When God Writes Your... College Story?

A thought occurred to me one day.

You know, I have given God the pen to write my love story. I believe He is going to "write" something really good. I am waiting with anticipation and watching for His lead and direction. I am trusting Him without too much of a struggle. But there are other stories in life besides romance. Am I trusting God with my college story?

I realized that even though I had given my love story over to God early on, there were other things that I was still anxious over. Namely, college. The normal route of finishing high school on time and going straight to college or at least community college, didn't fall into place for me. When I was younger, I always thought I would go to college. My parents both went to college, and that's just what people who were good at school and wanted to make something out of their life did, right? Maybe not. I didn't believe in going to college just for "the experience". I really didn't want to invest any time and money unless I knew it was worth it. So I didn't enroll anywhere. True, a big part of that was some unfinished homeschool business. But I believe that God has been leading me even with that.

Last year, I heard about a school out in Colorado called Ellerslie School of Honor. It was started this year by Eric and Leslie Ludy, authors of When God Writes Your Love Story and many other good books. They were offering a 10-week summer course for this summer. I was very interested, but the dates interfered with our already-planned trip to Washington, and I knew it wouldn't work. Still, I couldn't forget about it. It really felt like God wanted me to go. Maybe next summer? Then they announced that because of the high demand, they would be holding another 10-week session this fall. That was when I knew God wanted me to apply. As I've been praying, I asked Him to make everything fall into place if He wanted me to go. And they have been. Even finances! So yesterday I submitted my application. It's in God's hands.

Are you giving God the pen for all the stories in your life?

Beyond Blaze Again

The following account is not about the actual Blaze conference. But I think that it could rightly be described a result of it.

The week before Easter, my Great Uncle Jerry ;-) and Aunt Lucretia were in town, and my family wanted to go somewhere neat with them. They decided to go to the zoo. Unfortunately, the only day they could go was a day I had to work (argh, being in the workforce -.-), so I didn't get to go. The night before they were going to go, however, Michael made a suggestion that surprised me. Valerie and I were sitting on the couch, and he comes up to us, saying, "Hey Val, how about you and me go proselytize someone tomorrow?" Valerie did a huge double take at his vocabulary, but I replied right away, "Yeah! How about two people, one for each of you?" After we set Val straight on what he meant by proselytize (go up to someone at the zoo, start a conversation with them, and if possible share Christ with them), he excitedly came up with Inspiration #2: "How about everyone talk to someone? Liz can talk to someone at the library, Dad can talk to someone at work, Chris... etc." Ok, now this was getting personal. But hey, how can I say no? How could I want to? I've never seen this brother be excited about this stuff before! So I agreed. Now if I was in, I was going to be all in. So I started praying, and thinking about who I could talk to.

Now as it happened, Chris wanted to use the truck that day (he wasn't going the zoo either), so he dropped me off at the library. He said that he could pick me up when I was done, but I told him it wasn't necessary. I figured I would get a ride from someone. There's a certain really nice lady that I work with: she goes to church because her daughter likes going to Sunday School, but I don't think that she has a genuine relationship with Christ. Maybe I could talk to her. And, if she wasn't there, then I could just walk the two miles home. It was a nice day... and I might meet someone on the way.

Well, she wasn't working that day. Alright, walking it would be. Oh boy, talking to strangers. When my shift was over, I got on the library computers as is my custom. But it wasn't too long before I started to get fidgety. I had to get going. What if I was late for a divine appointment? So I got going.

It was a sunny and breezy day. Most of my route home is neighborhoods and lots of people were out and about. The first house I walked by the garage was open, and a guy was walking around, rather aimlessly it seemed to me. I wondered as I walked past whether he was who God wanted me to talk to. Now when you simply wonder instead of actually ask it's easier to substitute your own answer instead of God's. It's like pretending to listen. But God doesn't give up that easy. Several houses later, I still couldn't get the guy out of my head. All right, all right! I told God, "Ok, I'll turn around, and if he's still there, I'll talk to him."

Well, what do you know: he was still there. Here I go. I stepped into the driveway. "Excuse me?" He turned around. "Yes?" "Well," I answered, "I couldn't help but notice, but you didn't seem too busy... would it be all right if I asked you a question?" The guy was probably about my age. Not overly talkative or friendly, but not hostile either. He probably thought I was selling something. (Not entirely wrong, I guess). He shrugged, so I plunged ahead. "If you died tonight, do you know what would happen to you?" His face was getting more stoic by the second, but he shook his head no. "Well, if I could tell you how you could know you were going to heaven for sure, would that be good news?" Abruptly, he turned on his heel with a "Have a good day" and retreated into the garage. I was undeniably dismissed. Whoa! Must've hit a nerve there!

