ramblings on the fall

The summer is coming to a close and that means, for a lot of people, including myself, that changes are right around the corner.  For the past five years (and before that if you count when I was still in high school) the end of the summer meant getting ready to return to school.  This year I am sort of returning to school, but not full time like I have in the past.  Since I only have five courses left to finish I am doing them as I can, which means I also am looking for employment.  This is a scary thing for me to do because up until this point the only jobs I have had were either part time or something that was temporary so it was never a big deal about where I was working.

As I look for some place to work I really want to be able to use at least some of the skills that I have acquired at school and I also want to please my Heavenly Father with the job that I choose.  I desperately want to live in God’s plan for my life and I am so thankful that I can run to Him and through prayer and His Word I can hear Him speak to me.  I am also grateful that He is so willing to guide me where He wants me to be. 

I badly want to be doing God’s work in this world and I know that He has prepared a work for me to, whether it is in an established mission field, or out on the street somewhere, where people would say I am just a part of the secular world.  I know that everything I do in my life is a part of His mission and I truly hope that I can live out my life that others also see that work being done.  I have spent the last (almost) four whole months working in a ministry and I have had great opportunity to show God’s love to the people who come here, but sometimes I wonder if that is really what I am to be doing.  Let me clarify that statement, because I know that I am to be showing God’s love to the people around me and I do strive to do just that (I also know that I frequently fail at this, but I’m a work in progress J).  However, I sometimes wonder how much more of a ministry I could have if I weren’t working somewhere where it is expected that the Bible and God’s love is taught.  When people come to the camp the fact that it is called Valley View Bible Camp should tip them off to the fact that we are all about God and the Bible.  If I were working at a restaurant or as a receptionist somewhere people would not expect me to be living my life for God but they would be able to notice that there is something different about me (hopefully, anyway) and that would be living out God’s love.

That is a lot of rambling but it is a little bit about what is on my heart.  The other thing that is on my heart is the possibility of a job that I have applied for.  For the past month and a half I focused on looking for jobs specifically in the social work (and even more specifically Child and Family Services) field and I sent a few resumes off to agencies and waited to see if I would hear anything back from them.  I still hadn’t heard anything at the end of last week and I was talking with my boyfriend about what the fall was possibly going to look like and I mentioned that I thought I should maybe start looking at other options as well as the social work stuff that I had already ‘applied’ to.  He thought this was a good idea and so I went online and started looking.  On Saturday night/Sunday morning I wrote an email to the director of YFC in Brandon for a position as a life skills coach.  I have since filled out the application and returned it to YFC and the director has even emailed me about it already and wants to meet with me.  This is really exciting for me and I hope that I am following God’s will with the decision to apply for this position.

So, for all you who are reading this, I would ask that you would join with me in praying that God’s will be done with this job opportunity and that wherever it is that I wind up in the fall that I can glorify Him in all that I do. J

A Call to be Second

Today was a really good day for me. Even though I haven't accomplished everything that I need to for school as of yet things are still good.

I had the day off of work today, which was really nice because I've worked the last couple Sunday's in a row. I have found that when I work Sunday and I cannot go to church my entire week is thrown off because my brain seems to forget what day of the week it is. So today I was able to go to church and it felt great to be worshipping with fellow believers this morning. I was not at my home church however, because I stayed in the city yesterday to go to the Wonderful Wedding Show with my best friend and then our college and career group came into the city to go skating and came to hang out at my apartment.

I knew that I had the day off and I knew that I was desperately craving fellowship with other believers so I decided to go to Oasis Community Church with my roommate and her boyfriend. They have been attending this church pretty regularly when they are in the city for school and I know others who attend this church and have said that it is really good and the doctrine is sound so I thought I would try it out.

I am so glad that I decided to go to Oasis this morning and not some other church that is also close to my apartment because the message that the pastor gave was very good and something that I needed. (It was a message that I am sure many people need to hear and be reminded of often.)The pastor spoke on Matthew 6:25-34. He was focusing on making sure our priorities are straight which will help us diminish our worries. Some of the notes that I took at the service include these:

• Do all that you can do and then rest in God.
• Worry is a faith issue. When going through circumstances it is important to trust that God has my best interests in mind.
• Worry is practical atheism.
• He knows what I need. I need to trust in that and that He will bring me to it in the right time.
• When God is our first priority these worries soon disappear and God takes care of them and me.
• Put God's kingdom ahead of my own. "And all these things will be given to you as well" - God will show up and provide what I need because He will be glorified through me putting His needs and kingdom ahead of my own.
• Matthew 6:34 "So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own."

One other great reminder that Pastor Dustin emphasized during his message today is that to make sure our priorities are straight are by serving God in what ever way He calls us to in the moment. It may be simply shutting off whatever form of media you are 'enjoying' and read His word, it may be going out and physically serving, it ma be monetary giving to God's kingdom or any number of other things. It is in this call to serve God that we will begin to worry less because His will is being done and He takes care of His creation which is exactly what we are. We, as humans, are a piece of God's creation that He loves so dearly that He planned our lives out even before we were born (Psalm 139:16 "Your eyes saw me unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.") It is in this promise that I can rest upon. If I am to put God first and myself second He will take care of me.