Warning: Not every post will be THIS cool (or long). But what a good one to start with.
Lesson Learned: Daily Surrender
The backstory: This weekend, my campus ministry at ISU’s campus, Encounter, had their fall retreat. Seeing as I haven’t left yet, I volunteered to be on the kitchen crew. Ya know, cooking meals, cleaning, coffee making, etc. I spent a lot of time doing that, so I didn’t head to speaker speak or sit in on any of the small groups, but I was able to attend the bonfire Saturday night. There’s something really cool about a crisp, fall night, stars as far as the eye can see, and a huge flame right in the center of a circle. During the bonfire, 2 people shared incredible testimonies of how faithful God is, and how from every aspect of our lives, He rescues us so we can depend more on HIM. Pete (our pastor) has a way of making Jesus really understandable. He didn’t say this, but this is what I heard, “Hey, folks, you’re going to be a slave to something forever. Whether that’s a family member, sin issue, boyfriend, accomplishment, whatever that may be. Or you can be a slave to Christ, in which He gives us freedom. The choice is yours and whether you want to surrender is up to you. But, there has to be a surrender. We can’t come into a covenant with God without baptism.” Wow. What a good reminder for those that have already been baptized.
Karli’s Story: Throwback to June 2015. I reached out to a girl named Karli, who I knew was having a rough year. I had met her at an Encounter event that past August and I could see she wanted a relationship with Christ, but was chained by the party life. A life that worshiped boys and fake friendships. I knew she didn’t belong there but something was holding her back. She lived about 40 minutes away. So, considering it was the summer and there wasn’t any classes to get in the way, I asked her if she wanted to go through the book, “Crazy Love” with me, by Francis Chan. I think SHE had actually asked me around March to go through a book during that summer, so I thought I’d bring it back up. I guess that weekend she was re-evaluating a lot and God worked in the timing to make this all happen! We starting meeting and man, I have not seen someone so committed. She was willing to drive 40 MINUTES each way just to come talk about Jesus and discuss how our lives should match our faith. She didn’t run away when I brought up hard topics, she ran TOWARDS them, seeking ways to try and follow. Each week, she would start with, “So I’ve been thinking” and refer back to something in the book and something we talked about the week before and she’d ask questions about how they applied directly to her life. The hunger was there and the more she was running after Jesus, the less and less she wanted to be in her old scene. The desire was leaving her. She was ready to see what following Christ full time actually looked like….and we’ll pick up with her story at another point below.
Celina’s Story: God placed an amazing girl named Celina in my small group last year. The first night I went around and said, “Hey! I brought 2 extra Bible’s if someone needs one.” Celina told me she did, and so I awkwardly went, “Uhhh, here. You can just keep this one.” Not really intending to give them out when I brought them, but what was I going to do with the extra Bible? That night I left SO excited that even if she never came back to small group again, I could have even been a small part of her faith journey. Well, she did come back. And we became friends. Fast forward to winter retreat (February) 2015.Celina was really moved by the speaker…He was awesome! and she mentioned she was thinking about baptism!! What?! But, there were some things still holding her back. People she didn’t want to disappoint who wouldn’t’ agree. From them on out, prayer began! And I know she began praying about it, too! Fast forward to May, when her and I got to attend May Mission Trip with Encounter. It was her FIRST mission trip and we spent 1 week in Minnesota! New struggles had been accumulating the past semester, but she was able to find community and people who also were in her same spot. She was still talking about baptism, but wasn’t ready to be all in…..and her story will continue later.
God Moment #1: Karli had decided about 3 weeks before fall retreat that she wanted to get baptized at fall retreat. Last year, Pete did an activity where we wrote a stick of wood the things holding us back from God. He told us if we were ready to give those to God, to throw our stick in the fire. But, if you’re not ready, go throw it into the woods. God is patient and He will wait if you aren’t ready. So, Karli threw her stick in the fire knowing she wasn’t ready. So she thought what a full circle to come around and BE BAPTIZED at fall retreat 🙂 so she did!!
God Moment #2: We are not at Fall Retreat (last weekend!!). After Pete’s explanation of being a slave to something, Celina, me, and another girl in our small group Jen had a chance to talk. As Jen and I smiled at her, she knew she was ready. She knew she was getting baptized. She was finally ready to surrender to the Lord of the universe and say, “I am yours”. Even with obstacles ahead, there was a trust that God would deliver her from them, as He shows us faithfully in the Bible.
My God Moment: As I was sitting at worship, crying from the beauty after the baptisms, OH DID I MENTION WE HAD 10 IN TOTAL?, I just felt a wave of God’s peace. I’ve been anxious as to why I haven’t gone to Spain yet. Why my paperwork has been messed up and taken a really long time. I felt God whispering to me (not audibly), “Lydia…NOW do you see why you needed to wait?” God knew I needed to see how He worked in those women’s lives and how I got to be a part of it. He wanted to affirm my trust in Him. Who am I to question the creator of the universe? Shouldn’t HIS plan be greater than mine? Then I looked at what DAILY SURRENDER actually meant. If baptism is a surrender of life, then I should be surrendering daily to God, which is hard in today’s world. That means being extra patient with the person helping me when I’m in a rush. Or answering the phone call from a friend when time is short. Or reminding myself, I AM NOT BUSY. When I become too over stressed because of the things I have placed in my life that I “NEED” to accomplish. It’s having a renewed mind set every day and to rest in God so I can love others better and show that love. And may Jesus help me accomplish these things 🙂
I think that’s it for this one. Sending God’s love! You might be able to click on the pictures to make them larger.
