I guess I’m feeling a little more reflective than normal as this year comes to a close. Anyhoo, this is a letter to my 22-year-old self, knowing what I know now…
Dear 22-year-old self,
Be prepared, Jesus is about to ruin your life!
You are about to truly give yourself to Jesus, and when you do, He will ruin your life. He may start slowly, but when you give him more and more inches, soon He will have everything.
He’s going to take your very existence and recreate it. He will stretch and surprise and expose every inch of your being to make you more like Him in the years to come. And He will not stop until He has all of you! Sounds fun, right?
He will ruin your normal life. He will disrupt and continue to disrupt your plans. He will oppose what others and sometimes you will deem is “best” for your life.
You will experience brokenness in yourself and in others that you never thought possible. Your heart will break over and over into pieces, but God will always be there to make you whole again.
He will wreck you for the ordinary. And you will no longer be content with life as you know it now. No longer content with a life centered around you. No longer content to just get by. No longer content with just existing, or even with being friendly and nice and just living an enjoyable life. No longer content to ignore or watch others suffer and just stand by. No longer passive about the need you see all around you.
Oh, but this ruining won’t end after your three-month trip to Kenya is over. It will have just begun. It will happen every day, every hour, every minute, anywhere you find yourself in the world if you choose to allow it. Sometimes though, it will happen subconsciously, without you even realizing it.
This will be the most beautiful, painful, joyful, heart-wrenching, abundant-life bringing, eventful journey. You were, as are all of us, created for an extraordinary existence, and God is choosing now to begin to usher you into more of what that looks like.
Let circumstances shape you, grow you, but do not be defined or confined by them. Choose joy. You will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Keep going. He levels every mountain and is with you in every valley.
Jesus, the real Jesus, isn’t safe. He’s a safe place, but He isn’t safe. You’re in for a wild ride! Embrace fear and change and the unknown. Ask for faith and hope for each day. Know that God is faithful. He is with you. He is and will be everything you will ever need. You can’t do this, and that’s okay. But the thing is, He can. And He will. And He does.
Oh, and prepare yourself for 2013… it’s a doozy!!
Love,
Your 26-year-old self
And ps: Good news! You don’t only survive, you learn how to thrive!
