IT is quite obvious that this life with Christ is a journey. Definitely not a destination. The moment I think I have arrived to an understanding is the same moment I realize I have a lot to learn.
I want to talk with you personally: the reader. I want to talk just a little bit about my journey this past year and what means for us now.
Going on the World Race did change my worldview. IT shook me up in places that I never knew existed and it left me trusting in who God truly says He is. IT obviously changed me from the core. My desire was for you to feel connected on this journey. For you to feel alive and empowered. There were many times I pictured some of you there with me. And then there were many times I remembered some wise advice from you that really helped me along the way.
One of my dearest friends Katy Nelson, has been an avid blog reader and encouragement to me. She recently commented on my Toast to MJ post “I am so interested to hear more about what you were saying how the Lord has “wrecked you this year”. I can feel your enthusiasm and wisdom, I just want to know more about it! I feel so blah compared to the whirlwind you’ve been in the past year and a half. Its hard, I guess, as a believer here in the states, where things are “normal” or predictable to understand the mind boggling events that your going through.”
As I mentioned, my desire is that all Christ is doing in me and in this world would be able to connect with you in some way. I have prayed a lot about that. Sometime I feel at loss when I write a blog. I can try to describe an event or a place but I know it really is never the same until you are there. But the crazy thing is we all have experienced things in our life that are just sometimes unexplainable.
“but this year has wrecked me”
Here it is. We have all grown up in the United States of America. So I promise, anyone that is removed from that society for a year is going to be wrecked. When I say wrecked, personally I mean that not only has my worldview expanded but I realized a lot about who God is and in turn who I am. So it wrecks you for the glory of God.
More than likely you have not gone on the World Race, but God has “wrecked” you in some way. If not, I pray He does. Many of you have come to these certain points in life that keep you going down the right track. That revive your passion for Christ and ultimately you become more alive to go and build His Kingdom right in your own neighborhood. There are these moments that are priceless when God goes beyond our understanding and we enter into supernatural faith. We take that risk or follow that still small voice inside us.
Many of the choices were the same for me on the World Race as living in the States. Am I going to love this person today? Am I going to choose to serve Christ or my pessimistic outlook right now? Am I going to believe Christ for who He really says He is? And then—Am I going to believe who Christ tells me I really am? You can say that some of those questions came at pretty difficult situations but no matter where you are, you decide.
Honestly there is a nudge or like Paul would say “a groan” within my Spirit. It has always been there. Even before the World Race and Spain, my heart was developing like the heart of God. Many of your hearts have been as well. Your heart aches when you hear the stories of the martyrs and rejoices when you see people coming alive in a certain gifts that have remained dormant for some reason. We were all made in the image of God. The beautiful thing is that we are on different journeys. And that God is expressed so differently in each one of us.
So most of us come for the same society. It tells us our life plans. What we should look like and how much freedom we truly have. We have freedom to choose, but I know from the little 24 years I have lived, we limit ourselves to this unspoken pressure to be something we are not or to follow some safe track. I have always wanted and desired the will of God. I desire that for you. To be right exactly where you need to be.
So as for us who have that groan or nudge that we can’t always put into words….I realized that being away from our society for a year has taught me I have a choice. God has put dreams in me and he has put them in you. Sometimes that very nudge is that dream or a longing for something more. While you live among the American ways–sometimes predictable and cookie cutter–we have freedom. Freedom to choose, freedom to follow the will of God. God has equipped us. No matter what the call.
My daily walk with God has changed because the God I knew then was not the God I know now. He is much bigger. No more boxes or walls that keep me from Him. I have a choice to make. Am I going to be filled with His Spirit? Am I going to walk into work today feeling conquered, when in reality we have already won? Am I going to allow Satan’s lies to be louder than that of Christ’s truths? By going around the world your worldview will change, you will know more of who you are and your very heart will be shaped like Christ—-BUT if you don’t we still have that decision everyday to wake up and live ALIVE.
Something I have been learning here in Spain is that Paul considered himself already dead–So now we can Live in CHRIST. As Andrew Shearman, my teacher and friend, would put it “You don’t have to keep on dieing. People need LIFE.”
You guys have shown me life. Katy I want to thank you for your encouragement. It has really set many captives free. More than you know. Reader I want to thank you for experiencing this journey with me as I long to experience more with you. I want to pray with you. Please leave any insight or prays below.
I pray that your passion for the heart of God would extend. I pray the His Spirit would empower you to go and follow that call and to literally BE the will of God. I pray that you in the office chair, or at home, or maybe in ChikFila (I miss it), would feel the presence of the Lord almighty.–equipped to love and serve each other. I pray for a new intimacy and a deeper knowledge and wisdom of Christ. To BECOME ALIVE IN CHRIST. Amen
I love you all.
