Expounding Growth in College
It’s been a week since I finished my first semester of college. This is way over my head right now. Although it went by slow for me, I have learned so much more about God’s grace and grown a lot this semester. It was only four months, so I can’t even begin to imagine how God will work over the next four years! There were many different things I finally understood this semester:
In the months leading up to college I was very nervous about holding to my faith. I was afraid that within weeks, I would slowly stop going to church and slowly distance myself from God, due to the fact that Denton was a new place and I had never moved before. I was afraid that I would make all the wrong decisions and start going in the wrong direction. This was just a new stage in life. There was no reason to believe that I would fail as long as I put my trust in God. This semester I have been trusting God with everything. Up until I moved and went to college, I had not fully surrendered everything to Him. I had been withholding areas of my life from Him. When I started this new stage of my life I made a choice to trust Him with everything. Hold nothing back. When I accepted Christ as my savior, I gave up my life. I am no longer my own, but His. My life is in his hands, it’s not about me. When I try to think about where I will be in five years, I couldn’t tell you. I have no idea. I could speculate, but all I could tell you is that I will be wherever God wants me, doing what he wants me to do. I’ve learned it’s not about me, it’s about God and giving Him all the glory in whatever I do.
If you’ve seen the “I Am Second” bracelets or the logo you know their talking about putting God first and yourself second. But if you think about it, shouldn’t we be third? The two greatest commandments are: 1. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. So we should be loving people as well. This year I have been trying to get out of my comfort zone. 2011 has been all about evangelizing. But in that I have learned about what it means to love people. God has taught me how to love people. My favorite definition of love is: being able to see past the flaws in someone and still find something redeemable about them. To me, that is the most powerful way to put it because that is the way Christ loves us. There is nothing good in us. We are all naturally born with a desire and temptation to sin. But even in our fallen nature, Christ redeemed us. He was willing to die the most painful death in history because he loves us. I took that to heart a few years ago and in reading The Cross of Christ this summer I understood it on an even deeper level. Through realizing and understanding all of this it has caused me to have a love for other people.
This year I have been serving on local missions with Breakdown Ministries. I’ve never been on a mission trip but even locally, missions have changed my life. Just being exposed to the lives that people live outside of suburbia has opened my eyes and my heart to a world that’s hurting. I’ve heard about life in parts of the world where people are less fortunate but I had never seen it with my own eyes. Walking through neighborhoods where there isn’t a strong church around and seeing people there breaks my heart for them. Even if they are blessed with basic living needs it still saddens me to see how Christ is lacking the lives of millions. Also, just living in Denton I have been exposed to life outside of suburbia. I mean there are suburbs in Denton, but that’s not the entire city. All of this has opened up my heart to want to love people.
While this semester has been full of growth, it has also been filled with grace. Especially at the end of the semester it became easy to get lazy and hard to stay disciplined in spending time with God and in doing my schoolwork. Praise God that I got through finals! Praise God that I finished The Choice! Praise God that I got straight A’s! Praise God for all those days I didn’t study enough for tests and ended up with a good grade! Praise God for all the parking spots he gave me! Praise God for protection in driving back and forth to Denton! Praise God for waking me up all those days for 8am classes! Praise God for all of the good things that I didn’t deserve this semester. I could go on for ten more minutes about the things I am thankful for. The fact that God has blessed me with all of this, and more overwhelms me to a point of unspeakable joy. I am not deserving of any of this, yet God in his inexpressible love allowed for all of it. It is hard for me to wrap my mind around all of it. It shouldn’t be, but when I think of how much I sin against God on a daily basis I can barely comprehend it. All I can do is praise God for though.
I don’t know if other people feel this way, but it seems like we get attached to wherever we live. What I mean is it’s hard to move from one place to another and continue what we’ve started in a new place. I started to pursue Christ about two years ago. It was easy to stay disciplined when I was at home. It seemed easy to follow Christ as long as I could stay close friends with people that helped me to grow spiritually. When it finally came time to move to Denton and leave the comforts of home behind I was afraid that I wouldn’t grow in my faith. Once I finally left home and was left to choose for myself if I would follow Christ or lay down this new lifestyle, I realized how strong my faith is. A true testing of faith comes when we go through trials where we are unsure of the end result. I could have easily just slept in on Sundays in my dorm. No one is there in college telling you what to or when to do it. You have so much freedom to decide what path you choose to follow. Thankfully, my faith has been strong enough and was built on a solid foundation over the past two years.
It wasn’t until I left the comforts of home and familiarity, that I realized how dependent I had become on people that had originally discipled me. For the first time in my life, I had to live on my own. My faith had to become my own. Over the course of four months, God broke the chains of dependence on other people off of me. I didn’t realize how much my faith was attached to them until I was forced to move away from them. As I have become fully dependent on God, he taught me how important it is to rely completely on Him. I am thankful for every person that God gives me to grow and live life with. But, no longer do I let myself become too attached to them. Because, this world is fading, God has a unique plan for all of us, and he allows people to come in and go out of our lives all the time. I am glad to say I left home my freshman year, or else it might have been awhile longer before I became fully reliant on God.
