This blog is a bit different from the other “recent posts”, I know… but this morning I woke up with a heart that just wants to overflow unto my laptop buttons! Who am I, and where am I? I’m an ex-Global Challenger from last year that is sitting in my hometown, in an on-campus residence room, studying, like everyone else around me! I am a girl that tasted the life of a crazy backpacker living out Jesus to strangers all over South- and Central-America, that came back to the normal life of a university student. So that’s me, but here’s my blog…
Many times during our journey last year I remember how we spoke in our team about “how this, that we are experiencing now, translates into normal, ordinary life”, but I recently realized that it was only in theory that I could answer that question a year ago, not in complete, practical truth!
How does the faith you need when doing a Luke 10 work out in a normal, eight to five, day.? How can you compare doing the salvation drama to thousands of Jamaican children to living in a Residence with 250 other ladies that is here to get a degree, write tests, do projects, assignments and are all aware of the existence of Jesus? I know God has my back when we traveled into a place where we trusted Him with our lives, not having any other plans but His, but how do I know that same thing when I’m back home, where everything is planned out for me already, and I’m enrolled for a four year course? How do you trust God the same way you did when you had absolutely no other way out, nothing to hold on to or call your own, than when you are at a place where you actually have everything, and more than you need, not lacking a thing?
This is real questions out of real struggles these last four months. Oh, but it’s beautiful how God answers our heart-cry-questions, so here is what I got from Him… His voice!
Like I said, many things changed very drastically, the whole context of my life, but His voice, speaking to me, remained constant! John 10 speaks about the Good Shepherd and says; “The sheep follow the Shepherd, for they know His voice…”, this became a promise for me! I know His voice, I know I do, not because I am such a good listener, but because He is such a good Speaker, and He saved me into a new Kingdom where I can hear His voice! So if I’m a “sheep” (which I know I am), then I have the ability to hear and understand what my Shepherd is telling me! Isn’t it absolutely beautiful!
Because of His voice, His Holy Spirit inside of me, leading and comforting me with peace, quietness and a certainty I now know how to live Him out here in the ordinary life…I just need to walk very close to Jesus! His voice in me usually challenges me to greater faith, bigger risks and quicker obedience! Immediate obedience challenges my faith daily because what I learned was that delayed obedience is actually immediate disobedience…
Last month I really felt how He prompted me to spend all my pocket money for the month, on the first day of the month, on specific gifts for certain friends, leaving me in a place where was like: “Okay, Lord, so now you are going have to work a miracle for me in one of these two ways, either you are going to take me out of any situation where I need to spend money this next month, or You are going to provide money for me…” At the end of March I received back double my pocket money, with leftovers!!!
Only a few days ago I completely forgot to set my alarm for my early morning class and somehow my roommate’s alarm went crazy and started ringing at the perfectly right time for me to get up, in time for my class! I fell a sleep again and then our next-door-neighbor’s alarm started ringing, waking me up again and it only stopped when I got out of bed! Aaah I love it, He is still the God that’s already there, that has my back all the time, even when it comes to being on time for classes!
Jesus is walking into deeper waters, towards places where I need to trust Him more, whether I am carrying a backpack with only five shirts, or live in a house with a closet full of clothes… The Father is calling me daily into the open spaces of His grace where He is my source and my strength, my refuge and my shelter, whether it is from the elements of nature while sleeping next to the road, or from sharp comments from someone that’s having a blue Monday… The Holy Spirit is moving in me to obey and love, He is teaching me, helping me and comforting me, whether it is because I’m 20 000km away from my mom on my birthday, or simply because I miss my Distant Worlds family while studying for tomorrow’s test…
So how does a year in Global Challenge Expeditions translates into ordinary life? I found that there is no need for translating… it’s simply the continuation of a journey where you walk with your God, drinking in His voice and live to know Him and be known by Him…