After the greatest moments in my life so far and the worst moments of my life so far I could never have made it through without God. I can’t imagine not having God to turn too in all these moments in my life.
This song has changed a lot for me. Ever since I gave my heart to Christ I strive to look at the world differently then I did before. I want to see the positive in the situations I am even when it feels like I can’t go on anymore.
College is scary time of decisions. Trying to balance school, work and friends is a lot but knowing the priority of your life balances all of those things in order. I am so thankful for all the opportunities God has given me and I can’t wait to see how his plan all works out.
It has come to that point in the semester where I feel like I can’t do anything anymore. As I sit here in the library where I have been sitting for about 5 hours now while staring at anatomy models I can’t help but think about giving up.
I am sure tons of college students feel exactly the same. This is my four semester and it never fails that at this time it feels like the weight of school, work and clubs has taken over.
I read something today though that started to change my perspective on how frustrated I was with school.
” Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk 3:17-18
This verse made me realize that you know not everything has to go according to my plan. It is not me who holds the pen to my life, it is God. Of course I am going to work as hard as I can with the opportunities that He has given me but ultimately it is in his hands. Even if my life does not go according to my plans I know His is the one that I am supposed to have. As hard as it is to come to terms to let God write the story of my life, I want to give my tight grip to him.
sources:
“Bible Gateway Passage: Habakkuk 3:17-18 – New International Version.” Bible Gateway. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Flashback to four years ago; I was a sophomore in High School, 15 years old, and I claimed to be a Christian. I knew about God but I didn’t really know him. My relationship with God consisted of asking for his help in times of when I thought I needed it or when I was asked to bless the food at dinner with the same verse I was told as a kid. It was my spring semester sophomore year where I started to know God. I was overwhelmed with love, acceptance, and peace. To be honest I was also overwhelmed with struggle of doubt and unworthiness. But no matter how much struggle I had God’s love always outweighed my struggle ~ spoiler alert: it always does.
I found myself having an honest relationship with God the more I read His word. I never imagined a relationship with God could feel so close. I have always been told I have a child-like faith. I trust God. The reason I trust God is because I am not ignorant to the fact that people in this world will fail you. I will fail others at times just like they will fail me. (That doesn’t mean I don’t trust them) I am just aware of this truth. I have faith in God because he is not a person. He is the creator. God is the alpha and omega. God has never promised something and not kept his word. I blindly trust God not because of what I can’t see but what I can feel.
Before I started to know God, I was empty. I was searching for things to fill up my emptiness without even realizing it.
Fast-forward to now: I am a sophomore in College, 19 years old, and I am Christian. A few days ago I looked at my friend and said I never imagined I would be where I am with my walk with Christ four years. I reflected on getting baptized my freshman year of college and how I made the decision to do that. I thought about being the chaplain of my sorority for the year of 2015 and how at that moment of reflection I was in the middle of filling out my application for East Tennessee State University’s Well Ministry Team. I thought about the grace God has given me and how thankful I was.
I never expected my life to be how it is today. In 4 years I am sure I will think back to this moment and then the same. God is always present in our lives it is just accepting his love that will change your lives.
In the last few weeks I have really felt God moving in my life. A lot people tell me I am always busy, stressed, over-worked, etc. I finally hit my breaking point about two weeks ago. I found myself to be exhausted and felt like the people I cared so much about only saw me as a flake. Then I noticed that I always say, “Your pain is my pain,”and I completely hold true to that. I feel a lot of emotions that the people I care about have.
On top of everything that is going on in my life I was taking what the people around me were going through and putting them in an invisible box inside of my heart and letting them build. The pain and stress of others were building inside of me making me weaker in my way of comfort for them. I feel like God has put it in my heart to be able now to recognize the struggles of people I love and my own and separate the two. I feel like God has created a divider in my life so I can be stronger for the people I care about and be stronger in focusing on Him rather then focusing on me.
I have never been so thankful for separation then I have in the last few weeks. I feel more mentally strong for not only the people in my life, but for my walk with Christ. For a lot of this semester I found myself in a cloudy valley trying to search for direction to get out and now I feel like I have the energy and heart to do that. God works in such mysterious ways but I am so thankful for this time to become clear.
To help others in times of struggle you have to recognize your own. Too help others, let God be your guide in overcoming your valleys no matter how cloudy they seem.
I will be the first say I am always learning when it comes to my faith. I will always say I am tested everyday, but I will also say I will always be straight up when it comes to my faith. I am not here today to talk about how much I know about the disciple Thomas. Today, I am writing to say how little I know about Thomas but how I plan to learn.
I was told last night by one of my closest friend that I resembled the disciple Thomas by the way I lived my life. Now like I said, I don’t know all that much about Thomas but she said I resembled him by my honesty with people about how I feel about God.
Thomas is also referred to as, “The one who doubted,” Thomas didn’t believe what the other disciples had told him about Jesus being resurrected, but he didn’t believe them until he put his finger through the hole in Jesus’ hand. Thomas was brutally honest with how he felt and he didn’t always conform to what people told him to be like or to live like.
I talk to God like he knows everything I am about to say, because he does. He knows what I struggle with before I even open my mouth to speak. I want to know more about Thomas because after my friend said those things he did really resinated with me. Thomas lived life with such a strong faith that he couldn’t take the word of the other disciple’s he had to see it for himself. Thomas was curious and so am I. I can’t to learn more about The Disciple Thomas and how his search for Christ was never faltered by the words of the world but strengthen by the words of God.
