Constantly Being Refined

Hello, family and friends and strangers!

 

This is my first blog post ever and I’m not really sure how it is supposed to look, so I am going to make this casual. I am also not a very creative person so that is why the title of my very first blog ever is “Constantly Being Refined”, it’s not even that relevant to what I am about to write. Please laugh with me. The reason I am even writing this blog (I don’t view myself as someone who would write blogs for fun) is to share how God has worked on my heart and why I am going on a semester mission trip!

 

I first experienced the overwhelming “call to action” feeling after reading the book “Crazy Love”, by Francis Chan. He is a pastor in southern California that wrote this book to get people excited about sharing the good news of the gospel. He, not so gently, reminds the reader that faith without action is dead (James 2:14-20). I think my favorite thing about the word of God, other than it is the living breathing word of the great I Am, is that the bible will offend you. We all fall short of the glory of God and therefore, we are imperfect (but praise Jesus). The word is a double edge sword (Hebrews 4:12) and because of this, refines us by revealing to us our sins. This process of being refined by fire (1 Peter 1:7) can feel offensive, which in my opinion is how you know that the wisdom of the Lord is sinking in. Francis Chan, in “Crazy Love”, shows the reader how easy it is to slip into the scary lukewarm waters (Revelation 3:15-17). He takes up the daunting task of explaining how, if you are a Christian and you are lukewarm, you are wasting the life God has given you. His book was offensive in the best way. 

 

Now, I am not saying that if you don’t drop everything and not go on a mission trip immediately that you are lukewarm or wasting your life. The beautiful thing about ministry is that it can look an endless amount of ways. Where I am at in my life, God has provided me the perfect opportunity to spread the gospel by means of a mission trip. Please let me explain how he has beautifully made this plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11).

 

I am currently a college student that just transferred to the University of Pittsburgh. For my freshman year and the first half of my sophomore year, I attended Allegheny college. There, I struggled to find a Christian community to pour in to me. At first I strung up this crazy idea in my head that I could make a difference at that school all by myself with no support from a community. (The Bible makes sure that we understand how important it is to live in community, because that is the way God designed us.) I felt myself draining out. I am not sure if you will understand this feeling unless you have experienced it, but I remember crying and begging God not to turn His face from me because I could feel my fire burning out. I really thought that God was turning his face from me. How silly is that?! Satan is one sneaky snake. Anyways, I am now learning that your feelings don’t equal your faith. Before I was all tired out, I made the decision to transfer to the University of Pitt because I knew of a community there called YoungLife. I already had some amazing friends there that were encouraging me through this whole process, but it was really hard to take that leap of faith. Seeing how God has created provisions for me through this process has been breathtaking. I am now living in community at Pitt and met one of my amazing friends, Sarah. As we got closer she told me of her Gap year through The World Race. I am not sure if I would have ever looked into The World Race and got passionate about a mission trip if I had not had the opportunity to get close with Sarah. 

 

God works in beautiful ways, and it never fails to make me literally say “wow”.