Now that the
semester is over and I've had time to take a breath and actually think about something
other than a Negishi coupling reaction, what hormones are secreted from the
juxtaglomerular apparatus, or what the symptoms are from an infection of Mycoplasma pneumonia, I've done some reflecting. And
besides the academic things I've lucubrated over this past semester, I've learned some
other things.
1.
Dying to yourself is kind of hard.
I’ve
learned that basically everything in Christianity boils down to picking up your
cross and following Jesus. Luke 9:23 and 24, “Then he said
to them all: ‘Whoever
wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and
follow me. For whoever
wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will
save it.’” But actually getting up every day and saying, okay
today I am going to die to myself is a difficult thing to do.
Everything
around us constantly screams to pleasure ourselves. Food, drink, relationships,
do it all because you deserve it. YOLO, and all that jazz. And while we
definitely only have one life, the greatest thing we can do is to take our only
life and surrender it to Jesus.
2. I don't need to know everything.
I love
learning, and I love being able to edify other people with the things I am
learning. Knowledge is life, and it's what separates us from barbaric
practices. But there are things that I may never learn about, and that has
frustrated me.
I think that
as we grow in our faith dances, God teaches us different things. The minute we
pray those words we are taught to pray and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and
Savior, we can't possibly be given all the knowledge we are meant to know
throughout our life. Where would the growth be? That is what is so special
about Christianity. As we grow, we constantly learn new things about God. He
opens our eyes to what we couldn't see before, and that effect can be
enchanting.
But still, God
doesn't want us, as humans, to know everything. Because HE is the One that is
omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. There are things in the Bible whose
meaning will never be revealed to us.
However, in
that ignorance there may be a bit of bliss. He has revealed to us the important
parts, to simply trust Him with your life. As I have mentioned before, the
greatest call in the Bible is to die to yourself, take up your cross, and
follow Jesus (Luke 9:23-24, Matthew 10:38, Romans 6:6-7). In doing so, we will
have LIFE and FREEDOM. And everything will fall into place, because as we know
so well, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow
or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are
you not much more valuable than they?" (Matthew
6:26).
3. Because I don't need to know everything, I don't need to worry about what
God is doing.
On my campus
this past year, there has been a lot of change and a lot of things not going
too well. We chalked it up to being a “transition year” and left it at
that, but in the back of my mind a constant thought was, what is God doing? I know without a shadow of a doubt that God does
all things according to His perfect will, and nothing happens without a
purpose, but I felt (and still feel) the need to know what that purpose is. What
the end game to all of it is.
And I’m still
working on it, but I’ve come to the realization that God’s perfect and holy
will is not a thing that I need to ruminate over. I recently heard a sermon
where the preacher told us about hurricanes. Hurricanes and tornadoes are
mysterious and tragic things, and meteorologists and scientists are still
working on figuring them out. So when a hurricane is headed to your home, you
don’t stop and say, “Wait, we need to figure out all of its intricacies and the
exact path this hurricane is going to take before we leave.” No, when a
hurricane comes you pull tail and get out of there.
Just as we
treat a hurricane, so we should treat God, the great and consummate Creator
that crafted the hurricane. We don’t
need to scrutinize the complexities of His will, we just need to obey His Word
and what He has chosen to reveal to us.
I’ve learned
many other things this past year, but these are the big ones. I love looking
back on my life a year ago and just seeing what a different place I am in. I am
excited to keep moving forward and keep discovering new things God wants me to
learn, along the way pursuing the passions and dreams He has given me.
Adios amigos!
