H E L L O F R I E N D S ! I have a funny story that I would like to share with you all. When you first read this, you’ll probably be very confused on how I am going to relate this with God, but I promise it will all make sense towards the end.
So it all started around midnight on Tuesday, February 12. My good friend Jerra and I were at our Young Life leader’s house because she was out of the country. She has two dogs, who smell SOOO bad (which has nothing to do with this story), that we were hanging out with. Around 12am, we decided to go to Kroger to get kombucha, like one would normally do in Lancaster, Ohio. We had our fun messing around at Kroger and continued when we got back to the house. The time was around 1:00am. Jerra decided that we were tired so we went upstairs to get ready for bed. The funny thing is, once we laid down, we were wide awake, so we watched our phones for a while.
After some time, we started to hear noises coming from downstairs. At first we assumed it was one of the dogs, but later realized they were both in the room with us. So of course, we started to get a little spooked. But little did Jerra know, I had a criminology background from my recent obsession with criminal minds, so I was preparing for the worst. When the noises started getting louder, we decided that someone had gotten into the house. I called my parents first around 2:00am and explained the situation… My dad decided to come over to the house. I was on the phone with my mom when the sounds started growing louder and progressing up the stairs. I started to whisper “someone’s outside the door” repeatedly to my mom… and she started praying out loud. That was the moment when my mind was like “OH BOY… I’m going to die tonight”.
I’m being completely honest when I say I have NEVER been so scared in my life! We called the police, and thankfully they arrived within 5 minutes. Shoutout Lancaster Police Dept. Wellllll, long story short (not really), it ended up being a Rumba (for all of you oldies, that’s an electronic sweeper) that had gotten caught on the dog gate. Talk about EMBARRASSING!!!
This may seem super scattered and confusing, but after all of this I thought, “wow… if I would have just walked down a few of the stairs, I would have seen the Rumba and we could have avoided this situation”. It may be a stretch, but I even thought, “Oh, yeah, this is what I do with God sometimes”. So often, I find myself worrying about all the wrong things. Whether it’s school, work or even relationships, I overthink and eventually determine that something is “wrong” or “bad”. If I were to just open my eyes, I might find that what I was so terrified of, is not scary at all.
See, when I first started thinking about taking a gap year after high school, I was looking down upon it because at that time, I thought college was where I needed to go, and all my life, I was told that that’s what people do after graduation. After feeling a nudge at my heart, and LOTS of prayer, I realized that God was calling me in a completely different direction.
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” Hebrews 11:6.
Wow! This verse really helped me out this week. I was feeling a little more nervous than usual about fundraising when I read this passage. I know that God has called me on this mission, and that he is the ultimate provider, so I need not worry, but instead have faith that God CAN and WILL be with me as The Race gets closer. Can I get an AMEN because God is amazing!!!
-Alicia:)
