The last few weeks have been hard for me because I have had to struggle between what God has been calling me to do with my life, and what others and myself think I should do. Two months ago, I would have never thought I would be where I am right now. Ever since I became a Christian, I have always wanted a heart for missions, but that passion has never been there. I could feel God preparing me for something in college, but I could never figure out what it was. Now more than ever, it makes sense why He was teaching me to be more compassionate and patient with others. It makes sense why He gave me this passion to build strong genuine relationships with others and see others come to Christ. God’s timing is always right, and even though I couldn’t see it then, it now makes sense why all these areas were being emphasized in my walk with Him.
So how exactly did this whole mission trip make sense in my life anyway? Surprisingly, the decision wasn’t as hard as I made it. As some of you may or may not know, a few weeks ago I got a job offer from GE for a position I had interviewed with them about. Two hours after that I got that offer, I also got an offer to go on the World Race in October. I had thought about if this scenario would happen, but never took it seriously because I didn’t think it would. Let me first start off by saying that the position with GE was awesome for a beginning engineer: it payed well, it had great benefits, and it was with a very good company. The job sounded great and fit into the plan of what you’re supposed to do after college, but something didn’t feel right to me. It felt like if I took this job, there would still be a void in my life for something that needed to be fulfilled. I had a week to make a decision between the job and the mission trip.
During that week I was at Salkehatchie, which is a ministry that works specifically in South Carolina to help rebuild houses in lots of different areas around the state (this was my 7th year going). I had the chance to talk to a lot of different people that were at this camp about my decision, but made sure that no one made the decision for me. The funny thing was, I had already made my decision pretty much before I left home that week. God made it very clear in several ways what I needed to do and although there was opposition, I knew where He was pointing me.
I’ve been reading through the book of Matthew (great name right?) lately and came across something that really stood out to me the other night. I don’t know how I missed it before really…maybe I thought it was too simple or it just didn’t speak to where I was at the time. All through Matthew 9 (my favorite chapter in Matthew), Jesus keeps rewarding people for the amount of faith they show to Him. In one instance (v 27-29), two blind men come to Him wanting to be healed. He asked them if they believe that He is able to do this and they told Him “Yes, Lord.” He healed them by saying “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” According to their FAITH they were healed. Jesus rewards us for the amount of faith we are willing to take to trust in Him in everything we do. I can definitely see this in my life right now as I am being stretched in a lot of new areas of my faith that are brand new to me. God is doing awesome things in my life and I can’t wait to see what He will do next!