I am looking forward to 2012 and I’m excited to see what all God has in store for me next year! 2011 has been a life changing year full of everything I mentioned above and more. I am in leadership at the BSM next year and I’ll be using the gift God has given me in videography to bring Him glory. I don’t update this blog very much, but when I do it usually involves what God has been teaching me and doing in my life. Hope you are encouraged by this blog! Merry Christmas! God bless 2012!
I gave up my life years ago…
In the months leading up to college I was very nervous about holding to my faith. I was afraid that within weeks, I would slowly stop going to church and slowly distance myself from God, due to the fact that Denton was a new place and I had never moved before. I was afraid that I would make all the wrong decisions and start going in the wrong direction. This was just a new stage in life. There was no reason to believe that I would fail as long as I put my trust in God. This semester I have been trusting God with everything. Up until I moved and went to college, I had not fully surrendered everything to Him. I had been withholding areas of my life from Him. When I started this new stage of my life I made a choice to trust Him with everything. Hold nothing back. When I accepted Christ as my savior, I gave up my life. I am no longer my own, but His. My life is in his hands, it’s not about me. When I try to think about where I will be in five years, I couldn’t tell you. I have no idea. I could speculate, but all I could tell you is that I will be wherever God wants me, doing what he wants me to do. I’ve learned it’s not about me, it’s about God and giving Him all the glory in whatever I do.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. – Colossians 3:23
I’ve been learning about total surrender. I want to continue to die to myself each and every day until there is nothing left but Christ. I want to preserve and take up my cross daily. When people see me, I want them to see Christ in my life. I don’t want to look like the world. I want to be bold, and intentional about who I am in Christ. Never going as far as to be pushing it off on someone but rather to show them Christ’s love the way he would.
It should be, I Am Third…
If you’ve seen the “I Am Second” bracelets or the logo you know their talking about putting God first and yourself second. But if you think about it, shouldn’t we be third? The two greatest commandments are: 1. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. So we should be loving people as well. This year I have been trying to get out of my comfort zone. 2011 has been all about evangelizing. But in that I have learned about what it means to love people. God has taught me how to love people. My favorite definition of love is: being able to see past the flaws in someone and still find something redeemable about them. To me, that is the most powerful way to put it because that is the way Christ loves us. There is nothing good in us. We are all naturally born with a desire and temptation to sin. But even in our fallen nature, Christ redeemed us. He was willing to die the most painful death in history because he loves us. I took that to heart a few years ago and in reading The Cross of Christ this summer I understood it on an even deeper level. Through realizing and understanding all of this it has caused me to have a love for other people.
Do everything in love. – 1 Corinthians 16:14
There is more to evangelizing than just saying the words of the gospel. It’s about living out the gospel in everyday life. Missions are not a trip but a lifestyle. Missions are not just going to a foreign nation. Missions are right outside our doorstep. UNT has thousands of international students; the nations have come to us. So why not develop friendships with people that God placed in our path right in front of us? Jesus did not call us to only spread the gospel. He called us to make disciples. I want to keep an open mind while I’m in college. I want to develop friendships simply because I love them as people. Not because they are some project or someone where my only intent is to preach to them. But because Christ has loved me first, I want to overflow with His love to other people.
Opened eyes and a changed heart to serve…
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. – Mark 10:45
Never until this year have I had a desire to serve people and see their lives changed for Christ as much as I do now. I want to serve other people, to love them even in the most basic ways. I thank God almost every day for moving me to Denton because it has caused me to be more open with my heart, more trusting of God, more faithful to Him, and more accepting of people around me. I am hoping 2012 will bring about an abundance of growth in my love for other people and my desire to serve.
Overwhelming grace…
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9
I don’t deserve grace, but God in his great mercy chose to bless me with it. God’s love tears me up in a good way. Grace has been something that has been hard for me to grab hold of because we live in a world that lacks it. But the closer I grow to Christ, the more I fall in love with Him because of it. When the world looks at you and rejects you, yet the God of the universe welcomes you with open arms it causes inexpressible joy!
Freedom in faith…
I don’t know if other people feel this way, but it seems like we get attached to wherever we live. What I mean is it’s hard to move from one place to another and continue what we’ve started in a new place. I started to pursue Christ about two years ago. It was easy to stay disciplined when I was at home. It seemed easy to follow Christ as long as I could stay close friends with people that helped me to grow spiritually. When it finally came time to move to Denton and leave the comforts of home behind I was afraid that I wouldn’t grow in my faith. Once I finally left home and was left to choose for myself if I would follow Christ or lay down this new lifestyle, I realized how strong my faith is. A true testing of faith comes when we go through trials where we are unsure of the end result. I could have easily just slept in on Sundays in my dorm. No one is there in college telling you what to or when to do it. You have so much freedom to decide what path you choose to follow. Thankfully, my faith has been strong enough and was built on a solid foundation over the past two years.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. – Hebrews 12:11
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