So to start off with, this could be a blog that counts as a book, but I’ll try to hold back a little bit. It’s been nine months, if I put everything it would be nine months worth of change, and it might take that long to write and read it as well. So I’m just going to hit some of the biggest things I learned and the way it’s changed the rest of my life.
So one of the first biggest things that I learned is what it means to be a slave of Christ. In some of Paul’s letter he starts by calling himself a slave. It confused me so much just thinking of the negative connotation with that word and what it means, but he proclaimed it over himself. So just realizing that Paul new that he was bought with a price and so he was completely sold out on living for Jesus and doing what and going where God told him. I walked through that just learning what it looked like to be sold out for Jesus to where he is the one I live for and do whatever he wants me to do. So now I’ve reached a point to where God is the only one who I care what he thinks and says of me. Because I’m sold out on him.
The next thing that hit me was Forgiveness. But the thing is it was forgiveness for myself. I was living trying make up for sins that I had committed in my past, but that wasn’t enough. I knew God had forgiven me but I hadn’t forgiven myself for those mistakes. I was holding myself hostage from receiving the gift of forgiveness, and instead of living out of an overflow, I was living out of making up for something else. One night at the end of month one it really hit me that I had been forgiven and that I had to forgive myself for that sin because God had already forgotten about it. After that I began to walk in so much freedom because no longer was I living to make up for my past I was living because of the forgiveness and love that God had and was giving me.
Which leads to the next thing, the simple truth of the gospel. We are called to love people. That’s how simple it is. And that shocked me. I thought there was this list of things that you had to do or a certain way that you could share the gospel, but all it is, is love. It’s that simple, love God and love others. Those are Jesus words but paraphrased. I learned that and it was another world shattering realization. If I received the love that Jesus has for me and take that and let it overflow all that’s coming out is the love of Jesus. And that can show the love of Jesus more than preaching AT someone. Because they won’t receive it if they don’t feel like they are heard or loved.
Another thing that I learned is the boldness of the Holy Spirit. Throughout my past I can see so many times where I stood to the side or even changed myself to please people and make them happy. I never felt like I was good enough as I was to be accepted by people so I changed myself so much I didn’t even know who I was. I saw the boldness of the apostles in the book of acts and the stand that Jesus took against Pharisees and I was like how do I get that to where I only care about God and what he says and not others. So in digging into that I truly found myself because I went to who God said that I was and not who others said I should be because that’s just not who I am. And so now just stepping out and talking to people about Jesus isn’t as scary for me because I’ve also realized how that should be a focus. My good friend Brendan came up with this saying with different meaning than it’s normal meaning. RIDE OR DIE. now that has meaning in the world, but it’s different for us. We know that we have to RIDE, go and tell people about Jesus and have a mindset of lives are on the line. And if we don’t live this way than people may not get a chance to hear about Jesus and have an encounter with his love. And who am I to not share the love that was freely given to me, and the gift of eternal life. And so my purpose of life has changed from what it used to be.
That note leads into my next point of a big way my life has been changed. As many people know my plan has always been to go to college for engineering, but that all changed when God called me on this trip. Being on the trip I was never really sure what my plans were and what I was going to do after, but now I know what I am doing. I was really praying about what God wanted me to do and I just felt like he was calling me to go to CGA. CGA is a discipleship school that last for five months from August to December in Gainesville, Georgia. They teach you more about leadership and help you grow deeper in intimacy with the lord. I’m doing that and I want to go back into missions after it is over. So that is my next step in life is going through that. But I actually have to raise $6,000 for the schooling so if you would be willing to help donate to that it works the same way as it did for the race. It’s is on my Blog and is still tax deductible.
Thank you so much for reading and feel free to comment if you have any questions.
