Journey Towards Becoming Missional: "I'm not happy unless_____

Yesterday I posted about how leaving home wasn’t a good bye but rather just a see you later and I’ll miss you till I see you again. So, last night I was able to spend some time with a mission intern from my class, Michelle, since she lives in Dallas Texas at the moment. It was good to get out and hang out with her and attend SMU’s Wesley Foundation meeting. I have never been to a Wesley Foundation since my campus didn’t have one but it was a great way to spiritually feed myself with the worship and fellowship that took place. It’s a great feeling to see older staff that is passionate about the work that they are doing and reaching college students (yeah, I still have a passion to do collegiate ministry and I feel like that will always be apart of who I am.) But, seeing the students from SMU that attended this meeting and their interaction with one another and the staff’s welcoming spirit reminded me of God’s hospitality and how we as Christians are meant to live our lives. I’m not a student and never was a student at SMU but because of my Methodist connection and even bigger yet, my Christian connection with this group, they were welcoming and there to show God’s love and service.

The message that was spoken on was Hosea 1:1-3, even though it’s a short passage what was spoken about was good and got you to thinking. One of the questions that was asked was “what are your ideals?” and if you need help answering that question then complete this sentence, “I’m not happy unless_________” so whatever you complete that sentence with will give you the answers as to what you are putting ahead of God and worshipping. This is honestly a harder question to answer for me since I don’t know how to complete that sentence since I feel like I have given up so much of my life, time, energy, money, etc to do the ministry work that I am doing that I hope that I am worshiping God above anything else. But, how do you complete that phrase? Is it that you are not happy unless you get good grades, have a secure job, have friends, are busy all the time, know what tomorrow has in store for you, have control of what’s going on, etc? Yeah, there are many answers to that question and honestly for me, I guess it’s that I have control over situations since it’s hard to not know what tomorrow hold, or where you will be living, or what it is that you will be doing but God already knows all of that so shouldn’t we trust in God’s guidance, power, love, prompting, etc rather than rely on ourselves and those things that complete the above phrase? I think the answer is yes!

So, I went to the Dallas World Aquarium today and now looking back on it, it was an experience that I should have been practicing putting control in God’s hands but I failed at doing so but everything turned out fine and it was a good day. You see, I do like control, I like knowing what’s going to happen, and I like being on time and all of those were things that I dealt with today yet I had no control over the situation. Spending time away from the house was a great experience and meeting the President of the Dallas Leadership Foundation was good (yeah, I will honestly say that I was a little intimidated about meeting him at first but after meeting him in person today, I don’t know what the worry was.) You see, God’s had this entire situation under control and He has known what was going to happen from the first day of completing the young adult missionary application and He knew where I would be assigned. Yet, I still want control and I still worry. Why is that? Yeah, I know I am human and that’s what humans do but wouldn’t things be so much better if I trusted God every step of the way rather than worry about the time, worry about meeting people for the first time, or worry about anything? I think so, so this is my prayer that during these next 2 years, I learn to put complete trust in God and worship God to the fullest. That I would end up not being able to complete the above phrase since God will be the center of my worship and my life! So what about you? What completes the above phrase and how do you plan on adjusting it so that God is the center of your life and worship and He will be the thing that causes you to be happy since you know that His way is always better than our way and that he has our best in mind? Just something to think about since God’s our rock so He’s not about to break or fall apart but we might if we continue worshiping other things (and honestly, we might not even realize that we are worshiping other things or putting other things before God) but it’s about time that we put complete trust in God and see where things take us.

May God bless you and the work you are doing as I pray that He blesses me and allows these next 2 years to be growing experiences and fruitful!

Here's a few pics from the Dallas World Aquarium trip today...