Thank you so much for the encouragement! God is up to something! :)
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah
"All my dreams,
All my plans,
My times are in Your hands."
I realized that I don’t care if my life is not “great.” If my name is never spoken of with highest honors or with great acclaim, I’ll be alright. If my accomplishments are never read as a long list of praise to an audience of the rich or famous, I’ll be alright.
In fact, I’ll be more than alright. I want my life to be good. Something refreshing and beautiful. Something that leaves a mark on people but does not draw attention to myself. Something that is all joy and all love.
Post-graduation Stephen is doing a lot of soul-searching. Who am I now that I’ve left Virginia and Regent? Am I closer to the heart of God? Do I have more attributes of the fruit of the Spirit?
“Draw me unto Your heart. Everything else fades as I find You.”
Isaac! I miss you bro! So sad that I never got to say good bye!
Thanks so much! Yeah. This week, I am going to start applying and emailing different missions/global groups. :)
Thanks so much for that! I appreciate it! I’m hoping the next few years will be pretty exciting! :)
Knowing You, there is no greater thing
You’re my all, You’re the best
You’re my joy, my righteousness
And I love You, Lord"
Seriously, this has been the weirdest weekend of my life thus far. Here I am completely leaving the things I have known for four years. I’m not leaving with fanfare or some glitzy ending. It was a rainy, cold graduation day and a quiet weekend of pondering, thinking, and praying…and packing. But God’s given me a lot of wisdom these past 24+ hours.
The main thing I’ve realized is that there is nothing that I can hold onto in life to be in the center of God’s plan. If He truly knows best, then I must surrender everything. And honestly, on Saturday night, after a day of celebration, I realized that I’m completely alone. All of the crutches in my life that I have relied upon for security and peace are gone. I’m alone in the vastness of the universe, and no one can fill the void in my heart. Only God.
It’s weird. No one preps you for this. No one told me that everything will change. But here I am, and everything is changing. I don’t find fulfillment in family, friends, positions, grades, or comfort. Nothing is satisfying the desire I have in the depths of my heart.
Thus, I must go deeper. I must push off from the shores of complacency that offer me safety from storms. The storms are where I finally see God. In the storms, my faith with Christ grows as I take a leap of faith into the waters of chaos, but Jesus is there with open arms saying, “Come to me. Walk upon the water.”
So here I go. This summer may be the hardest, darkest time of my life, but I can’t avoid it. It’s an adventure that I’ve been craving. It’s not only a physical adventure but also a spiritual adventure into the depths of God’s love!
So I guess this is it. Good bye safety. Hello adventure!
