let God make the difference

So I'm in Human Experience class (literally... I'm still in class!). We are doing final presentations today. I presented mine one week ago, and normally when someone gives a presentation, I assume that everything that was said will be forgotten a couple days later. But i was just proven wrong. In my presentation, I explained how I can be walking on Scholars Walk and see a person but have no idea what is really going on in their head. I don't know their past or their pains. And when I hear people speak, I am often surprised. I challenge everybody to really get to know people instead of immediately judging them (and I will be the first to admit that I am terrible at this)


But that is another point. My point here is that a guy stood up today to give his presentation and referenced what I had said in mine a week ago. This guy is the type of guy that gets drunk, comes to class with a hangover, and doesn't try in school. He didn't make a PowerPoint for his presentation just because he didn't want to. He was the last person I would have expected to remember something I said. He didn't remember who said it, but that doesn't matter.


It's not that I wanted him to remember this point, but it just reminded me that PEOPLE DO LISTEN. What we say matters. This guy didn't remember me...he remembered what I said. So let's use our words for God. Let's put Him in more conversations. It will make a difference. It will be GOD using us to make a difference.


What better way to spend our lives than to let God use us?

"with God all things are possible"

i came across this picture while going through Amanda Patterson's pictures. the caption with this one was: "Stop where you are. Pause. Look around...and praise the Holy Creator. His works are beautiful and good." 


so i stopped and thought about this. trees are such an everything thing. we see them all the time. but they are so beautiful. all of His creation is. and then i thought "but man planted them; they obviously didn't grow in these perfect rows" but GOD created them. GOD created the seeds they come from. 


and then i started thinking about the seeds these trees come from. they are so tiny and they come out as these big trees. 

our faith may start small, but God has the power to grow it beyond what we ever could imagine. if i didn't know that seeds turned into trees, i wouldn't believe it when someone told me that big tree came from that little seed.

"with God all things are possible" Matthew 19:26b

i'm rich and God just smacked me in the face.

dude! i am so selfish. i am filthy rich compared to most of the world and i have been worrying about money for the past week more than i have my whole life. i just found out that i didn't get the summer job i applied for. it was my last hope for a summer job. i had tried others, but they apparently weren't God's plan for me this summer.

so here i am with no way to make money this summer and no car. my thoughts all morning were "i NEED a car." i could hear God saying "really? do you really NEED a car?" i reluctantly replied "i don't NEED one, but i reeeally want one." i'm so tired of bothering people to give me rides everywhere. i'm sick of it and i want a car so badly.

so i've been sulking this morning about not having a car and not having a way to provide money to get the car. then i remembered a video on youtube that i found a while ago but haven't had time to watch it. i know it's long, but just watch the first 5 minutes and see what i mean when i said God just smacked me in the face!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBhqrtMqrv8&list=WL85FCA1A4166A061F&feature=mh_lolz

i can live without a car and you have no idea how hard it is for me to admit that. i've been telling myself this whole week that God has a plan for my summer and it's better than any plan i can come up with. my head knows that...i'm still trying to convince the rest of me of this truth. whatever happens happens; it's in God's hands now. i feel so out of control. i have to trust God...there's nothing else for me to do.

satisfaction

so i've been trying to find satisfaction recently and i've been looking for it in all the wrong places.

for example, i am learning how to open up to people instead of bottling everything up. in the process, i get sooo frustrated with myself because i can't explain what i feel. i keep thinking if only someone could just look inside me and see what i feel and know how i feel and understand. HA. I'M SO DUMB. there is totally Someone who can do that and does that all the time. God is the Giver of ultimate peace and satisfaction. i have never felt the way i do around Him with anyone else. HE gives satisfaction. HE is what i need. HE is what i've been waiting for.

left speechless by an 8th grader

I disciple this amazing 8th grader every Sunday night and i just couldn't be happier when i listen to her talk! She said something tonight that left me speechless. She was talking about going to high school next year and hardly knowing anyone there. Most people would have expected that she would be afraid, but no! she told me how excited she is for "more people to hear about how awesome Jesus is"!

what if every time we went somewhere we thought: these are more people I can share Christ with!! think about how different this world would be!

then she was telling me what she remembered from becoming a Christ-follower. she said her knees were shaking with excitement and that night she was trying to sleep but couldn't because she was so happy that her sin slate was 100% clean! while she was recalling these memories, she had such life and joy in her voice; her eyes were sparkling! it was so great to see someone so excited about her salvation! this summer she will have been a Christ-follower for 2 years.

what if we were THIS excited about our salvation every day? think about how different this world would be!

she also told me that the word Christian was only used in the New Testament twice; they were usually called disciples. so she was talking about how excited she is to be a disciple for Christ!

disciple: "a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower"

a hard, eye-opening Human Experience class

so today in human experience class, we talked about religion diversity. it made me realize that within the class, i am the minority of the majority. the majority claim to be "Christians". i am the minority being a true Christ-follower. i was called out several times. let me tell ya...the words "i don't wanna call anybody out, but i'm going to because i don't care" followed by a look in your direction tends to make your heart beat 3x faster than it was before!! several questions were directed toward me, which i was totally okay with. i was able to flat out share the Gospel and i also got to explain that i sin ALL THE TIME but am covered by the blood of Jesus. the professor directly asked ME several questions instead of directing it towards the whole class. at one point, i even had to tell him, "to be honest, i don't know." i didn't like not knowing, but he said that's what he was going for...he wanted to drill me until i didn't know the answer.

one guy asked what it means to get "saved." i had about 2 seconds to think and 30 seconds to answer before other people interrupted. this made me realize that i won't always have half an hour to explain what i believe in. sometimes i will only have 30 seconds to fit in whatever i can. also, most people don't understand Christianese...even Christ-followers. i had a tough time explaining the word "saved" to him because we use it so much in church that it's become a term that Christians "just know".

so...today was definitely eye-opening. i also realized that i am not an arguer...it's not my specialty!! but my prayer was that God spoke through me and that because they were HIS words and not mine, that they would stick in their heads.

pride...it's an issue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnrJVTSYLr8&feature=context&context=G2b98d22RVAAAAAAAAAQ


pride is an issue for ALL of us. and if we say we don't have a pride issue, that's us being prideful. if we care about what others think, that's pride. if we hide when we feel weak, that's pride. and there are SO many more examples of things i do EVERY SINGLE DAY that show my pridefulness that i never even knew was being prideful.

what's the opposite of pride? brokenness. complete brokenness.

how do we get there? to be honest, i don't know. that's something we need to ask God to help us with.

Trust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DmlEXJaQ2s&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Trust is hard. I don't really know how to trust God every minute of my life. I know He is what i need but i'm struggling with what that looks like in my daily life. my friend gave me a great word picture for trust: she takes dance classes...like ballroom dancing. she explained how it took her forever to be able to trust her partner enough to just fall. at one point, he let go of her just to show her that she was still holding herself up. he told her that if he ever let go, she should fall to the ground. she should trust him enough that when he isn't holding her, she falls because she was putting all her weight and trust on him.