I have taken four short term mission trips to Nicaragua with my church, on my first trip in my sophomore year of high school is when God first called me to missions. At that point in my life I was not ready or willing to do this so I just ignored it for a long time. When I sit and think back on those years in my life I can see how God was still pursuing me even as I ignored Him. I can see how He has shaped my life and used different things to bring me to a point that I could say "yes" to Him. Because of my stubbornness I ignored what He had put on my heart for many years, until I just couldn't.
I was in my senior year when I decided to let go of my pride and submit to God's will for my life. As most do at that age, I was trying to decide where I would go and what I would do with the next years of my life. As I searched and searched I came up empty because the places I was looking were not the right ones. I knew deep down inside me what I was supposed to do, but I just didn't want that for my life. Within just a few weeks God orchestrated things in my life that made it clear to me that I could not afford to ignore Him any longer. Through a documentary He showed me that this great love of His was not something to hold on to. I had to share it and it could cost everything. God asked me to become okay with the fact that as I followed Him I would have to lay everything I loved in His hands and trust Him with it. And that took me a long time. Honestly it is a daily battle, sometimes hourly.
There were so many things God used to reveal to me that missions was the only thing for me. After probably about four months of Him showing me around every turn, I asked my mentor if we could pray for one more sign. I mean I had been given countless, but I wanted to be extremely sure of this before I really gave in. About ten minutes after we prayed and asked for another sign God showed up twice to tell me this is in fact Him and this is His will. I decided that if He wasn't going to let it go then I was going to have to do it. You are probably thinking this is not the best attitude to have, and you would be completely correct. I didn't want to, but I was submitting to God's will for my life. If we are all honest with ourselves I think we could say that there are things like this in all of our lives. Things that we didn't necessarily want to do, but we laid down our pride and let God lead our lives.
You see, I have lived like Jonah: running away from what I knew God was asking of me. I have lived like Abraham: following God, trusting and obeying His will. There is something though that each of these men have in common, God used them. Yeah it took Jonah being swallowed by a fish for him to realize his stupidity, but then he did and God used him. And let me tell you there is nothing that brings more peace, hope, joy, growth, and love than living and doing what God asks of me. It might be scary, and seemingly make no sense to me at all, but it is the sweetest place to be.
God has done so many crucial things in my life to bring me to where I am today. Because He has done so much in such a small time I will be posting multiple blogs sharing smaller pieces at a time. God's faithfulness is streaked through my entire life and so much in these last few years pertaining to my near future. I hope you enjoy worshiping God with me as I share my story of Him with you. There is nothing I want more than to glorify God in this so please give it all to Him!
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