After that experience, I was tempted to think, "Well, that's enough. I've filled my out-of-comfort-zone quota for the day." But when you do something like talking to strangers for Jesus' sake, something funny happens. You get a shot of spiritual adrenaline. I wanted to try again. After all, I hadn't really shared the gospel with anyone yet. So I kept my eyes open.

Fast forward about a mile. I walk right past a certain playground, which of course was filled with people. On pretense of putting a can in the garbage I enter. It feels very odd to be here all by myself without some other kids with me. But today I have a mission. Who am I here to talk to? There's a nice looking lady with 2 young children on a picnic blanket... maybe her. I head in their direction... and chicken out. I walk right past them. Deja vu, anyone? I circle around again, and this time stop. "Hello." "Hi," The mom answers. She is friendly, and I am relieved. I comment on her cute kids. The little girl starts chattering with me. Then, I get sudden inspiration. I invite them to the Easter Egg hunt that our church is having this weekend. After some discussion on directions to get there, the lady mentions that they currently don't have a church that they attend. So I happily invited them to come any Sunday as well. No deeper topics were broached, but I continued on my walk happy and hopeful.

In the end, I never did actually "share the gospel" with anyone that day. But who knows what God will do by one girl's meager attempts to obey. Maybe that guy talked that night with his friend about this weird girl who wanted to tell him how to get to heaven, and maybe his friend is a Christian and has been waiting for an opportunity like this to share with him. Or maybe the lady (I know her name but am not going to share it here) will decide sometime that she wants to find a good church and will think of ours. In any case, now that I've met them, I can pray for them. A few more people in this world that aren't faceless to me anymore.

Working with Jesus is truly an adventure! And I know I haven't tasted the half of it.

BLAZE & beyond...

Dare 2 Share 2010! The name of the tour this year was Blaze, and it was awesome. My dad, Chris, Valerie, Michael, Stephanie, and myself, along with our super youth group (27 people including leaders), all went, with a little help from "The Beast" (our "15 passenger" van).

In case you don't know, a Dare 2 Share conference is a two-day weekend that is all about mobilizing teenagers to share the gospel. There are thousands of people there, youth groups from all over the Midwest. So what did we do these past two days? Worshiped with Starfield, listened to teaching and hilarious stories by guys like Greg Stier and Zane Black, watched really intense skits, and were very challenged.

What I really came away with was how possible it is to share the gospel. Yes, it is very awkward to start conversations at first, but once you swallow your initial fear and just do it, it's not that hard. It doesn't matter if you know everything, because it's Jesus who does the saving, and the Holy Spirit who prepares and plans and works. Yes, you might lose "cool points", but isn't that was losing your life for His sake is all about? Jesus was definitely not concerned about what people thought of Him when He gave His life for us.

On Saturday there were a couple specific goals they challenged us to do that very day. One was the cell phone challenge. I'll tell you about my experience with that in a minute. Another one was to find a stranger during dinner and share the gospel with them. We ended up going to a little pizza joint, and I know I wasn't the only one who scoped out the place as soon as we got in there: 2 boys at one table, 2 girls at another, and a couple workers. Not really enough for 27 people to each witness to someone. But some boys went and talked to the two boys, some girls to the girls. Then Mrs. G (that's really what we call her) and Sarah went to talk to the employees, actually one in particular whose name is Lucy. Mrs. G asked her Lucy she knew if she knew where she would go, heaven or hell, when she died. Lucy said no, she had never thought about it. They got to talking a bit more, Sarah and Chris C. joining in as well. By and by they explained the good news of Jesus to her, and asked if she wanted to accept Christ as her Savior. And she was ready! She replied, "No doubt about it!" So they prayed with her, and now we who are in Christ have a new sister who was born yesterday! Incredibly, no customers came in that needed to be served the whole time they were talking with her. Also, Sarah had a Bible with her that she could give away. God is amazing!


Now about the cell phone challenge. Everyone had to call one friend who wasn't a Christian, and start a conversation with the purpose of sharing the gospel. And you didn't get off the hook if you didn't have a phone or bring it with you... you had to borrow someone else's once they were done. I borrowed my dad's phone, but the only person I could think of was my grandpa. I was pretty sure my grandma was a believer, though we had never talked of it, but I knew my grandpa was not. Usually he avoids talking about spiritual things. But, I called my grandparents' house, and someone answered, but  I couldn't hear a thing. I figured that it was because of the murmuring stadium that I was in the middle of, so I said into the phone that I would call in a half hour, and hung up. Next on the schedule was our lunch break, so I went outside of the restaurant and tried again, but the same thing happened. I could tell that someone had picked up, but I still couldn't hear anything. So very apologetically I said I would have to try later and hung up.

