God is real.
3 simple words; 3 words I’ve heard in Sunday school since I was little and have said for as long as I can remember; 3 simple words that my head has known for a while, and that my heart now truly believes; 3 words and an eternity of difference.
After the things I have experienced in life, I will never be able read these 3 words the same again…I can’t.
“If summer were a chapter of your life, what would its title be?” I was asked this question as my summer as a camp counselor ended in August. I waited for God to give me something profound, something wise, something grand and complex, something that sounds like what people would put on mission trip tshirts or repin on Pinterest.
Instead, I got 3 words. God is real. And these 3 words have changed my life. Not the words themselves but the truth within them. I knew it in my head for so long, but now this truth is something I believe to my core, something I cannot and will not deny, something that shapes who I am and why I do what I do. This truth changes everything. And lately, it has been my answer to everything.
Why do I do what I do?
Why am I going on the Race?
Why does it (whatever “it” is) even matter?
Why do I live the way I do?
Because God is real. And He changes everything.
Jesus wrecked my life, and I’ll never be the same. I’m not ever going to be able to not talk about Him or to live like there isn’t something bigger out there. After seeing His power, I won’t be satisfied with just existing, but I want to truly live, and I want it for everyone else too. I want people to know there is hope, no matter what circumstance they’re in. I want people to know that they’re already fully loved and accepted and that in the midst of whatever their darkness is, there is a light that still shines brighter. I don’t want to be comfortable or play it safe or keep God in my nice little box. There’s too many people in the world whose souls crave relief, redemption, hope, love, mercy, a second chance, a real home, a real Father, a real God. And I know Him! I want to do whatever He asks of me so that other people can know Him too. Sure, I might be called crazy, extreme, impossible, a liar, and whatever else. But 3 words make it all worth it.
God is real.
I never thought 3 words could change your life, but turns out they can. Jesus thought so too; one time He told us, “It is finished.” And He meant it when He said it!
So that’s why I’m going- not to save the sinners or to end world hunger or to change entire continents. I can’t do that. But I can obey my God; I can give up my comfort for Him, my plan for His, my life for His, so that He can do far more abundantly than all that I can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21). And I want to! So, no, I’m not going to do anything. Jesus already did it all. I’m going because it is finished, because God is real, and because everybody needs to know.
And I can hardly wait; here I go!
