was not so much the place I suddenly saw so differently, but it was the people.
..
I went to a small private Christian school from 2-9th
grade growing up. While I was there I thrived… I had experiences and learned so many things
that many will never have. From my 3rd grade teacher turning our
classroom into the Mayflower, complete with sails and the ship’s dog, to the
guys in my 9th grade class hiding dissected crawfish in the girls’
backpacks, many memories were made. I was involved in everything there. I
played basketball, was on student council, FCA, went to student leadership conferences…I even won the Tropicana Speech
contest in 5th grade…
But in all of that I never grasped what God was doing there until this past
trip home.
As I reconnected with the teachers and faculty, God showed me ways
that He has been showing up in my life and taking care of me. The teachers and
Faculty of the school get together every morning and pray for the students and
for one another…for the
parents… for the
alumni… I’m not
talking about run-of the mill cookie cutter prayers… they PRAY…They begin the school day by putting
on the armor of God and praying protection over the students, guidance and
wisdom as they teach them…I was blown
away. I mean, my mom worked in the office while I was growing up so I knew the
teacher met and prayed for us. I knew the teachers cared about me… but I guess I just never wrapped my
head around it all… that they
were not investing a school, but they were investing in Kingdom. They were
leading the students in such a way that could only point us to God… they did what they could to council
and advise, but in the end the students made the choice…
I also went to a Bible Study with my Grandmother. Most of the
women there were her age and the last time they had seen me, I was in diapers.
As they studied in Philippians and discussed the Power of Prayer, I saw again
the work God had begun back when I was in diapers… These women who surrounded me then and sang over
me with hymns, loved my family, and prayed over me from the time I was a child… Proverbs 31 women who through the years had also
become these seemingly spiritual pillars…
I guess it just hit me hard that I had spent so much of my life thus far being
surround by these Godly men and women who were seeking Kingdom first, and doing
all they could to spur me on in the same direction… I spent my entire childhood and
young adult life missing all of it. Going back, I wonder what I could have
possibly been thinking back then… how could I have missed it? But God reminded me that
I wasn’t meant to have seen it then. I was blessed with that chance, though.
Looking back I can see the foundations my God was building me upon to get me to
this point in my life… It was their
prayers that threw up smoke screens in times of attacks so I could turn back to
God. It was the scripture they so faithfully spoke that would be recalled in
times of need… It was their
songs that would play over and over spurring me on. It was their encouragement
and love that gave me the launching pad needed to get to this place… God used them in such a mighty way… I was blessed to share the joy of
what God is doing with them. I was humbled as I shared with students who in
turn surrounded me and prayed over me as though they had been prayer warriors
of old…
I drove away from Tallahassee, humbled before my God… that He would have given me the
chance to be raised up in a family such as the one I have, surrounded by men
and women seeking Him First…
and then that He would call me for such a time as this to the World Race…My heart raced as I began singing
praises to Him… Hope welling
up from all around…a hope that
rushed through the car on the wings of the wind: ” a
generation is rising up to unleash Kingdom into this present darkness… not by
their own might, but by His… not for their glory, but for His… a generation is
rising up to loose the bonds of the oppressed… to heal the sick…to raise the
dead…to give Him ALL the Glory… His Kingdom come…His will be done…it rising up…”