So today, Sunday, after church I called first to see if they were home... land line to land line, no connection problem this time... and then I hopped in the car and drove over. Chris came along too at the last minute. We got there and before we had been there very long, my grandma asks how the conference that we went to was. Ok. This was it. I took a deep breath and plunged ahead. "It was great. Actually, that kind of why we came over today." I then went into what the drama had been about and how it had made me realize that I needed to do what I could so people I cared about - them - wouldn't go to hell. I probably used similarly run-on sentences like that too. Well, they had not been expecting an answer like that. Awkward. Then I asked if she knew where she would go if she died. (At this point Chris split and went to talk to Grandpa, who had been listening from the other room. Thank You God for letting him come with me!) Grandma's reply was, "Heaven, I hope." So I probed a bit to see the reasoning behind her answer. She said it was because she believed; she agreed it didn't have anything to do with earning her salvation. I have to believe that God didn't want me to do any further persuading, because He didn't lead me to. But we did get into a honest conversation about church and such.  Meanwhile, Chris was talking to Grandpa in the other room. At first, Grandpa was like, "I'd rather not talk about it". But then Chris was just sitting there, not talking, so Grandpa started talking to break the silence. :) They talked about why bad things happen and I don't know what else.
In the end, no conversion happened there that day. But because we went over there, God was brought to the forefront their minds yet again, and they know that their eternal destiny is important to us.

It's funny, I almost didn't go to Blaze this year. After all, I already knew that I should share the gospel, and I already know how. Loud music isn't really my thing, it's geared for public-schooled people (btw that was a bad heart attitude on my part... better now), I'm really too old for it, etc etc. But I ended up going anyway. And I'm glad I did.  Jesus saves. The harvest is already white, but the laborers are few. Here am I, Lord, send me.

My personal testimony of God's undeserved grace to me.

Last week the secretary of our Awana club asked me, along with the other new leaders, to give her our written testimony. I was supposed to have it done yesterday (sorry Jackie!) but didn't get to it til today. I thought it would be a good thing to post:

When I was little, I heard stories about the Bible at Sunday School and Cubbies. My mom told me them at home, too. One day, when I was four, almost five, I was at home with my mom in the kitchen. She was telling me about how everyone has sin. People who sin have to be punished. The punishment for sin is to go to a terrible, painful place called hell. But God sent Jesus, who was perfect and didn't deserve any punishment, to die on the cross and pay for our sin. If we believe that He did that, then we don't have to go to hell when we die. We can go to heaven to be with God. If we don't trust in Jesus' death to save us, we will have to go to hell. Well, I didn't want to go to hell. I wanted to trust in Jesus. My mom helped me pray to God and ask Him to forgive me for my sin. As soon as I was done praying, I felt like a heavy load had been taken off my shoulders. I couldn't even describe it. I was so happy. I remember thinking that I loved Jesus more that any of my favorite things.

Well, there wasn't an immediate dramatic change in my life after that. But I kept learning about God and what the Bible teaches from church and Awana and at home. I memorized lots of verses out of my Awana books, too.

The summer I turned 11, I got to go to Awana Scholarship Camp. There I decided that I really wanted to follow Christ. I purposed to read the Bible every day, and I came home really excited. But, despite my good intentions, I couldn't keep it up, and the spiritual high passed. Life went back to normal. Sort of. This happened year after year. As the years passed, there would be times that I sensed that my spiritual life was stagnant. I would pray and ask God, "What do you want me to do?". And I would always hear that still small voice say, "Be baptized." Now I knew what baptism was: a public declaration to follow Christ. I knew it was good, and I knew it was what believers should do. But I was afraid. I was afraid of going in front of the whole church, not to mention going to the pastor to say I wanted to be baptized in the first place. So I put it off. I rationalized. And I remained discontent. There were times that I almost did it. Several times on the last day of camp I would tell myself that I was going to get up at testimony time and announce that I would be baptized when I got home. But I didn't get up. I was too afraid. It was my secret battle. Finally, when I was 15, I came home from a Christian retreat, and I was tired of fighting. I surrendered and told my dad that I wanted to be baptized. A month or so later, I was. And a most thrilling surrender it was.

My third year of camp, my counselor had really encouraged me to be baptized. She said that after she was baptized, she really experienced blessing. Looking back, it was the same with me. The habit of reading the Bible finally fell into place. The winter I was 16, I had a hard-to-describe milestone moment with God. To sum it up, I fell in love with Him. I learned what it meant to have a personal relationship with God.

As I grow up and life goes on, I lean more and more on this great God I serve. He is constantly teaching and growing and helping me. The Bible memorization and study that I've done have been invaluable. I want to obey Him wholeheartedly, although I fail every day. This life and love I have from Him is the best thing I have ever been given, and I want everyone else to have it too. May my story bring Him glory!