Well I got a nice kick in the pants from a solid friend. One I really needed because I spent the entire weekend in South Dakota with no cell service and I didn’t write a single word. I have plenty of opportunity. It was a great reflection time but I now have no record of it. Lame. The last week or so has been trying. I have had way more victories than failures in the purity arena and I am gaining ground. The other day something…actually someone’s voice hit me like a ton of bricks. “When are you going to do something about it”?
For those that know the beginnings of my authenticity that statement means a lot. I am going to do something about it now. I have taken the things that tempt me to fail out of my immediate path and put them in places that make it difficult for me to trip. Okay I leave my ipad at work. Simple things that allow me to conquer Satan’s lies.
Okay so now on to the title that I have given this entry. I recently have had a couple conversations with this kid that I am recruiting for school. He is handicapped but very high functioning. I think this kid is very cool and would give this campus a nice dimension we don’t really have. He is a little older and he written a few books. As far as handicapped people go he is pretty inspiring but my conversations with him have been difficult to say the least. The college I work for is expensive. I believe it’s worth it. Most students that come pay around 1-5000 out of pocket or they take out loans to cover that cost. I usually talk about God’s will and what he has called you to do to try and convince these students to either come or not come. I am okay with whoever God wants to bring here and I am not afraid to tell a student the truth. Okay back on track….so this kids gets into a conversation about God’s will for people’s lives and pulls out this verse that I really don’t know if it has that much to do with a college decision but anyway.
1 Thes 4:1-8
4 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
Now, to me this is just a verse about living right, not doing disgusting things and honor God with the things that we do. This kid is choosing to go somewhere else because of cost. It’s too expensive for him and he doesn’t want to go into debt. I don’t try and convince kids to take out money and go into debt but I do try and help them understand that what God wants for them is much bigger than money and I see it in my own life.
After being given that verse I was kinda taken off guard cuz people don’t really throw verses at me like that. So I went to my mental bank and pulled out a cliché verse that I knew pointed out what I wanted to make known. Strangely…well not strangely because I should have known God would speak to me through my arrogance. The verse that I send him was in Proverbs 3. I am copying the email I sent here
Proverbs 3:5,6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING; in all your ways submit to Him, and he will make your paths STRAIGHT. (not easy)
HA.HA. HA. I thought to myself as I pressed the send button in Microsoft Outlook. Then I couldn’t get what I wrote out of my mind. Especially the YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING part, I have read this verse over probably a million times and heard it preached or spoken about another million but never really contemplated what it really was saying to my own life. I have somewhat lived by it but never saw it as plain as day.
The way I see it now is that the way I understand the world. The way I understand the way the world works and everything about myself is irrelevant compared to the way God works. What God is capable of is beyond anything that I could understand or even think of understanding.
God help me to continue to remember this about you. Help me to not lean on what I can fathom but what you are capable of and that is beyond anything that I can dream. Continue to strengthen my weakness.
Nos & Rehtaf, Dnabsuh 