Those were just 9 of the many, many areas of change in which God has done in me while on the race. As encouraging as it has been to be able to look back at the growth I’ve had for the first 7 and a half months of the race, it also coerces my mind to ponder what the last four months (and beyond) will hold for me. What do I want? What does God want? Do those two mirror each other?
Pursuing God passionately and earnestly is, foremost, my goal for the rest of the race. In doing this, everything else shall find its place. I want to remain in prayer, both on my own and with my team. I want to continue to be steady in the Word, meditating on what God reveals to me through it each day, and apply it to my day to day life. I want to be serving His people to the best of my ability. This means my team, my squad, our ministry contacts, those who we come to serve, and myself. I want to sit in silence, focusing in on the presence of God. By fulfilling daily devotion and service to God, I hope to continue to grow in areas that will continue to change me into the man He intends me to be.
I want to be confident and bold in the Lord. When someone I meet asks me to tell them a little about me, I don’t want to just start out with “I’m Jake, I’m 21 years old, and I like to run and play golf.” I don’t want myself to firstly identify myself with my age and the sports I enjoy, I want my identity not only in thought but in word to be in Christ. I don’t people to have to ask my religion for them to know I love God, but rather that I am intentional about what is really most important in my life. “I’m Jake, I’m 21, and I follow Jesus”. I want to have the confidence, whether on the mission field or back home, to firstly put my relationship with Jesus as my motivation, my intention, and my passion.
Piggybacking off of that, I desire my relationship with God to be, above all, the top priority in my life. I (and probably we) may say that God is top priority in my life, but when I look at what I spend my money, my time, my resources, and my energy on, this doesn’t necessarily hold any weight. Priorities may fluctuate from time to time, but I earnestly want God to be my priority. In doing so, I will be more prepared for the other things in my life. To be honest and ethical at the workplace, to properly treat and lead my (potentially) future wife in a Godly way, to raise children to love the Lord their God, to resolve conflict in a civil and Biblical way, and to live a life reflecting of Jesus Christ’s.
I want to serve my team to a higher degree. I want to do more than just make conversations manageable for them; I want to pray for them even more consistently than before, build them up with encouragement whenever possible, share anything that I feel the Lord may be laying on my heart for them, to laugh with them, put their needs before my own, and drop my ever-poignant sarcasm! I want to return a true love that they have forwarded to me.
I want to return home different. I want Christ to be apparent in me when I return to America. I want to be joyous. I want to be mature. Please remember to pray for continued spiritual cultivation in me, that God may continue to reveal ways that I may change to better glorify Him and expand His kingdom here on earth.
Mahalo a me Aloha au la 'oe!
Jake
