Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The Light and Dark Of Summer......


Summer for me has been the best times of my college life. I gave my first summer up to the Lord and from then on decided thats what I was going to do. I struggled just like everyone else with whether I should be going to school, getting a job that pays me actual money, or an internship (this one was not really a problem cause I didn't know what I was going to do at the time). But the Lord grabbed a hold of me the first summer and thats all I wanted to do the rest of them. Definantly a blessing!

"You have made known to the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence" (Acts 2:28)

Now just because it was a great time of growth for me and I feel like there were way more peaks than valleys, it wasn't always easy. My summer to East Asia couldn't have been more challenging and difficult to say the least. And there were times throughout the other summers where I was definantly living out of the flesh. But Summer is so special to me because I learned so much through both the peaks and valleys that when I talk to people I always draw from those moments and experiences. I praise the Lord for that growth and the lives changed during those months.

The thing that really stirs my spirit is that summer is looked at like a time of joy and peace no matter what you are doing. Very rarely do I speak to someone about their summer time and they admit that it's not where they need to be. But even though people dont say it, I see it all the time. We mask the desires of the Lord, with the desires of the world. I keep hearing a lot recently the phrase, "Im being pulled in a lot of different directions right now." Yeah I struggle with that too, but there is only one way we need to be pulled and thats the direction of the Lord. Society has skewed the idea that our first job is making a name for ourselves in this world through a job, family, and money. That's a lie, our first mission or "job" if you will is to glorify the Lord and teach his gospel to everyone we come in contact with. That in our job or school that we let him teach others in our lives about him and that we walk in that truth. Not that this doesn't happen in other seasons, but it is opened up to my eyes more in the summer time when our time can become more about us than about our Lord and savior. I end my thought with a quote that rocked my world today by a man that the Lord has spoken to me through him a lot recently.

"To many people are trying to become something, when the Jesus tells us to become nothing" - Matt Chandler

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