You ever have that thing on facebook called timehop show up and make you think? Well it happened to me the other day, a picture showed up I forgot about that I took 2 years eariler.
Hahaha! Who is that guy? I don’t know him. Wait, what do you mean it is me? Trust me the guy of 2 years ago would have said the same thing about the me of today.
Have you ever wished you could have talked to the you of yesterday? I have. I can picture me 2 years ago tagging along with me on my day to day. I can just hear the barrage of questions:
“Why are you reading Bible verses off of note cards?”
“What is with the hair?”
“You work where?”
“Why does this music keep talking about God? Can’t we listen to some blink?”
“Why is our car so dirty? Don’t you care about it?”
“YOURE GOING WHERE IN APRIL?”
(At lunch) “Is that a Bible app?”
(On the way home) “You are listening to the same music?”
“What do you mean youre not going to work out?”
“Who are we meeting? What the heck is an accountability partner? (9 out of 10 chance I would have used a different word then “heck”.)
And the list goes on and on. As I looked at that old picture I realized the work God has done in me over the past 2 years. Man have I grown! If I could meet with the old version of me, I am not even sure what I would say. You can’t even tell yourself “what you are living for is pointless, look to Jesus.” Oh Lord who knows what that guy would have said, not to have little faith in the person I once was, but I can only imagine it would not have been something good.
But as I think about it, I am thankful for those years, not because they were a good time or anything like that, but because they make me understand the unreached. I try and live my life like Jesus would now. Following God’s calling on my life and giving him all the glory! But when I try and witness to people I remember what it was like to live without Jesus. It was terrible. Everything I put my faith in failed me. I am sure a lot of people reading this can relate, what kind of pressure you live under when you believe you must carry all the weight of life’s struggles. Jesus has freed me from my weights; the only true freedom is in Christ!
If I had to say something to my former self I think I would say this:
“The things of this world will never satisfy your greedy hunger for more. That pretty girl you are thinking of will not give you happiness, nor will that fast car you want so desperately. All the money in the world cannot buy you that fulfillment you hunger for in the deep part of your soul, only Jesus can do that.”
There is a reason why this would never happenit would not work. I would scoff at myself and say some pretty rude things. Thank the Lord that He did it for me. I remember that moment that I first felt Him in my soul. The point is, If God can change me from the person I once was, then he can provide $17,561 or me for this mission trip. My God is bigger than any number. If you want to pray for me, pray this: That I be fully funded before I launch, and that God would grow me in this next year just as much as He has in the last 2!
Your brother,
Luke
