Typical "Year in Review" Post

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!