Ahhh, junior year. The year that was least liked in high school (from the few opinions I've heard) and definitely has a peculiar vibe to it. The hype of freshman and sophomore years (yes, sophomore year included--at APU at least, the hype definitely does not wear off by that point) is gone. College has a sense of normalcy to it, a sense that I personally am not too fond of and have struggled to be okay with. Yet it's not quite the end of your college career; you have a little less than half of your undergrad ahead of you, so you can't fully prepare to move on yet.
As it goes with any relationship, friendship, or anything else for that matter--as you get to know someone or spend time somewhere the honeymoon phase eventually comes to an end. You begin to see the flaws and are left with a choice to make: you can bail because you don't want to deal with the imperfections or you can choose to stick it out.
When life reaches a sense of normalcy it is then that we need to be the most careful. Complacency is quick to follow normalcy if one is not aware of it. Normalcy is one thing--in and of itself it is not necessarily bad. Complacency, on the other hand, is a bad thing. It can make you content with where you are at, cause you to quit pursuing growth, and make you lazy.
This morning I went to Foothill Church and the lead pastor preached a message concluding "The Church is..." series that they have been doing. The title of the message was, "...on a mission." Preaching out of Matthew 28:18-20 where Jesus calls the disciples to "go forth and make disciples of all nations", the point was that we always have purpose wherever we go. My previous blog post touched on this topic, the idea that God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive. Pastor Chris's sermon, however, focused more on the fact that our lives are our ministry. It's funny how we're willing to go across the world to some third-world country and do "crazy things for God" yet when we come home to the culture and country that is familiar to us we all of a sudden become complacent or are afraid to do "crazy things for God". We even find a way to justify it: "I can't do those things here, Americans aren't the same...", "Americans aren't as accepting...", "I'll be judged...", "I'll lose what means most to me...", etc.
Let me be the first to say that I am completely guilty of this. I myself struggle to live differently in the States yet I know that I can go abroad and (it is much easier to) live simply, lovingly, and selflessly. I am not saying that going abroad isn't a good thing--it is definitely a good thing and many are in fact called to the nations. What we need to quit doing, however, is separating the two. God is as present in America as He is anywhere else. God's Kingdom can be here, there, and anywhere! There should be a fluid continuity between the two; the life I live in Africa shouldn't be any different from the life I live in America.
As a fellow struggler amongst the majority I give you permission to keep me accountable of this. Don't be afraid to ask how things are going. I want that kind of accountability and I think we all need it.
Live counter-culturally.
Live Kingdom-minded.
Live your life as your ministry, 'cause it is.
Showing posts with label junior year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label junior year. Show all posts
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
A Life Entwined with Purpose
God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive.
Such a simple statement, yet one that literally turned my day around. After spending the first few hours of my day gardening with my brother for our grandma and lounging around for a bit, my family and I went to the mall for a couple of hours. The last store we visited was one called Fireworks, a quirky little shop with all sorts of gadgets and goodies and other random things. Having barely stepped into the store I noticed a book titled, What You Need to Know Going into College. So, being a college student myself, I had to pick it up to see what it had to say (even though I'm already halfway through college--there's always room to learn, right?!). It offered a lot of advice from how to deal with your parents to how to live on your own to how to be financially responsible. To my surprise it included a small section entitled, "You Need to Know Not to Leave Your Faith at Home" and these were some of the tips I came across in the pages that followed:
944. You need to know to let go of your preconceptions about how things will work out. God has a plan too.
955. You need to know to volunteer a couple of hours a week. At a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. It will take your mind off you.
957. You need to know to be open to a real encounter with God.
958. You need to know it takes spiritual strength to face adversity. Going to church on a regular basis helps.
966. You need to know to pursue more than a degree. Pursue a purpose.
It was the last one I stumbled upon that really made an impact on me. In a list of one thousand things you need to know before you go into college, it was number nine-hundred and sixty-seven:
You need to know God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive.
Tell me this doesn't give you an incredible amount of hope and purpose. Really think about it.
