Yesterday, during church, I was flipping through my bible and came across a little piece of paper I haven’t seen in a long time. It doesn’t look like much—torn off of a full sheet and smaller than a 3×5—but what it says was well worth saving. Almost two years ago, now my college group leader gave me, and the other students each one of these. On it is written, “If not you, who? If not now, when? I believe in you!” with his name signed at the bottom. We had been talking about being sent out as Jesus disciples and the Great Commission. I haven’t noticed that piece of paper for over a year, and I find it interesting that I revisit it while in my first country. At the time I had no idea that I would pursue missions. The call was for all of us, and I’m sure we all were thinking it’d be the “other guy.”
A few minutes before I found this tidbit of wisdom, I had been in front of the church congregation giving a testimony of following God’s will over my own. I talked about how I desired to finish college, and if I chose my own way, that’s what I would be doing right now. However, I did choose God’s will for myself. I am still convinced that this is where I am supposed to be; that I am striving to follow his will. I shared 1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Those verses have really been a comfort for me as I prepared for the race and am now out here.
