April 6, 2019
Hi guys. Just wanted to come on here and give a little life update. Well, I am officially a little over a month from finishing junior year. I am stoked for summer, but I know that the next about 5 weeks are going to be pretty tough. Finals and exams and everything else mixed together tends to create a bit of a whirlwind. However, I’m ready to get it over with. In the context of the whirlwind that is the next few weeks to come, I am so grateful for this past week in which I was able to rest really well. My family and I went to the beach, and once again, I was reminded of the importance of rest. There is something really refreshing in just chilling on the beach, eating good food, and spending time with my family and friends. Besides that, right now, spiritually, I am just trying my best to grow. I am absorbing more information and trying to get to know more about God through books and good conversations, etc. Sounds simple, and it really is. Every day is a new opportunity to trust Him, and my prayer is simply that He would use my words, thoughts, and actions to bring glory to Him. Honestly, I think it is perfectly normal to go through seasons of just growth in faith. Nothing special or life-altering. I sometimes think faith has to be some wild journey with wild stories of redemption and restoration, and faith is that at times. But for me, right now, it’s not. I am slowly learning to be okay with that. I am learning there is peace in what seems mundane. I use the word “mundane” lightly because what we, as humans, perceive as mundane is viewed as exciting opportunities to God. The Lord works through the mundane, the broken, the hurting, and everything else because that is where His glory shines the brightest! I am reading a book called Radical by David Platt (an excellent book if you are looking for one) that exposes how we have distorted what a relationship with Christ looks like. Over time, in our brokenness, we have managed to shift the focus of faith on ourselves instead of on Christ. Our self-centeredness has led to a self-centered faith; I’ve done this too. How sad must this be to our Father. Our purpose on Earth, in the words of Louie Giglio, is to “know Him and make Him known.” This is the mission of faith, and Jesus is the center of it. Therefore, that is where I am at right now. Learning and growing in hopes of bringing more glory to the Father and becoming a better disciple of Christ, in hopes of making Jesus and only Jesus my sole focus in faith. It is a tough balance. I feel the pressures of wanting to focus on myself that the rest of the world does. I struggle with finding balance between being a “normal teenager” and a faithful servant, and often times, I am not the faithful servant I want to be. That’s life. However, what I’m learning to accept is that all I can do is give my words, thoughts, and actions to Him one day at a time. If I try to do any more than that, I then put the pressure on myself to build my own great faith, but this is not our burden! God is the One who has gone before us and led our hearts to Him. He has done the pursuing already beginning the day He made creation and manifesting in His sacrifice of His Son on the cross. He will continue to do all the building of our faiths and lives in Him if we simply surrender. My prayer for myself, and for you, is to trust in the gift of surrender. The sooner we learn to just surrender, the quicker we allow God to use us as a part of His story, and being even a small speck of His story is the greatest blessing in which we could ever partake.
With love,
C