This summer hasn't been an easy one for me--in fact, it's been one of the craziest summers I've ever had. I got back from South Africa on May 14th then spent a month at home before my mom got married on June 15th. After that I spent roughly six weeks at my university running an English-intensive, American-experience program for 26 international students from Taiwan and Brazil. Once that was over I spent a week and a half traveling around Southern California visiting friends and family I don't get to see very often and now I find myself on a two-week vacation (if I can even call it that; hasn't this entire year been vacation?) in the Pacific Northwest visiting even more family before the craziness of my junior year begins.
Up until recently, whenever I was asked about how I felt about going into my junior year of college, all I could muster up for an answer was, "Ehhh... I guess I'm excited." Feeling like I had no purpose and was even going through a sort of mid-college crisis (if such a thing exists), I couldn't say I was excited for the year to come. And then God began to work on my heart. And then I stumbled upon an encouraging piece of wisdom that I apparently "needed to know" as a university student: that God's purpose for me is the reason I'm alive. That God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive. That God's purpose for us is the reason we're alive.
You see, it doesn't matter whether or not we feel like we have purpose or not--the truth of the matter is, we do. We do have purpose. Emotions are fleeting and always changing and cannot tell us otherwise. No thing or human being can tell us otherwise. We have purpose. It is God-given and bestowed upon us the moment we enter this world.
I challenge you to dwell on that for a while. See what it is God may be speaking to you about.
He's always speaking.
We're just not always quiet enough to hear what it is He's saying.
Such a simple statement, yet one that literally turned my day around. After spending the first few hours of my day gardening with my brother for our grandma and lounging around for a bit, my family and I went to the mall for a couple of hours. The last store we visited was one called Fireworks, a quirky little shop with all sorts of gadgets and goodies and other random things. Having barely stepped into the store I noticed a book titled, What You Need to Know Going into College. So, being a college student myself, I had to pick it up to see what it had to say (even though I'm already halfway through college--there's always room to learn, right?!). It offered a lot of advice from how to deal with your parents to how to live on your own to how to be financially responsible. To my surprise it included a small section entitled, "You Need to Know Not to Leave Your Faith at Home" and these were some of the tips I came across in the pages that followed:
944. You need to know to let go of your preconceptions about how things will work out. God has a plan too.
955. You need to know to volunteer a couple of hours a week. At a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. It will take your mind off you.
957. You need to know to be open to a real encounter with God.
958. You need to know it takes spiritual strength to face adversity. Going to church on a regular basis helps.
966. You need to know to pursue more than a degree. Pursue a purpose.
It was the last one I stumbled upon that really made an impact on me. In a list of one thousand things you need to know before you go into college, it was number nine-hundred and sixty-seven:
You need to know God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive.
Tell me this doesn't give you an incredible amount of hope and purpose. Really think about it.
This summer hasn't been an easy one for me--in fact, it's been one of the craziest summers I've ever had. I got back from South Africa on May 14th then spent a month at home before my mom got married on June 15th. After that I spent roughly six weeks at my university running an English-intensive, American-experience program for 26 international students from Taiwan and Brazil. Once that was over I spent a week and a half traveling around Southern California visiting friends and family I don't get to see very often and now I find myself on a two-week vacation (if I can even call it that; hasn't this entire year been vacation?) in the Pacific Northwest visiting even more family before the craziness of my junior year begins.
Up until recently, whenever I was asked about how I felt about going into my junior year of college, all I could muster up for an answer was, "Ehhh... I guess I'm excited." Feeling like I had no purpose and was even going through a sort of mid-college crisis (if such a thing exists), I couldn't say I was excited for the year to come. And then God began to work on my heart. And then I stumbled upon an encouraging piece of wisdom that I apparently "needed to know" as a university student: that God's purpose for me is the reason I'm alive. That God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive. That God's purpose for us is the reason we're alive.
You see, it doesn't matter whether or not we feel like we have purpose or not--the truth of the matter is, we do. We do have purpose. Emotions are fleeting and always changing and cannot tell us otherwise. No thing or human being can tell us otherwise. We have purpose. It is God-given and bestowed upon us the moment we enter this world.
I challenge you to dwell on that for a while. See what it is God may be speaking to you about.
He's always speaking.
We're just not always quiet enough to hear what it is He's saying.
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