“Then Thomas said, to the rest of the disciples. “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” John 11:16
There is a song I can’t stop playing over and over. The song “Drunk on Your Love,” by Brett Eldredge. For some reason I just can’t help but smile when this song comes on. So as I sit here in the Sherrod library at ETSU playing this song through my headphones, way too loud, and my mind turned to how the chorus reminds me of the feeling I have when I think about God.
The lyrics, “I wake up still drunk on your love,” makes me think about the overwhelming feeling God’s love can have on a person and how it can effect someone’s life. When you feel the unconditional love of God you can feel like you have no control. Not in a bad way, but a way that makes you feel so high on happiness that all you want to do is share that with other people.
Throughout the song Brett sings, “I wish I could bottle you up and drink you all day long,” imagine if we looked at His word and did the same. The closer you are to His word the more it becomes obvious of the ways he is working in your life. Notice the good times in your life as act of God, and the tough times as an opportunity to be used by God. I realize this song is not directly about God but the joy I got from the song led me back to him and how it is possible to see him in anything in this world. Cherish the little moments you love and cling to God throughout all of the moments in your life.
This morning I watched a video about a pizza box being used a vessel for the pizza. The same way that we are used as a vessel for God. Without a pizza box the pizza would fall apart and become undesirable. We are an empty box ready to be filled as a vessel for Christ.
God uses all of us to spread his word. Without a clean open heart ready to embrace him our vessel will be tainted. I never thought of my life as a pizza box until this morning when I laid in my bed and watched this video that popped up on my facebook but I really resonate with this. My life is more then what I think it is. More then just a person working for a degree to eventually pay bills, hopefully have a family, and watch them do the same thing.
We are not on this earth to write the story of our lives, we are on this earth to praise his great name. God created everything in the world and also created you and I all for a purpose. The empty feeling people have is searching for purpose but with Christ you know your purpose. To live for him and to love his children.
I definitely fall into the category of shower singers. I love music and I always have. Without the expression of music I don’t where I would be. Sometimes when I am frustrated with anything that is going on I choose to go to my car and blast the music and drive around and I always feel better. No matter whether you are told you are good or bad at singing or any form of making music remember that music is a form of worship. That is why people usually sing a church. Singing can be a form of praise and it draws people closer to God.
When I started my walk with Christ it was the music that I heard that drew me in close. The comfort in the words, the meaning behind the notes, and the emotion I felt. I started playing violin with I was seven so I have always felt close to music and loved the feeling I got from making it.
As I got older I realized that if I didn’t have music for the good and bad times I would probably go a little crazy. The same goes for God. If I didn’t love God the way I loved music then I was missing the point. The joy we get from music is a reflection of the joy we get from God and all that he does. No matter the song or no matter the day God is with us through it all.
Something I have always been known to do is get really involved. By Christmas break of my freshman year I was the chaplain of my sorority involved in three other clubs and two college ministries. I watched how being so involved started to take over my life. Sleep? What is that? Sometimes I think we get too involved which keeps us from putting everything we can into one thing. I think it’s a good thing to be well-rounded but for me being so involved kept me from moving closer to God. I was putting so much of myself into everything I was involved in that when it came to God I was exhausted.
Instead of turning to God first I was turning to him last because I thought I could do everything on my own. When spring semester rolled around I knew I couldn’t do it so I cut back some of my organizations and it changed everything for the better. Instead of always talking about God I learned to talk more to God. Realistically if it wasn’t for the comfort God has given I don’t know where I would be.
I started to realize that God was working in my life not only through the things that were going on but the people he was putting in my life. I started to see how I could depend on others to be there for me when times got tough and remind me what was really important. A relationship with God is more important then anything. If you multitask to the point one starts to strain don’t let it be the one with Christ.
God isn’t a thing on your checklist. God created you and he holds the pen to the story of your life.
Being a young adult can come with an unwritten set of rules for happiness. You must graduate college. You must go to graduate school. You must make at least $100,000 a year to survive the ever pressing need of a wealthier lifestyle. You must have kids and they must be the all-star player on their sports teams. You must. You must. You must. Society dictates these rules with harsher punishments than timeout and getting your phone taken away. You are outcasted, put in a different “circle”, or unrelentingly scorned about your life’s choices.
But what if we made our own choices? What if we choose not to go to college, but to start our own businesses and work hard for the money we make? What if, instead of going to graduate school, we choose to start a family? What if we decide that falling in love is not worth the risk and we fall in love with our Creator?
I think that is the ultimate goal of life: to fall in love with our King. What society dictates as right and wrong holds no weight to being solely devoted to Christ and what he wants our lives to hold. Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,’Never will I leave you or forsake you.” I love the last part of this verse because it solidifies the promise that our decision of falling in love with Christ, rather than the world, will not be overlooked. Instead, this decision will be cherished.
We are always finding something to fall in love with, be it money or fame or love itself. It’s time we stopped chasing after things that will soon fade away and fall head over heals in love with our Creator.
Sources:
“Matt Redman – The Heart of Worship.” YouTube. YouTube. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
“Bible Gateway Passage: Hebrews 13:5 – New International Version.” Bible Gateway. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
Jesus called over a little child. He put His hand on the top of the child’s head. "This is the truth: unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. In that kingdom, the most humble who are most like this child are the greatest." Matthew 18:2-4
Welcome to the class blog for Dr. Robert Andrew Dunn, associate professor and journalism program head in the Department of Media and Communication at East Tennessee State University.
Keeping My Faith 